Voivod drummer and founder Michel “Away” Langevin discussed how he took the idea to play a single bass drum set from Foo Fighters and Nirvana icon Dave Grohl in a new Ultimate-Guitar interview.
Most thrash metal drummers use double basses but you’ve used a single bass for a long time. Why?
I think it came in the early ‘90s watching Dave Grohl play. I really thought, “Whoa, he really has it going on with a smaller kit.” The first time I saw Dave, it was at the end of the ‘80s and he was playing with Scream. He was really fantastic. I rarely go backstage to shake the hand of another musician but I went backstage and told him, “Man, you were fucking unbelievable.”
What did he say?
He said he was a huge Voivod fan and knew all the parts of the first and second album. We stayed in touch and I saw him many times over the years and he also got me to illustrate his Probot project. He’s a fantastic drummer, a fantastic musician in general and a very positive guy. He reminded me of Jason Newstedt in a way because he was always excited and positive.
Dave Grohl was really the reason for going to a smaller kit?
At this point, I was already getting rid of all the toms but I was still playing with two bass drums for Nothingface and then for Angel Rat in the early ‘90s. I really felt like I should get rid of a lot of the pieces of my drum and try to keep it minimal not in the playing but in the setup.
