Virgil Donati – Sound Wave Festival 2011
An interview to Virgil Donati at Sound Wave Festival 2011 in Italy, Monte San Giovanni Campano powered by Alatri in Blues.
Virgil Donati was born on 22 October 1958 in Melbourne, Australia of Italian descent. He got his first drumset at age 2. He started playing soon after with his father’s showband, and kept on doing these shows until he was around 6 years old.
He joined his first major rock band and signed with his first major record label at the age of 15. The band was first called Cloud Nine, but was later renamed Taste, with whom he recorded 3 albums. Soon after at age 16, Donati left school focusing mainly on the drums, but also piano. At age 19 Donati travelled to the U.S. to study with Philly Joe Jones, and at Dick Groves School in Los Angeles. He also took lessons from snare drum specialist Murray Spivack.
Donati returned to Australia at the age of 21 where his career finally took off. Playing jazz with Allan Zavod and Brian Brown, and rock with Peter Cupples’ band, he was a busy touring and session drummer in Australia. His own pop band, The State turned into Southern Sons, which led to Donati’s first taste of international fame, with their self-titled debut selling multi-platinum and producing the international hit single ‘Heart In Danger’.
During the 1980s Donati’s drumming was a feature of the Melbourne-based jazz-rock fusion band ‘Changes’ (Virgil Donati Drums, Joe Chindamo Keyboards, Mark Domoney Guitar, Steve Hadley Bass, John Barrett Saxophone), which later became ‘Loose Change’ (a quartet – same lineup as ‘Changes’ minus Saxophone).
The big break came in 1995 where Donati’s first solo album Stretch was released. In 1999 Donati released On The Virg: Serious Young Insects through Melbourne based record company Vorticity Music.
In 2004, Donati was voted the no.1 clinician of the year by the readers of the popular drummer magazine, Modern Drummer.
In 1999, Ex-Dream Theater keyboardist Derek Sherinian hired Virgil to play drums, and co-write on his debut solo record Planet X. The collaboration morphed into the metal-fusion band Planet X. Together they have released three studio albums; Universe, MoonBabies, Quantum, and one live album, Live from Oz. Donati has also made numerous live appearances worldwide with fusion leaders Scott Henderson and Tribal Tech.
In 2007, he toured with French superstar Michel Polnareff on his sold out comeback tour of France.
On 15 March 2007, his website Virgildonati.com exclusively launched a special 2-disc DVD digipak from his clinic in Stockholm during the Bass n’ Drum festival of 2005.
In 2009, Donati returned to Australia for the first time in 4 years, playing on the Drumscene Live Tour along with Thomas Pridgen and Dom Famularo, as well as playing at the Australia’s Ultimate Drummers Weekend in his hometown Melbourne.
Virgil, come si può dedurre dal cognome “Donati”, ha origini italiane: infatti suo padre era di Codroipo, in provincia di Udine (Friuli). Riceve il suo primo set di batteria all’età di soli 3 anni.
A 15 entra a far parte di una rock band chiamata ‘Taste’ con la quale firma un contratto discografico, registra tre album e suona in tour.
A 19 anni parte per gli Stati Uniti per studiare ulteriormente batteria, prendere lezioni di composizione e arrangiamento. Terminata l’esperienza americana a 21 anni ritorna in Australia dove la sua carriera ha una svolta; viene chiamato a suonare con artisti come il pianista jazz George Cables, il cantante Mark Murphy, Branford Marsalis e Kenny Kirkland, Melissa Etheridge.
Nei primi anni 90 con i Southern Sons grazie all’album d’esordio vince il doppio disco di platino. Nel frattempo tra la meta degli anni 80 e 90 Virgil si interessa alla musica progressive-fusion, suonando con Loose Change e successivamente On the Virg.
Nel 1996 si trasferisce stabilmente in America dove ha un’intensa attività produttiva suonando con Derek Sherinian (Planet X), Steve Vai, Scott Henderson, Steve Walsh, Frank Gambale, Mark Boals, Tribal Tech, Dave Stewart, Josh Stone e molti altri.
Virgil è un batterista dotato di molta tecnica e velocità. Donati è colui che può essere considerato l’inventore della tecnica del doppio pedale poiché, seppur esso venisse già usato molto nel metal, non esisteva un vero e proprio metodo per essere studiato. Virgil Donati ha infatti inserito nel doppio pedale l’utilizzo dei paradiddles, colpi doppi e altri rudimenti.
Attualmente è impegnato nel progetto Devil’s Slingshot insieme a Tony MacAlpine e Billy Sheehan.
