Adam Clayton Quotes

Playing drums, for me, is like breathing. It's like thinking. It's like eating. It's like walking.

Perhaps of all the most basic elements of music, rhythm most directly affects our central nervous system.

The bass should be the note of the bass drum, and then you've got the engine of the band that everything else builds on. Everything else, the guitar, the keyboards, is a colour.

I consider every drummer that ever played before me an influence, in every way.

How can you not love a man banging on the drums? He knows how to keep a rhythm.

The heart of a music is its rhythm. The heart of rhythm section music is the rhythm.

It's been years and years and years I've been playing the drums, and they're still a challenge. I still enjoy using drumsticks and a snare drum.

Obviously, I like the drums to be heard. I think they're important.

My playing is always just a little on top of the beat. I can't lay down the kind of groove that Brad Wilk can. I'd really have to lay back to do that; it just doesn't feel natural to me.

When I watch drummers, I always want to see energy. It's not about the proficiency of the musicianship; I'm just into the vibe and excitement of it. With drums, it's such a primeval thing.

Most great records really start with the drums.

Well, rhythm is 90 percent of the interpretation.

I have always had a certain rhythmic approach to my work.

Rhythm is something you either have or don't have, but when you have it, you have it all over.

Music deals with time and timing. It's so magical, but when you get into it, every little sound and every little space between the sounds, it's critical, so critical. And if it's not there, it not only feels wrong, but it ruins things.

I play more rhythmically than I do a lot of notes.

It's interesting. I've known quite a few good athletes that can't begin to play a beat on the drum set. Most team sport is about the smooth fluidity of hand-eye coordination and physical grace, where drumming is much more about splitting all those things up.

The golden rule of drums is hands clapping and feet tapping, and when you are in and out of consciousness, you can't do that to best of your ability.

Playing well with others is important - not being too flashy, just keeping good time and of course coming up with cool beats. A good snare drum, kick drum, high hat. Just getting good at the hand feet coordination.

But I've gravitated more towards the drum set.

In hindsight, if I could go back in time and relay a message to my younger self, I would tell him to work on his time keeping, and that the job of a drummer is not to be the one that gets noticed the most on stage, or to be the fastest, or the loudest. Above all, it is to be the timekeeper.

You need a pulse in a film. If I see a film that doesn't have rhythm, it's like listening to music that doesn't have rhythm; it doesn't really work.

Rhythm is God. I think, without rhythm, you can't create - there is no art.

The main rhythmic loop in 'Alaska' is me just patting on my jeans.

There's something about rhythm and bass sections generally, how the bass and drums interact, that's basically the soul of any song.