Rob Wallis
Rob Wallis and his partner Paul Siegel are both drummers, co-owning a drum school. “It’s a kind of drummers’ collective,” says Rob. “We had a desire to educate musicians and modernise education a bit.” The pair started DCI Video to produce drum tuition videos in 1982, with an aim to bring in influential drummers. “Neil had always been at the top of the list,” says Rob, whose collaborators included Steve Smith and Freddie Gruber, who the pair had introduced. “We came to learn we couldn’t really call Neil, so we used to write letters to him. We wrote one or two times a year, for six to eight years. He said his schedule didn’t allow him time to take on an outside project. He’d write back, ‘not the right time, check back down the road’, but he always left the door open. One day, he said we’d finally worn him down and he’d finally caved in.”
Meanwhile, DCI Video had been sold to Columbia Pictures Publications, back in 1992 – but Rob and Paul’s services had been retained.
It took a further two years before the pair finally managed to pin Neil down, shortly after ‘Test For Echo’ and it was agreed to work at Bearsville. “We wanted to incorporate some of the surrounds,” says Rob. “Paul knew the studio manager.” The video ‘A Work In Progress’ was shot in May 1997, and several months of editing followed. “Every so often, we’d send it to Neil and he’d send his critique,” says Rob. “Neil was involved every step of the way, to say the least. It was a great, very satisfying experience.”
The next collaboration was ‘Burning For Buddy’: Neil asked whether Rob and Paul could film the recording sessions, as unobtrusively as possible. “Neil didn’t want to impose with a full crew,” says Rob. “We went out and bought a couple of Canon cameras – not very expensive, but they were decent at the time, and small.” The pair spent every day for two weeks recording the sessions, the result being the video ‘The Making of “Burning for Buddy”’. “Neil was totally involved every day,” says Rob. “It was very intensive – set up, tune and do a take, break down the kit and get the next one in, it was cool!”
Rob and Paul have remained in fairly regular communication with Neil, even during his travels. “He came to New York to see Paul and I one night,” says Rob. “Neil’s a great, great guy.”