Life & Work with Ben Hans

Hi Ben, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Hi, I’m Ben Hans, I’m a musician. I play and teach percussion. How did I get here? I picked up the drums in elementary school – as a product of school band programs growing up in Wisconsin, I auditioned for the percussion section and had a great teacher named Evan Fisher. I performed in the concert bands, jazz bands, marching bands, and percussion ensembles throughout my primary schooling. Mr. Fisher was an outstanding teacher as well as a talented percussionist and arranger. We had an excellent steel band in High School and played these awesome steel pan arrangements. I was very involved with music in school, but also formed a rock band in High School we called ‘Battleship Grey’ – (like the paint of a WWII battleship). We played Van Halen, Autograph and Whitesnake covers as well as Journey and Loverboy as we had a keyboard player in the band… We performed at school dances, concerts and played house parties for several years. I really got the bug to play music doing all of that at a young age so I continued that same pattern in my college years, studying music and playing in rock bands. In college I gigged a lot with a rock group in the early 90’s called ‘The Switch’ we played Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Arc Angels, and SRV, and eventually started writing and performing original music. That group unfortunately dissolved. About that same time, I discovered small group jazz music and studied music under a great teacher and mentor, Jazz Guitarist Jack Grassel. I sat in with him and his group around Milwaukee and eventually he started hiring me and I ended up working with him throughout the upper Midwest in his jazz band for more than 10 years. That was really ‘going to school’ for me. We played a lot of his original compositions, many of which were in odd time signatures and all different types of feels from Latin to fusion. As a young drummer in my 20s, I was able to play with Jack’s musicians who were a generation older than me who played at a very high level. Many of them were college instructors and with Jack, I was able to meet and play with the late jazz great, pianist Barry Harris.

Jazz was my main thing for a couple decades! I led my own jazz band, played all over the upper Midwest with fantastic jazz musicians, and cut a solo record in 2004 with my trio called ‘Drums! Bass! Guitar! Though the 90s and over the next decades I also taught private drum lessons, taught in college music programs, and started writing drum books as well as working as a proofreader, editor, and doing studio sessions for Hal Leonard Publishing. I played on many educational publication recording sessions like ‘The Hal Leonard Jazz Guitar Method’, “Oscar Peterson – Classic Trio Performances”, “Country Violin – Classic Playalong Vol. 8” and many more.

In the late 2000s In addition to picking up a couple of college music instructor gigs, I started working as a sideman with all kinds of blues bands, rock bands, and society bands. I also was working on and writing for many of the percussion instruments besides the drum set. There was a main pivot in my life in 2008 when I met Kip Winger. I had always loved his singing and he has such a great drummer in his band, Winger – Rod Morgenstein, whom I’ve always dug so much. Kip had been doing solo acoustic sets for a long time by the time I met him. I went to see him perform and was astounded by his live performance. Just like I had in past situations, I asked to sit in with Kip but by this time I was also adept at playing hand percussion. Djembe and Cajon. I sat in and played with Kip whenever he came through with his solo shows throughout the upper Midwest until the time came that he started calling me for playing shows across the country. Playing the Fillmore in San Francisco, to the Iridium in New York, and doing a lot of traveling with Kip, I met a lot of musicians outside my circle, I decided I was ready for more musical adventures, and at Kip’s suggestion, I moved to Music City – Nashville, TN in 2017. I’m still working with Kip, in fact, we’re opening for REO Speedwagon in a few weeks in Kentucky! I love playing with him, he’s a fantastically talented musician!! Through Kip, I was able to meet Eric Martin of Mr. Big and I’ve teamed up with Eric and PJ Farley performing in ‘Eric Martin’s BIG Acoustic’, playing Mr. Big, Trixter and Eric and PJ’s solo material, which has been a blast. Meeting and playing with PJ, I’ve also accepted a role in his band Trixter, and we’ll be doing some shows this year as ‘Acoustic Trixter’ including ‘Creature’s Fest’ here in Nashville this summer.

I love Nashville and being a musician based in Nashville has been great for my career, being able to meet and play with so many more musicians. When I moved to town I teamed up with a singer/songwriter I had met on the road with Kip – my friend Doug Allen. Through Doug, I many other musicians here in town eventually met and played shows with the great songwriter Walter Egan. I also met and teamed up with my friend Anthony Corder, the singer for the band Tora Tora and will be playing some acoustic shows with him this year.

There is a fantastic music scene here in Nashville for ALL KINDS OF MUSIC! There are great musicians of all genres of music here. Contrary to any stigma, it’s a musical melting pot of all genres!!

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Yes, of course, life always throws you curve balls! I thought I was prepared for a life change when I left to move to Nashville, and to some extent, I was – professionally, but there are a gazillion musicians here in town. Some of the opportunities that looked like they were here waiting for me when I arrived just didn’t pan out. So, there was an adjustment period where I was trying to find out where I was going to land. I’m doing great now, but for a while, I had jelly legs. For me, I had some connections here already, I think it’s really tough to relocate to a music center if you don’t already have some kind of support network. I see a lot of musicians come here, and leave shortly thereafter… so you have to have your music chops, your business sense, your networking, and your ambition all in top shape to make it happen here.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’ve taught music lessons for almost 30 years. I love working with students of all ages and levels and I continue to teach private lessons here in Nashville. I’ve also been very fortunate to land print publishing deals throughout the years. with published works including: “Workin’ Drums – 50 Solos for Drumset,” “40 Intermediate Snare Drum Solos,” “Rudimental Solos for the Marching Snare Drummer,” “Modern School for Mallet Keyboard Instruments,” “Hal Leonard School for Snare Drum,” transcriptions of Ray Luzier’s “Double Bass Drum Techniques”, the compilation book “First 50 Solos You Should Play on Snare Drum,” as well as performing on and writing for the Hal Leonard DVD “Traditional Rudimental Drumming” by John S. Pratt. I’ve also recently released “How to Play Drums in 14 Days” from Troy Nelson Music.

Through my relationship working with Hal Leonard Publishing, I was able to meet and work with many of my drum heroes including the late Joe Porcaro, Ray Luzier, Joel Rothman, Rick Mattingly, and John S. Pratt. Mr. Pratt turned into my teacher, mentor, and also one of my best drumming friends. He was the Drum Instructor at West Point, for the Hellcats, as well as the Hawthorne Caballeros Drum and Bugle Corps. We were able to publish many of his works and even capture him on video before his passing. I miss him dearly.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Well… the music industry is CONSTANTLY changing. After streaming changed incomes for musicians and songwriters, touring and publishing became the income base. Well, we know what touring has been like in light of the pandemic. Moving forward I hope to see that part of the music business come back in full force. It’s an understatement to say all of us music fans and industry people are ready for it. As far as the music industry I see the importance of music publishing and licensing – the USE of music to continue to grow and evolve. The advent of the live streaming era and social media music licensing will continue to evolve and will be a part of music income for the future. I think the continued advances in technology will continue to change the landscape of the music industry. NFTs, cryptocurrency, making records on your phone…and who knows what’s coming next, it’s going to be exciting and we’ve got to embrace the changes or be left in the ‘old days’.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.benhans.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ben_hans_on_drums/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/benhanspercussionist
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/benhans/

• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/KnysnaLagoonMusic