Even for those of us without a rhythmic bone in our bodies, Drumeo‘s YouTube series in which drummers are asked to play along to a song they’ve never heard in their lives, minus its drum track, is fascinating, joyous and genuinely quite life-affirming. If you’re new to the series may we recommend you check out The Mars Volta‘s drummer Philo Tsoungui listening to Rush classic Limelight for the first time, making notes, and then absolutely killing it with her interpretation of what she imagines Neil Peart may be playing: no pun intended, it’s quite a rush.
The latest episode in the series sees Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith attempt to get his head around hearing Bring Me The Horizon, and specifically their Sempiternal-era single Can You Feel My Heart, for the first time.
It’s fair to say that the Detroit-born, hard rock-loving drummer is initially somewhat non-plussed when hearing the song without Matt Nicholls’ rhythm tracks – his “What the fuck is this?” comment rather gives that away – but within a minute, he dives in, hammering the living shit out of his kit with a rolling tribal beat that wouldn’t be out of place on a modern-day Killing Joke album.
Asked to try to guess who he was listening to, Smith ventures that it may be Ministry. Informed that it is, in fact, Yorkshire’s most successful metalcore export, his honest, unfiltered reaction is, “Who the fuck is that?”
Listening to the song with its original drum tracks, Smith first gives a noncommittal “Ohhhh” – Matt Nicholls approach is rather more minimalist than what Smith envisaged, clearly – but after hearing it in full he pronounces it “cool”, and says “I like that”, complimenting the song’s orchestration.
“What are they called?” he asks again. “New Horizon what?… It’s some kind of emo thing, I don’t know what the fuck it is.”
Wonderful.
Watch the episode in full below:
Chad Smith Hears Bring Me The Horizon For The First Time – YouTube 