The Downbeat - Dan Tracy - Deafheaven

Episode Date: November 16, 2023

My guest this week is Dan Tracy, drummer of genre-bending black metal band Deafheaven. We caught up before their blistering set at Core Fest to talk about the 10th anniversary rerelease of their seminal album Sunbather, one of my favourite albums of all time. We also talk metal's recent resurgence, Metallica, the devils lettuce, and much more.

What's up your little alien weirdos that have been hidden by the government for years and only come out right now from declassified texts? How's it going? It's me, Craig, from the Downbeat Podcast. When I record these, right, I go into like a Zen state. I never watch these back afterwards. I do them. Forget that they're going to go on the internet, potentially seen by like thousands of people,

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My guest this week is Daniel Tracy of the band Death Heaven. Not to be confused with Deaf Havana, who have also been on the podcast, very different music. He plays the drums in Death Heaven. He is a very fast, very blasty drummer. They are, without question, one of my favourite metal bands. They mix like a shoegaze element with actual black metal, without any of the dodgy connotations that black, usually comes to black metal. We caught up the day of their core festival.

I was super stoked that he messaged me saying you wanted to do the pod and I was like, funnily enough, I'm a massive fan. So we talk a ton, an absolute ton about their re-release of Sunday, that's one of my favorite albums of all time. It comes out tomorrow. November, provided your listening to this when it releases, which I hope you are, it comes out tomorrow, November 17th, re-release of one of the, I'll just go out and say it, one of the best albums of all time.

There was tons of stuff I wanted to know about the internet. eludes about his drumming. I found out insane stuff about the recording process. One of my favorite things to do on the downbeat is when I interview someone I don't know, but I am like a stand of. Daniel Tracy is one of those people. Death Heaven is one of those bands. It's Daniel Tracy of Death Heaven on the Downbeat podcast.

Daniel Tracy. Craig Reynolds. Welcome to the Downbeat. Thank you so much. Is it Dan or is it Daniel? I go by Dan usually. Yeah. Easy.

Yeah, since seventh grade. I was in the big change happened. The big change for Daniel. What age is 7th grade? For us it would be 12 or 13. I was a little young for my grade, so I was 12. And then you made the decision. Yeah, yeah.

I just didn't want to go by Daniel anymore. I don't know why. I was like, I want to reinvent myself a little bit. I was starting to listen to a lot of metal, you know, discovered Metallica, stuff like that. And I feel like a Dan these days. You got any other nicknames? No.

I did move from the Bay Area. to Orange County when I was 16 and everyone called me San Frandon. San Fran Dan. San Fran Dan. That was a thing for a minute. Well, I said that again. You moved from... I moved from the Bay Area to Orange County when I was 16.

So I was born in SoCal, moved to the Bay when I was 10, moved back down when I was 16, moved back up when I was 22. That's interesting. But for a period of time, I was known as San Fran Dan. San Fran Dan. San Fran Dan. Don't say that too many times because that will stick. I don't mind it. You won't have people.

I mean, you're back in San Fran now, so you are San Fran Dan. I'm officially actually San Fran Dan. What was the reason for the move in? I just, I love the city so much. And I did kind of my growing up years in the East Bay in a town called San Ramon. It's actually where I met Shiv, our guitar player, that same year when I was 12, 7th grade. You've known each other that long? That long, yeah.

It's kind of a thing with Def Heaven is that I would say we're almost two sets of best friends. George and Kerry grew up together since they're 14 or something like that. And then Shiv and I grew up together since we're 12 or 13. And then we got Chris our base player, you know, maybe six or seven years ago. But other than that, it's kind of nice having those factions where we're just kind of inseparable no matter what, you know. And yeah, it's been great. How did you meet? So where did the other two grow up?

So they're from Modesto. George and Kerry are from Modesto. Where's that? Oh, so that is Central Valley, California. It's almost like smack dab in the middle between L.A. and S.F. And I didn't spend a whole lot of time out there. And if you don't know anyone out there, it's kind of why would you visit it? I mean, you're aware of Bakersfield and Fresno.

Yeah. I know those. Corn. And then I feel like there's a lot of new metal from Fresno. It's kind of the vibe. I mean, that band of Dima, which I think they're related to Jonathan Davis. Yeah, that whole new metal vibe is alive and well in Central Valley. Um, but yes, I'm 35.

36. Right on. And there's going to be some interesting metal questions then. Yeah. Same era. We've grown up in exactly the same era. Seeing the, uh, the progression. Uh, but yeah, uh, I met Shiv when I was 12. He had just moved from Africa.

Uh, he grew up in Kenya. And, uh, they moved to New Jersey for a little bit, but they didn't like us. They moved to the Bay Area. And, um, he was just kind of this like, odd kid in my class. he was wearing a metal shirt i was wearing metal shirt i was like what's up bro and what's up bro do you remember what the shirts were uh i'm assuming it was metallic or pantera or slayer because we're pretty you know we're dipping our toes at that point yeah um but i definitely uh distinctly remember blasting sepultura in our p e class our gym class when we're 13 bringing a boombox to

p e class and everyone's like what the hell is wrong with these kids i feel like we would have been friends oh yeah that was me as well 100% same age Same bands. Yeah. Like, I don't know what it was. Like, a lot of people at the time, like, I did, you know, I did have a new metal phase as well, but it didn't start with that. It was Metallica. I think that was the thing.

You get into Metallica, again to the old school metal, and they see, like, oh, what's popping now? Like, what's the current metal? Yeah. It's definitely a new metal at the time. So it's kind of unavoidable to fall down that path a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. But the Metallica to Sepultura.

Pipeline is pretty easy. It's pretty straightforward. Yeah. What if there was another band that was just a little bit faster that still had the acoustic guitars and still had all this? Straight in. Right. And when I found Pantara was over, I was just like, this is my band. So sick.

I found Sepertura and Pantara on the same day. So sick. Far Beyond Driven and a Rise. Nice. I bought them at a garage sale. Because I was buying. What was I buying? The Beavis and But,

head compilation. No, I had to be with some butthead compilation. And there was a guy that was selling all these CDs. I always wonder about this whole guy. Like, is he dead now? Or what? This is a long time ago. But he was like, if you like that, you're going to like those two. And that was it. Nice. I mean, my mum put it on the way home. It's a big figure for you. Kind of put you on. Yeah. Check this out. Just some guy. That's sick. Just some guy. Nice. Welcome to Glasgow. Thank you very much. you uh London yesterday uh yeah so no actually we were in um

arctangent we played Bristol uh yeah being up was so good it was fun it was cool um our day we didn't really know too many people on our day but it was a good time it was cool is we played arc tangent back in 2015 as well and um super fun and it's good to be back kind of a similar vibe just out in you know the the greenery of of england just really beautiful scenery and yeah it's fun i've never been Like I see it every year The lineup is insane every year

And I've always got something on Where I'm just like, I just can't go Yeah There's a lot of festivals out here Especially this time of year Every weekend Yeah I'm always either away playing them

Or something like this year It's like something up with this Are you doing 10 year sunbathe So we are doing a few sunbathe sets this year We did that yesterday At Arc tangent Is it the whole record

A whole record front to back Yeah that's not? No. So it's kind of a radius thing where it was an arc tangent exclusive. Oh, yeah. You have to. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't, yeah. Did you play, so did you play two sets or did you just play that back to front? We just played it just front to back, yeah. And we actually have it. Back to front to back. We have it set up where, um, uh, uh, uh, sorry, Carrie and Shiv, they worked out how to play the interludes. So there's like a couple things on tracks, but they're actually doing the guitars live. Um, which is actually kind of

awesome because George, Chris and I just kind of dip. We leave the stage for a few minutes between every song, catch our breath, and then come back out all refreshed. So it's kind of fun. It's weird. It's a lot of blasting. It's a lot of blasting for sure. We used to play that set when that record came out initially.

We would just rip through the songs. There would be like 30 seconds between songs. So I played the whole fucking album just like literally front to back. And by the end of the set, I would puke, I would pass out. It was a crazy period of time where I was just like running myself ragged. Someone once sent me unsolicited, I might say. So I'm not going to say who it was. Okay.

A video of you, because they knew I was a fan of the band. This is ages ago. This must have been Sunday the tour. And I'm sure it was you. And you were blasting, obviously, doing the, and in between songs you were dunking your arms into ice buckets. Oh, okay. So yeah.

I actually still do that. That's something I currently do. Give me the juice. Yeah, so I wish I didn't have to, but it was a carpal tunnel issue that I have. I think just so many years of playing those beats and playing those songs and just not really taking care of myself, not doing stretches, not doing icing or anything like that, kind of caught up with me. And I actually distinctly remember the moment when it started to all kind of go wrong was

we were trying out, not trying out, but we were having a fill-in bass player back in 2017. and we were teaching them the songs and we were sitting there in our practice space for like nine hours just playing these sunbathees songs and these new Bermuda songs over and over and over again. I just didn't really think about it and I just kept going and going and going

and by the time I was done, like nine hours in, my wrists were just completely swollen. It was like a mountain, like right here. It was just, and I was like, oh my God, what the fuck is happening here? And it kind of tripped me out. And I didn't really know what to do for the longest time.

I just kind of played through it, just kept going, you know. And my tour manager, Edgar, were on a tour with This Will Destroy You a couple months later. He's like, dude, amazing band. Incredible band. It was such an awesome tour. Yeah. But he kind of saw me suffering. I was taking like four Advil before the set just to try to get the swelling down.

He's like, dude, fuck this, man. I'm just going to put a bucket of ice next to you. Just when your wrists are hurting, just throw it in the ice. I was like, I don't know if that's going to work. It sounds kind of like, you know, you're supposed to stay warmed up. You don't want to, like, cool down. I was like, it sounds kind of antithetical or whatever. but I'll try it.

And it worked like a charm. It was perfect. It's like as soon as I finish like a song that's really intense, put the sticks down, dunk the hands, and it kind of just brings the swelling down. It kind of brings you back to bass line. It's still an ongoing issue. Yeah, that's still something I do.

Which is not as big of an issue anymore because some of our newer songs are a little more mellow and I don't have to blast the entire time. So that gives me a little break, but it's just something I've noticed really helps. I just get the ice on the wrist and it kind of brings it back to baseline. It's almost like you started the set over

and you don't have all the rigors going through your wrists. So that works pretty well for me. I mean, that sucks that you're going through that, but you've obviously found something that works. I think I just, I played in a style for a lot of years that was just really fast and I didn't hold back. I was just, ah, and I don't know, so many years you can do that

until it starts to kind of tear up your wrists, I guess. Have you got like a specific warm-up routine now? That's the thing. I don't. Even after that? Oh, my God. I don't know if I learned my lesson. I don't know.

My old attitude towards warming up is kind of weird because I feel like it just makes me more tired. And I'd like to save that energy for the set. You do have so many notes. It's just a lot of playing. For a drummer. There's so many kicks and so many snares. It's a lot of playing. And if I'm in the last song of like, you know, a 75-minute set and I'm locking up,

I'm like, why the fuck did I warm up? I shouldn't have warmed up and kept the strength for the set kind of thing. So, I don't know, it's kind of a balance I try to keep. If the set, have you found the faster songs are getting sort of by the wayside

as you get, you know, as the career progresses, or are you always going to have to play them? I've got songs where I'm like, I can't wait till we don't have to play this song anymore because it's really hard. No, I'd say we're always going to play them for sure. I mean, I don't think we'll ever play.

play a show without playing Dreamhouse at the end of the day. I would be furious. I think everyone would. We're aware of that. So, yeah, we're definitely going to play the hits, as they say. Is that the set closer? God, I love you. I said it to you personally, but not to the podcast.

I love your band so much. Oh, thank you. Helly. I appreciate that. Excuse me. Exactly the same. There's very few bands that I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard it. Death Heaven.

China. I was in China on tour. It was horrific. The tour was like every show had like two people there. Oh no. We were malnourished. We hadn't slept. There was any of this stuff. You're that far from homes. You're like, oh. And it was, yeah, and it was 2013.

It was summer 2013. And that album had just been popping off. And I'd never heard of death ever before. And someone was like, God, it's like black metal with chugase. And I was like, fuck off, is it? and then I just popped it on. I remember exactly where I was on. It was a shitty little Chinese van going.

Actually, it was the best day of that tour. It was the last day of tour. We were going to the Great World of China. So obviously it's the best of, yeah. Haven't it never been. That's cool. Popped it on and just immediate was just like, oh my God, this is incredible.

Fell asleep during one of the interludes, which I do want to ask some questions about the interludes. Yeah. Fell asleep during one of the interludes. I can't remember which one. It's kind of a compliment. I like that. Oh, and it became my sleeping album on the door.

Because the blast, I don't know about you as a drummer. Blast, like lull me to sleep as well. I'm a big blast beat guy, but this has enough up and down. But I think it's whatever the interlude is before the, you would say the pecan tree. I would say the pecan tree. The pecan? Well, it's even a thing in the States between a pecan or pecan. What would you call that song?

I say pecan, but Kerry says, Pecan. So it literally varies between Americans too. It was the interlude before that song and it woke me up so, so aggressively when that song Pecan Tree starts with the blast. Comes out of nowhere, yeah. Some fucking rules. That interlude is particularly funny.

It's a field recording from... That's what I wanted to ask you. Sure, yeah, yeah. What are they? Because one of them has two. Yeah, so this would be the interlude that has the field recordings from San Francisco. It's just, you know, sounds of the city, essentially. Yeah.

And it's actually also Carrie being in the downtown kind of sketchy area, just hanging out with sketchy homeless people and just getting like, just getting the vibe of that entire feel of being in that area of the city, which is so unique. You know, have you been in the tenderloin downtown San Francisco? It's essentially right by Union Square. I've done, I'll tell you where the venues I've played and you can tell me if I'm anywhere near these. Warfield.

Yeah, it's literally there. So Warfield's on market, which I used to. live right around the corner from for 10 years. And that's, that's, that's market street. But right above that is the tenderloin, which is essentially the open air drug market of San Francisco. I do remember it being kind of sketchy. It's just, it's junky land, you know what I mean?

Just tent cities, insanity. So we just kind of wanted to capture some of that, that atmosphere because that's what we lived in. That's what we experienced. And if you know, if we're going to make an album about ourselves, we wanted to include that for sure. So what? They just went around with a recorder?

Yeah. Yeah. Sketchy. in the pocket or? In the pocket. It was his phone, just phone recordings. I've tried to decide. See, I didn't know this.

I've tried to decide for what it is a bunch of times because I feel like if I'm thinking of the same interlude, that panned one way and there's something else pan the other way. Sure. And then the other one is a street preacher. That's what I thought was. It's a guy just screaming about the fires of hell, you know, downtown us,

trying to save the sinners. It's amazing because you can hear a drug deal happening. Right. In one. I don't want to say it, but yeah. In one end, we can say whatever the hell we want. You can hear a drug deal what happened in one ear. Right.

And then the street preacher in the other ear. And then, is it the one before the peaking tree? It is. Which is my favorite song on the album. Those, if you don't know this band, come on, get involved. Yeah, that was fun to make. I had actually just met those guys maybe four months before we recorded that record. You weren't on the first record.

No, it was not on the first record. record. Actually, when I met those guys, they were in a little bit of a difficult situation. They had lost their band, essentially. Everyone that they were playing with had kind of left them behind and wasn't willing to travel, wasn't willing to play. It wasn't a lot of money involved back then, you know. But I had met them and they were kind of, they're ready to hang it up. They're like, yeah, we don't even know if our band's going to be anything. I was like, well, I'm here. And tried me out. We ended up playing Violet together. And they're like, you're the guy. And like that same night,

We ended up, uh, uh, Carrie ended up showing me a couple riffs from Dreamhouse. And he's like, yeah, just like, this would be a blast. Maybe freak out on the second part. And we put it together and we're like, this sounds fucking sick. And from then on, we knew it was meant to be. And after that practice, I was like, so what do you guys are you? And they're like, I don't know. We should go to the bar and chat.

And I was like, we should get a flask of whiskey and walk over and chat about it. And immediately just started viving and led a similar lifestyle, you know, similar viewpoint of everything. then eventually we needed a guitarist and I knew the perfect guy my best friend Shiv who was I was in a different band called Creepers at the time with and just made the most sense that he joined up with us

and yeah we've never looked back amazing yeah lineups been the same bassist except for the bass player our original bass player that era was Steve Clark who was a super good friend that we had the craziest experiences with its wildest tours and I think he kind of

I had a different vision of what he wanted to do. So he ended up parting ways. And then we got our original sound engineer, Chris Johnson. We had worked with him a few times in the past. And we loved his energy. He knew he was an incredible bassist. And once Steve was kind of on the way out, I was like, oh, I know the perfect guy. And we call him Cush, affectionately, Chris Johnson.

Cush with a K. Yeah, exactly. Is he the weed guy? Well, we're all weed guys. You're all the weed guys. But it was, it was, it's a little cruel, but it was. Whenever we get a new guy in the crew, we kind of like, you know, rib him a little bit. We call him something funny.

And I was like, I want to call him like, Chris, I'm going to call you piss. But immediately it was so sweet and so just kind and cool to be around. I was like, I'm going to call this full something I really love. I'm going to call you Kush. Nice. He's been Kush ever since. And he joined back in early 2017, and he's been a solid member ever since. Nice.

Yeah. What's your pre-show Kush ability? Do you do it? you. It's kind of just perpetual for me. Is it? Yeah. I wish I was you.

I used to be on a smoke. I used to love it. I was talking about this yesterday, actually. Used to be like a, you know, not like a stone or not. But I used to love it. Sure. Just to relax. Right.

And then one day something just snapped in my head. I feel like that's a really common occurrence. I've heard that a lot. Yeah, just kind of just get in your own head, just overthinking things, kind of thing. Even, and it comes in waves because there was a time. when, you know, when one to one came out, like, CBD to THC, because I tried CBD and I was like,

this is not doing anything. It's kind of placebo, in my opinion, I don't know. But the one to one stuff, because it just ends up with a weaker THC, like the ratio, I could smoke that for a while, and then that went as well. I'm just like, I can't be fucking in. I heard that, like, CBD can actually be like a, like a, like,

remedy to being too high. Yeah. Like, if you're just like really stone, if he takes some CBD can like reduce it but I don't know it's just something that kind of vibes with me and maybe it's just being a California person it's kind of always been in the conversation it's always been around and I've always preferred it to alcohol just because alcohol is a lot harsher on your system it causes a lot more destruction in general so yeah I think it's a bad rap but being from California it's very much as part of our culture yeah I need I need to get back back on it because I need, I'm one of those people that I need like a little bit of, I need a little

just escape sometimes. Sure. And we'd gone, it's our goal. And it's like, that's not great for that. I mean, at the end of the day, it is just a habit, you know, cost a lot of money. You know, I wouldn't recommend it to someone who isn't already, but for me, I started vaping. Nicotine for, for fun on our last tour, because I was really bored. I was just, I'm just going to start vaping. And then I got home and I was like, this is ridiculous. So I had to quit that. Right. Now I need like, I need one voice. Yeah, I think that's true with everyone. Like I, I did a booze free tour last year. I don't drink a whole lot, but sometimes I used to need to say no for a while. And I started vaping nicotine too. Really? I was like, I need someone destructive to do. I used

to smoke cigs. I was a cigarette smoker for a long time. It was the same thing. I did a, I did a dry tour. And I was like, no, I need something. It's almost like a sober guy, uh, like habit you know it's like a big thing and you know i don't go to recovery personally but i feel like if i were to i would see a lot of elf bars up there a lot of you know a lot of vapes in general i think you had people just need something to some kind of vice some kind of thing to it did work though i don't know about you it worked i didn't drink for the whole maybe like two days at the end when i was like party time sure yeah no i lasted for you know six or seven weeks and it's cool do you still vape or did you quit i do you too yeah

i quit and it was quite easy so i was like i'm just going to do that again When I go on tour, I'm going to start lamping again. I think that's the thing they say that about nicotine vapes versus cigarettes, is that there are more addictive chemicals in the cigarette, so it's easier to quit vaping. Cigarettes, still, I haven't smoked since I was like 21. Cigarettes still. I still watch someone smoke a cigarette in a movie,

and I'm like, fuck, yeah, that looks cool and awesome. That's why everyone smoked movies. You know what I mean? Like, my absolute favorite movie in the world, The Lost Boys, that 80s vampire flick, SIG in every scene I'm like, I want to be like that. It's very on brand

that's your favorite movie. Something I like to do sometimes on the podcast, you want to give me your top five movies? Oh, wow. That's incredibly difficult. I can try. You can just, we'll, you know, we'll prize them out of you.

Sure, sure. Okay, well, Lost Boys, always is up there. I'm a huge horror fan, so it's got to be, that it was like... Oh, I could talk about horror all day. Same. I love Carpenter is my favorite director. So 78 Halloween all day.

Top five though, Jesus. I guess I'll just go to that genre. Yeah, give me top five horror movies. The thing. The thing I feel like this is controversial. But as you can see by the lighting set up here, I'm an A24 junkie, right? The thing is my favorite horror movie of all time.

Practical effects, just everything. Incredible. But I feel like a good movie. close second is Hereditary. Hereditary is awesome. It's fucked up, dude. It's like the only horror film recently that I've seen, I mean, in the last whatever, five years and gone. Okay, that was...

Actually gnarly. Yeah, that was like 80s. Totally. Yeah, I would agree hereditary was pretty intense. I mean, the buildup is narl. And you think that the big scene is that, you know, the car scene, you're like, whoa, it's over. But, dude, the ending is so chilling. I love the ending.

It's just like, it's haunting. So many people I know that don't really. like horror, but like, to be scared, we're like, oh, I liked it until the ending. I was the best bit. It's like, the climax, man. Sorry, I derailed you. No, it's okay.

Lost Boys, Halloween, the thing. The thing. What else we got? I mean, I gotta go old school classics because the godfather is like probably my favorite movie. And that's because of my dad. My dad really turned me on to that whole whole, you know, idea of cinema. and even the subject matter.

He's Italian. So I come from that culture on that side. And, you know, when you're Italian, it's a very big deal. You talk about how you're Italian a lot of time. I'm Italian. And then you go again to the movies, again to the mob stuff. And, yeah, Godfather's incredible. Goodfellas is another one of my absolute favorite movies.

I rewatched Casino the other day because I hadn't seen it in so long. Man, we were watching Casino. We were watching Casino on tour. And I was kind of, like, astounded at how dark that movie is. It's just the whole time, it's just depressive. You're like, fuck. Those two arguing, constantly. Speaking of arguing and horror,

fuck off, everyone, I'll talk about drums. Have you seen Possessed? No. Wait, are you thinking of Possession? Possession. Yeah, so Shiv just watched this movie, and he's like, bro, you got to watch possession. It's fucking crazy.

Fucking, mate. Sam Neal, right? Sam Neal, yeah. I haven't seen it, I got to watch it. Is it intense? It's the most intense. so speaking of like spouses arguing right the most accurate i don't know if you've ever argued with a spouse or been in an entire relationship of it got a ring don't i oh good for you um the most accurate

portrayal of like truly toxic relationship in the for the first like 20 minutes or so and then it gets insane yeah and it's the whole i don't know how much I told you, but the whole thing is like an allegory for the director's divorce. Oh, dark. And it's super like sometimes overacted, really deliberate close-up shots and then crazy practical effect reveal. It's kind of all about the main actress, right? Like she's just like wilding out the whole time.

She's such a great actress. I was crazy. Wasn't it like band at some point? Yeah. Yeah. have been too graphic. Super graphic, super, I really don't want to ruin it for you, but like, there's one scene where you just go, oh, okay, that's why.

The practical effect reveal. Yeah, that's, oh, that's why they banned it, okay. Yeah, possession, not possession. Possessor is what I'm thinking of, which is. Oh, that's the brand of Kronerberg, which is incredible. I could literally talk about horror all day. Same. People will be absolutely annoyed at me for not talking about music.

Should we talk about some drums? I mean, I don't know. I mean, we'll talk about music and if it divulges into drums. I want to talk about sex, baby. I don't want to talk about sex. I want to talk about foundational nutrition. If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you will know that I have pretty much got rid of all of my supplements

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They open them up, stick them in a bottle of water, shake it up, drink it, and it is a godsend when I'm on tour. Two reasons. I don't get stopped at the airport. Mr. Was this powder, because it's in a lovely little packet. They go, that looks legit. Two, Tor is about getting sick and getting stressed, as well as maybe playing some shows. Thanks to the blend of stress adaptogens in AG1, like Ashwaganda, and the immune-supporting vitamins and minerals like vitamin C, magnesium. get all the support I need for those two painful parts of Tor in one scoop. You know I wouldn't

be telling you about this if I didn't truly, truly, truly believe it. That's why AG1 has been a partner for so long. If you want to take ownership of your health, it starts with AG1. Try AG1 and get a free one year supply of vitamin D3K2 and five free travel packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkag1.com forward slash the downbeat. That's drink AG1. 1.com, or slash the downbeat, check it out. What your influences as a musician slash drummer? Sure, I mean, definitely like we were talking about in the early days with Lars Ulrich and Vinny

Paul and Dave Lombardo. It's actually kind of funny. I took drum lessons for maybe two or three months when I started when I was 12 or whatever. And I was in this little hole in the wall music shop in Dublin, California. I was doing my lessons. I was waiting for my lessons one day. I was playing on these Z.

Customs, you know, Lars Ulrich, infamous Zee Customs, Zilden hats. I was like, this is sick. Fuck yeah. And like my drum instructor, Rick came out. He's like,

what are you playing on? I'm like, I'm playing on these Z customs, man, it's like, Lars Ulrich plays him. Do my drum lesson or whatever. Go home.

Come back the next week, go into my drum lesson. And Rick is like, man, this kid was telling me that the Z custom high hat sounded good. I was like, what the fuck you talking about, bro and I just want to be like

that was me he had no idea he was talking about me I was like I was like come on bro I like they do sound good yeah they're sick right he was being a hater you know whatever but I didn't continue lessons too much longer after that but yeah after he smoked you yeah person

are you a children guy now no I actually have Istanbul Istanbul is my sponsor I got in so much trouble my whole thing with leaving I've never actually talked about this on the podcast. My whole thing,

I left Minel recently. Right, I saw that you switched over to Ziljan, right? Yeah. Because Minel chewed me out in a meeting, they called a meeting for,

to chew me out for basically saying that Istanbul make good symbols on a YouTube video and I was like, are you fucking for real? And they were like, yeah.

And I was like, I'm not going to be, I'm not going to go into huge detail, but it was actually from me complimenting an Istanbul symbol that we started

this big, argument. I was like, fuck you guys. So Istanbul was the other lady in your situation. And not even, it was just me saying they were nice on some, it was like a sleep token reaction video. I was like they're nice symbols. Right. Like, they're pretty, they suit you. Yeah, I think they were great.

When I signed up with them a handful of years ago, they sent me a set of the exist symbols. And they sound incredible. Are they like the dark looking ones? I would compare it to the A's, Zilden A's.

Oh, right, yeah. Yeah, not too brilliant. Just kind of a symbol. I've always been really basic with my equipment and my, my gear choices. I'm pretty, pretty standard, very stripped down and simplified. Maybe a little too simplified. Run me through. Run me through the setup.

Sure, yeah. Well, I got a Tama sponsorship back in 2015. Calm up. We fucking love them. Yeah, so good. I got the Star Classic. It's actually discontinued. It's the Birch Babinga.

Apparently, Babinga is a problem. wood so don't make that anymore but I got the star classic birch babinga 13 inch rack 16 inch floor 22 inch kick very standard sizes then I got a 14 inch by 5.5 inch dynamic bronze snare yeah I like the bronze snare I'm trying to get a new one I might even get a wood snare soon just to like fuck around no no do the okay I played a black beauty on a recording and I fucking loved it that was the only thing that I was like maybe I should fuck with the black beauty but is it Sam Gamble that you deal with yeah exactly

he's not gonna be happy if you play black beauty though but you know which Tamadu do do a symbol a symbol a snare that's kind of like a black beauty ish and I think it's I want to say it's like a starphonic

brass and it's a 14 by 6 and it sounds like a black beauty yeah similar brass yeah cool similar thing because the black beauty is black nickel over brass oh okay that's how much i know i thought a black beauty was a was a wooden snare no no it's black nickel over brass yeah um so i don't know what the hell i'm talking about and then what's just how many symbols you got so i got the 14 inch high hats a 19 inch crash 22 inch ride and i have a 20 inch ride right here it's playing a crash over here but i was breaking it every five shows so i pretty much I'm just going to play a ride.

And it sounds great. So is that at 22 and a 20? Yeah. Nice. It's kind of weird because they're literally the same symbol, but two inches different. And I've never had a china symbol or a splash symbol, just because I kind of like that washy sound. I like the, I like the fact that it makes it sound not like a metal song per se.

I feel like if you were to add that china tone or that splash tone, it would make it sound a little more metallic overall. And I don't know. I kind of like the idea of just having a wash of symbols. Yeah, and it comes across When you record, is it like, I've always thought this,

because your band is, you know, it's metal, but it's very analog sounding. Right. Like, are you doing multiple takes? Are you punching in section by section? No, definitely not.

If anything, up until Infinite Granite, we record to tape. Straight to tape. Yeah, that's how we recorded Sunbather New Bermuda and ordinary corrupt human love.

The intensity is so insane. Like, no wonder your fucking wrists are fucked. Yeah. I definitely try to nail it on the first take because I don't want to play it again. Just full takes? Yeah. Yeah, and that's kind of the vibe on it

is I just want to get it done simply so I don't have to play it more than once. Because if I have to record more than a couple songs in a day, by the end of the day, I just won't even be able to play the song I'm trying to play. I honestly can't remember the last time that I recorded a song. song back to front. I think there's one on the last stray record where... Gotcha.

Because it was just, I don't know, a different style and everything, but like... Yeah. You... What you were saying about your symbols, the washyness, it's like painting, like a landscape of sound. I liked what you said earlier about how Someday There became your sleep album. It was a great compliment because I kind of felt that way about the music the whole time we were making it and that it is so drawn out.

and repetitive in the blast beats I'm blasting for like three straight minutes at some point and I think that the coolest part about that is the hypnotic quality of it kind of just the hypnotizing like just wash just wall of noise kind of thing you can only get it with real blasts

I think so and on top of that I play single kick blasts it's always single kick blasts the only time I use a double kick on a blasts is brought to the water because it's so incredibly fast That's a good song. And then Black Brick, one of the newer songs,

because I'm blasting for fucking five minutes. So I'm just like, I just double kick. But other than that, I like to use single, I mean, one, because I can't play, like, the accents with my right hand. If I'm doing double, I'm just not good enough at drums. You know what I mean? And then two, I feel like it just kind of opens up the whole feel of it

and makes it sound a little more, not swinging, but just open in general. Less tight, more kind of open. Not sloppy, but, yeah. it's like it's the classic like euro blast sounds it's the black metal blasts and i know what you mean i mean i too for all my blasts but like and that's just through sheer laziness but the we've got a couple of songs where it is where i mean you do it the whole set pretty much where there's there's like a group of three on the ride oh like a triplet blast that's what we call it a triple blast but like trying

to do that with two feet it's hard as hell It like swaps every other feet. It's super difficult. Yeah, I to this day cannot play a triple blast of double kick. I can't do it. And then I like to do a lot of, you know, just throwing a little crash in there and a little hi-hat to like match the guitar riff. And if I were to be using a double kick, like it's hard. It's weird.

It's like I can't get like the accent down. So I just fuck it, single kick the whole time. What pedals you use in for this single kick? Wizardry. Tama hooked me up with an iron cobra. I think this is the basic. I've been using it since 2015. Can't beat them.

Yeah. A lot of people use the speed cobras and the axis pedals and I've just never been like a tech metal drummer. If anything, I'm like a non-metal drummer that kind of plays metal on top of that. So I just kind of stick with that vibe.

Speaking of a non-metal vibe, did you get any, I mean, I'll show you the proof. Infinite Groundright. It was my top played album of 2021. Awesome. So I'm a sweater. I'm a huge fucking big fan.

And I loved it. Like, loved it. And I didn't see any kickback. But I just want to know, was there kickback? There was definitely kickback for sure. Yeah, absolutely. I would say it's, I want to say, it's equal parts kickback and, you know, new people finding us.

And there was really no prerogative behind that. It's just at that point in time, and we wanted to make music that sounded like that. That's kind of been the whole idea with our band since day one is when we get into a room to write music together, we don't have this grand plan. We kind of just... Let's go more commercial in this one.

Right. You know, like, you know, no screaming aloud, no blast music allowed. It wasn't how it was. It just kind of turned out like that. And, you know, what we produced and created just wasn't aggressive. But I do enjoy the fact that Mabasa has that big final climax, you know, which I will say is a sign of things to come as well.

Oh. Is it coming back? Not a band in that, you know what I mean? There'll be people that are desperate to know that. I think so. I mean, I would are quite happily. When a band changes, I don't care. Like, I do this and a little note to anyone, if I don't like it, then I don't listen to it anymore.

It's super fucking easy. That easy, right? The other music still exists. I listen to that one. We're all good. That band's usually influenced other bands. and I can move on. Yeah, you don't take it personally.

Like, why would you? It's no fucking word. I would have taken either from death heaven. Like, if you continue down that room, I'll be with you. If you go back to heavy, I'll definitely be with you. There's no way that you're not going to do blast.

I know you've got poorly wrists, but... Oh, I'm going to blast forever. Yeah, I can tell it. It lives in you. It absolutely fucking lives in you. At what point did you... Did you get into blasts?

last then because you've got your Metallica, your slayer, your Pantera, Sepulchura, no blast beats. Right. What happened? Sure, yeah. I would say it was probably freshman year of high school after a couple years of, you know, running the rounds of, you know, thrash and extreme and groove metal and stuff. I started listening to Cannibal Corp, started to listen to Morbid Angel. I started with death metal for sure.

Yeah. You expanded from there. Got super into dying fetus and skinless and just all that slam shit. Skinless? I haven't listened to skinless in that. ages. The horror samples we do.

Foreshadowing our demise. Incredible record. The one they've got something from Puppetmaster. Is that on that record? I think every song has a movie sample. It's all over the place.

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sucks that's hilarious but yeah then I started again to some black metal when I was

freshman in high school the last emperor record, Prometheus, came out and it just dominated every magazine and everyone in the metal world was just astounded. So I was so into that record. I found their older stuff through that and, you know, got into Burson and mayhem and all that stuff. So annoying, like

being a good person and listening to Blackmail. It's so difficult to like, sometimes I'm just like, I'll find a new band and then deliberately just be like, I don't want to know. I don't want just not research. I don't want to know anything. I don't want to know anything. And it always comes. Something always fucking happens. It's very nice to have an unproblematic black metal band. Like, death heaven.

Happy to be here. We try. It's just the worst. It's so, and like, without getting myself canceled, like, I get it in 1993 when you're a bunch of kids, then you're just trying to be the most evil. Sure. be extreme but like new

I'm not going to try and go down this because you'll get metal sucks article about there's a lot to be said about all that but I don't know I also thought it was a little frustrating that that we got lumped in with that at all because they just have zero in common with it period

you know like we don't live in the forest we live in the city you know we don't live in the middle of nowhere we live in a bustling urban landscape yeah I feel like if anything our music kind of represented that, represented being, you know, in your 20s, party and going crazy,

living in a city, living in an urban environment, which is very specific to California. And I think we embody that pretty well. Do you ever, did you ever tour with walls in the throne room? Is that ever been thrown around? We've never toured with them,

but we played a couple fests with them, and it's always great to see them. They're fucking incredible band. And actually, the drummer who did play on Roads to Judah is playing with them now, Trevor De Shriver. Really? I'm pretty sure he's still the current drummer for walls.

I think Aaron just came back like last week. Okay, got you. Aaron took time off and was still writing. Got it wasn't going on tour. So I must have, last time I saw them, that must have been, what's his name, Trevor?

Trevor, yeah. I must have seen them play with him. He was really good. He's sick. He's great. Yeah, he was in a band called Likis as well back in the day and they're really cool. And I just love the light and dark.

Like you guys and wolves are like, give me a wall of blasts. then give me something nice. Yeah. Bring me back to the blasts. Like, I love it. Something I've always valued about our sound for sure is that we kind of always viewed ourselves

as a band that can fit anywhere, you know? Yeah. You play any metal fest, play any indie fest. You know, we play Coachella. We played Bonaroo, but we also played Roadburn and Decibel Beard Metal Fest. It's literally the dream, to be honest. Like, you can play pop festivals.

That's pretty nice. Yeah. Like, although these days, you know, you got hardcore bands playing Coachella and, you know, It's kind of taking over, which is cool. We had Demi Lovato posted us on her story. I heard about that. That's awesome.

Yeah, there's a cool metal or like underground metal is cool again. It's kind of having a moment right now, I think. Yeah, for sure. Lots of bands doing really high profile things. It's awesome. Yeah, I hope Coachella does like a heavy stage or something. That would be sick. I mean, if things are going the way they're going, there's going to be a demand for it, you know?

I think kids are really excited to see something different. something that's not a DJ, something that's not a rapper, something that's not a pop singer. He's want something a little different, you know. Have you got any super famous fans? Super famous fans. I mean, because I would say Demi Lovato is a stray fan now and I'm like, that's cool. This is cool. It's very cool claim.

But you must have some. I mean, we got a cool band. We got a few. I mean, you'd be surprised. People don't reach out as much as you think they would, but it was really, really flattering to see Billy Corrigan kind of put us on a little bit. That's fucking. We played the world as a vampire fest. A few months ago, it was fucking awesome.

You side stage checking us out. It was really cool. Amazing. It was a crazy story. We played Rock on the Range in Columbus, Ohio, in 2017. And it was just kind of like a whatever fest. Metallica was playing. Their headlining were like, that'd be cool.

We could see Metallica later. And we played at like, I think, 4 p.m. on like a nothing stage or whatever. Getting ready to go on stage, getting ready for a set, getting kind of pumped up. Literally about to walk out and I feel a tap on my shoulder. and I'm like, it's Lars. No way. I was like, what the fuck? He's like, what's up, dude?

Like, you knew the effect he was going to have on me. He's like, what's up, dude? He's like, no, he said, I hear this is where all the cool Bay Area cats are hanging out. I was like, what's up, man? He's like, yeah, I just want to check out your set. I was like, thanks, dude. He's like, yeah, rock it. Fuck, don't make my life.

It was incredible. It was so sick. And I have a friend, Christina, she actually snapped a pick of it, which is incredible. And so we went out there, played our set. And I look over to the right James Hetfield's showing there. I'm just like, whoa, this is incredible. And as soon as we get off stage, you're like, whoa, that's so awesome. I was just like, man, this inspirational, which is the craziest thing I ever hope to hear.

That's fucking cool. And he's like, you guys got to watch this side stage later. And we ended up getting on there. There's almost like a perch above the stage for friends and family. Just watch the whole Metallica set. Just like rocking out. It was so much fun. Man, that's fucking awesome.

Very cool. like did it did it make you play better or worse I think I I play perfectly I play great I would have I would have activated something in me

if Lars O'Rick is watching me play the drums I'd be like absolutely I'm gonna fucking smoke this yeah I'm not missing a beat they're so they've got their finger I'm sorry it's about Metallica again shut up

they got their finger on the pulse with like younger bands and it's it's never like obviously you guys in your time have had some height But it's never like flavor of the minute, like super hype band right now.

It's like the bands that are hype because they're really, really good. Metallica's always got. I remember they took the sword on tour and stuff like that. It's like, good music. Yeah. They know what's up. They're aware. You didn't get a tour off of though?

No. And that's something I've been waiting for. But I guess we'll see. I mean, they took architects recently. Architects is heavy. They played a lot of heavy stuff. Right. I feel like.

Yeah. I don't know. We've kind of thought about that in the past. And, you know, if it happens, it'll happen. Can't push forward too much. I want it to happen so much. Me too. Yeah, for everyone involved. So Infinite Granite was not to tape.

First time not to tape. Yeah. So this is actually the first time we worked with a producer as well. What was the other ones? So we had a, Jack Shirley did produce the previous three records. But I guess when I say producer, I mean someone who is kind of more involved. in the writing process. Right.

Was there every step of the way, putting the songs together. And that was, we found that in Justin Meldell Johnson, who has actually worked with an incredible amount of artists. He's a, he's a, he's, he's, he's, worked with Beck's based player.

Oh, wow. He's worked with Beck. He's worked with so many bands. They're just so incredible. How did that happen? I don't even know. I'm not sure if he reached out to George or if his vice versa.

I think he may have reached out to George, been like, I just love you guys's band, really want to work with you. and it was kind of just, you know, it just went off from there. And we were putting the album together back in 2020. We're lucky to have our manager's house to hang out and kind of write music at and just spend a lot of time at. And he would be there every day, you know, critiquing the songs,

like telling us what works and what doesn't. And he kind of got us on the click track vibe, which we've never done before. The other records aren't on a click either. No, no, definitely not. You are inhuman. Thank you. That's unbelievable.

I'm actually mind-blown. Thank you. I appreciate that. I mean, I feel like it's a distinct part of my style and that I do fluctuate tempo a lot. I try to push and pull it. I just assumed it was just programmed in. Like it mapped, right?

Yeah, because we map ours and it is all over the place, but still a click. No click live either. So just to click live for Infinite Granite songs. Yeah, once we started doing that record is when we actually started using Ineers. Yeah. And the only reason we used Ineers

is because of the click track. you need it and since we do use a click track we can put tracks on you know into the performance now you can even do you know lights synced up to the the click or whatever just a lot of benefits for it but um but currently in our live set uh we'll play the old songs just raw and then the click will start just for the infinite songs so it's kind of like uh you know two or three songs throughout the set we'll have a click but otherwise just go for it do you still stagger old and you or do you yeah definitely depends on the set but um it's kind of cool for me because you know, I'll be playing the old songs, just rip in, have a new song.

You get to fucking chill. I get to chill. It's a perfect breather. And honestly, since we've thrown those infinite songs into the set, like, it's been way chilling for me. Yeah. It's been awesome. I've had to use the ice a lot less.

Yeah. Songs are still so good, though. Like, if you were explaining death heaven to someone who doesn't really know a lot about, like, underground metal. what explanation would you give for the genre? Oh, man. I don't know. I feel like if I were to talk to someone

that doesn't know anything about music at all, I'd just be like, yeah, we're a metal band, but we kind of sound like, we're kind of a rock band too. There's an amalgamation of rock and metal and everything under that blanket, I guess. Okay, so then level up from that, someone who does know about metal,

then what do you say? Well. Like, who do you sound like? I'll give you my, my, my, my direct influences for sunbaters drum performances Sean Kinney from Allison Chains Trim Torson from Emperor Which is combined the two.

Exactly. That's fucking cool. Man, those videos, you've seen those videos of trim at the moment still just absolutely crushing. We had the pleasure of playing with them. We did three shows with them in Japan of all places. Oh, amazing.

So fucking sick. Oh my God. And they're playing anthems to the Welkin front to back, which is my favorite emperor. So I was just tripping the whole time. I was just like fan-boying the entire time. And that tempo changing the first song, the first time I ever heard that, whatever, is it,

Yee-Trans. In Trans- Imperium? There we go. Ye-entranspiritium. Yeah. So the tempo changed into the blast beat. It's insane. Is the cool, still the coolest tempo change of all time.

Yeah. Yeah, I actually got to play on that kit. Yeah, I saw it trim back. backstage he's like want to come up and play i was like fuck yeah is he nice he's super cool we're we're talking shit we're talking shit we're we're talking about double kick and he's like all these guys he stays to doing doubles on the double kick i don't do that shit it's all singles it hurts when i play he's all proud of the pain you know yeah that's what we're saying yeah european there you go oh it's painful yeah i'll do it sign me up um would you say he's one of your

like when your top influences? Absolutely. I would say he's my favorite black metal drummer, for sure. Hellhammer and Frost are fucking incredible. But I feel like they're just speed guys, which is its own thing. But the way Trim opens up the blasts and just kind of uses his right hand

to hit just the coolest accents. And I don't know, just a whole kind of jazzy feel to it, which I really like. And he's got the sort of traditional, the traditional one-footing down. Exactly. Do you know who I'd say my favorite is?

I don't know if this is like a crap answer for like black metal elitists. There are no crap answers. Come on. Nick Barker. Oh, bro. Nick Barker's so sick. I remember when that photo came out when he had the black kit with the black symbols and the black sunglasses on. Black the fuck out.

I was just like, this is the coolest thing I've ever seen. George and I connect on that a lot. We're both big time cradle and dim you heads. back in the day. Yeah. Like the first three cradle, the first three, Dimu,

and then both I don't care about it. I mean, actually the new cradle's pretty good. New cradle's sick. Yeah. It's really good. I think it's because they went back to, what's his name?

I can't remember. Anyway. Didn't he kind of like revamp the whole band? Yeah. And they went to, who the fuck is the producer? He did psidosis. Scott Atkins.

And that guy just knows like a thrashy riff and whatever. But Nick Barker's, A, Nick Barker's Elis DM5 drum sound Might as well be V drums But yeah

But like And like the splash work Yeah That's what made me have a splash And you don't have a splash You don't have a splash You'll chuck a splash in there I mean I would have a splash

If I wanted to sound metallic Yeah true actually I want to sound like a little robot's been sped up There you go And you're all very much I'm trying to sound like a warm analog vinyl You know what I mean And surprise me not, I guess one foot blasts.

It surprised me not paying a 24. Oh, do I actually, oh, kick? Yeah. Yeah, I've never tried a 24. It might be cool. Like a shallow 24, sound and feel amazing to play. I've actually never not played a 22, so. I can see you with a 2414.

Yeah. Because I did the math once because I actually love a 2414. It's the same amount of air. The same with volume, I guess. So you're not actually pushing that much more. but because it's bigger, you can tune it lower. Gotcha. Makes a lower fundamental note.

Right. It looks kind of cool. Yeah, I mean, the way that I tune my kick is like flappy, you know, like barely on there. So maybe a bigger size would be beneficial. Sam, get this man of 24. I know you're watching, damn. Come on, Sam. Get the man of 24.

The starphonic brass or actually there's another one. I think it's a, I think it's a Stuart. Copeland's signature. Nice. Signature snare. Love Stuart Copeland. Great drummer. Love to have him in that chair.

Although I am enjoying you being in that chair. Sorry, I'm not Stu, bro. No, you're good. You're good. You're from the same coast of the country. Now, um, what, so have you got any pre-show rituals?

Because you say, you don't warm up, you don't drink, you smoke weed all day. That's, that's pretty much it. I mean, if anything I like to isolate. myself and the other guys they like to kind of socialize a lot beforehand and even leading up to like going on stage they'll be like having a conversation with a friend like oh i got to go play now it's not really me i like to kind of isolate myself for about 30 minutes i'll go to the bunk on

the bandwagon and just put headphones on and just kind of zone out for a bit then i just kind of go in like almost like i just woke up like all right time to work that's kind of the vibe i like so if anything just relaxing and kind of de-stressing myself as much as I possibly can. And then five minutes before set, do some jumping jacks, and go out there and play it. Don't even touch a pair of sticks.

What's the first song on the set? Black Brick. Oh my God. You're a fucking psycho. And honestly, Black Brick to me is a warm-up because the entire song is a single-stroke roll. Every thing thing. I'm just...

Do you come at it with less intensity because it's the first song in order to warm up? It's also the only double-kick blast. of the set besides the intro brought or whatever. So yeah, it's not the hardest thing in the world for me because I'm kind of chilling there playing the double kick and at that point she's playing a single stroke for as long as I can. Which is what I do to warm up anyway.

Sure. Exactly, right on. So I'm doing it in front of a lot of people, but it's the same idea. I'm really looking forward to seeing you later. There's also another band on Void of Light who I share a drum room with the drummer. Steve and Steven

Steve I don't know I never like to assume a Dan or a Steve Just call him Stevie Steve I think actually he might be a Stevie Really right That's my wife's name actually Steve Steve yeah The

The I know what sometimes if I'm like If I'm in or I have to go and collect something And go into the room He's blast in a way He's a blast in me He's got like a big two kicks Nice

He's got the Nick Barker You've got the full-blown metal set up. So that would be, I think they're on, they're either on before you or they're on a different stage or whatever. I've not been to that venue before. I feel like that happens nine times out of ten we play a metal festival. I set up my kit and I'm just surrounded by these behemoths of drum sets. I'm just like, holy shit. I got my little jazz set up.

I like it better. It's just my style. What's your stage clothes? Kind of alternates, but I just wear all black, very basic. Trousers. See, that's the thing, man. For years and years, I was super. stubborn and I would wear super fucking skinny black jeans.

And it got to the point where I was rubbing the hair off of my legs. And I have permanent bald spots on my legs from just blasting. Blast alopecia. Straight up. So you wear shorts now? Sometimes I wear shorts. Sometimes I wear just like warm up pants or whatever. Kind of whatever's lying around.

But yeah. It feels like it's, sorry to cut you up, It feels like it's such an arty band. If I saw a drummer wearing shorts with a small drum cap out. Dude, that's the exact... Something is going on here. That's the exact reason I didn't want to wear shorts.

Yeah. It's not shorts music. Nah. It's not on the beach. Black pants music. It is. But fuck, playing in black pants. It sucks.

I just kind of bit the bullet and did it for super long. But, yeah, these days I either wear... I do wear shorts on a kid. I'm not going to wear shorts tonight, for sure. Are you? You're going to short everyone in no AC. I'm just trying to make it easy on myself You know this run in general is a little rough for us

It's seven straight shows Lots of early mornings and long drives No bandwagon No bandwagon So we turn up in a van Exactly A van and hotels Fuck

It's kind of gnarly Yeah we haven't toured like this in a while So I'm just trying to make it as easy on myself as I can And shorts it is You know Tomorrow is Edinburgh Edinburgh Oh that's a 45 minute drive

You are easy Yeah I think we're actually staying here we're staying here tonight, going to play Edinburgh tomorrow, and then back here tonight to stay because it is so much just nicer here, chiller or whatever.

For fucking best. Yeah, let me know if you need any recommendations or any of that. We'll do. I don't want to take up too much of your time because you've got such a big fucking day ahead of you. It's what time is it?

It's like, I don't even know. Five something? No, it's 6.15. What time do you play it? We don't play till 10, but it would be good to go get some chill time. Yeah, you need to chill. you need to eat, I imagine. What's your eating window before? Oh, I usually like to do two hours.

Two hours is my cut off. And I actually have to eat two hours before. What should go to? That's whatever's around. I'm not picky. No dietary restrictions. Actually, I do try to avoid gluten. Really? It just kind of fucks me up a little bit. And I think that it might have been years and years of just pounding beers, just drinking beer after beer and just, yeah, got a little bit of aversion to that these days. beer fucks up my i'm drinking non-alcoholic beer i know but beer with alcohol like the fermenting process messes my sinus is same right last bit before i'll let you go and have your little chill time and some food uh top five artists of all time top five god it's so hard incredibly hard i like to make you sweat this is your woman i'm sweating the whole interview sorry it's at no ac

I'm sorry. All right. I mean, I got to go from like the day ones, you know, when I was a kid and I heard something and it just changed everything. So I got to go Metallica. I got to go Pantera. I got to go Led Zeppelin because Bonham is my favorite drummer. I just think he's...

You've got Bonham vibes. He's the best drummer ever. I see you in your slow sections. That means a lot to me. I really appreciate that. Definitely need a 24 now. Definitely. That's locked in.

Right? Big ass 24. Coated head, 24. Yeah, maybe a gong, a gong action. Huge. I mean, thinking about adding a second floor time, honestly. I did it, and then it was an extra thing to set up. And then, I don't know, I found myself not playing.

I had the big, so you got 16? Yeah. So you would get an 18. Right. I didn't do that. I got 14, 16, and it was like I wanted to hit the 16, but it was too far away. Sure. I could do 16, 18.

I feel like the only significance of it would be to solo. So I can't really see myself doing like a lot of fills. But if you're doing those bottom triplets, you know what I mean? That'd be sick. But anyways, Zeppelin, Van Halen. Really?

I love Van Halen. And this is a lot of my dad's influence coming out. I grew up on rock and roll through him. So Van Halen is just so incredible to me. And am I at five? Yeah. No, no, no. He kind of glossed.

over the first three coming from one like alice and chains nice they might be like literally my favorite band i just love that band so much every element of them is perfect to me their story is incredible i mean it's sad as hell but it's just so heavy unplugged is just one of the best live records of all time thinking about just gives me chills and then on top of that sean kinney is such an incredible drummer and he's a guy that really really fucks with splashes in china so if i were to make that jump it would be in that shot sean kenny those mixies as well. It's such a nice drum sound.

It's really sick. The first song that I ever learned to play on drums was Wood. And I just remember loving that Tom intro, the whole Tom groove to me was so cool. It really just kind of put me on to that style. I think the first odd time song I ever know was Them Bones. Oh, nice. Because I remember hearing it and being like, there's a beat. What?

There's a beat missing. You can't fully head bang to this. Like, what's going on here? I was like, wait a minute. I'm coming on. unreal. All right, that'll do. That's good for me.

It's good for you. It's great. Thanks for coming. Thank you for having me. I hope you get a Metallica tour. I'm trying. Every day I'm trying. I'm trying to get Lars in that fucking chair right there.

Oh, yeah. Well, once we tour together, I'll put in a good word. And I'll put in a good word for you for Seth Myers, because we were talking about that off camera. Hey, let's do it. And on that note, thanks very much. Enjoy your show. I can't wait. I hope to see you again.

All right. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.