January 12, 2023

401 - Matt Starr: Playing with Sarah McLachlan, Activity vs. Direction, Community within Community

1 hour 17 minutes

Matt Starr is a 20-year veteran of the LA scene and recently landed in Sarah McLachlan's drum chair. Over his career, he has divided his time playing live and recording in the pop/rock world and has also been producing music in his own studio. Matt began formal study of drums in his hometown of Toronto with Vito Rezza, and went on to study with Joe Morello, Jim Chapin, and Bernard Purdie. In addition to the Sarah gig, he has also performed with Buffy Sainte-Marie, Chris Shiflett (from the Foo Fighters), Christopher Cross, Lisa Loeb (with whom he recorded a grammy winning album in 2018), Deana Carter, Glen Ballard, Alphonso Johnson, Lucy Hale, Kiki Ebsen, Kevyn Lettau and Inbar Starr.

In this podcast, Matt talks about:

Learning to get the most out of your existing gear before buying more

How drummers now have the expertise to be in conversation and partnership with audio engineers

How his relationship with Victor Indrizzo led to the Sarah McLachlan gig

Being an LA drummer without the LA extroversion/ambition

How you can define "community" by just a couple of relationships

...more