Scorpions Mikkey Dee Gives Drum Advice And Recalls 'King Diamond'

Motorhead former drummer Mikkey Dee hosted on Drum for the Song Podcast program. Dee touched on what happened before joining Motorhead when he left King Diamond, back in 1988. He also talked about his relationship with Sonor Drums and Paiste cymbals and his present group Scorpions‘ new album.

Scorpions‘ drummer touches how long he has been playing his Sonor drums after the interviewer asked him so. Mikkey Dee seems really attached to his rig while he was answering,

“My whole life. I’ve been endorsed by Sonor since the early ’80s. And I stuck with those guys. Same with Paiste. I’ve been so happy with these guys, they just stood behind me.” Dee explains himself and the relation between them.

What happens after leaving King Diamond?

In past, Mikkey Dee had left King Diamond in 1988 before 4 years he has joined Motorhead. Dee was a member of Motorhead for twenty years until he left in 2015. He also associated Scorpions, Don Dokken, Helloween, and Thin Lizzy in past. And now, he is playing the drums in Scorpions. He has joined among them in 2016, one year after he left Motorhead.

During his conversation, Mikkey Dee talked about how the drum companies treated him when he left King Diamond. Dee stated he is never going to forget their supports.

“When I left King Diamond in 1988, Paiste and Sonor were the first ones to call me, saying, ‘Mikkey, don’t worry about the endorsements, we are behind you.’ I’m never gonna forget that. We didn’t even have a written contract with each other, we had a handshake in the early ’80s. So that is very, very respectful and I love those guys. And then DW, the same thing there – I’ve been endorsed by those guys since the ’80s as well, and they make great pedals for me.” recalls Dee past days and how they stood beside him.

Drum advises for warming up and more

Scorpions’ drummer, Mikkey Dee also gave drummers advice on how they can warm up in order to prevent injuries along with playing faster or more accurately.

“I can’t say that I’m one of these guys that sit and warm up a lot because I don’t. I’ve been doing it more lately. When you grow a little older, it feels good to be a little bit better warmed up, for sure.

But I know other drummers that can sit for one or two hours and just do triplets, and that’s just not me. Somehow I never had to do that. But what’s more important is that I’ve been working with the angles on my drums much, much more than people should.

Drummers should really, really, really work on their angles. So what I’ve been doing, if you’re going to do 150 to 200 shows every year, it’s very important that you play right, and what I mean with that is that for instance, my snare is very straight, so when I hit a rim shot, I have a straight line, not bent.”

Angles and toms to watch out

The same thing goes with my toms – the most power you get is hitting from above, not from within, so you get this special almost like a whipping effect, and it forced my shoulders to sit up straight. I have a straight back I don’t sit like a cheese doodle. And cymbals are very far away, so I have to really stretch to reach them. And that has saved me from carpal tunnel.”

“So the angles for me have been extremely important, and where the hi-hat is – if you change the hi-hat one centimeter too high or too low, immediately I feel it over my shoulder.” Mikkey Dee underlines the importance of angle.

Sometimes it can hurt so bad I can’t even open a door, I can’t even lift my arm. So it’s been extremely important for me to keep my kits at perfect angles. Some drummers come up and say: ‘How can you fucking play on your toms sitting so straight?'”

When is the new Scorpions album?

During his conversation, Mikkey Dee compares the differences in songwriting Scorpions to Motorhead.

“Most of the songs here have been written by Rudolf and Klaus, and some of Matthias’ stuff. But in the studio now, we’ve been changing quite a bit, so I don’t feel like I’m actually writing the songs with them but I definitely made a lot of changes with the guys.

And all four of us are playing live in the studio – it’s a big, big room, and we all have our separate station. And Klaus has sung some scratch vocal on all these songs so we could cue on stuff and see what actually the song is all about.”

Surprises from Scorpions are on their way

“But the actual music is played live and I have no idea if Scorpions ever did a record like this, maybe in the ’70s. It’s a heavier record, it’s going to be taking a lot of people for a surprise – they’re going to be surprised over that.

It’s a very wide album it’s going to be classic Scorpions stuff, and it’s going to be almost songs back to the ’70s. I’m really looking forward to listening to this as a finished record.”

You can listen to Mikkey Dee’s whole conversation with Drum For The Song Podcast down below.