Shawn Tavis Mayer
DRUMS
DRUMS
Shawn writes: The first song I remember is Crystal Gayle’s “Don’t it Make My Brown Eyes Blue”. After that it was all about Neil Diamond until I was Seven and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” came out. That was the day I decided I wanted to play the drums.
Musically I am all over the map. I really do like just about anything. Some of my major influences include: The Beatles, Billy Joel, Pearl Jam, Pink Floyd, Stevie Wonder, Gordon Lightfoot, Jimmy Buffet, Tori Amos, Stone Temple Pilots, Basie, Miles, Coltrane, Mingus, Phish, Dave Matthews, there are so many. . .
As a drummer I’d have to say my favorite is definitely Ian Paice. But I also love Mitch Mitchell, Bonham, Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson, Billy Cobham, Cindy Blackman, Carter Beauford, Dom Moio, John Fishman, Dave Abbruzzeesse, and Chad Smith.
Shawn plays a 1965 Slingerland four-piece kit he rescued from a pawn shop in 1997. The sizes are: 16x22 bass, 11x13 tom, 16x16 floor tom, and a 6 ˝ x 14 snare. His cymbals are Sabian: 13 AAX fusion hats, 20 AAX medium ride, 17 AAX fast crash, and a 18 AA ‘El Sabor’ Crash/Ride (on which he uses a Pro-Mark rattler). He uses a DW 6000 Hi-hat stand and a DW 5000 Dual-chain drive bass drum pedal. His cymbal stands are made by Pearl. Shawn uses Evans drum heads and has loyally used Vic Firth SD4 maple drum sticks for many years.
His toys include: a 13” timbale, cowbell, woodblock, and wind-chimes.
Note: Shawn fits all of this equipment (and himself) into a 2001 Hyundai Accent!
Shawn Tavis Mayer got his first drum set at the age of six. He fiddled for four years until his parents found him a teacher at age ten. Shawn studied and played in the school and church bands until his senior year in high school when he formed his first band with some friends. After playing rock for a while, Shawn found himself escaping the furnace of Phoenix for the cool mountains of Glacier Park, Montana. Here, Shawn found himself a gig as the drummer for the nightly cabaret show at the Many Glacier Hotel. Shawn would later return to Phoenix to study under the capable guidance of Dom Moio, a master drummer and teacher. Shawn studied jazz with Mr. Moio and pianist/clarinetist/composer Frank Smith for a year before feeling confident enough as an all-around drummer to strike out on his own again. It wasn’t long before he ran into his old friend Thomas Kirsch. The rest, as they say, is history.
