Profile: Kenny Crawley

It takes a certain kind of patience to keep the beat to slow, hypnotic music. Especially for musicians raised on pop or rock 'n roll, stretching out the measures and relaxing into a dreamy vibe can be challenging. In the case of Kenny Crawley, drummer for The Instigators, it's par for the course.

Born in Sheffield, UK, and now living in Florida, Kenny Crawley has been performing for thirty years. He's also an experienced session player, first in London, where he recorded with Glen Matlock, bass player for the Sex Pistols; Dave Bascombe, producer of Tears for Fears; and Don Was. During the 1980s, he was signed by Virgin Records with the band Floy Joy.

In the United States, Crawley has done session work and performed with Bo Diddley; Santana vocalist Alex Ligerwood; and Brian Johnson of AC/DC. He toured with Dickey Betts in 2005, 2006, and 2008.

On the creative side, he composes trance dance pop music. (Note: According to wikipedia.com, trance music is "a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s. Trance music is generally characterized by a tempo of between 130 and 155 BPM, short melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and down throughout a track. It is a combination of many forms of music such as industrial, techno, and house.)

Since January of this year, Crawley's been keeping the beat and offering up some impressive drum solos with The Instigators, every Thursday evening from 7:30 - 10PM at The Irish Rover in Gulf Gate, Sarasota. If you stop by tonight, you can see Kenny's sticks in action.