A day in the life of Oli Wiseman

Posted: 8 February 2019

The influential session drummer dropped by to talk kits, techniques and touring with breakout pop sensation Anne-Marie.

Read time: 5 mins

Did you always want to be a drummer or did you start with other instruments?

I actually started by playing woodwind instruments, initially flute and saxophone, then a bit of piano, and by the age of 14 knew that I really wanted to play drums. I swapped an old bike that I had for a drumkit. I don’t think my mum will ever forget it, we lived in a quiet little village and she said she could just see this army of kids, walking down the road each holding a different part of the drumkit, and she thought to herself “that’s coming to my house isn’t it?”, but thankfully she let me use it!

Who are your drum heroes?

Loads! Everyone and everything, but in particular I was a massive Dave Grohl fan when I was younger. I was really into rock drumming, bands like Dream Theatre and stuff like that, and I also listened to a lot of drum and bass, so The Prodigy and stuff like that too. The amalgamation of both of those leads to Andy Gangadeen and he’s a big influence of mine. For me I love the energy that you get from those sorts of bands then mix it sonically with the sounds you want to create for the track. It’s important to get a blend of the electronic and acoustic kit correct so that they compliment in each other instead of one sticking out further than the other.

What’s the next year looking like for you?

Super busy! We’ve got a world tour that’s due to start in March in Australia to promote the album that’s currently out, Speak Your Mind. We’re going all over the world and are really excited to be able to do that and play Natal.

Is resonance and out of the box playing something you particularly look for in a kit?

Yeah, that and the build quality, and I was blown away straight away by the build quality of both the kits and hardware. I’ve not had any problems with anything and the kit has held it’s tune really nicely, which means the tech has minimal work to do every night and the sound engineer is super happy too. Coming to Natal I’ve noticed a big difference in the sound of the toms, they’re just perfect. The EQ of them seems to be built in to the drums, particularly the Walnut kit had the perfect blend straight away, which made it easy to fit in with the electronics. I find I’m using the acoustic kit more in the show now because of that.