Mark "El Guapo" (The Handsome One)

He makes love to the music with: drums, vocals

Email: Mark Woodruff
Check out Mark's other bands: Airwave 80s (named by Gigmasters.com as "Top '80s Band Nationwide" ... you can book them through Gigmaster's) and The Costellophones (Austin's Elvis Costello Tribute Band). Mark also owns DrumOrDie.com, a web site that sells that Traps A400 flat and portable drum kit. He fell in love with the drums a few years ago and decided to build a web site and offer them for sale. "I actually play these drums a lot when I drum in my Airwave 80s band. They sound fantastic, and they are really portable and light. I can carry the entire drum kit with one hand, so they are super easy to load."

Mark's advice on how to be a Casanova

Ladies love attention, so I always shower my special lady with loads of attention. Note that I said, "special lady," because special ladies love to be called that. You'll wanna write that down. I like to make sure that my lady knows that I'm always watching her oh-so-closely, my eyes scanning her body not unlike the trembling fingers of a blind man exploring a ripened ava-CAH-do for the very, very first time. Say I'm reclining on the divan, relaxing and flipping through a recent copy of Ebony magazine, and, my lady walks across the shag carpet before me. My eyes snap to her as if some sort of "Snap to Guides" box in my eyeballs had a checkbox checked, or, perhaps like a cheetah might eye a skittering tit mouse in the tall prairie grass. Either way, the point is thus: I look at her.

Where was I going with this? Ah, yes. Mucho atencion. So I speak to her in low, hushed tones — triggering some animalistic listening part of her brain which silently beckons, "Listen to the low, hushed tones" — and I say to her, "Sweet lady ... do mine eyes deceive me, or has that caboose or yours shed a pound or five?" Special ladies always love to hear the suggestion that their caboose (read: fanny) has gotten smaller, even if she quite obviously has gained 10-15 pounds on a steady diet of Arby’s. Another thing they love is to whistle long and low and ask if you can get an order of fries with that shake.

His instruments for making the loving:

• Cymbals: Zildjian Avedis 14-inch hi hats, Sabian AAXplosion 16-inch crash, Sabian AA 20-inch Custom Stage ride, and a beat-to-heck 6-inch Zildjian splash
• Snares: Old wooden Ludwig and a Pacific maple
• Drums: All-maple Mapex kit (22-inch bass, 12-, 13- and 16-inch toms)
• Hardware: All over the map (thank you, eBay) with stuff from DW, TAMA, Pearl, Rogers, Ludwig, Gibralter, and more
• Drum mics: AKG D 112 for the bass drum, Shure 57 for the snare, and a couple of Audix mics for the rest; for vocals, Shure Beta 58
• Personal monitor: This is the best thing I have ever bought. It's a personal monitor that lets you hear your own vocals and help block out some of the acoustic sound from the drums. It's made by Rolls and only costs $49, but you'll need to obtain some decent in-ear headphones (Shure makes the E2, which costs about $99). If you drum and sing, get one.
• Mic stand: I stole an idea from the Haywire drummer (also a singer) by taking a simple mic stand and cramming it into the base of a heavy-duty cymbal stand, then adding an 18-inch gooseneck to make a tall, stable mic stand that can't be knocked over.

Best concert:

"Easy. Elvis Costello in a small amphitheater in Houston, 2005. Took my 14-year-old son, Alec, and we sat 12 rows from the stage until Elvis said to what was a very quiet crowd, 'If any of you people want to come up here by the stage and rock 'n' roll, come on up.' We bolted to the front and watched the entire concert right next to his wingtips. After the concert, we walked around the building to the loading dock to see if we could catch him. About 20-30 others had the same idea. He came out 20 minutes later, all smiles, and spent half an hour talking, shaking hands, signing autographs, and posing for photos. Alec and I now refer to him as, 'Our friend.'" I'm enough of a Costello fan that I started an Elvis Costello Tribute Band: The Costellophones.

Something he is embarrassed about:

This dorky recording: Is it Mark, or Barry White? You decide. (mp3, 1MB)