Background

Daniel Edwin “Danny” Carey was born in Lawrence, Kansas to parents who were finishing their college degrees at Kansas University. When Danny Carey was 3 years old, the Careys moved to Paola, Kansas. Danny Carey grew up in a middle-class American household with an older and a younger brother. His mother was a school teacher and his father worked as a manager for a large insurance company. It was Danny Carey’s father who first exposed him to the wonders of music, by taking him to the music library at the University of Kansas to show him Gustav Holst’s most famous suite, The Planets.

Education

At the age of 10, Carey joined the school band and began taking private snare drum lessons with Keith Murray. At the age of 13, Danny Carey took a step further in his percussion studies by taking on the drum set as well. Bryan Ayers, a man with whom Danny Carey would study for the following 2 years, was his first drum set teacher. Much like Keith Murray, he had the reputation of being the best drummer in Paola, Kansas. Through junior high and into high-school, Danny Carey continued his drumming education with private instruction from John Whitney, with whom he worked, having music college in mind. During his last year in Paola High School, Danny Carey joined the jazz band and studied jazz with Allen Carter, one of Joe Morello‘s students.

After high school, Danny Carey was able to secure a spot at Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas where he had Rex Stone as his drum instructor. After only 1 semester, Danny Carey relocated to Kansas City, where he enrolled at the University Of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) where he studied under Charmaine Asher-Wiley for the next 4 years.

Career

Once Danny Carey was done with education, a friend and band-mate of his convinced him that moving to Portland, Oregon would be a wise career move. However, Danny Carey didn’t stay long in Portland. After playing briefly for various bands he packed his things and moved to Los Angeles (L.A.), California in 1986. In L.A., Danny Carey worked in a tape duplication house and did a fair amount of session gigs. One of them was with famous singer and songwriter Carole King. He also played for Wild Blue Yonder, Pigmy Love Circus, and recorded the album Cereal Killer (1991) with Green Jellÿ, where he was known as Danny “Longlegs”. He would later find his way to Tool after coming to know singer Maynard James Keenan and guitarist Adam Jones and practicing with them in place of drummers the two had requested but had never shown up.

After almost 2 years of performing in the L.A. music scene, Tool was approached by various record companies who were interested in signing them. They eventually worked out an agreement with Zoo Entertainment, and by 1992 were releasing the extended play (EP) Opiate.

Tool has recorded 4 studio albums. Undertow (1993) was Tool’s first full-length album. The record has sold over 2,9 million copies in the United States (U.S.) alone. Undertow has been certified platinum in Canada, and double platinum in the U.S. by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA).

Besides the work developed with Tool, Danny Carey has contributed to various projects during his time in Los Angeles. Danny Carey, Kirk Covington (vocals/keyboards), Lance Morrison (bass guitar), and John Ziegler (guitar) get together regularly to play some shows around Los Angeles as Volto!. Volto! is a jazz rock fusion jam band whose set-list includes both original songs and covers of classic rock and jazz fusion songs by artists such as Jimi Hendrix, The Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Billy Cobham, and Tony Williams Lifetime. Danny Carey was also a member of the industrial rock band known as Pigface.

In 1992, Danny Carey played drums for a couple of Carole King’s songs from Colour of Your Dreams. In 1995, Danny Carey, along with Chris Pitman, Vince DeFranco, and Marko Fox formed the electronic band Zaum and released a demo. In 1999, Danny Carey returned as the full-time drummer for Pigmy Love Circus and recorded drums for the album The Power Of Beef (2003). He also played drums for the track “Somewhere” from Collide’s album Some Kind of Strange (2003) and for several tracks on Two Headed Monster (2008). Danny Carey contributed drums for tracks 1 and 2, and tabla for track 3 of Adrian Belew’s Side One (2005). In that same year, Danny Carey was one of the many drummers that played on the Modern Drummer Festival. A couple of years later, Danny Carey was invited to record drums for all of the tracks in Adrian Belew’s Side Three (2008).

Danny Carey has also worked on signature products with the companies he endorses. In 2009 Sonor released the Danny Carey signature snare drum, the first drum in their line of signature snare drums. Danny Carey helped develop his line of signature drumsticks with Vic Firth. Danny Carey has also worked with Vince De Franco on the development of the Mandala Drum, a high-resolution position sensing e-pad especially designed to suit his drumming needs.

On August 30, 2019, Tool released the fifth studio album Fear Inoculum. This record has been praised by critics and fans.

Achievements

• 

  Danny Carey is one of the most progressive drummers in the rock and heavy metal scene. His rhythmic vocabulary and love for rudimental drumming, coupled with a high level of independence and facility within the realm of odd-time signatures and polyrhythms, makes for an insanely creative drummer.
  
  Tool has won three Grammy Awards, performed worldwide tours, and produced albums topping the charts in several countries. They managed to unify musical experimentation, visual arts, and a message of personal evolution continued, with Lateralus (2001) and 10,000 Days (2006), gaining Tool critical acclaim, and commercial success around the world.

Works

More photos

• music

  • Opiate 1992
  • Undertow 1993
  • Aenima 2000
  • Salival 2001
  • Lateralus 2001
  • Some Kind Of Strange 2003
  • The Greater Wrong Of The Right 2004
  • Side One
  • Side Three 2006
  • 10.000 Days 2006
  • Man of Steel 2013
  • Incitare 2013
  • Fear Inoculum 2019

Religion

Although Carey has not officially aligned himself with any particular school of philosophy or religion, he has projected a deep interest in and understanding for the magickal arts - among them various occult teachings. Enochian symbols, geometric designs, and special symbolic percussive devices are featured on and in his drum kit. He is also a collector of First Edition Aleister Crowley books as well as books by one of Crowley's more innovative students, Kenneth Grant.

Views

Carey has laid claim to various drumming techniques that use sacred geometric figures such as the unicursal hexagram. The final product is very recognizable, fluent drumming, although to him it is much more: the official Tool website claims that Danny uses drumming as a ritual similar to occult rituals, with purposes varying from spiritual exploration to "a gateway [which] summoned a daemon he has contained...that has been delivering short parables similar to passages within The Book of Lies".

During the years Danny Carey studied under different teachers, he worked non-stop on his hand technique and rudimental prowess. Pigmy Love Circus’ songs like “Livin’ Like Shit” and “Madhouse Clown” are a great example of his rudimental chops, featuring some cool sounding marching cadences. Danny Carey treats his feet just like he does his hands. He practices drum rudiments and snare drum solos with his feet to improve his double bass drumming, independence and hi-hat technique.

Four-way coordination was another one of the main subjects Danny Carey really liked studying. Books like Jim Chapin‘s Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer (1948), Four Way Coordination (1963) by Elliot Fine and Marvin Dahlgren, and Gary Chester’s New Breed (1985), helped him achieve an above average level of independence that set the standards for his playing on Tool’s various albums.

Danny Carey’s rhythmic knowledge was greatly expanded at a later stage of his life. In 1998 Danny Carey met Aloke Dutta, a tabla drum master with a quite vast knowledge of classical east Indian drumming. Not only did he teach Danny Carey how to play tabla, but also shared a great amount of knowledge on the Indian drumming language. Danny’s drum set playing and rhythmic knowledge benefited from this new learning experience. His comfort with polyrhythms and hemiolas, finger control, and his inner clock improved greatly as well.

In search of new techniques, Carey has studied tabla with Aloke Dutta, who can be heard playing on the live version of the song "Pushit" (from Salival). This is especially apparent on tracks such as "Disposition" (Lateralus) or "Right in Two" (10,000 Days), for which Carey has recorded the tabla parts himself in the studio. The tabla (and other percussive instruments) used in Tool's music are replicated live using the Mandala pads (in fact the pads are also used when recording in the studio, a notable example being the tabla solo of "Right in Two" from 10,000 Days).

Quotations: "It’s a sad thing when almost every band you see is keeping time to clicks and backing tracks."

"Those late ’60s/early ’70s bands would take it really far out and get super-weird. Even early Judas Priest was pretty f**kin’ weird when you listen to it."

"I will continually try to get better as an individual, even when it’s different conversations musically."

Interests

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Aleister Crowley

• Writers

  Kenneth Grant, Francis X. King

• Music & Bands

  King Crimson, Yes, Bruford

Connections

Danny Carey was previously married to Sabine Carey.

Wife:

Sabine Carey

colleague:

Maynard Keenan

Maynard James Keenan or MJK, is an American singer-songwriter and the vocalist for the rock bands Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer.

colleague:

Adam Jones

Adam Thomas Jones is an American musician and visual artist, best known for his position as the guitarist for Tool.

Friend:

Alex Grey

Alex Grey's artworks were used during the performances of Tool. He is also an author of some album covers.

References

• Unleashed: The Story Of Tool
  2009
• Danny Carey Website
• Tool Website