Little drummer boy

Members of Tao Drums have to be fit to master their 400kg drums.

Yoshinori Suito's nickname is the Hard-Rocking Dad, and for good reason. He used to be in a Japanese punk band. But these days he has turned his musical talents to more civilised, yet no less noisy means.

Suito is a member of Tao Drums from Japan, who tour New Zealand next month and play Auckland's Aotea Centre on September 23.

The show, Tao - The Martial Art of Noise, fuses traditional Taiko drumming, martial arts, and dancing with contemporary Japanese culture. So expect to see 10 muscular and athletic bodies pounding rib-shattering beats on huge Wadaiko drums which have a circumference of up to 1.70m and weigh about 400kg.

"I lived a very loose life when I belonged to the punk band, and to play the Japanese drums is very hard, so I decided to do my time for the period I spent playing punk. I trained very hard to be able to join Tao. There are not many similarities between punk and Tao drums," he laughs.

This training involves a daily regime of running 10km, doing 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups, hitting the drums constantly for an hour, and regular meditation.

"That's to make you mentally strong," he says.

Suito has fond memories of the first time he saw Japanese drums in action: "When I saw a drum show I was totally drawn into it."

His interest in drumming was also heightened by a month-long trip to Senegal, in West Africa, where he studied the djembe drum.

Despite never formally learning how to write music, Suito is one of the main songwriters for Tao Drums. He says he gets inspiration for songs from his life experiences, as well as the landscape and natural environment of Japan.

One of his main aims is to make Japanese drumming more appealing to an international audience.

"I wanted to make Japanese drumming popular around the world because in Japan it is still very old and traditional in style. The Japanese drum has a big impact and when people see it, and hear it, they are intrigued, but compared to African drumming it's still not very popular. I want to show the face of Japan through Japanese drumming."

And with backing from a couple of 400kg drums, that's one message the world is bound to hear.

LOWDOWN

* Who: Tao Drums

* What: Tao - The Martial Art Of Noise

* Playing: Saturday, September 23, Aotea Centre, Auckland.