Vater Percussion Matt Johnson Reflects on Jeff Buckleys Grace

We caught up with Vater Drumstick Artist Matt Johnson in Boston while he was on tour with St. Vincent. While Matt was here, we asked him to discuss his work on Jeff Buckley s Grace album as 2014 marks the 20th Anniversary of it s release. Grace was Jeff Buckley s only completed studio album to be released as Jeff died in a drowning accident in 1997. In this video, Matt talks about meeting Jeff just a very short time before they tracked the album, and goes somewhat trackbytrack to talk about his drum parts, the recording process for the album, how the drum set configuration varied, and how some aspects of his playing on that album were a result of, what he calls, fear and stark terror during the recording process. Matt uses the Vater Sugar Maple Piccolo model: