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Tell us about yourself: I'm extremely horny as well as talented. But I do the best I can. Been playing drums forever - 25 years. 15 professionally. Tell us about your band and how you became a member of it: Used to like the situation, but some people got kinda funny. Jack used to play with Tracy G. and myself when he was 16. We were called "Centaur". After Great White did their first album and tour they realized that the drummer was below average, so Mark ran into me at a party and informed me they were auditioning drummers. So after sneaking around my band and jamming with Great White four times and recording a song in the studio to see if I can cut it, I was in. What bands were you in prior to your current one: Blue Wax, Hogg Bottom, Fusion, Hyrum Josh, Lucifer Posh, Sky People, Centaur, Riff Raff, Michael Erin Band, Little Tokyo, and some others I don't care to recall. Who all have you worked with outside of the bands you've been in: Did studio demos for friends, did a song on a tribute to Rod Stewart, some music for "Tales From The Crypt". Produced a band called Beware Of The Dredd. How old were you when you took an interest in becoming a drummer: Two years old. Why did you decide to pursue a career as a drummer: Everytime I saw a band play somewhere or saw drums in a music store, there was nothing else I wanted to do. What bands were a major influence on you: Seeing how I'm getting to the relic age, (well to some of the young rock fans), The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Santana, Free, Grand Funk Railroad, Blood Sweat And Tears, Chicago, Black Sabbath, King Crimson, Captain Beyond, Deep Purple. Which drummers influenced you and why: Ringo Starr. I saw the movie "Help" around 54 times. He was and still is a great drummer, he's got great timing and creativity, and he got to sing those corny songs on their albums. Ginger Baker because of his double bass drums. (If you listen back to a lot of their tunes you can hear where John Bonham got his influences, but did a lot with single kick drum). Mitch Mitchell, what can I say, super creativity and awesome chops. Keith Moon, one of the wildest drummers I've ever seen in concert (yes I saw The Who with the mad monster). He died shortly after that tour. Anyone who can duct tape headphones around their head is alright with me. Ouch, getting them off. I know from experience. I wore them for a while and nothing really holds them on like duct tape would. I used a heand band and when I'd get into it, which was every time I played they would start to slide off. Bill Bruford, now there's a drummer for ya! Early Yes and King Crimson albums were awesome. He only used a four piece kit on the Yes albums, and now in his own band Earthworks. Check that out if you get a chance. Your mouth will be hanging open watching these guys all playing different time signatures and it all gels pretty damn cool! Than there's my favorite rock drummer and one of the best drum solos I've heard, Tommy Aldridge. Toured with him on the Whitesnake thing. The first two weeks I was so intimidated. He was my hero so to speak. Met him at Rudy Sarzo's house once with Ansly Dunbar. I was in the kitchen at Rudy's with both of these guys. At the time I was like "duhhhh, I'm a big fan of both of you". They were super cool and down to earth. Tell us the specifics of your drumkit:
Well let's see. I play with only the best drums made - Drum Workshop. I have two DW kits at the moments, one is an eight piece kit with maple shells, exotic rosewood finish. They look sweet! In fact Mitch Mitchell (Jimi Hendrix) and I, at the time were the only ones to have that finish. They don't really do much for lighting. I guess that's why only a couple of us have them. Now my white ones have a cortex finish which is a covering finish. They really look great under concert lights. The exotic rosewood finish has Do you do warm up exercises and if so, how do you warm up: Yes, I start with 50 to 100 situps, then leg stretches, light curls (25 lbs). 20 reps then 20 lbs. 10 reps, 30 pushups, thenI take my sticks and hold them in the palms of my hands in a horizontal position, and wrap my fingers over the sticks and bend right fist into inside left elbow cavity, then left over right and twist wrists upside down if that makes any sense. It really helps loosen everything up. Also too much weight lifting eventually will make you a little less limber. So light weight is good just to get your blood circulating, then finally I do various rudiments on a practice pad for 10 to 15 minutes before I do any of these things. I rub Flexall 454 into my calves, shoulders, neck and forearms, just to help loosen things up or prevent any high adrenalin muscle cramping. I had a bad problem with bursitis to my left shoulder for a few years. I finally realized I was playing with my kit too high, so I lowered everything and got used to it and no more problems. I was leaning over the kit and reaching for everything, putting great strain on my shoulder socket. So glad, I just thought I was getting old or something! (Believe me a cordizone shot deep into the top of the shoulder being moved all around in your cartilage is no picnic!). What rudiments do you use: Flam taps, paradiddles, single, double, triple, etc rolls. I try and come up with my own little patterns as well. What other instruments can you play: I am an expert on the vaginal wall and the clit harp! Just kidding, well no not really! I try and play a little bass guitar. It's real small, you can put the whole bass in your pocket. Not really but seriously I do have a bass, an electric and acoustic guitar, a keyboard and a few harmonicas. For some reason I can play the harmonica. Guitar, well I've been told to stick to drums. I hate it. Almost everyone I know can play some guitar. My fingers won't go where they should and get in the way of the other strings. What piece of gear would you like to see come out: A device you can hum into and it comes out in the instrument of your choosing, so if you can hum in pitch the playback will come out as if you actually played that instrument yourself. Because I have all kinds of song ideas but when I try and play them on guitar or bass it's way different, and I get looks from musicians like "are you alright dude?" How do you feel about triggers versus mic setups: There's nothing like the true sound of wood shells. If your soundman is good he can make people come up after the show and start looking for triggers and sampling devices. But on the other hand there are situations where they are a life saver, or use a combination of both acoustic and triggers. I believe Vinnie Paul uses this method. He was telling me that he did this in the studio as well. Great drummer by the way. How do you feel about playing to a sequencer for prerecorded backup vocals: Doesn't bother me none at all. It's second nature. I use a click in the studio as well as live. Yes live. I used to get comments from the singer or someone else in the band every night. "Wasn't this song a little fast or that song seemed a bit slow tonight". Every night some members are tired. Some might be fully energized. Each member along with a huge rush of adrenalin can tend to play on top of the beat. So I decided to use a click live to eliminate the same shit after every show. But by using this it let's me know if I'm tired that night or got that adrenalin rush going the crowd gives you. If I'm tired that night everything seems fast. If I'm energized everything seems slow or like slow motion. Sometimes I'd have to ask my tech if he dialed the right tempo. Getting back to the question we had no vocals sequenced because these boys know how to sing. As far as maybe a couple of percussion sequences or keyboard parts it was nothing but ah thing! We use the click for recording. This way it's always second nature. I don't have to get used to it only at recording time. It's real cool too, because you never play to it. It's just there for reference. Lets you know who's pushing, who's pulling, when they're suppose to follow my tempo. Jack has his own tempos, always on top of the beat causing Kendall to follow suit. Which at times would be like a tug of war, but I think the fans don't really pick up on a little swagger in tempo. Shit is't rock n' roll not rocket science. It should have some movement. That's the advantage of the click not only to be in the right tempo, but to play on top of the beat when you're going into the chorus figure or the lead solo, then settle back into the groove at the verse. When playing with it also takes some getting used to when the beat turns around in certain songs and the snares on one and the kicks on two or whatever. What monitor system is best for you and what do you like to hear in the mix: I use future sonics in ear monitor system necessary when using a click live. I ahve a good size sub woofer for the low end punch I so much need along with these things we call ass shakers. They mount under my drum throne. When I strike the kick drum these piston like drivers hit the seat giving me some of the worst hemerrhoids ever...not really. Gives me the feel of the drum and the sub woofer blows out the air so I have a sense of some good low end punch. I have a small rack with a mixer and reverb unit with a headphone amp because over the many years of experience I've come to find it easier to have control of band levels and drum levels as well as control of how much verb I want because your monitor man has to make various moves for each song and for each musician. With three of five members using in ears I'm pretty much overlooked so to save me from hurling drum sticks as the monitor man and making small sign language gestures with my not so free hands this was my remedy to sanity, and less likely to commit murder. I likes this setup: I'd have drums stereo panned left to right vocals, keys, and bass in the middle with bass loudest then keys then vocals. Lead guitar panned hard left from my spectrum, rhythm guitar panned hard right. Do you sing as well as play drums: Only in the shower. Boy you should hear me! No in Great White there was enough vocals. It's definitely a real talent to play drums and sing I think. I sang backup vocals on my first demo ever, Jack was the singer then too. Do you play to the guitar or with the bass guitar: Is this a trick question? As a rule I play with the bass player unless you think he's a dick then you turn him down in your mix and jam with the guitar player. But I wouldn't word it quite that way. Play to the bass player. I'd say with the bass player because after all the drummer is the time keeper. These guys play to the drummer or yours truly. For someone most people don't seem to notice when playing for the exception of their feet tapping and head banging it's pretty cool. Try it sometime. You speed up they speed up, you slow down they slow down, even if it's not right. If you stop playing at rehearsal or sound check they stop too. It's kinda cool having that kind of control. Unless you make a mistake, some guys have the habit of turning around bringing attention to the fuckup when, if they didn't make it noticeable, it would have gone undetected by the fans. I guess it's just a habit. It's difficult when the guitarist or singer makes a mistake to let them know you know they fucked up. I should stop playing and run up in front of the next guy to make a little mistake. Whenever I would make a mistake someone in the band would say "what happened in that part or that song"? I'd say "oh that? I'm human". How do you achieve the best drum sound in a studio situation (room size for drums, mics, and placement): Well I never had the opportunity to experiment with different mics and placement. Michael had his own method of mic placement and that's why I was never able to achieve my own signature drum sound. To me the drums for 85 percent of the recordings were weak on the whimpy side or carboard boxish. That's what bugs me about a lot of studio engineers, they don't like experimenting. Most learn a safe way and never stray. I heard comments from engineers in the past like "your drum sound and the way that they are mixed right now, are right there at the standard recording requirements...blah...blah...blah..." I've always said fuck the standard proceedings, fuck it if the drum sound is not appropriate for a certain song. Who said there's rules in rock n' roll. Rules are meant to be broke, well maybe not meant but are broken from time to time. I feel that's what would make the difference in making a song that much more original. What is your favorite drum sound on LP or CD: Shit if there were only two bands in the world that would be easy. I mean as time and technology keep changing, so does sound. I remember when AC/DC's Back In Black came out, I thought that drum sound was real big and heavy. Now I listen to it and there's so many records with bigger sound. But for that time period it was big. But it is a great sound on that recording. I couls say in the plagued 80's which we were in, the sound of most rock bands was filled with reverb. Nowadays a drier in your face drum sound is cool or in a lot of newer bands that are heavy seem to have a real dry or tight room sound raw. It works. Do you have pointers for anyone interested in learning to play drums and pursuing a career as a musician: Yeah, don't trust anyone! Get your own attorney if you can afford it separate frome the band's. Don't let them try and talk you out of it, saying this will really slow the contracts and negotiations down. Whatever, too bad so sad. Because the only one who's really going to look out for you and care about is you! I know it's sad. But you know that famous quote "It's not show friends, it's show business". Remember some people that work for you will tell you "don't worry about anything except playing your instrument", well that's all fine and dandy if you hired your own personal attorney to be concerned with all the little decisions that add up to affecting the outcome of your career. Because when you're hot and in the limelight it's so easy to overlook things and not ask certain questions. You're making money, touring, banging chicks, getting high, getting all the perks from being successful and there's these people that work for you helping themselves to what's yours. When it's all said and done you're standing there with no one but yourself to blame. In short watch your back. Pay attention to all the details, ask questions, if people get irritated or say something about your interest in your well being, get rid of them fast! Are you currently working on any special projects and if so, can you tell us about them: Yes, I'm doing an instrumental with Tracy G. But that's going to be a little longer than anticipated. He and I both are into doing this project, we both up front agreed that if either of us had an opportunity that was detrimental to our careers that would come first. In this case Tracy's band is getting some overseas record deal. He needs to work on songs for his band first. But it will happen. Also Tony Montana bass player number three has a solo album out in Japan and is coming out in Europe. He asked me if I'd be interested in playing some shows locally. So I agreed to. Hoping to do our first show by New Year's Eve. Are there any particular bands you're listening to lately: A little of this and that. This is pretty good and that, well shit have you ever heard of a better sounding CD than that? Seriously I've been listening to: Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Slipknot, System Of A Down, Kid Rock, Korn, Pantera, Suicidal Tendencies, stuff like that. I like the new Slashe's Snakepit. Honestly only heard one single, but it rocks. Got to pick that one up. Any other comments: I think I've typed your eyes off for now. Oh wait a minute. When I was one years old I wandered out of my crib one day...Just kidding. I was going to go into my life story but my fingers are getting the "computer syndrome" or the "e-mail blues" or better yet "carple beotch" or okay I'm going...Thanks Angela! You rock - Audie Desbrow.
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