Warren Cann
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Warren Cann (born 20 May 1952, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) was the drummer of the band, Ultravox, between 1974 and 1986.
[edit] Career
Cann made significant contributions to new wave drumming, both in style and execution. He and his technicians were among the first to modify commercially available rhythm units or drum machines, so they could vary the preset manufacturer programs. This is notable on "Hiroshima Mon Amour" on the album, Ha!-Ha!-Ha!. Cann also drummed live to sequenced keyboards. Many of these developments were made pre-MIDI and pre-velocity sensing equipment. His drumming became significantly less "rock" and more stylistically "new wave" around 1979, on the Systems of Romance album. Although criticized for sounding "mechanical", Cann encorporated some very interesting elements into his drumming. He endeavoured to have extremely precise timing; this would make the songs with live drums match songs driven by electronic, programmed percussion (like "Mr. X"). But, in addition to this, Cann would "show off" by doing things that, at the time, electronic percussion could not do. Specifically, he would throw in very precise triplet fills, and execute careful crescendos, especially on snare drum. While these two techniques are easily accomplished by electronic instruments today, in 1979-1982 they were virtually impossible. It was like trying to fool the listener they were hearing a drum machine, and then to show them they were not.
Artistically, Cann was combining man and machine. This was an important artistic concept in new wave; notably, Kraftwerk titled an album The Man-Machine, and Ultravox even had a song which declared, "I want to be a machine".
Cann currently lives in Los Angeles, California.
