Musical Style and Influences
Cameron was described by Greg Prato of Allmusic as "unquestionably one of rock's finest and most versatile drummers." Cameron's style is one that seeks not to dominate a song but rather tease out a groove that will complement and support its atmosphere. Despite a career in rock music, Cameron stated in a 1989 radio interview that growing up he "wasn't a big rock fan..." and that his musical tastes during his youth were "more into jazz." Cameron has professed that his primary musical interests lie in progressive rock and various jazz subgenres, including hard bop, both of which are characterized by a much busier playing style than Cameron exhibits. Cameron has cited Tony Williams, Keith Moon, Steve Gadd, Stewart Copeland, and Kiss as influences.
Cameron tends to revisit the paradiddle for effect. Examples include the spreading of the RLRR-LRLL pattern amongst the toms on Soundgarden's "Never the Machine Forever" (from Down on the Upside); between ride and snare on "Unemployable" (from Pearl Jam), creating a driving shuffle; and "You Are" (from Riot Act). This pattern can also be heard on the ride cymbal during the bridge of "Bleed Together" (from the "Burden in My Hand" single).
Read more about this topic: Matt Cameron
Famous quotes containing the words musical, style and/or influences:
“I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bayed the bear
With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear
Such gallant chiding; for besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every region near
Seemed all one mutual cry. I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Sometimes among our more sophisticated, self-styled intellectuals—and I say self-styled advisedly; the real intellectual I am not sure would ever feel this way—some of them are more concerned with appearance than they are with achievement. They are more concerned with style then they are with mortar, brick and concrete. They are more concerned with trivia and the superficial than they are with the things that have really built America.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“The first in time and the first in importance of the influences upon the mind is that of nature. Every day, the sun; and after sunset, night and her stars. Ever the winds blow; ever the grass grows.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)