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.
And if you haven’t caught my video on the 5 weirdest drum setup trends of 2023, that’s below.