Michael Arbou

DrumzBoss! He just called me…. “Boss”… How dare he do that! I asked him, nicely, begged, in fact, for him to work with me. He said: “We have to work on it…”. The double-you word. And we did, I’m happy to claim, work together. He does have a way with words. Last I heard from him, he called me “Boss”. I’m outraged! 🙂

As a drummer, he is part of what we call the “Rhythm Section”. Most often a tandem of drums and bass. Since bass players needn’t be introduced, ever, this little tune is about the drummer boy of the Valley Vibrations. The instrumentalist series will be concluded after this.

Mike has played with a shoot-load of bands in the last bunch o’ years. I seen him play with pretty much all the cool musicians in the Valley. Country, blues, jazz,pop and grass, the blue kind. That’s what had me begging him in the first place: Sure liked what I heard, and didn’t hear. We jammed all February and March this year to come with the underpinnings for our new record…

Which you can by in digital format here.

Apart from sound guys, drummers are the hardest working people in the music racket. If there’s a show at 8pm, they will arrive at noon, latest, and assemble all the 9,367,487 parts of their drum kit, just in time for the sound check (HA!) at 7pm. Then they’re strapped in behind a bunch of skins, chains and buckets, and employ every single limb of theirs to operate the most complex machine on stage. Smiling from ear to ear while doing it. Well, Michael does. If the gig ends at midnight, drummers, especially Mr. Arbou, continue to work, disassembling the drum kit into its separate components. They’ll stow all the bits back into the van and then drive home. Just in time for breakfast.

Of course I’m grateful to be in a band with him. For the awesome groove, for the smiles and for the spreading of happiness.

Just PLEASE don’t call me boss! That sounds almost like “bass” and nobody want’s to hear that….