Drum Dungeon Interview, Lanice Hughes Stone City Band, www.thedrumdungeon.com

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Interview with the Original Drummer of Funk LANISE HUGHES -

by The Drum Dungeon

January 10th 2010

For interview requests with The Drum Dungeon, send your inquiries and requests to media@thedrumdungeon.com

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Las Vegas, NV

Lanise Hughes started playing drums at the very early age of 3 by learning on a snare drum given to him by his father. He was notorious for tearing up some early grooves on oatmeal boxes. Growing up in the great city of Buffalo, NY, Lanise continued to hone his drumming skills and began playing with various local bands. One group of fellows in particular just seemed to groove right away, and this line-up ultimately culminated in the birth of The Stone City Band. It was then that the musicianship of his band mates and Lanice's exceptional talent on the drums kicked into overdrive.

While rehearsing with this current Buffalo based group of band-mates, this funky looking cat came to a rehearsal - this dude seemed very impressed with what he heard, Lanice remembers ''Rick James came to one of our rehearsals, and after that started showing up at a lot of our gigs. Rick had just put out the single "Get Up and Dance" and asked us to play behind him for a gig. At the time Rick really needed to put a LIVE band together and this led to us going on the road with him as his back-up band - with us he just saw the perfect fit".

A legendary musical association was born.

With history being made "The Stone City Band" became the exclusive back-up for all of Rick James recordings and tours up until his untimely Death in 2004.

Mr.Hughes continued to drum on, building his resume with some of the biggest names in the music industry like Bobby Brown, Teena Marie, The Temptations, and others. He also kept busy by playing all around Buffalo with one of the areas best top 40 bands, and doing various session work for other artists before relocating to Las Vegas.

Stone City Band MySpace: www.myspace.com/thestonecityband

Lanise is now playing all over Las Vegas and is also currently in the studio with The Stone City Band. ''The Stone City has always been together, some of us are here in Vegas and some in Buffalo. Individually, we were all doing our own thing, but now we are all together spending time in the studio, it feels great''.

''Right now" Lanise tells the Dungeon,''We have some songs to record in the beginning of the spring, but also we just want to hit the road to put a face to the music that you already know and have heard".

Lanise's drumming and musical style has greatly contributed to the whole Funk thing that many have tried to emulate for years, but it's Lanise that is credited for that style of drumming "and the rep stuck''.

Click images to enlarge

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Lanise Hughes is currently playing:

Yamaha Stage Advantage six piece kit

Sabian cymbals

Gibraltar drum rack

Duallist (double) foot pedal.

Hiptrix glow sticks

Regal Tip wooden sticks

Alesis Performance pad

Roland acoustic drum triggers

Audix drum microphones

And on the road I would like to use

Peace Drums and Paiste cymbals.(wink,wink)

Lanise with Carmine Appice at the NAMM show

Some of Lanise's favorite drummers have been Dennis Chambers, Billy Cobham, Steve Gadd, Neil Peart, and of course John Bonham. ''I have always liked Bonham, I have a little of his flavor in my playing - the solidness''

Thoughts on Royster Jr.? ''Oh,Wow, that boy is Good!'' Thoughts on The Drum Dungeon? "Great job guys, love it!"

You can catch up with Lanise and all the members of The Stone City Band (Levi Ruffin, Lanise Hughes, Nate Hughes, Billy Nunn, Allen McGrier, Byron Bordeaux, Money Stone) by contacting him at his Facebook page, AcousticSoul@myspace.

When asked by the Dungeon of his thoughts on the Hip-Hop style of music, he said, ''As a drummer, I think that the percussion all sounds the same for everybody, you need real people (drummers) to give music it's various flavors, not just using samples (even though a lot of rappers are now using drummers for the live sound)''.

Lanice Hughes gets the best satellite tv service around from the direct tv packages at InternetLion.com!