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Welcome to the Trapset, where each week we explore the lives of drummers.

I want to play something for you.

Yeah. I want to play something for you. You're hearing glass museum by tortoise, featuring my my guest John McIntyre on drums.

Formed in Chicago in 1990, Tortoise was rooted in a punk ethos, but they managed to blend several seemingly disparate musical influences into a cohesive and ultimately highly influential

style.

For nearly 30 years, McIntyre has existed at the vanguard of a modern paradigm of musician

producers.

His discography as a producer and engineer is just as compelling as his work as a drummer.

He's worked with artists such as Stereo Lab, Jim O'Rourke, The Firmishes, Yoletango, and The X.

Aside from Tortoise, McIntyre has also been a member of bands such as Bastro, The Sea and Cake,

the Red Crayola, and Gastrodel Sol. This conversation was recorded in two parts, the first half before a tortoise gig in Madison

last year, and the second half in McIntyre's new studio in Los Angeles, where he's completing

a C&Cake album. And now my conversation with John McIntyre.

I had hoped to be a professional musician, even though I thought that was going to be a stretch for sure.

I went to Oberlin Conservatory.

I was accepted as a percussion

major, and that only lasted about one semester. Why? I'm not cut out for that world. Too competitive?

Super competitive, yeah. But I was really lucky because they, well, the program had been started a few

years earlier, technology and music and related arts.

...