represented by

Micaela Haslam, Heather Cairncross

"Heather and I flew up to Perth the afternoon before the concert, having just done a Synergy film session for The Secret of Moonacre that morning. Most of the boys were already in Scotland, so that evening presented the perfect opportunity to catch up over a nice meal.

Drumming Part 1

We'd performed Drumming with the same team at the Proms in 2006. The concert was a huge success and we'd all talked about doing it again, so thanks to Colin (as artist in residence at the Perth Festival 2008) for making this happen. Colin is so laid-back and unassuming, it's easy to forget he's such a big star. The rest of us were described as Colin's "dream team," which was very nice. Hopefully, there'll be many more gigs for Colin & the Dream Team. Not sure about the band name though. We thought of Colin Currie & the Poppadoms...? Suggestions on a postcard please.

Drumming Part 1 (tuned bongos) is always fun to watch. I'll never understand how they do the "phasing". I'm not sure which is more difficult - playing the part that gets gradually faster until it's exactly 1 beat out (at which point the patterns lock in again), or hanging on to the part that doesn't move. It's all amazing to me.

Drumming Part 3

Heather had the unenviable task of whistling along to the glockenspiels and piccolo in Part 3 (Steve Reich usually does this himself when we perform the piece with his ensemble). The noise of Part 3 at close range is something we try to avoid - usually by leaving the stage! - but someone has to do that whistling...

Rowland & Heather

Drumming Part 4

When everyone gets going at the end of the piece, it's an amazing sound. The only problem is trying to find the downbeat when there is so much phasing going on - especially when you're the one that has to conduct the end of the piece. There I was thinking that these ace percussionists were listening to all the phasing patterns and readjusting the first beat accordingly, and all they were doing was watching Richard's right hand. So that's the trick!!"