Dan Weiss on Tabla Rhythms, Frankie Dunlop, Flow States, and Developing a Unique Voice on Drums

It’s been a few years since I’ve spoken to Dan Weiss, who I’ve known since we were both in the vicinity of our music school in the early 2000s. Dan was, on various occasions, a teacher - such as when he’d sub for John Riley, or when I sought him out for a the odd lesson later on.

But mostly Dan was the hard-to-categorize drummer who was blowing everybody’s mind. First on early gigs with people like Tigran Hamasyan, then later with Dave Binney at the 55 Bar, and throughout with people like Thomas Morgan, Miles Okazaki, and Jacob Sachs.

Since then, Dan’s gotten a lot of well-deserved recognition, and influenced a generation of drummers.

When Dan and I (digitally) sat down, I wanted to reach back to some of my first recollections of hearing him play, and also dig into how he became what he is.

Hope you enjoy this conversation - there are a lot of nuggets.

Chapters

1:20 - what's the beat called? 3:13 - what was Dan's first exposure to drums 4:27 - what did he do between age 14 and college 7:34 - what did John Riley mean when he told Dan to work on his sound 10:55 - the difficulty being creative while searching for a sound 12:10 - why Dan loves Frankie Dunlop 14:35 - Dan's other major influences 17:15 - how much jazz does he play these days 20:51 - practice routines then and now 24:35 - the Jamey Haddad exercise 29:12 - how does Dan negotiate the online world 31:51 - biggest differences between students 20 years ago and today