Michael / Happy The Man / HTM: a conversation with Michael Beck / drummer / percussionist: Part 1 "The Players" Webcast

It was great to talk with drummer / percussionist, Michael Beck. In this conversation, Michael talks about his time with the iconic progressive rock band, Happy The Man. Great information, education, and stories! ENJOY!

Michael Beck: My initial interest in drums began when I was in the sixth grade in Bloomington, Indiana. I started with metal rods as drum sticks on cardboard boxes and played to the music on the radio. Then in Junior High, I bought my first drum set, a 1950 model, and joined my first group playing 60’s tunes, like “Louie Louie”. Our family then moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where I met Rick Kennell (current bass player for Happy The Man). We formed a group together playing covers and original music. After High School I studied music at Indiana University for a short time, and began branching out playing many other styles of music, as much as possible, wherever I could, in clubs and concerts, with whoever I could find to work with. Rick Kennell, now back from the Army, called me to go with him to Harrisonburg, Virginia, to join a newly forming band, called Happy The Man, doing all original music.

During this time frame, I increasingly became very dissatisfied with the confines of the ordinary drum set-up and began on a path of experimenting with adding on cowbells, woodblocks, and as many percussion instruments that I could find to add to my drum kit. I read everything I could find on old vaudeville, big band, and wacky drummers of the past. I built scaffolding to suspend wind chimes and various odd instruments I had found or made. I began discovering sounds in everything from toys to junk, to just about whatever would make an interesting sound. I was very influenced by Harry Partch and his idea of what a musician should be. He began a musical company that built his instruments from found objects, and in combination with dance, pantomime, and musicianship, was one of the first people I knew of that was presenting a multi-media performance show. Because of my rather large drum/percussion set up, I began to experiment with dance and movement myself…. mostly out of necessity, with having to move from one instrument to another when scoring my drums parts in Happy The Man. With this new art form in hand, I slowly (with the incredible music the HTM guys were writing) developed my own unique style. I always felt HTM music lent itself to a percussionist who should not confine scoring his parts to just a drum kit. The music was incredibly symphonic; it needed the proper ambient sounds to accompany the drum kit to bring out all the emotion the songs entailed. The HTM time period in my life was one of the most unique and amazing experiences I’ve ever had. We worked as a unit, everyone had huge respect for one another, and together we created incredible music.

After leaving HTM, I played with various groups of all sizes, shapes, and styles. I did many recording projects, some small touring, and eventually moved back to Fort Wayne, Indiana to work at a drum/percussion music store, “The Percussion Center”. I became the in-house drummer for Marty Bleifield’s state-of-the-art new recording studio doing all the jingle and demo work. I continued to put together original music groups, and played in anything of quality that came my way. I began writing music more seriously at this time, and eventually discovered that making a living as a sideman had its shortcomings - joining a band to eventually watch it break up would put you back on the street again, looking for work. The roller coaster instability became a factor, especially with a family to support. My wife, Annie, of 24 years, has always supported my artistry in every way, which has allowed me to continue my passion for music.