Drums Bringing Showmanship to Summer Festival Shows

This summer, the Drums are making a point of looking sharp and performing with the utmost intensity. That they're also making their way across Europe, Australia and Japan playing massive outdoor festivals is purely a matter of coincidence. According to lead singer Jonathan Pierce, the New York City quartet is doing on the big stages what it always has in the clubs.

"We're pretty excited about the idea of being consistent in what we do," Pierce tells Spinner. "I'm sure if this band goes on a few more years, there will be some refinements here and there but we like that to be almost subconscious stuff. We don't make big changes in what we're doing. We try to just put on the same show every night."

The Drums have been honing that live show since early 2009, when Pierce and childhood friend Jacob Graham moved the then-fledgling band from Florida to New York City. The two had previously played together in the early-'00s electro-pop outfit Goat Explosion, but for this endeavor, they swapped keyboards for guitars, indulging their love of jangly '80s British rock and '60s girl groups.

In September 2009, they released the acclaimed 'Summertime!' EP, and earlier this year, they dropped their full-length debut, a self-titled effort that has earned rave reviews and enabled them embark on this summer's continent-hopping tour.

In their own way, the Drums make dramatic music, and onstage, Pierce says, he and his bandmates are "almost militant" about putting on a show to match.

"I think the idea of showmanship has sort of been lost," he says. "We're trying to bring back a proper show and we will dress up, we'll get certain haircuts. I know people think that's really silly, but to us, it's taking the band really seriously. When I think back to bands I've loved and still love -- bands like the Zombies or the Ramones or the Strokes -- they have a certain look. They get onstage and you instantly feel the mood take over. We try to be that sort of band in the most classic sense."

"A lot of bands don't do that and just get up there and say, 'It's all about the music,'" he adds. "That's fine, but for us, the music is the last thing that happened with this band. We came up with the image and this mood and this feeling and then out of that the music was sort of birthed. We're very visual."

Fans can sense the group's commitment, Pierce says, and they respond in kind.

"It's because they couldn't possibly look more foolish than we do," he says. "We're really trying to give ourselves to the music. That's kind of the cornerstone of our band -- selfishness when we're being creative, just doing what we want to."