How the hell are you?
I'm doing pretty good. Just finishing up a five week tour. I've had a good time but I'm looking forward to getting home and seeing the lady. We have a little shy of three weeks there, a little rest stop.
You joined the band after things started to take off, the first record was taking off, what was it like to join a band like that?
It was exciting! I had already been a band. The only one of the band I knew was Chuck, the guy that quit. My brother and some other people I grew up with were in a sweet speed metal band called Tomatoes Key and Chuck had recorded them. I knew him from punk shows and stuff but I didn't know the other dudes. CT from Rwake texted me one day asking if I could play drums. For some reason I thought Rwake was going to play some shows. So he asked if I could do 9-10 days in the fall for some out of tone shows. I didn't think anybody could play drums in Rwake other than Jeff their current drummer and then it wound up being Pallbearer! Chuck had just gotten into MRI school and had a kid on the way so he had to bow out. I was already a fan and had seen them a couple times and was into it so I was like “Hell yeah!” We me up, it was kind of a band audition type thing, we met at a bar one night, drank a bunch of beer and talked about stuff and shortly after we jammed for the first time. The first several tours we did were not very glorious, still sleeping in the van shit and rarley getting hotels. We were scumming it a little but it was exciting to be in a band like that.
At what point was it like “Oh shit this is happening?”
You have to be careful with that type of notion. It's hard to say really. Within the first year or two. By 2013 or early 2014... One of first tours we did was opening for Enslaved and that was pretty sweet.
Something I find interesting is because you're sort of a third party and a little older... does that impact the band?
Not too much. I might be mid thirties but I'm not exactly a father figure. I'm just a couple years older than Joe and I still party. I have a god bit on Devin but I rarely feel it. It's rarely like “Oh these goons!” Chuck is like 5-6 years older than me and there was a much bigger age gap there. I obviously don't feel that way at this point.
How do you feel you contribute creatively to Pallbearer?
Arranging stuff, especially on Heartless. It was really collaborative. As usual Brett and Joe came in with most of the riffs and Devin came in with some key ones, like most of Plea For Understanding. But for the end of 2015 to the beginning of 2016 Brett, Devin and I were getting together and jamming, Joe of course is in New York. We all kind of helped arrange it and had ideas. It just felt right.
At this point, now that we have been playing together for quite a while I feel like I have a good understanding of the way the dudes think and right and as far as what I came up playing I'm not like a super virtuosic metal drummer. I'm a big fan of that style of drumming but I've never been great at it. We just started using a double bass for this album! But I'm more of a boogie bass, back beat kind of guy which I think works.
Before Pallbearer were you mostly in rock bands?
I played a lot of different stuff. I grew up in a band with my brother that actually came over to Europe a few times. We were called Soophie Nun Squad, we were like a joke performance punk band. We had some cool songs. It was like Ween. We had all sorts of different stuff and a lot of it was audience participation. I've been in other garage-y and vintage rock and roll bands as well as a few hardcore bands. This is the first proper slow metal band though!
What do you love so much about music?
It's just the best thing!
I'm doing pretty good. Just finishing up a five week tour. I've had a good time but I'm looking forward to getting home and seeing the lady. We have a little shy of three weeks there, a little rest stop.
You joined the band after things started to take off, the first record was taking off, what was it like to join a band like that?
It was exciting! I had already been a band. The only one of the band I knew was Chuck, the guy that quit. My brother and some other people I grew up with were in a sweet speed metal band called Tomatoes Key and Chuck had recorded them. I knew him from punk shows and stuff but I didn't know the other dudes. CT from Rwake texted me one day asking if I could play drums. For some reason I thought Rwake was going to play some shows. So he asked if I could do 9-10 days in the fall for some out of tone shows. I didn't think anybody could play drums in Rwake other than Jeff their current drummer and then it wound up being Pallbearer! Chuck had just gotten into MRI school and had a kid on the way so he had to bow out. I was already a fan and had seen them a couple times and was into it so I was like “Hell yeah!” We me up, it was kind of a band audition type thing, we met at a bar one night, drank a bunch of beer and talked about stuff and shortly after we jammed for the first time. The first several tours we did were not very glorious, still sleeping in the van shit and rarley getting hotels. We were scumming it a little but it was exciting to be in a band like that.
At what point was it like “Oh shit this is happening?”
You have to be careful with that type of notion. It's hard to say really. Within the first year or two. By 2013 or early 2014... One of first tours we did was opening for Enslaved and that was pretty sweet.
Something I find interesting is because you're sort of a third party and a little older... does that impact the band?
Not too much. I might be mid thirties but I'm not exactly a father figure. I'm just a couple years older than Joe and I still party. I have a god bit on Devin but I rarely feel it. It's rarely like “Oh these goons!” Chuck is like 5-6 years older than me and there was a much bigger age gap there. I obviously don't feel that way at this point.
How do you feel you contribute creatively to Pallbearer?
Arranging stuff, especially on Heartless. It was really collaborative. As usual Brett and Joe came in with most of the riffs and Devin came in with some key ones, like most of Plea For Understanding. But for the end of 2015 to the beginning of 2016 Brett, Devin and I were getting together and jamming, Joe of course is in New York. We all kind of helped arrange it and had ideas. It just felt right.
At this point, now that we have been playing together for quite a while I feel like I have a good understanding of the way the dudes think and right and as far as what I came up playing I'm not like a super virtuosic metal drummer. I'm a big fan of that style of drumming but I've never been great at it. We just started using a double bass for this album! But I'm more of a boogie bass, back beat kind of guy which I think works.
Before Pallbearer were you mostly in rock bands?
I played a lot of different stuff. I grew up in a band with my brother that actually came over to Europe a few times. We were called Soophie Nun Squad, we were like a joke performance punk band. We had some cool songs. It was like Ween. We had all sorts of different stuff and a lot of it was audience participation. I've been in other garage-y and vintage rock and roll bands as well as a few hardcore bands. This is the first proper slow metal band though!
What do you love so much about music?
It's just the best thing!