Someone asked a question on the TPT forum about why I only use one rack tom. Here's the reason ...

I started out with a five piece kit (kick drum, snare, two rack toms and a floor tom) and played this for my first couple of years with the Thief. Pretty modest compared to the likes of Neil Peart and other rock drummers who tend to favour dozens of toms, double kick drums etc. I figured that my style of playing didn't really merit three toms let alone twenty as I tend to keep my fills simple and expressive. I was taught by a jazz-head who instilled the 'less is more' ethos of drumming and I've subsequently adopted this as my basic principle. If you check out someone like Buddy Rich or Gene Krupa on youtube and watch what they do with a four piece jazz kit you'll see my point. Also, I like to 'build' using a lot of kick, snare and cymbals - particularly in outros which need Jon and I to play off each other to really generate a pumping finale to a TPT song (I Will Light Up Your Eyes, The World I Always Dreamed Of, Subside etc). And let's face it, it's a hell of a lot quicker to pack up at the end of a gig ...

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