Scott K. Fish Blog (Former writer for Modern Drummer): Part 2 Of His Discussion With Neil Peart “Neil Peart on Music and Writing”

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This is the first weekly post we will be featuring from Scott K. Fish in a series of posts that will continue weekly. Please make sure to read his bio below to learn more about his contributions to the drumming community that started in 1976.  You can follow his blog at www.ScottKFish.com .

Wow, what a fantastic way to start these posts, this first one is his interview with the legendary Neil Peart.  There are 2 parts to this interview, we will post the second part once it is posted.

This interview was used for the April 1984 issue of Modern Drummer Magazine.  The article can be read HERE.  You can purchase the “Modern Drummer Legends Vol. 1 – Neil Peart which includes all of Neil’s interviews with Modern Drummer: HERE

Scott writes in his March 14th, 2023 post titled “Neil Peart on Music and Writing:

First things first. Between my posting of Part 1 of this interview and now, YouTube switched to a default square perspective of YouTube videos. There is a way for you to still view this horizontally. But that’s why this video looks clipped. Ugh.

When I posted the first part of this interview I had forgotten this interview was the basis for Neil Peart’s April 1984 Modern Drummer cover story. I thank those listeners who refreshed my memory.

This is the other side of the cassette used to tape this interview. Much more of the conversation here, unlike Part 1, is about drums and drumming. But our discussion also includes writers and writing.

The conversation on both sides of this cassette starts mid-sentence. “Adam,” who I mention at the start of this interview, is the name of the drummer who won one of Neil’s drumset giveaways.

My question to Neil concerned some drummers’ belief that drum gear makes the drummer. That is, owning Neil’s drumset meant Adam should sound like Neil Peart.

In 1983 or 1984, pre-digital media, these tapes served only as the basis for the written interview. During interviews, the click of the tape ending was my cue to turn over the tape and start recording on the other side, or to start recording with a new tape.

Sometimes I wouldn’t hear the click. Sometimes there was no click. But, I never wanted to stop the conversation while changing tapes. Normally, within a day or two of an interview, I would transcribe the tapes; my memory of the conversation fresh enough to fill in a few seconds of blank tape.

Again, this 45-minutes conversation with Neil Peart is one of my favorites. It is a conversation with two guys who love music, drumming, and writing.

Blog post: HERE

ABOUT SCOTT:

Scott K. Fish was part of the original team that created Modern Drummer, he started as a freelance writer in 1976 and was the Managing Editor of Modern Drummer magazine from 1980-1983. By the time he left in October 1983, he had written almost half of Modern Drummer‘s feature articles. His interviews and articles were enjoyed by readers and artists alike, his questions were not run of the mill, as Bill Bruford put it, your questions are about “life beyond the cymbals.”

Scott K Fish is a public relation, writing, marketing, and communications expert across all media, with a 25-plus year track record in high profile positions.

Scott is an extremely active blogger and he often posts the original interviews with the artists that he used as reference for his article.  We encourage you to follow Scott’s blog at www.ScottkFish.com, we will continue to post one of his posts weekly.