Sometimes all you need is a list of names—

Dave Grohl. Lenny White. Steve Jordan. Steve Ferrone. Ringo Starr. Jack DeJohnette. John Densmore. Larry Mullen Jr., Bill Bruford. Steve Gadd. Airto Moreira. Terry Bozzio. Terri Lynn Carrington. Bobbye Hall. Herlin Riley. Ginger Baker. Harvey Mason. Dave Weckl. Roy Haynes. Nick Mason.

Ok, maybe Ringo Starr gave it away. Or Steve Gadd. Or Ginger Baker. Sometimes the name is all you need to know that this story is good.

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“The Drum Thing” by Deirdre O’Callaghan
Published by Prestel, 2026
Review by W. Scott Olsen

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Full disclosure: when I was growing up, I played drums. Beginning in third grade with a trap set my parents bought me for Christmas, I played on and off through middle school bands, high school bands, very bad garage rock and roll bands, sitting in with jazz groups in basement bars and blues clubs, until I was in graduate school and the practice simply faded away.  But then, and even today, I read the list of musicians on albums I admire and learned the names of session players who seemed omnipresent in the jazz/rock worlds, and those who backed the superstar guitar or keyboard players. Drummers are a special group. You can make-do if the sax player is a no-show. You can’t go on without the drums.

I find all of this especially poignant today because I’m holding on my desk The Drum Thing by Deirdre O’Callaghan. The book is a collection of wonderful environmental portraits and small biographies. There are 170 images. Each drummer has their own entry, usually an image of them with their drums, sometimes an extra image or two of their studio or home or neighborhood. All of it is home ground. Each entry lists the bands the artist has played for.

It’s easy to forget this is a photobook because every page brings up memories of music. But O’Callaghan is an insightful portraitist. Technically, the art direction, lighting, and colors blend into evocative mood pieces—apropos for musicians. And, along with each image, there is text. The entries are not interviews in Q and A format, but a kind of monologue. The artist muses about their life as a drummer. Some of the texts are remembrances. Some are more philosophic.

For example, Nick Mason from Pink Floyd writes—

Going out to dinner with a lot of drummers and bass players is a fantastic thing. It’s a bit like being in a train carriage, because the table’s vibrating most of the time–they’re always finding something to play along with.

The very first performance of “The Wall” was pretty chaotic, because we had two things going on. One was that there was a police chief in Los Angeles at the time who was making some sort of stand about young people and loud music and drugs so there was a big police presence that made everyone very edgy. We also had various dramas with bits of set catching fire—you tend to remember that rather than the show itself.

Every bit of text is an insight into the drummer’s personality and history, so reading them is a bit like being allowed backstage. And many of the photographs are surprisingly intimate.

One of the benefits of this book is its musical inclusivity. Rock, jazz, pop, funk, punk, hip hop, R&B, reggae, heavy metal, and grunge drummers are all here. The interviews were all done between 2011 and 2015, but sadly, even with that recent work, there is an In Memoriam page at the end. Thirteen of the drummers are no longer with us.

In her introduction, Deirdre O’Callaghan writes—

I love the rhythm section. Drummers are underrated and underappreciated. They are the leaders even though they sit at the back. They are a band’s Foundation. They express the intuitive rhythm we all have inside us, connecting us to our primal instincts. They also display respect and restraint, managing time with intelligence and skill…

Some say rhythm is medicine; drumming has been compared to an addiction, a form of meditation and a language in and of itself—a way of communicating. Playing an instrument is like storytelling, and the whole personality of the musician is translated into how they play.

O’Callaghan’s portraits of these drummers range from contemplative to energetic, from technician to crazed rhythm machine to loving parent. In other words, the images get to the soul of the drummer, and we are allowed to look.

There is mood and atmosphere to everyone here, and as a once-upon-a-time drummer myself, I find myself flipping through the book, relishing the stories from drummers whose work I’ve known and admired, and then diving with curiosity into the work of drummers who play in different genres.

If you are a drummer, The Drum Thing is a book you will enjoy and proudly display. If you are not a drummer, you should get this book anyway. Here is portrait photography, serial portrait photography chasing the inexpressible, at its best.

DEIRDRE CALLAGHAN

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