North Hollywood, Calif. (Oct. 31, 2008) — John Mahon, percussionist and backing vocalist for Yamaha artist Elton John, recently sang his praises for his Yamaha gear, touting the quality and durability of the instruments and expressing his appreciation for the longstanding relationship.
"In my 11th year now with Elton John, my touring rig consists of many Yamaha products. The new DTXtreme III, Hex Rack system, Drum hardware, a few Yamaha Concert Percussion instruments, a 12" x 6" Musashi Oak Snare Drum, Motif Rack and a Yamaha MG124CX Mixer," says John. "I've been very happy with the creativity and durability of these instruments. They've been around the world many times and always perform great."
John went on to say that a little over a year ago he composed, recorded and produced a soundtrack album for Wild Whirled Music, a company that places songs and soundtracks in films, commercials and TV shows.
"They asked me to write 12 pieces of music and were looking for very percussive, moody themes," says John. "I started some of the tracks by recording the DTXtreme IIs live into my DAW. Multiple outs gave me mixing options and I also made use of the clean Digital output which worked beautifully. For more sound options I triggered my Motif Rack ES and Motif ES7. I had some fun with the arpeggios and built in FX as well."
Recently, three themes were placed from the Decadent Percussion album for use in upcoming episodes of the reality TV show LA Ink on the TLC Network.
John has performed or recorded with a long list of talented musicians, inlcuding Billy Joel, Bryan Adams, Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, Phil Collins, Melissa Ethridge, and Sting, among many others.
"Since my first Yamaha product, a 16 channel mixer in 1980, to my Recording Custom drums in 1991 and through today, thank you Yamaha for always providing me with quality."
— Three songs to be featured on reality show LA Ink —
