Photo by Michael Donahue // Buy this photo
Michael McManus
If you pick up a December issue of Drum! magazine, check out Waldo The Squid’s New Blood column. Describing Memphis drummer Michael McManus, Waldo writes, “Dude’s got the skills to pay the bills. On the track ‘Survive’ from the new Sick Puppies album Tri-Polar, the Memphis-based session player propels the track, sneaks in plenty of tasty accents ... .” And on and on.
Photo by Michael Donahue
Michael McManus plays drums with Ingram Hill in addition to providing session help for a host of acts.
To whom does 23-year-old McManus give credit to getting him into the music business? The Beatles? Kiss? Green Day?
No. Yanni, the Greek new age pianist/composer.
During his fifth-grade art class, McManus was told by his teacher to paint what he felt while a recording of Yanni’s “Acroyali-Standing in Motion” played. “That was the first moment where music really moved me, where it really gets to you,” McManus said. “At first (his painting) was a lot of nothing. Just lines. When the song really started to pick up and get into it, I was painting like crazy.”
A month later, McManus attended a Yanni concert at The Pyramid. “I watched the drummer Joel Taylor play, and that was it. That’s when I said, ‘I’m playing drums.’”
The next day, McManus bought a set of drums. He and his buddy, Jordan Danelz, began writing songs.
McManus began playing drums with Wired SL when he was 15. “The first show I played with them was at the Hard Rock Café. After I played that show, I kind of got the same feeling as I did when I saw Yanni. I was like, ‘This is it.’”
McManus then joined Chosen View. When that band broke up, he joined Breaking Point.
Justin Rimer, Breaking Point’s guitarist/songwriter, was asked to co-produce 12 Stones’ new CD with Skid Mills. Rimer asked McManus to play drums on the demo. “From there, I formed a relationship with Skid, and Skid asked me back to do a lot of the artists.”
In addition to session work, McManus, who will graduate in May from the University of Memphis, has been playing drums with Ingram Hill.
“The neat part about being a session musician is you get to work with different people in different cities and you get paid to do what you love. That’s awesome. But the worst part is when you’re done with the project and you’ve just formed a great relationship with the people in the band and they go on the road, you go home. It’s frustrating.”
Michael McManus
McManus plays drums with guitarist/vocalist Chris Allen between 9 and 10 p.m. Wednesday at T. J. Mulligan’s at 8071 Trinity Road. Cover is $5. Call: 756-4480.
Listen Up spotlights area performers. Michael Donahue can be reached at 529-2797.
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Comments » 1
bknd2anmls writes:
BEST DRUMMER IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!
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