him out ... So when Dave came in, and was a much straighter player, it seemed to make more sense, I think." Starting in 1982, Gregory extended his talents to keyboards as well, since Partridge and Moulding were not adept with the instrument. Gregory never presented a completed idea for a song to the band partly because he felt intimidated by Partridge's scrutiny. Since he "couldn't continue grinding out old blues clichés and power chords," he decided to "think more in terms of the songs as the masters and the instruments as the servants." Discussing Gregory's contributions to the group, Farmer writes of "a precision and correctness that carries through from his prerehearsal of guitar solos to ... his encyclopedic knowledge of guitars and who-played-what-on-which-instrument-with-which-amplifier-in-which-studio-on-which-record-under-the-influence-of-what-star-sign-or-guru-or-drug." Terry Chambers was the band's original drummer. He was described by Partridge as "the [drummer] that's been the most primitive, but probably the most thrilling for inventiveness, because he would blunder into [different ideas]." One of his characteristic techniques was the use of hi-hat chokes. After he left in 1983, the group employed a succession of session drummers for their studio recordings. This included Pete Phipps (Mummer and The Big Express), Prairie Prince (Skylarking and Apple Venus), Pat Mastelotto (Oranges & Lemons), and Dave Mattacks (Nonsuch). Drum machines also began to be incorporated into the group's sound. None of the studio drummers were accepted as official members of the band. Partridge explained that this was because the group did not tour and because "There's lots of local, interpersonal language that means nothing to anybody outside the band and is very difficult to bring people into." Genres and influences In the mid 1970s, XTC played in London punk scenes and were consistent with music of the new wave, albeit with a heavy ska influence. Partridge felt that their music was pop from the beginning, not punk or new wave as is often suggested, and that the terms in themselves are redundant of "pop". As they became more of a studio band, their material grew progressively more complex. Later, XTC were sometimes suggested as being a prog band. Partridge did not feel the band were prog and expressed hesitancy with the word "progressive", saying that he preferred to call the band "exploratory pop" in the same vein as the Beatles or the Kinks. In his words, "Prog is just longer pop songs." The band's early influences included