John Williams (53)

Drums have always been a core part of who John Williams is. Now that he has spent several years in academia, he returned to drumming with many new frames of reference that dovetail with his and Ben's goals in Portraits. Keeping in mind the fundamental purpose of drums - to support and form the backbone of the song - he also really enjoys incorporating obscure musical influences from various sources such as indigenous peoples across the world, ancient musical scores, and other aspects of ethnomusicology. He thinks that one of the fundamental goals of good music is to take the listener on an emotional or even intellectual journey to places they may not expect, so when Ben approached him and said that he wanted to write a song about the Scottish geologist James Hutton, John was all-in.