SKF NOTE: This excerpt provides a look back at two views of the new LinnDrum which was brand new on the market in 1982, the year this Bill Bruford interview took place.

Bill Bruford was familiar with the Linn from his own use and from his network of musicians and music industry people.

As managing editor of Modern Drummer magazine at the time, I was hearing pros-and-cons from the same type of people, including MD readers.

Drummers’ big concern over the Linn was that it would put them out of work. Why hire an expensive human drummer when you can get what you want out of a drum machine?

Of course, as Bill Bruford and I discuss, if a drummer is really worried about being replaced by a LinnDrum, then it’s up to the drummer to rise to that challenge. “You can’t out-Linn a Linn,” says Bill Bruford, relating here ways in which he likes to use the Linn, and ways drummers can position themselves to be reasonably sure of work in the future.