Matt Cameron

Equipment[edit]

Throughout the 80s and 90s, Cameron favored two to three crashes (generally matching 19-inch Zildjian Avedis Rock crashes and eventually Z Customs by Superunknown touring period), an A or K ride of 20 or 21 inches, and 15-inch hi hats with an occasional 10-inch splash or bell. China cymbals were used throughout the '80s but infrequently in the '90s, and were eliminated from his live setup by Badmotorfinger. Even after becoming a full-time member of Pearl Jam upon drummer Jack Irons' departure for health reasons, Cameron's cymbal setup did not change radically from his Soundgarden days. Currently, the most noticeable difference is his use of the A and K series as opposed to the heavier Z Custom series.^[43]


Though Cameron is best known for his use of equipment from California-based Drum Workshop during his initial time with Soundgarden, he used his own Yamaha kit before 1990 when he started using DW, which he later admittedly approached after Yamaha first turned down his endorsement. Most early Soundgarden records up until Badmotorfinger including the Temple of the Dog record were done with an 8000 series kit in a "real wood" finish. By the autumn of 1991, however, Cameron started playing copper gloss finished DW's with 12 and 13-inch rack toms, a 15-inch floor tom, and a 22-inch bass drum with black gloss hoops and a 14-inch knurled steel snare. By 1993 his Superunknown era kit arrived, a black gloss kit with 12, 13, and a 14-inch hanging tom, which Cameron would mount on a snare stand, a 16-inch floor tom and a 24x16 inch bass drum. Cameron revealed in a 1994 interview with Modern Drummer magazine that to greater emphasize the dynamic shift on the song "Like Suicide", both kits were used, the latter having shells both larger in depth and diameter.^[21] Superunknown is well known for its huge drum sound and practices such as this brought attention in the drumming world. Other examples include the use of all ride cymbals on "Black Hole Sun" and 3 drummers playing at the same time at the end of "Head Down", being Cameron, Soundgarden bassist Ben Shepherd and drum technician and craftsman Gregg Keplinger. Cameron, along with fellow Northwesterner William Goldsmith (Sunny Day Real Estate and Foo Fighters), was an early user of Keplinger's snares, famous for perhaps being the heaviest stainless steel snare drum available.


By the recording of 1996's Down on the Upside, and the album's subsequent tour, Cameron endorsed the Canadian custom outfit Ayotte,^[44] a company Keplinger had teamed with offering mass-produced steel snares, and soon cohorts and fellow Keplinger fans Jeremy Taggart (Our Lady Peace), Matt Chamberlain (Pearl Jam, session), and Joey Waronker (Beck, Atoms for Peace) joined as well. During the recording of Down on the Upside in 1995 and a short European tour in the middle of making it, Cameron used natural maple finished Ayotte's with wood hoops with 10, 12, and 13-inch rack toms, 16 and 18-inch floor toms, and a 22-inch bass drum, with Ayotte/Keplinger snares or his longtime favorite Keplinger 14x7 stainless steel snare. By the album's official tour in 1996, a new kit with updated OEM hardware made by Tay-e, including bass drum mounted tom mounts, in the same sizes but with dark purple sparkle finish and a 24-inch silver sparkle bass drum was used all the way up to Soundgarden's breakup. Following his hiring for Pearl Jam's U.S. Yield Tour in 1998 Cameron continued using his purple Ayotte kit, which would stay intact for the most part for the next 4 years including touring for Binaural in 2000. All throughout this period Cameron continued using equipment manufactured by DW, including pedals, cymbal stands, and snare stands.


Following a corporate mutiny resulting in the resignation of Ray Ayotte from his own company and the subsequent end in partnership with Gregg Keplinger, Cameron switched to Yamaha in 2002, and Cameron's subsequent time with Pearl Jam is notable for his shift away from maple-shelled drums, arguably the most popular drum material for its overall even frequency response and overall melodic tone. Cameron began endorsing and using Yamaha's Birch Custom Absolute drums in a vintage natural finish that year. Compared to maple shelled drums, birch is higher-pitched with a quicker attack and produces fewer overtones.^[45] By 2009, he began experimenting with another type of wood, the Yamaha Oak Custom in a black gloss finish with Yamaha Vintage Maple hoops, similar to his old Ayotte's. Oak drums are noted for their additional attack and projection, with a similar fundamental tone to maple. He used this kit through the period of Soundgarden's reformation.


In 2018 Cameron returned to maple with Yamaha's Absolute Hybrid Maple in a satin black stain but with stock steel hoops. His current setup continues his longtime use of 12, 13, 16-inch toms, with a shallow 24 bass drum, more specifically 12×8, 13×9, 16×16, and 24×14. He occasionally uses a 14×14 floor tom on his left side and an 18×16 floor tom when not using 14×7 Alex Acuña timbale for certain songs in Pearl Jam. His switches his snares between his various Gregg Keplinger built models and Yamaha productions, varying from copper and aluminum shelled models to discontinued signature snares for David Garibaldi, Roy Haynes, and Steve Gadd. Lately he has also experimented with Kapur shelled Yamaha Club Customs and his Yamaha/Steve Gadd 30th anniversary drum set. He has also used a Yamaha Steve Jordan signature cocktail kit live occasionally.


Matt endorses Yamaha drums and hardware,^[46] Zildjian cymbals,^[47] Vic Firth drumsticks,^[48] and Remo Drumheads.^[49][50][51]