Rusty Hopkinson

Russell Keith "Rusty" Hopkinson is an Australian rock musician and record label owner. He joined alternative rockers, You Am I, in 1993 on drums, percussion and backing vocals. He had previously been a member of the Bamboos (1986–87) and Kryptonics (1987–88). He established a record label, Reverberation, in 2003 with his former Kryptonics bandmate, Ian Underwood.

Biography

Early in 1981 in Perth, Hopkinson was the lead vocalist and guitarist for Circle A, which included Don Burr on lead guitar and the Tarrant brothers: Dan on bass guitar and John on drums.

Rusty is often seen to wear his drumming influences on his sleeve. In a Triple J radio J File interview he comments "I try to sound like three different drummers in every song [laughs]", citing Ian Paice of Deep Purple as a key influence. Other sixties and seventies influences referenced include the Super Stocks, The Pretty Things, The Honeycombs and the Who.

With several songs, particularly on the Convicts album, Rusty recorded the drum tracks after only rehearsing the piece two or three times. His fills are often heavily improvised.

Upon the death of Syd Barrett in 2006, Rusty was interviewed on Triple J radio about the influence of Syd in the early days of Pink Floyd. He is also believed to be a fan of much other psychedelic era music.

Equipment

Since 2001 Rusty has enjoyed a relationship with Pearl Drums whose drums he endorses wholeheartedly. On the 2006 Convicts tour, he played with a blue Pearl five-piece with two floor-mounted toms. He consistently uses Zildjian Custom A cymbals and New Beat 15" hi-hats. His snare drum collection includes a solid Jarrah Brady Snare (handmade Western Australian Drum), a 1968 Ludwig Superphonic snare and a handmade perspex Gas snare.

Side projects

Aside from You Am I, Rusty has also played with Australian punk act Radio Birdman on their Zeno Beach (2006) album and consequent tours. Other bands Rusty is said to have been associated with during the course of his career include Circle A, Zoo Rejects, Genocide, Mob Vengeance, Dismembered, Insurrection, Vicious Circle, Greenhouse Effect, The Bamboos, Memento Mori, Cremator, The Kryptonics, Nursery Crimes and Killing Time as well as playing on The Pictures' second album, Kicking Indiffference. Outside of his band involvements, Rusty manages record label and distribution company Reverberation Records.

Hopkinson comperes a show, "Stronger Than Dirt" (a reference to his beloved Mummies), on Sydney radio station 2SER which features music from the last two centuries including Pre WW2 Folk and Jazz, Obscure Psychedelia, Gutter Punk, "Blue" Comedy records and Asian Go Go music.

Quotes

"Tim comes up with the chords and the melody and we start playing it – I don’t know I can speak in terms of drums being a drummer. I want to provide a back beat for people to be the foundation of the song… it’s all about trying to make Tim’s hips swing basically when I see him when in studio playing he’ll pull off some move and you know you’re in the right zone – it’s just about turning each other on and enjoy playing to each other. That’s the bottom line". Access All Areas.net.au [User profile from SETI web site] "Hey I'm a rocknroll drummer from Sydney, Australia. I'm in my thirties and as a hobby I run an independent record label called "Illustrious Artists". I love sixties science fiction movies like "Teenagers from Outer Space" and I collect records, mainly underground psychedelia like The Blues Creation and July. I'm married to a beautiful woman named Andrea (we got married in Vegas a couple of years ago)and we have two cats (Flugelhorne and Cheeks)and an Old English Sheepdog (Dewey)." [Asked about his favourite song] "Drumming-wise, Rumble, because I nicked the drum beat from Kraftwerk's Showroom Dummies", says Hopkinson. "Or Minor Byrd, because it's the sound of a very white-bread punk drummer trying to be funky like a James Brown record and ending up sounding like something else entirely." "I've played on more shitty punk records than you've had hot dinners".