The Downbeat - Me #01

Episode Date: December 18, 2018

No guest! I am the guest! I did a Q&A on social media and so I've answered the best and funniest questions here as well as tell a few stories. Amongst other things I talk about how my life in music got started, my own personal top 5 bands, and of course the question on everyone's lips - whether or not I would sleep with a mermaid.

This is going to be the easiest podcast I've ever done in my entire life because the guest is sort of me. I don't have to think about like a phone call and the technology and figuring out the files and waiting for whoever it is to send me the Wii transfer because they don't use Dropbox because they're mental. Or their Dropbox is full so they've got to delete stuff. Blah, blah, blah. Yeah, it's me. I'm sort of bored. off tour till February

February we go on the While She Sleeps Straight on the Path Landmarked Trash Boat Tour in Europe and the UK Look on the internet, find that Go to it, buy tickets I think everything's selling pretty darn well So yeah that's going to be fun

But we got all this time off so I'm like do some podcasts. I went on the stick to your guns, counterparts employed to serve tour for a few days. Shout out to anyone shouting grussel at me in between those band's songs because they could see me. That was fucking mental.

But keep it up because it's fucking hilarious to ruin other people's shows in the name of my own ego. Speaking of my own ego, my guest, no, I'm not going to do that. Yeah, so what I did, trying to kill some time, I don't really want to, not kill time,

but I'm bored. And I don't really want to bother any of my list of guests that I have lined up coming. I don't really want to bother them that much at Christmas. So I was like, you know what? I'll do a Q&A because people have been asking me to do one. Tell some stories, fuck about. And then hopefully it's good.

If it's good, I'll probably do one maybe every five or six episodes. Keep it a little bit fresh. Anyone that's like requesting drummers to be on here, cool, thanks and everything. but make sure you tag them because I'm not going to go trying to get your favourite drummers. Oh, hello, can you be on my podcast please? Like, I'm trying to create like an elite podcast here.

I don't want a shit muncher podcast where I have to ask people. We want to get it to the stage where they ask me, right? Unless they're a mate. So tag them and then they might ask me. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, so what am I going to do here? I'm going to do like some questions Instagram, Twitter

everyone came up with questions Instagram was very like serious How do you play the drums, etc? And then Twitter was where the fucking mad questions were So there's a bit of a mix of everything They all kind of fall into four categories So I'm going to try and tell some stories And mix it up a bit

Without it being too much Like I'm interviewing myself Which is fucking bananas B-A-N-A-N-A-S insanity. So, yeah, they all fall into either, like, life and career stuff. Or stuff about the gym, it's quite a lot of that and how it relates to drums. Stuff about drums.

Could you believe that? People are asking me questions about drums. In case you don't know who I am, I'm a drummer. My name's Craig or Craig, if you're American. I'm sure you know who I am if you're listening to this. If you're fucking, if you're not, and you have no idea I am, how did you get here? I don't know. And then, like, there's some random questions, which is where, like, the funny ones were and stuff.

Fuck me, there's a lot of them. So I'll try and get through as many as possible. I've sort of nitpick, no, cherry-picked the ones that I think I could talk about without being freaking boring. I don't know why I said, freaking, no. Suddenly decided not to swear. Fuck, fuck, fuck, shit, wanker. Let's start with the life stuff.

Josh Redbeard, which I think is Josh from the radio in national radio in Australia. It says, what do you remember about your first experience with drumming in any form? What drew you to the instrument? And why did you choose to focus the drums on the drums over other instruments? Which I can answer that because I was there when this was decided by me to do the drums. And I tell you what happened. I was in year six. So how old you in year six?

10, I think. And then I was like any old kid in year six. Like I just wanted to be cool and get girls to like me. And then someone came into the sort of assembly. Does America have assemblies? Just like when the school sort of gets together before school starts. Someone came and went, we're doing drum lessons at the big school.

Does anyone want to do them? And I was like, fuck yeah. I didn't say fuck. I don't think I said fuck yeah, but in my head, whatever sort of chemicals release the fuck yeah, they were activated in my 10 year old brain.

Because I was like, yeah, that made me cool, weren't it? And what fucking happened? It did? No, they were like, yeah, do anyone want to do it? I was like, yeah, I'll give it a go. And then I didn't really take it seriously

for all of the same. school, which is like six years, until I sort of started some bands, first band of school, the suckups, punk, political punk. So, you know, here we are, 21 years later, still doing the same thing. Yeah, I didn't really take it seriously. I just sort of learned, I did do grades, which we talked about in the Kyle podcast, what grades are, but then I sort of was just more, more into doing bands, playing in bands, learning songs, but I wasn't very good.

And then I got to 16. And then they were like, right, that's it. Three, two, one, what do you want to do for the rest of your life? You have to decide right now, which as a system, I think is fucking bullshit. But anyway, that's what happens at the end of school. What do you want to do? And I was like, I literally don't want to do anything. I guess I'm all right at drums.

And then my music teacher at the time, she was like, like, you're good enough to go to this music school. And obviously, because I didn't know any better drummers, I was like, yeah, I am. And then I got into this music school, ACM. I don't know how I got in. I think I might have bribed them. And I got there and I was the worst one.

I was the worst person in my class at 16 years old. And then I just sort of decided there. I was like, well, shit, I can't really go back on this. So I better be good. So I just practiced every single day for two hours, at least two hours. And then when I got to sort of like 18, I got a job in a warehouse that allowed me to buy an electronic drum kit on finance. So I was paying off like, what, $200 a month for this Roland thing.

And then I would go to work, I would get home from work at 6. I would play drums for two hours from six till eight and then I would eat dinner and then I would go to sleep and then I would repeat that and I did that for three years. And that sort of, you know, that covers my first experience and what drew me to it. Why do I choose to focus on drums over other instruments was just because it's way cooler.

And then when you grow up, you're like, actually, fuck me. I kicked myself in the dick there, didn't not? because you've got the most gear, you're sat at the back, no one takes photos of you, girls don't think it's cool. What girls think about drummers is they originally think they're not into them and then they meet the whole band and they're like, actually the drummer's the best one.

So yeah, that's sort of, that's how it happened. It's a bit weird deciding your whole life at 10 years old. But I think that was an accident. I don't think I was planning it. Maybe I was, I don't know how this crazy world works. You don't know anything at 10, do you? I say I was into girls. I think I was more into just being cool

because eventually that would get girls. But I don't think at 10 you're like, you're sexually into girls, are you? I do remember the first time I noticed, God, this is getting fucking, this is like a therapy now. Eight minutes in, here you go, is a deeply personal thing.

I remember the first time I noticed, like, you know, when you get attracted to a girl, guys, you know what I'm saying. The first time I noticed the correlation because when you've got all those hormones going on in your body when you're a kid, you're like, what the fuck does that mean? What's happening down there?

But the first time I like clocked it and I was like, hang on, I was watching the mask, Cameron Diaz in the mask. And I was like, well, hang on, there's a clear correlation there between what's happening on the screen and what's happening in my underwear. I must have been about fucking eight.

Can I say, this on a podcast? It's been said. Okay? Next fucking question. More life shit. We'll do all the life shit and then we'll do all the other shit. God, somebody's the same. What made you want to become a drummer? Again, laziness, wanting to be cool. Other times when you wish you'd chosen a different career path, if so, what and why? from Mika Patrick.

No, there was when it was going a bit shit but now I'm like I don't know what I would do without this I guess that's kind of why I'm doing the podcast so if I get some sort of hideously crippling injury and I can't play the drums

and at least I can sort of gob off on microphone about when I had a boner when I was a kid which is apparently what I talk about but I think out of my mates is going to sound really cliche but tattoo artists and the barbers are the only ones where I'm like, you guys are set because no one's ever going to be able to download what you do. I mean, you might, but that's like five billion years from now.

But like you can't download a haircut. You can't download a tattoo. So, yeah, I think maybe one of them. But I'm not very artistic. I've got an E in art. because my teacher didn't like my final thing because it was like a baby it was all deformed

like a sort of mixed media vibe I say that she didn't like it and that's why I didn't get it I think that's what I told my parents but actually I didn't do the writing bit about art because I was like it's art you do the art don't you

and then you get the grade but no apparently you have to write about what fucking brush strokes or whatever I don't know Worst side job that you had in between tour Or just in general when becoming a full-time musician From Dylan Critters

Good movie I hope your name is about movie About movie Fuck me, brain dead, idiot already Worst side job I didn't really have many jobs I tell you what the best one was though In terms of getting good at practice

Was I worked in a one, wine shop threshers in a little village near where my parents lived and it was like it's literally a little village called goring and it's just full of old people it's like a zombie film but old people and i worked in the wine shop there and i would say we had maybe 15 customers a day max and i'll be in there eight to ten hours. So what I'd do is I stick a practice pad in the back room and I had a little bell set up so I could hear,

I'd said that like I invented the bell for a store when you're walking a store and a bell goes off. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I had this sort of bell system. No, the bell system was already there. But the bell would tell me someone was in the shop. So whenever the bell wasn't telling me someone was in the shop, I was in the back on my practice pad.

And there was an office next door and the guy would come next door and be like, Are you drumming? And I'd be like, nah, don't what you're talking about? It's like, it's weird. I can hear like drumming. I'm like, that's crazy, mate. Now, fuck off.

Ding the bell on the way out. Now, fuck off so I can do my Benny Greb language of drumming practice. And I did that for like two years just on a practice pad. And I reckon I got better in those eight hours a day on a practice pad for two years than I did in 15 years at school. 15 years at school? 15 years, post school. That's a lie.

You know, maybe five years. 10 years? I don't know. Yeah, insight on viatrophy. A lot of people want to know about this. If you don't know, Viatrophy was my first real band, death metal band from the UK. It was sort of death metal meets post-metal vibe.

So it's like cult of lunar meets psychoptic. We went for a while. We were pretty big in the UK. Getting there in Europe. no management not realizing how good we had it made us split up a little bit

I actually joined that band after their EP their EP was program drums and then I joined and I was not good enough to join but my parents had moved away and I had like a year

where I was like looking after their house and I think the rest of the guys in the band were like we can come around this guy's house all the time and practice here. And then we became mates, obviously, but we partied quite a lot. Sorry, mum and dad, because you definitely listened to this.

But you know I partied quite a lot because one time our next-door neighbour came around mid-party, my mate John Cooper just screamed in her face. Oh, she came round at like 2am and we're playing, fucking killing in the name of on live instruments in the lounge. She comes around,

my mate screams in her face, and then when my parents got back from there, like, My dad was working somewhere. They came back and it was the first thing she said, like, someone's screaming with my face and had a party. My dad just goes, yeah, we left an 18-year-old boy on his own in a house and we imagined there was going to be some parties.

So, yeah, Viatrophy, we did a bit and then we split up. We split up mainly because our guitarist got a girlfriend, I think. can't really remember something like that he's probably listening to this um that's very presumptive of me uh he got a sort of girlfriend and he wasn't really paying attention to the band and stuff

we had like a whole second album written in demos and then I think it was a bit like when one person's not paying attention you kind of throw your toys out of the family like oh fuck it oh yeah let's just split up then and we split up like the day after we had like a full page spreading corang um we just done like a radio one interview and stuff

and then we just fucked it off. And I was gutted, if I'm honest. I didn't recover for a while. I probably didn't actually recover until I joined Stray, actually, because I just put everything into that band. And then it split up. And then I was just fucking miserable. Miserable little man.

And that misery has remained. I think it was miserable before that, really. What are the other members of actually doing now? Not sure. Don't really speak to any of them. Oh, actually, John Jones, JJ, is the touring session guitarist for Bring Me the Horizon. Okay? And I am the drummer for Straight From the Path.

And the other guys, I've got a no fucking idea. Most rewarding part of your music career from ex-Johnathan, some word, I can't pronounce, X, straight-edge Jonathan, I'd imagine. definitely when we went to Kenya being able to give a village clean water that's not had clean water before was a bit mental

did music no most raw yeah that's the most rewarding part that was the most rewarding for the soul sometimes I have to check myself and be like remember you did that so you know if there's the hell you're not going to be quite on the lowest tier As a joke, I know full well.

Scientific fact, there is no hell. But I don't know what's after this world, okay? So just be nice, everyone. That's a sort of public service announcement. Do you feel like you've reached that fabled level of success where you can really pause, reflect, and enjoy everything you've worked so hard for? Or is that really just a lie that our brains tell us

when we are trying to accomplish a goal? From Julian Hits Stuff, I imagine you are a drummer or maybe a lumberjack. Julian Jules I don't think I'm at that level I've got a podcast Is that successful

I think The fear of Being self-employed And never Like I don't have enough money To last me Till fucking the next tour Let alone

When I'm 50 Without a mortgage Without a What's the thing that they give you pension. I ain't got a pension. So I think the fear of that just keeps you going. Because I've got no idea what I'm going to do

or how I'm going to pay for being old. Because being old is expensive, isn't it? Like, oh, my hip's broke. You've got to fix it. So, yeah. Sometimes I'm like, oh, actually, this is pretty wicked. Usually it's when I'm getting on a plane somewhere. And actually, I hate being on a plane.

but then I'm like, oh, this is actually quite snazzy, isn't it? I'm going to Japan to play a gig. So that's cool. What's the fucking question? This is crap. Leave me comments saying that this is crap. No one wants to hear your shit.

Always a good one. May have already been asked this. In your opinion, this is sort of drum related, but, you know, it's a drum podcast. In your opinion, do you think being able to read music and have a good understanding of the theory goes a long way in the business. That's from As Oak, yes, is the answer.

And I know I've had a lot of people on here that can't read music or whatever and loads of great drummers can't read music. But there's no way I would have had the successful teaching career that I had because I don't teach now. I just sell T-shirts and go on tour. But when I did teach, I mean, I do teach, but I used to teach full time. There's no way I would have had that repeat business

and with kids getting on a linear progression to get better if I couldn't read music because I couldn't teach, I couldn't teach that level of stuff, you know, 25 times a week with 25 different students with 25 different levels of where they're at without being able to either document what we have previously done or where we're going to go,

whether that be like books or whatever. So I think it's massively important, and it's massively important to explain what's going on when you're trying to write a part, if you can sort of break it down and be like, okay, the 16th note pattern, let's change it to triplets. Everyone knows what that means, essentially, and being able to write it down,

helps you a programming. And for how easy it is to learn, I don't think there's any excuse other than laziness and people go oh yeah I just never learn you know I just think it's about vibe man it's like cool if you are in

the fucking Beatles then great it's about vibe but I need £31 from a kid's drum lesson so I can eat this week alright and the best way to do that is to know how to read music and it's so fucking easy to do you just gone in that drums is so easy to do it's not

even like each line is a different drum all you got to learn is like the subdivisions and what they look like and then you know it it's like a stick drawing of a drum kit there's no like chords or key changes or whatever or what's the other one notes there's no notes we ain't got notes boy

as a boy's name or a girl's name I don't know uh does that answer I hope this is good I think it's a bit shit um that's it for life that's my life it's done that's my life shit and then we got the gym section This is going to be short because I'm probably just rambling.

That wouldn't make it short, would it? That would it? Make it longer. I'm bad at this. Gym questions. I'm going to try and sum some of these up. I love the gym for my mental health and for my physical health. There's nothing like it. Obviously there's nothing like it for physical health.

But if I don't go to the gym for like three days, I am miserable. I'm sure maybe that I did that to myself, but the endorphins or whatever, they're so good. And like, it's like a, it's another hobby, isn't it? If you do like powerlifting,

you get like a, you get to set PRs and stuff. It's quite rewarding. Ash, St. Green, what's the best pre-show gym related exercise that you do? Jury's out on this one. In fact, I'm going to sum this into the next question as well. Does your fitness route?

affect the way you play drums in a positive slash negative way or not at all. Let's sum this up. If I go to the gym before a show, I play so much better. I'm not talking directly before the show and a few hours before the show. I play phenomenally better because I don't know what it is. I think I've been, it doesn't matter what I do. I could do legs, I could do arms, I could do back or whatever. but I think it's to do with like certain little internal muscles

that are quite hard to warm up in like on a practice pad or whatever. They get warmed up when you do like a bench press or whatever at the gym. And then you need those muscles to like balance. And obviously your balance affects your timing. I'm talking like compound exercises here, bench press, squat, deadlift, military press. I think those internal muscles are actually good for your internal timing because if you're off balance, your internal click is going to be wrong or whatever. There's no science to back that.

I'm not aware of anything, but I feel like that. So when I was having my hip at its worst time, I actually, we bought some weight off a venue that abandoned left some weights there. And then we bought some, we bought them. And I would just do sort of five deadlifts, five overhead press, 20 pushups, 20 bent over rows. No, five bent over rows. And then I would do like 10 sets of that before we played. And it was the best warm up ever.

So ideally, if I had a weight set on tour, I would do something like that, like a 5x strength thing. So in terms of does your fitness routine affect the way you play the drums in a positive negative way that is kind of that question answered but I will say this about stuff like crossfit and like high rep bodybuilding stuff there is an element of tendinitis that you can get like shoulder tendinitis which I'm actually dealing with a little bit of now

which is just from doing a crossfit style work out once where you do like loads and loads of reps because at my sort of age my body will break before my brain does by that I mean like the exercise was like do 150 overhead presses and I was like I'm fucking doing it and I did it and around 80 my body was going probably shouldn't do this mate and I was like ah fuck it and then now I got a bit of shoulder tendonitis so now when I play a crash symbol on my left hand it hurts a little bit it's fine I've dealt with it before but that kind of high rep bodybuilding training i don't think is good for drumming i mean it probably is but not in terms of getting injured not great i think a modest power lifting or just

strength training something like five by five or starting strength something like that is great compound movements use a lot of muscles you build a lot of muscle mass warms you up it's functional I'm just selling it to you, aren't I? Five by five, or starting strength. And then later on when you progress, you could go to something called 531, which is a gym winder powerlifting program. So I did all of that.

I did power lifting for the longest time. I was never any good because I didn't really eat much. But then I did a bit of bodybuilding this last sort of six months. And I look better now, but I play better. I play worse at the drums, not worse than before. I haven't got worse.

I mean, it doesn't really warm me up the same way because I'm a little bit more tired. So I think I'll go back to, and when I'm on tour, I go back to powerlifting. Is that a long way to answer the question? I would say a moderate, low-volume powerlifting program is fantastic for drumming and your posture and everything like that.

But I wouldn't go like, I wouldn't just go in blind. I would follow one of those ones I said. pancake dot party what up pancake party what's your ab routine tell you what there's no ab routine but i tell you what also there's no pancake party to get the abs um no what is your ab routine my ab routine is there is no ab routine as i just said and a lot that's a misconception a lot of people think you need to do crunches or whatever to get abs if you're doing big compound movements squat deadlift bench you're going to have abs it's your body fat percentage that means you don't have abs.

So, and the other thing is lighting. So I'm guessing this question comes from when I post a photo on Instagram where I look pretty fucking jacked. And it's only ever when I'm playing a show because there's really good downward lighting. So that gets the abs going. And then my body fat is quite low at the moment anyway or on tour because I lose weight. And that magical combination is my ab routine, lighting and... being skinny.

And I just think, fuck an ab routine off. You could do so much. An ab routine's going to take you fucking, what, 10 minutes? You might as well do push-ups or something that involves more muscles and will effectively burn more fat, which will let your abs pop, you know? And who cares about abs, really? Can you talk about what you do at the gym?

Is there any relation between keeping in shape and playing? Well, I've just answered that. I don't know. I should have planned this out. That was from Cammy. But nice question. Cammy, consider the answers that I just did. It's sort of for you as well.

Currently, yeah, bodybuilding. You're going to go back to power lifting. I might buy a Boris Shiko, Shiko plan. I pay for my bodybuilding and coaching and stuff because I don't, the internet is full of just too much. much stuff. I'd just rather someone else told me. So this is coach called Boris Shiko. Shako, I don't know how to say it.

Who coached the Russian Olympic team to win seven. I don't even think it's the Olympics, just the powerlifting federation. They won seven times because of this guy's training programs. So I might just do that.

Yeah, that's the gym. Boom. What are you? 30 minutes in? This is going to be fucking short? What am I going to do? Have a sip of coffee, that's what I'll do We're on to the drum bit What's that? Two sections down in 30 minutes

Yeah, we might get an hour out of this The drum bit I'm a drummer, love the drums A lot of you talking about endorsements Tom pleads guilty first Tom, were you pleading guilty to Tom I hope it's not something very naughty Because I don't want to

Answer you if it's something very naughty But if it's like, oh I've got in a fight and I did punch the guy in the face and then stab him, cut his head off, but I'm pleading guilty because I was compass mentors. Then actually Tom, respect because you're not sort of trying to get out of it. Anyway, I hope the trial goes well. To answer your question, first drum endorsement was minal symbols, my beloved minor symbols, which is nearly 10 years ago. I'll say this again, nearly 10 years ago, because I've seen when, like, Thomas Lang and whoever has been there for 10 years,

they send them a little symbol with like a little plaque. And obviously I'm a little tiny little man compared to him, but can I have a plaque when it's 10 years, please, Minil, and I know some of you are listening to this. It was Minal, it was when I was with Viatrophy. In fact, let's put these into a couple of people's questions all in one. A lot of people asking, how do you, you get endorsements, how do they work, what tier are you on, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Here is the fucking breakdown. Let's use Minel as a first example. So, I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about this, but I am. That's a sort of theme. Minel. Viatry was touring a lot. I was breaking a lot of symbols because of the touring and buying inferior products. I hit up Minel.

I think our manager at the time hit them up maybe wasn't very good the manager but they did put them put me in contact and I will say this that endorsement companies much prefer

if you contact them but don't contact them until you have something to offer them don't be like I got 13 Instagram followers in my latest video

on Instagram got like six likes so can I have the Benigreb signature set for free because it's not going to happen. So I hit Minel up. I actually always wanted to play Minel but at the time I played Sabian

purely because they were cheaper and Miner were really expensive at the time. I don't know how that relates now but I hit Minel up and the first thing I said was well you don't play our symbols already and then I explained like I really want to be like Chris Adler I just can't afford it and there's no stockists blah blah blah blah.

they then put me on, they said yes, because we were touring so much, because it's beneficial for them for people to see their symbols. It's like an advertisement, isn't it? That's why they endorse people. They put me on a percentage off thing. I think it was like 40% off, something like that, or 40% off the RRP, so it wasn't exactly 40% off, like, what would be in the shop.

And, you know, and it was like free replacements, which was, that's it, that's all I wanted. So I paid a lot of money for the first set of symbols. And then it was free replacements. And that was just like infinite symbols. And I didn't even break that many because there were good quality symbols now. So that went on for probably four years at that sort of level.

And then my career started taking off a little bit more. And then it got to the point where when I, was sort of asking for symbols, like to buy, sometimes they would just go, yeah, there you go. And I'll be like, do you want to pay? And I go, nah, not this time. And I'd be like, wow, that's cool. And it's only because I was, I got to a point where the cost of them manufacturing the symbols was not as much as they would pay to advertise. to the amount of people I was reaching, if you know what I mean.

So if I play a tour and it's, you know, 500 people a night for 30 nights, and they already know I'm not that shit at the drums, they know, you know, there's 500 people seeing minor symbols for 30, do the maths, 30 times 500, fucking no idea. 15,000? Don't know. One of your brainiacs can figure that out, Dexter in your lab. too nice that's however many people seeing it

and then when you add in Instagram and stuff like that you get a lot of people that are annoyed at like Instagram drummers getting endorsements blah blah blah they've never had a real gig listen how many motherfuckers at a gig realistically are going ooh that ride symbol's nice I might buy that when I get home one if you're lucky

whereas if you look at nerd Instagram which is where I live you're going to see someone with a hundred 120,000 followers playing a ride symbol. And you know, you've probably got 20,000 people out of those that want to buy that ride symbol because of that video. You can't pay for that kind of advertising. You can't pay for, if you put that something on TV and you wanted it to reach 20,000

drummers, one, it wouldn't happen. Two, even if it could happen, the amount of money you would have to pay to reach 20,000 drummers would be so much more than just giving this one guy a free set of symbols. Do you know what I mean? So the thing, you have to be good at the drums, but the benefit has to be there for both parties. Hopefully that sort of clears it up. And pick your company that you want and just wait for them

because they hate that as well. And to be honest, I didn't do that with drums. I sort of just went with a load of companies for a bit and then I really want a DW if we're honest, perfectly honest. Sort of my number one and number two of all time. They're both number one, but my top two are DW and Tama

and they always will be because they make the best drums. DW said no. DW said yes, actually. And then they said, yeah, but you can, have to play the design series. I was like, what the fuck? I've already got to collectors. They were like,

nah, you got to play the design series. We can only give you the money off the design series. The design series is a good kit, but it might as well be a fucking MAPEX. You know, by that, I mean, it's just made on a production line. And I already had the collectors. I was like, all I want is a little bit of rental help, but still said no.

I think it's because I don't believe in God. You know, I think DWs is sort of the Freemasons, but pretty godlike. A lot of God squad on the DW Ross. even like the metal guys, they're all God Squad. No, not for me. And then you got Tama, Slayer, Metallica, okay. Tamma's way cooler.

Tamma. Tama, fuck knows. So, yeah, I went with Tama, and I actually, in fact, I nearly went with Q. You know, Kew, boutique Q, because I love their drums. But they couldn't offer, because they're a small company, they couldn't really offer the support that I needed. And that's why it's got to go both ways. I need to be offering them something

and at the same time they need to be offering me something. So the deal with like Tama, I don't know where it's at now because I was kind of new to it. So I did pay and they were initially I paid and they were like however much percentage off. but the main reason for going with them was their rental policy from like other countries. If anyone doesn't know a lot of the time, if your tour starts in Germany or whatever, you have to rent Backline and Tama and other big companies have deals with these Backline companies

where you can rent the drum kit of your endorser for free and you just pay for the cases. So I think for us to do a full European tour, it only costs us 120 euros to borrow our drum kit for however long. And that's invaluable. That's just the best. And that's why really you go with a drum company, I guess. It's why I did anyway, because obviously my band is American,

so I needed support. And now I have a kit over there and a kit over here or whatever as well. But you can't really beat the rentals. There was the guy Stefan in Germany, the German Tammer guy, like, I had a rental kit really fuck up short notice

for our festival run in the summer and I spoke to him and he was just like, yeah, where'd you start? And I was like, our driver comes from Poznan in Poland. He was like, yeah, I have a Star Classic brand new at this backline company.

It was like fucking incredible. It was like 20 minutes from our driver's house. He just picked it up. Met him there. met him at the first show, this lovely Star Classic kit. Incredible. Thanks, Tama. You're the best.

And then Vic Firf, I've already talked about it on the podcast before I got Joe Tester's email. And again, I was in a touring band. I was playing in a band called Dead Swans at the time, hardcore band. And I sent him an email and I just said, I know it's a bit cheeky, mate, but I've got any drumsticks. And he loved how I used the word cheeky. and then he sort of checked out that I was doing stuff and then he offered me the endorsement. And that's coming on for 10 years as well.

Love all those guys. Would never play another stick brand. I would never play another symbol brand because I've sort of got that relationship with the team that I love them. They're like fam. They're real fam. Yeah. And then Evans was sort of just wanted drum heads

and I ended up on you Elaine from Evans. She sorted me out with that. And the way Evans works is they give you an allowance that you can spend a year on there. In fact, the way Evans works is the best. There's like an online login and you buy it through there from your allowance or your discount, whatever setting you're on setting level.

And then it just gets delivered next day delivery wherever you are in the world. You don't even have to speak to a human being. it's incredible and every company should do that. God, I think a lengthy section on endorsements. I hope that clears that up. A lot of people saying, can I be your drum tech? Here's the thing, because I talk about not having a drum tech.

It's not like I don't want one. I desperately want one. It's that I need all my money because I'm not rich. I've got enough money to get by, but if I have to pay for a drum tech, I'm not going to have it. And then there's a lot of people saying they'll do it for free and I don't believe in people doing stuff for free. I don't believe in slave labor.

So, no, I'm afraid. I mean, one day, I got one drum student from back in the day who, when he's 18, I think I'll bring him on a tour to be a drum tech because it'd be fun. And I think he would learn a lot from it and he'd probably be able to be a drum tech. And then I'd do that for him. free because I'm sort of helping him out but

that's still slave labour I will begrudgingly do that slave labour but other than that no um do I like to have the drums high or low in your in ear monitors by B by AW uh we used to have them high and then as I've spoke about

before there are a lot of these questions that I've been getting sent are have been answered on the podcast already and I don't know if either you just want me to say your name be like, oh, you answer my question because you know that I'm going to answer it because I've talked about it before. Or you just haven't listened to the other episodes. And I don't know which one of those annoys me.

More, okay? Both annoying. You used to have the drums high. Benny Greb told me to then have them low. And now when I have them low, it's way better. I'm going to tie this into a next question from Jerry

at Jerry the 9. So, please explain the gear necessary to play with a click. I'm going to tie this in, right? So to play with a click, you essentially need something to do a click, and then you plug it into a monitor. No, you don't. I'm fucking brain dead. Let's start that again.

Oh, I could edit this. Can't be fucking arsed. Right, to play with a click, you need something to do a click, even on a phone or whatever. Then you need a little mixer, which is like 30 quid, and then you need some way to get the click into your ear. ears. So in-ear monitors, headphones, whatever. If you want to play with backing tracks,

get a fucking better band. No. If you want to play with backing tracks, then you need to pan all of the click to the left, pan all of the backing tracks to the right, then put it on your iPod or your phone or whatever and use a splitter cable, and then put the click side, so let's say left, into your monitor. And then the right side, into a DIY box that would go to the front house and then you will be in time with the samples. But back to the do you like to have the drums high or low in your ear monitors.

What I like to do now is I just have guitar and kick in my monitors and then I have a little microphone which I attach to my little desk that I have my mixer on and it just gives me like an ambient mic. So it's kind of like I'm just playing in a jam room because I can hear everything like just a loud acoustic drum kick. but I have a little bit of kick and guitar as well. And in terms of like feeling the show,

that's my favorite thing to do. Because there's like a... You get the vibe from the show. It's not like playing underwater with perfectly seedy sounding drums or sometimes bad sounding drums. Have you ever sometimes felt limited by using bigger than 2B sticks? It's from the same guy. No.

in fact I was getting insane blister problems when I joined Stray and then George Schmitz and Connor Dennis told me to use bigger sticks and then I did use bigger sticks and I got Vic Firth again this is what I'm saying about Fam a Lam Vic Firth I was like oh I want to use bigger sticks

and they were like here you go we'll send you one of every bigger pair of sticks that we've got bigger than yours so I had all these sticks I tried them all out and then I ended up the rocks the minute I played them I was like yeah they were a little bit slower because they're so much thicker and longer but I figured out

I had to put less effort in to be loud because obviously science dictates if something's bigger it's going to be louder hitting the drum there's more mass hitting the drum so I could actually reserve a little bit of energy from the loudness side of things and then that would speed me up and I've never looked back.

I don't think I'll ever play another stick unless... Nah, I just love them. Love the rocks. Vic Firth Rock. And I don't think they're that much bigger than 2B. I think they're almost the same, but with a slightly shorter neck. Maybe I could be making it up.

There's not really any fucking system. Somebody's 3A can be the same as someone else's 2B. There's no rules. Just try what you like, you know? You know what I'm saying? Um, most miserable you've ever been while playing a show. From J.M. Gunna Pre. I hope that means pre-workout, JM.

You're going to get lit, my boy. Could be a girl, don't I. J.M. Gender neutral. G.N. Every time I've got food poisoning, the first couple of times I went to America, I've got food poisoning all the time. Probably because I ate like a gigantic piece of, of shit, but then also probably, because I feel like you're just not used to the germs

in other countries. Oh yeah. When you get used to them, then you're fine. I haven't been sick in America. Touch wood in maybe three tours. But particularly one that sticks out was me and Tom got this insane food poisoning from a fucking diner, that diner in Atlanta that's always on diners, drive-ins and dives. And Man versus Food and stuff.

It was supposed to be the best diner in America. Mm, is it? I got to fucking raging food poisoning. But it was backstage just puking. Tom was puking and it was like the exorcist. I've never heard anything like it. It was like, ah! Don't make you jump.

But, oh, I can see the fucking, I think I clipped the microphone there. But yeah, Tom was scream puking. I was like just, it was almost like it was on hallucinogenic. Like just fucking losing my mind. And now I saw. stood up to start warming up to play and then I passed out. And then Conner Dennis actually had to fill in at short notice. And I was fine the next day.

It was like a 48-hour thing. 24-hour, good. So yeah, that's probably it, to be honest. And then we got someone saying, please explain. Oh, and it's the same guy. Same guy says, why are the stick industry an artist pushing hickory sticks when oak is where it's at? excuse me

oak is not a very forgiving wood in terms of shock so when you play with oak sticks for a long time the hickory absorbs the shock and when the shock is too much for the stick the stick breaks if the stick doesn't break

so if you use oak or you know whatever other shit that drumsticks made out of like a harder material that shock is actually going into your wrists it's not going into it's not just breaking the stick it's just going into your wrists

so I'm fucking strictly against oak drumsticks they're just going to cause injuries and far as I'm aware there's only one company that makes oak drumsticks pro mark surprised they haven't got a lawsuit on their hands I can't really talk shit about pro mark actually

because that's the Dario which owns Evans and I love Evans I'm just talking shit for the sake of talking shit drumsticks are fucking drumstick Out of the big three anyway Zildren drumsticks can suck a fucking big one though Because they just break immediately Always have, always will

There you go, I talk shit A lot of you just asking me to talk shit There you go, there's a nice shit to talk On Zildian drumsticks Um Got any more I guess that's it That's it for the drum stuff

I'll do this again If you know you got any others we'll stick them in um now i've got the random stuff the fun stuff and i'm glad this is sort of coming to an end because i've got sore back because i've deadlifted today and i'm sat in a fucking shit chair um so yeah let's go do some of these mad mad old ones uh random ones worst haircut you ever got ashton green i think he asked two questions i just split them up Worst haircut I ever got was a Turkish barbers. In between a European tour and a Japanese tour, with brutality will prevail.

We had two days off in London. I just went to the first barber I could find, and he fucking gave me a bowl cut. Like I looked like Lloyd from fucking Dumb and Dumber. Is Lloyd Jim Carrey's character? Anyway, it was mental. I had to do a whole Australian tour with this fucking shit haircut. And now I've got like PTSD from haircuts.

So I need to find, if you see on my Instagram, I'm always asking for barbers, because I need my haircut every two weeks, and the barber has to be good. That's quite a vain thing. I'm quite a vain guy, really, if I'm honest. But, you know, you can't put a price on feeling good. It's not about what I look like, is how I feel. When you get a nice skin fade, lads, come on, you know what I'm talking about. A nice tight skin fade.

Fuck me, there's nothing like it. Better than sex. Is it? Nah, not better than sex. Dan Presland You know who that guy is? He plays in some black metal band Very fast, incredibly fast drummer

He's asked some questions Top three LA Fitness in USA LA Fitness is shit But sometimes I will buy Like a month's past there Because they're everywhere But recently I did an Equinox Free trial for like a week

And it was the most incredible gym I've ever been to and they were almost everywhere that we were. So that was great. It was like in the book American Psycho, he works out in Equinox. That's the sort of level. I think it's like $260 a month. So that would be my favorite gym.

And my favorite chain gym. Favorite, let's make this question better. Favorite gyms in general in America while on tour. Be fit in Houston. It's like a huge warehouse gym. It's fucking sick. Los Campinos, I think it's called. In Minnesota, there's another wicked sort of hole in the wall, powerlifting gym.

I think I went to a good... I went to Golds. Someone hit me up and was like, oh, I can get you into Golds, Venice Beach Golds. And that was, to be fair, sick. Sort of for the history as well as whatever. Best care package you've ever got on tour. Quest, Quest Nutrition. I'm going to fucking at you in this quest, all right?

This is going to be one of the things on the story, so I've got to make it 15 seconds long. Once, Quest sent me a box of stuff when we were on tour and we were playing loads of people and loads of people saw the quest stuff that I had and it was really good. I mean, it was like Quest bars and it was like fucking Quest chips and stuff like that

and there's some protein and they sent me and I wish they'd send me it again. I hope that was less than 15 seconds. But yeah, Quest. Sent me a load of shit once and it was incredible because on tour when you're doing a 20 hour drive or whatever. Quest bars and protein bars add up. They're like three bucks each. But if you've got a box of them under your bench, oh shit, boy.

You know, you can just be scoffing on that stuff. There'd be like a little rustling at the back. And then everyone's like, what's going on? And I'm just rustling away eating that quest. Quest nutrition. Please give me free stuff again. Favorite band from the old school Redding slash London scene.

Oh, Noah, J-C. A band called X-E-R-A-T-H. Incredible band. It sounds like Devint Townsend meets Extreme meets Planet X, like super technical crazy shit, the drummer Mike Pittman. I'm actually going to get him on the podcast because he now makes music for that

league, I think it's called League of Legends. So all the skills that he learned in this sort of band that, to be fair, didn't really go anywhere. Like, and not at that sounds bad, but they didn't, they didn't go as far as they should have. You know, he learned skills in that, which then later gave him a job, which is making music for computer games. And I always try and tell this to my drum students, like,

if your band doesn't go anywhere, it doesn't mean it's completely useless, you will have learned lessons. so just fucking pick yourself up and do another band um message that's the best bit of the podcast you stop listening now um favorite album art are there any albums you listen to or bought based on amazing artwork without hearing it prior mattie beach what a good question and i have a nice answer

because i am me and i know the answer right this is how i got into metal right i was at car boot sale that's a garage sale to all you Americans, right? With my parents back in a day, we're talking post-Camron Diaz boner, but pre-probably pre-like actually ever using my boner. So that puts us at about 12 years old. And I walked past the sort of stall

and there was like this bit of artwork on a CD of like this mountain weird mounting thing where loads of like... I was into like Warhammer and shit like that at Games Workshop, so I already liked the sort of mystical nerd shit. And then I saw this CD that was like this sort of weird tower made of stuff

and it said Sepaltura, arise on it. And I was like, ooh, that's cool. I'm going to buy that. And I think I'd seen Sepaltura on Beavis and Butthead, which I was into. and then the other guy that was there, the other guy that was there? It was just a meeting between me and this other guy.

No, the guy that was doing the car boot sale, garage sale, was like, oh, if you like this, then you're like this. And he gave me burn my eyes machine head and far beyond driven by Pantera. That was the first three CDs that I, metal CDs that I properly bought. and it was based on just the artwork of Arise

and I think Arise is probably still one of my favourite artworks and then I like sort of having the conversation lately about all our gods have abandoned us architect's artwork I was having this conversation recently a weird story about that actually is that

I was watching the movie Arrival. Good movie, if you haven't seen that, and I was enjoying the artwork. Not the artwork, fuck me. Trying to tell a nice fucking story here, and I was just bullocks it up. I was enjoying the music of the film Arrival, and I was like,

oh, I must remember to tell Dan Searle that this is good music, because I know he likes the same sort of kind of music as me. And then I researched the guy who made it, Johann Johansson. And then what popped up was his solo album, and it's almost exactly the same artwork as all our gods have abandoned does. And I'm pretty sure, I mean, I know for the fact that Tom nor Dan had seen this album artwork before, so they haven't stolen it.

And that was weird. So I told Dan about that anyway, and there was sort of synchronicity in that, which was strange. something I want to talk. I'm going to get Daniel P. Carter on this podcast because he sort of knows a bit about synchronicity and how it relates to the universe and whatever. So I sort of resonated with that artwork anyway

and then the weirdness of them, there being a guy with a solo album of music that I think Dan Searle would enjoy that had almost exactly the same artwork. The album's called Orfei by Johan Johanson. And then like the last, Lincoln Park album again has almost the same artwork

and then what I found out later on is that Johann Johansson is sadly no longer with us Chester Bennington is sadly no longer with us and obviously Tom Selle is sadly no longer with us and all three of those people put that artwork, used that artwork for something and I'm 99.9% sure that all three of those people

weren't aware of the other artist using that artwork and it's a weird synchronicity it's a weird thing about that sort of image of the eclipse and then when you think about the eclipse

oh I'm getting fucking tingles just thinking about it and when you think about the eclipse as a you know back in ancient times what it meant to them they thought it was the end of the world and stuff like that

and there's something going on with that imagery and the consequence and the coincidence of what happened to those three guys that I don't think I'll ever know. So I've got a bit deep for a minute there. Let's sort of judge it up with some other random questions. We got Mitchell Martin says, or is it Martin Mitchell? I don't know.

Would you fuck a mermaid? Nice. Nice Mitch or Mark, whichever you are. Would I fuck a mermaid? Here's the thing. Where is the bit that I would fuck? Is it on the fish bit or is it on the woman bit? And is it, does it count?

Is that an interspecies thing? Because I'm not up for that. But does she identify as a woman? And not a fish. What's, I need some more. I need some more guidelines here. I need to know the rules. Because, you know, if something's hot enough,

I'm fucking it. I mean, I'm not because I'm married. But in theorem, you know, if I like it, I'm in. I mean, obviously not animals or kids or anything mental. You know, I'm married to a woman. But she could be a mermaid. Is it like a mega hot babe with like a fish tail?

Is there any fish smell? I suppose that can happen either way. Oh, you can't say that. I'm up for it, Mitch. I'm up for it. In theory, yes, I would. I mean, that's the mermaid tail, isn't it? They sort of, the siren.

sucks you in and then sucks you off I mean yeah blowy no fuck I can't talk about this shit keeping it in though gotta keep it real

Strangest thing you've put your dick in from Scribble Ow Probably a mermaid Not done it But that would certainly be the strangest thing I put my dick in See this is the Twitter crowd now Twitter's on it with like mad questions

Um Why are you sympathetic to far left ideology, but disdainful of far-right ideology. Both killed millions in the 20th century. Oh, motherfucker, we got ourselves a genius here. Okay. Where do I start with this? Fucker.

Here's a thing, mate. The far left now doesn't represent what it did in the 20th century when you're saying, both killed millions in that argument. Both killed millions in the 20th century? No. The far left now does not do that. We're not talking Cambodian killing fields right now. However, the far right is exactly the same as it was then.

They still want the segregation or extermination or whatever of any different cultures and races. Right. So if you're giving me two choices, which is to either be on the side of the oppressors or the ones that are like trying to stop it, then I'm going to pick the left, aren't I? the left despite what like bright bar might tell you are trying to make the world more equal and the right are still trying to create a master race and not the right right i mean the far right okay being burnt before with calling the right

the far right i mean the far right and you did actually ask in your question the far right and the far left well the far left now isn't what it was and the far right still is what it was Does that answer your question? Pal? Yeah. My mum asked a question. So if you're listening, Mum, you've heard the story about when we went to watch the mask in the cinema, what happened there, which you didn't know about.

And you just heard that I'd fuck a mermaid. So that's mum. All right, I'd fuck a mermaid. So my mum says, do you think we're alone in the universe? Because she knows I love aliens. and no I don't think we're alone in the universe and neither do you mum but also isn't it cute that my mum listen to the podcast

but also I don't know what the universe is now so here's a thing that I think and that people often think I'm a crazy person for but I think we might be in a simulation and that this is all sort of like one mental like future advanced civilisations version of like a computer game like GTA 11 or whatever

so we're actually just playing this game because there's so many like synchronicities that happen that I think everything has to be connected and the only logical thing I can think of is that it's all a game which means everything's pre-planned in some sort of way but then in Granford Thorough it's not pre-planned like people get hit by cars in Grandf photo as a result of just the way it's programmed the chaos is programmed which I guess is what I think we're in now

which would mean that someone's created it which would technically mean I believe in God but not in any kind of sort of omnipotent I'm watching you wank God but more of a sort of boys I've created this sort of computer game let's sit back and watch what happens So yeah And what does that make aliens Are they part of it Or does our simulation end at the earth And then the aliens are actually

People that made the simulation I don't really know It's got a bit deep there I'm far too sober For the deepness I could do a whole podcast on that Does anyone know anyone that's mega into fucking aliens I met Sid from Slipknot once

and the first thing he told me was that the queen was a lizard. And I was like, yeah, respect. Respect, Sid. I think you're right there, mate. Um, I think that's it. Uh, yeah. What we on, like an hour and ten? Quite short, because there's no other person to sort of bounce on.

So I guess what I'll do now, considering none of my guests ever ask me, which is fucking rude, but a lot of you have asked me, I'm going to do my top five bands. Number one is Radiohead. It's my favourite band of all time. If you don't like Radiohead, go on Apple Music and look at Radiohead Essentials

because it kind of is their best songs. Just a brilliant career from brilliant musicians. And they really like morphed as time's gone on and I love the old shit and I love the new shit. Top albums in rainbows. I'm not going to do five. In Rainbows and Kid A, I would say. Hail to the thief, maybe. The top three albums.

Okay, that's number one. Number two, Meshugur. You all know that. You know my favourite Meshugger songs. Too easy. Number three, Metallica, still love Metallica, even though I only like four albums. And I'll give you...

And Lars taught me how to play a... taught me you could play a crash and a snare at the same time, which was interesting to me. And the correct order of Metallica, albums and there is no other order is number one and justice for all number two ride the lightning number three master of puppets number four is there even a number four number four i guess kill them all and then um number five the black album sometimes not even number five i would say they're my top three that never change and then i have sort of a few bands that rotate for the fourth and fifth

spot and they are this will destroy you the self-titled album's incredible i know it sounds heavy but it's not heavy at all it's like post-rock stuff um cult of lunar which is post-metally stuff uh-opeth this time of year i love opeth but i don't really like what opeth became i much prefer sort of up to the ghost reveries no what's on after ghost resery Watershed, up to Watershed, and then they went a bit too proggy, for me. And Gojira, and you know my favourite songs were Gojira as well. I'd say OPEF's probably worthy of the top albums. Blackwater Park, Deliverance, Ghost Reveries, Watershed.

And that's it. Yeah, I hope it was good. I'm going to make some dinner now. I hope there's been some home truths in there I hope hasn't been too long or too shit and um you know take care see you next time with a guest

goodbye