The Downbeat - Nic Pettersen - Northlane

Episode Date: June 11, 2019

My guest this week is Nic Pettersen from Northlane. Nic is a bloody good Australian bloke. And he's a bloody good drummer. A real ripper. I said all that stuff in an Australian accent. Enjoy

Good day, mates. That'll make sense in a minute. You'll see why I've said that in a foreign language. I said hello in a foreign language. Oh, no, you probably already know because you've clicked on the thing in your podcast app and you can see who the guest is, but we're not going to talk about the guest.

We're going to talk about how you can give me money by buying one of the cool new bits of merch at the down. Oh, no, I've got it wrong. The downb-b-e-e-a-t. So it says the downbeat WWW dot before it We've got a new shit

We got a t-shirt that says Blast Beats with a gorilla wearing corpse paint Deadlifting on a tank Guess who came up with that idea? Me We got Lunar T-shirt

And it says cult of Luna But not It's spelled differently So I won't get sued I don't think And it's got a sweet black metal font that you can't even read You know

And there's reprints of the other shit, the old shit. www. The Downb-E. dot A-T. Go and pick one up, please, if you like the podcast. If you don't like the podcast, don't pick one up. Throw it away.

Throw that website away. I don't know how you would do that. Drag it into the recycling bin. Of life. Of your life. Yeah. So, cool. Today's guest,

is Nick from North Lane. He's from Australia. That's why, if you didn't understand, the first thing I said was hello, but in Australian. Yeah. Nick from North Lane. He's a drummer.

He's the drummer in North Lane. He's very good drummer, as are all of the drummers that are featured on this podcast. What do we talk about? We talked about how a lot of people in the transport industry have their genitals tattooed. That's not me saying that that's a fact.

It's just saying the two people I've ever come into contact with their genitals heavily tattooed have both worked transporting people, which is either a coincidence or some sort of in the job description. I don't know. Was that offensive? That wasn't offensive. It's a coincidence. That's in the podcast.

And then there's bits about drums. Nick's got like a signature sample pack. We talk about that. A bit like the GGD one. But it's his own shit. He's got his signature snare drum and we've got a downbeat special code, N-P downbeat.

If you go to Everett'sdrums.com. com. You can get 10% off a snare drum. which is mental and he's got a wicked sort of signature snare I think it's made of gum I don't know

that's just a guess just guessing that yeah cool guys all round what are you guys been doing it's been a long time yeah just sort of talking at you now

I'm going to probably roll the podcast now by a t-shirt and goodbye Hello, Nicky sticks, Nick Peterson. Hello, Craig. Mate, it's been a while. It has been a long time, actually. What time is it?

I don't know how long, but right now it's quarter past six at night in Sydney. It's 9.15. This is... Early. I'm dedicated to the Nick Peterson downbeat episode. Because right now, usually... It sounds like it. Usually I'd be walking my dog, and what I've done is,

I've got up early to warm my dog. I haven't even brushed my teeth. Wow. No way. Yeah, I'm going to do a stinky fucking toothbrush, toothbrush afterwards. I'm doing a stinky pop shield thing. Okay. Where are you?

Sydney. I'm in Sydney, yeah. How is Sydney? French's Forest, Sydney. I recently moved to French's Forest with my girlfriend into a house with my other friend. Your girlfriend who is German? My girlfriend who is German, yes. God, imagine.

if she wasn't your girlfriend anymore and that's how we started the podcast and you were like oh actually sadly no it was dumped by her this is a new one yeah last week it's actually that's why I'm here um no that would be that would be so that would be so yeah oh that's but thank you thanks for having you putting me on such a high priority going for an early walk with a dog that's that sounds nice though you're the highest priority for me really absolutely the highest um I'm dedicated to you for the next however long. So, cool. Likewise.

I like your new songs. You like it? Yeah. What you reckon? Fucking sick. Bloodline. Bloodline. Mate, it's really good.

Yeah? It's really dark though. Thank you. I mean, we're not going to... It is very dark, yeah. We're not going to talk too much about that because that's, you know, that's not your story to tell. Not at all, but... It's real.

Still. Yeah, it's dark. It's, uh, yeah, it's definitely somewhere we haven't gone before. So I think that's, I think it's cool. I think it's brave Marcus to go there. It's very brave. But at the end of the day, out of all, you know, hardships, good art comes out. And I think you can hear, you can hear in his performance that not that he didn't mean it on the other album, Z. Yeah. He fucking means it, isn't he? Yes.

Yes. Dude, that's the thing. It makes a huge difference, I think. When he's singing about something that means something to you, you portray it so much realer and raw. I don't know. Yeah. I think he's to stand out in this new stuff.

Yeah. He's really stepped it up. For sure. And like, I got the metaphor. I got the metaphor. You know, he's wearing armor. I got it, you know? It takes a lot for me to get something.

Usually like watching Game of Thrones or something, I have to speak to Katie and be like, so what the fuck's going on? But this time I was like, I get it. You get the armor. I get the armor. Cool. I'm glad someone got it.

But yeah, maybe I'm the only one. I should be fucking, I should be, you know, a broadcaster. I am a broadcaster. You are. I'm glad we finally did this because the time difference makes it difficult and then it's pretty shit as both touring makes it twice difficult yeah what you got we've somehow found a time now we've done it how good say what you got coming up um what i got coming up i mean i got about a couple months off still and then uh we go to north america

in midway through august to start the alien tour right and that goes from my month or so. It should be pretty cool. I haven't been there in years and kids have been asking for it. You haven't been in years? Not like three or four years I reckon. Such a long fucking flight in it. Europe's longer for sure. Is it for you guys? From Australia, yeah. Well like as the states you go it's like Sydney to LA and then wherever from there. It's just like 16 hours. Sydney to LA is pretty big one or 14 or something. I don't know. But you know how long it is from Europe to Australia. It's like two massive, I mean, seven and 14 or hours or something.

How, how you do it? How much do your visas cost? Are they as much as mine? I don't know. I don't deal with the visas. Just play drums. How do you? Yeah, I mean, you're in a different situation.

You're in a different country. I just know it's expensive. Yeah. And but there's only one of me, so it's not that expensive. But if it's anything like the price that I have to pay, then you've got to do that times fucking however many band and crew. That's probably why I haven't been for three or four years. Yeah, and I don't know, we found that we were just sort of,

wasn't sort of progressing for us there a little bit maybe. And that happens to everyone. America's fickle. Yeah, I think that's the thing, yeah. Yeah, that's the problem. It's like there's so much going on there that like you just get forgotten about if you're not there every six months. it's and it's the same with even from bands from america there's so many bands that are actually

way bigger outside of america because you don't you just get forgotten about because they've got so many good shows yeah gigantic tours yeah dude but a lot of them i think that's the problem there's always things going on have you announced the support um we have who is it who you got um we've got a couple bands um

I'm actually have to look and look all this up right now to be honest with you it's drama problems I'm just trying to get your plug out the way you can blow this can be the plug it

this can be the plug and then we just talk about other shit well the US ones with era in Crystal Lake um um um um

there's a couple of the bands that are going to be supporting us around the world so our counterparts are going to be coming to Australia with us. Very sick. That would be a fun time. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's where the silent planet.

Body Vision. Is that the Australian tour? Yeah. Fuck. What's the cap rooms? Do you know? That's fucking, that's going to be big. It should be around 1,000, maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less.

Mate, we, as in counterparts, did co-headline that time. time that was probably the last time i saw you and like melbourne we did 700 people and you're from australia so that's all going to sell out so anyone that's listened to here from fucking australia and now i know that's some of you because it's the fourth most listened to country um buy some fucking tickets because that shit going to go in there that shit going to go no so yeah it's going to run but yeah we're playing at the roundhouse in sydney which is one of my favorite venues that's the big one it's one those venues that you it's a nice big one and And as a kid, like I saw so many bands there and then growing up and now I get to play.

I mean, we played it last year as well. We headlined it on a one-off random show and that was epic. So, keen for it again. Give it to me again. How old are you? 28. So who did you go see there? The Red Shore.

Actually, yes. Yeah. I saw the Red Shore then. I know that show. That show was videoed and it was on their album. What a band. Fucking sick band. What a drummer.

Oh, yeah. Dude, Aravus of Man, I reckon, is like one of the most underrated death metal albums. I still, like, put that onto this day and it slams so hard. It's so sick. And like, the Green Brothers, just a bunch of legends. All stars. But obviously, quite a sad situation around that band. Yeah, definitely.

I remember that was, yeah. So heavy. My first real band, Viatrophy, we did their first Euro tour after that shit happened. Oh, yeah. And it was just like, I remember we were in, for anyone that doesn't know what happened. They had a van flip and the singer and the merch guy died.

But like, I remember we were just parking at some point because we shared a van for some of it. We were parking for some point. And our driver just forgot to put, the handbrake on, or the e-break, if you're American, uh, for like two seconds. And they, you know, it just rolled back slightly and they freaked out. It was like real PTSD shit, which obviously you would expect. Yeah. Pretty fucking. Uh, that would, yeah. Pretty gnarly. That's so rough, man. Yeah. Yeah. Seriously, like,

yeah. I don't know. I don't, yeah, I can't even relate. I can't even be keen to relate what that it would be like and then to continue to do that and then I'm pretty sure what happened as well is that Jamie took over vocals and he ended up like writing more you know finishing off the lyrics that daymo yeah and that's just that's pretty heavy that's fucking dark to yeah man anyway 10 minutes him we talked about death um yeah you know it's going quite well uh yeah we might do some drum drum talk but I don't really like what's your story how long you've been playing drums how long's Northlame been going okay um I've been playing drums since I was in year three or I mean probably since you two my dad was a drummer you two how old's that you know I don't know that's got

to be like six or seven fucking hell really eight maybe maybe maybe a little bit Tony Tony Royce of Peterson no no dude I was I was I was I couldn't play for a long time. I would definitely not say I'm a naturally talented drama. And like the first five or so years, I was just going through school band. And at the time, I fucking hated it. But my mom kept me in there. And I'm glad because I learned a lot, even though I didn't think I was. But yeah, I guess until about year six or seven, I didn't really care that much about it, because I didn't have like, I didn't have an interest or whatever. Well, like I didn't, there wasn't any favorite bands at that point in my life was too young.

Then I heard bands like Limbiscuit and Lincoln Park and stuff and, and, uh, system of down. And that's when I was like, oh, yeah, I want to try and learn these songs. And that's when it kind of started for me, really, like the passion for it, I guess. Yeah, I was the same. Like, I had lessons just because they were there and it was cool. but I didn't really and I see this with my own students

and I don't really take it seriously until you connect with a song or a band and you're like hang on I could probably figure that out yeah well my tutor could figure that out for me right someone could help me to do that yeah yeah

do you remember what the first song you ever learnt was yep what was it was um Olymp biscuit was it my way yeah no

what's the song with a five four bit and how can I how do I not know this I'm a slim biscuit My generation No no it's the it's the mission impossible

like theme song Whatever that one was Oh that song was a fucking bob That was sick dude Let me I need to find it I can't believe it I'm shamed

I can't remember What it's called either Chocolate Starfish Is the album of course Yeah but they They released it way before didn't they Because it was four

Mission Impossible too. Must be. I remember the bridge. That's all I can remember. Yeah. I just remember the part when it goes into 5-4 and I was like, oh. I at the time obviously didn't know that. You're like, fuck.

I was like, fuck-4-and-I-4. You were like, fuck-in-ell, mate. There's an extra fucking beat. What the fuck, mate. Yeah, yeah, fully flipped me out. And then I was hooked. John Otto was my hero. from then on man.

Mate, yeah, he fucking, he laid it down. And that long... Did you have a long kick drum because he had a long kick drum at any point? I didn't really copy his setup. I just... I had his drumsticks, though. I had his signature drumsticks.

What were they like? I don't remember them. They were Sabian and they were black. No, sorry, they were Zildjan, Siljan sticks. And they were black with like silver Zildren logo and like his signature in silver

that was sick. All over your fucking symbols, black little marks. Yeah, black shit everywhere. I took him to school band and everything, man. Fuck yeah. It's hot. I had David Silvera signature sticks.

Yeah? And they were like fucking five, no, like one B, two B, like thicker than a two B. They were sick though, but then I later found out he wasn't very good at drums. But when you're a kid,

you don't really realize. Yeah, it's like signature sticks. This guy must be a weapon. I don't even know who this guy is, but... Oh, I miss Australian fucking slang. This guy must be a weapon. But like you don't... It's weird.

Like, you just assume because something's on the radio or on TV or whatever that they're good. So your level of good is quite low because you haven't seen the best. But now I wonder about kids and youth. YouTube, like they can just go on YouTube and look at Luke Holland and be like, well, that's the bar. So are the next generation going to be absolute freaks? Probably, yeah. Or are they going to be complacent because they see it so early on and they'll be like, well, I'll never be like that. Yeah, there's definitely, I think, well, it's good to have like someone who's, you know, being incredibly inspirational.

showing you, you know, for instance, for instance, like, you know, some amazing drum parts or whatever and you're, you want to learn them. I think there's a lot more to it, though, to get to that level. So people are just learning songs or whatever and, you know, like, I mean, YouTube is, is great for that, I guess, because, you know, people can actually become full-time musicians just from uploading their, uploading their videos or whatever, of them doing covers or whatever, and then get, you know, someone sees them and, or maybe they just have millions of views anyway. And I think it's definitely,

it's definitely going to be different. And because of, because of, yeah, all these crazy dramas putting sick videos up, and then all the videos being perfect as well. Yeah, that,

I love, hate with that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it makes sense, I think. It does.

For it to be, but is, is it authentic? It's the equivalent, though, of body build posting photos of them being like

yeah I switched to this fucking grass-fed protein and that's why I look this sick and it's like no you're pumped full of drugs that's why you look that sick and it's the same thing when you watch a video and it's I watched a video the other day and it's a kid I don't want to fucking slag him off

but I'm not going to say who it is but there's a number of people that are like this and he's playing perfectly along to a song and there are drums there that are louder than the drums in the song but there's not a single microphone on his drum kit yeah and it's like yeah well I've done it on purpose before I've done it with a fucking heart machine same but and I've also like

where you edit it where something sloppy and you edit it and people think because there's a video that they would notice the edit but you don't you have so many because the drummer as long as you're within a few milliseconds if that gets fixed, the frame rate doesn't pick it up. So you could play what sounds a little bit shit and then you could fix it so it sounds good. Yeah. And I'm loving.

But what do you, like, yeah. Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on. I know what you were going to, okay. What do you, so, like, the problem I have, right, is like, I've put up some live drum playthrues and whatnot. I'm, I guess, I'm kind of indecisive as well. well, I like putting up just the raw GoPro ones because you know it's not edited, right? Yeah.

And there's something authentic about that that I really like. But then again, it doesn't sound nearly as good if someone mixed it. But as soon as it's mixed, in the back of your head is you're thinking, is this, is this edited? Yeah. As soon as you, and that's, it's a weird thing because sometimes just, just the processing can make it sound tighter. yeah totally so you never know oh is this edited yeah you're right but i like that i like it when it's like i don't know if this is edited because you can hear the groove but then when you when you watch someone and it is fully flattened and then yeah you can tell and then they've got like

a million views on it i'm like is this healthy that that person is that person i've seen that there's drummers on from YouTube that get pro gigs and their covers. I mean, obviously they must have had an audition at some point, but their covers are definitely fake, not fake, but very tightened up. Yeah. I guess there's an art in that too, you know, if you can be the whole package, if you can do that all for yourself, right? That's another thing, like the whole recording aspect of it, like a lot of young people

might not have any idea about. So like for them recording a play through is is yeah, it's like I know, I've seen plenty of video. I mean, it's just because people don't have money, but you see plenty.

I've seen plenty of covers where it's literally someone just putting their phone in the room. And then it's like they've got a speaker in there blasting the song that they're also playing to. And it's a mess. Yeah. And I sit there going like, is that worth it?

You know, like, I know what you're trying to get at. it's a good idea but it's hard to listen to. Do you know what I think is changing the game with that? Those Yamaha EAD things. Have you seen those? EADD.

It's like, that Stan Bicknell guy's just got one. He's a fucking Australian. He is Australian. It's like, it's a unit that you put on the kick drum. It triggers the kick drum and then it has two microphones in it, one that points on the snare and one that captures the overheads. but all the processing is done inside the unit and it ends up sounding like a really nice processed microphone kick drum which is the trigger and then it gives you like a really roomy just a couple of overheads and people's YouTube video at like YouTube and you can't edit it because it just comes as a stereo file yeah but people's that's cool Instagram videos go and watch after this go watch summer Stan Bicknell's latest that how he's yeah that's how he's doing it yeah because it sounds mint His sound was mint anyway because of his fucking warehouse.

But now he has this EAD thing. And I think the guy from Sepultura, Eloys got one as well. And it just clips on the bass drum. And because you can't edit it, it's a processed version of people's real playing, which is perfect. That's cool. That's great, yeah. I did a YouTube video. I did when I joined Stray, which is actually very, very,

close to when I met you I think I met you on my second straight tour I reckon it was before that but go on well hang on we'll talk about that in a minute um the I did three songs

three play throughs on YouTube and obviously they weren't my drums they were Dan's drums because they were old stray songs and uh I had such a chip on my shoulder that I didn't edit any of it I was like this has to be

to the song and obviously I didn't have the files without the drums on it so there's the odd bit where you can hear a flam but but I was so fucking stoked with how tight everything was and the comments fucking lit me up you and but they lit they didn't lit me up for being tight it was so weird it was the opposite of what had actually happened they said you can tell this is uh fake you can tell this is fake because the snare is double triggering and I was like no that's the real drums which were unedited, plus my drums which are unedited, and you're an idiot if you think that anyone can play along with another drummer exactly in time.

If you watch a drum video and it's got the original audio and there's no flamming, it's been edited. That's the rule. There's no way anyone's that in time. Yeah, yeah, 100%. When did we meet then? You're gonna tell me what was before? I think I met you on the architect's stray tour.

I think you came out to a show. Would I be wrong? Pretty sure I met you then. And someone was like saying, I think Dan was saying you were his old drum tech. It was the haunt in Brighton. There you go.

There you go. That's when it was. I did meet you in. Yeah, it was very, that was very brief. I mean, it would have been brief. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good memory.

And they live streamed it, didn't they? And it was a ball oaken. That's right. Yes. Yeah, yeah. I hate it when architects have a stress on. That was before they had the mountains of crew that they have now, so there's no stress on stage.

Yeah, that was different. Yeah, definitely different to what it is now. I'm glad I saw that. That's so weird how many people that I'm friends with now that I've met. In fact, everyone, my entire career I owe to being dance drum tech. Damn. Because I wouldn't have met stray. Yeah.

And sort of that's my career now. So there we go. That's the short story. Thank you, Dan. Do you know all of Australian architects for the longest time? Because there was just boys club, wasn't there? It was. Yeah.

It was, yeah, we had some good tours back then as well. I remember some. Yeah, that was for architects. We were like fucking massive. Yeah, ACDs. And we're still playing some smaller sort of couple hundred cap shows. and that was wild I remember in France

we played a show and it was stage diving Tom Williams was right into it I think he was instigating all of it actually classic yeah good times great memories really I think

now I go to one of the we haven't played a show with architects since but when I've gone to their shows I've just been like yeah this is way bigger than last time I saw you architects need to take all the boys out again

I think I think so they're big enough that they don't it doesn't matter who they get supporting I agree yeah just get the fucking boys club as long as we can have a better bus than that one time if you're listening Dan oh did you do it is that the why not bus that's the why not bus to oh my it's the cheapest bus in England I mean I've had that bus on different tours yeah but the thing is it's so cheap yeah like triple bunks each side So he's literally like in a coffin.

And chop. Like you can't, yeah, and chop. Chop. Chop the driver. Dude. And what's with that tattoo? Yeah. So yeah, he's got a tattoo of a dragon around his dick. And is it is, or the dick is actually the dragon?

The main part of the dragon. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. And it's fully, you know, fully tatted bell-end and everything. Yeah. I mean, I saw a photo, which is just. kind of weird like he showed me a photo and it's like i mean i'm not that i want you to put your hands down but i mean i saw it in the flesh saw it yeah yeah he told me and i was like

bollocks and he went here you go whacked it out and you know what yeah a similar thing happened to me am i going to cancel myself by saying this i don't think so because i was i was with i was with my wife and we were getting a cab from the reading city center on like a Saturday night, Reading City Center to where we lived. And it was a female cabby that picked us up. And we were like, we were just talking to her, chatting. She was nice enough. We were chatting to her and we don't see many female cabbies.

And she was telling us why or whatever. And we're like, oh, fair play, whatever. Just talking to her. And just out of nowhere at the end, she sees that I've got tattoos. And she goes, oh, you've got tattoos? I've only got one. And I was like, yeah, what is it? and she goes, oh, it's a butterfly.

It's on my cunt. And I went, what? I went, what? And she goes, yeah, do you want to see it? And then Katie was like, yeah, go on, then. And then this cab driver just whacked it out. And there it was. A butterfly, geez, transformed.

How did she, sorry, how did she do that? How did she just, like, what was the circumstance? Did she just, like, do like a full 180 in the front seat? We were, we were peering in, because we were just sorting out the chance. and obviously if you look sort of look over someone's shoulder almost yeah if they're the cabby you look over their shoulder almost like yeah predator's weapon you know the thing on his shoulder and actually I was just looking right down and she just sort of flopped it out they yeah right the little the butterfly the butterfly effect I call it oh I'm sure that's unforgettable there we go we've done dick dick tattoos we've done yeah vaginal tattoos we've done yeah vaginal tattoos

Speaking of the C words, which, sorry, mum, you're from the only other place on earth where it just means mate. Kind of, yeah, I guess it's more about the way you use it. I mean, my mum's probably going to listen to this too, not going to lie. Sorry. I don't want to upset your mum too. So I'm not going to, I don't really want to go in the ins and outs of, you know, we could be really burning some mother's ears right now. Oh, my mum's used to it. Okay, well, yeah, we definitely use the C word in a different way completely.

It's almost completely opposite. Like if you call someone your mate, then they're a cunt. If you call them a cunt, then they're your mate. Exactly. In the weirdest way possible. I don't know. Do you know it's a different dictionary definition for it? the UK dictionary has it as vulgar slang for idiot right yeah oh wow and um the american says

vulgar slang for vagina or woman so i think that's right yeah i think it's vagina man i'm pretty sure it's vulgar vagina and i mean in this you you can get away with it anywhere here a lot of people like my girlfriend's german that kind of that shit does not fly overseas yeah i mean And we've been in situations where people have just been kind of, it's just rolled off the tongue, not thought about it. Yep. And then people have just been so shocked. And then, you know, it's even worse because you don't really know why. You obviously pick up that you've offended this person in some way.

But what way was it? I don't know. I'm just talking, you know? Well, yeah. I've sort of stopped myself saying it in America because I remember once I like dropped my snare drum when I was. was loading in and obviously my my go-to word as like an exclamation was ah and then like i can't remember it was some bloke just looked at me like i just shit in his cornplace yeah doesn't go down well it doesn't not go down well although come to australia mate and oh i love it as many

times as you want i love the way australian people talk i love touring with australians good I love touring with British people as well we're just so close it is the sarcasm and the humour is very similar I think

we can I mean and we're convicts of you guys yeah isn't it what happened we we run out of room in our jails so we just sent into an island or something

yeah a couple people stole bread and you guys were like not on you're going to Australia um So hang on. So yeah, they're pretty badass criminals, really. Were we the problem with the Aboriginal people then? Or was that you guys?

Well, I mean, essentially you? If we wouldn't be there if it wasn't for you. Oh, no, but did we pop you there and then you fucked around? Or did we go, right, we got to put these people over here, but let's first ruin the people that live there? Yeah, I think, I reckon that would have happened. I reckon they would have come and the Aboriginals that were here would have been like, who are these dudes? What is that giant thing coming, floating in the water?

They would have freaked out. And definitely there would have been some battles. Obviously, the Aboriginals were not on the winning side. But, yeah, after that, after that, we definitely fuck shit up. Definitely. We definitely. Definitely the wrong things at that point. Yeah, I don't think we really thought about it.

Speaking of battles, I'm not, I'm not comparing. I'm not comparing the plight of the Aboriginal people in Australia to this whatsoever, but do you watch Game of Thrones? I've been asked this probably six or seven times in the last couple of weeks, and no, I don't. I was just going to wonder if, I was wondering if you get it early. I don't know. Because hang on, what day is it? Is it Tuesday for you?

No, it's Wednesday. Oh, I was going to say, wow, you were going to be in the past, but no, we're on the same. day. On the same day, I'm just a little bit, a couple hours ahead. But at 9pm my day, my day? Yeah. You'll be at 3 a, what?

No, you'll be at 9 a.m. No, 6 a.m. No. At 9 p.m. You will be in the future. How good would that be? I mean, it's going to be great. It happens quite a lot.

Can't wait. Happens at least once a day. He does. We, uh, we sort of, started talking about drums and then we went off. I think it drifted way off. I think you're talking about my background. Yes.

And I was saying, dad was a drummer. I got to play in a Rogers kit when I was a kid, man. And I still have this kit. My dad had an old Rogers kit, like a 60-70s kit. And yeah, back then,

that's what I learned on this little four-piece thing. At the time, I didn't realize that it was a gem, but now I do. So I did the same thing. The same thing. I got a premiere. like a three-piece Ringo premiere from like a charity shop

and obviously when you're a kid you just think because it was cheap and it was the first kit that you got that it's just shit so then you sell it and then when you're an old man you realize fuck I'm probably shouldn't have sold that. Why did I do that? Yeah. Mine was like some of the symbols. Mine was an 11 and a half inch ractone.

Who, where did you get skins for that thing? I didn't mate. I didn't reskin. in it. It was just whatever came with it from the 60s. Wow,

dude, 11 and a half inch. Because I remember we took it to a show. It was like literally a 50, 1957 kill or something.

I remember we took it to like the local drum store, drum right. Shout out drum right even though you've gone into administration. And they were like,

yeah, we don't have any heads to fit that because that's pre- whatever whenever they decided to have a, universal thing.

Sold it for 200 quince to some collector who definitely, definitely made money on it. Yeah, he's laughing. That's heavy. What symbols have you still got from your old shit then? I've got these old 14, maybe they're even like 14 and a half inch. They're a little bit bigger. Like these old Zildjans and this rivet ride, man. Oh, it's like an 18 inch rivet ride.

and it's like it just has the zildren stamp on it so like the the o g like metal stamp not like a not like they do today it's just like the that's sick stamp and now you're and i've used that on a couple records and it's pretty cool now no it's Sabian that's it you're out um yeah i had one with my kit as well and it had just the stamp on it and obviously i sold that in the two hundred pound because i thought it was shit and then but i remember buying like like a brand new ZBT symbol pack or whatever. Oh shit. Yeah.

Like the silver ones? Yeah. And I remember thinking, why doesn't this sound good as that old shit one that I had? And now I know because the old shit one was actually sick. Yeah. I remember getting like the ZX, ZX or something.

And they were like the silver titanium symbols. Yep. Remember them? They were rubbish. Oh, they were bad. But you know, the only thing. I'm not just saying this because I play them, but the only...

No, they're not... I was going to say the only mid-range symbol that is cheap and I think actually sounds good of those black classics custom minor ones, but they're still expensive. They're not on the same line as ZXT. I've never heard them. They sound so good, but it's an acquired look. Yeah. I mean, if I was Joey Jorzson, you'd get up.

away with that here's the thing though my new kit is black and orange and those symbols are black and orange so on the next stray head liner i might go right i might go full dimmy ball gear do it do it man and just be and like black black heads black everything like literally like a child like a 13 year old boy in the year 2000 dude dude that's that's the aesthetic that i might go for that's yeah that's dead set your 16 year old self would just be frothing me my 16 year old self and uh george from stitch your guns or that's he loves a he loves a colorful gimmick there's much many to please there so i think you should give it a shot mate at least give it a shot um you're really good at the drums then when did that

happen if you weren't very good so you started learning songs so there's a song of songs then towards you know high school um i went to a cool school that had like a really good music program pitwater high school shout out you guys rule um they had an awesome music program and so there's heaps of good uh drummers and musicians in general there so i remember it just being like just everyone was like kind of pushing each other a lot throughout high school was it but I'm like we didn't really know but now I look back and there was everyone was so talented and I don't know we just kind of pushed each other and then uh I think when I was about 16 or something I started my first band um and that was like it's kind of like uh yeah obviously

it was smack bang in the middle of metalcore uprising and um yeah I see you know we played some played some shows and that's how I kind of met North Lane as well through this first band this band was called Mays and Mays Mays and you play some crazy

yeah I got it off Fable you ever play that game Fable no I remember the hype about it when it came out but that was when I stopped playing games yes right I had a period in my life when I stopped and then I came back

no I came back to them but I was like obsessed with drums and I just okay that's way better then yeah anyway carry on but yeah fable maize um you didn't get the word may we just go no I didn't get the word but the idea as a name because there was a character called maze in it and I was like that's cool anyway um and our like first tour in with maize was with North Lane's first tour as a band and that's how I met the North Lane dudes um and after that that

they were having drummer issues and asked me to fill in for a tour. And I sweated North Lane at this point, dude. Like the first EP, I had one of a keymaker of the first EP. I had that as my ringtone. Ringtone? What phone? Had it as my ringtone. God, I don't know, dude, but back when you could put songs, you know,

you could make it cut like 30 seconds of a song or whatever, and that could be a ringtone. Little Nokia job. Yeah, must have been. But yeah, and then after I filled in for them, I was having like a really good time. So I kind of just stayed there. And yeah, that was in like 2009.

Like I joined the band technically like a year after it started. Start in like late 2008 and I joined in late 2009. And then yeah. How old were you then? It would have been 18. Nice. Young little chap. Young little chap.

And you've been in the same band for ten years. Yeah, now that I think about that, dude. Ten years. I can only imagine what that's like. This upcoming stray album, well, the next stray album we do, will be the only band I've ever done two albums with. Wow. Because I...

How many bands have you been? been in. Fucking billions. Including your first one. Right, including first one. Every band. Every band you've been in that you can remember. Okay.

So I was in a ska, punk, hardcore band when I was 13 years old. Whoa. Yeah. I played my first gig when I was 13 because we lied to a pub

and we said we were 16. And then we got smashed on Snakebite. So that was my first band. Then I played in a punk band called Drivers Against. The original name of the band was Drink Drivers Against Mothers before I joined them and then they were like, this is a terrible, you know, like just trying to be offensive and then they were obviously like, this is a terrible name,

we're not going to get anywhere. So now I joined that band when they were called Drivers Against. Um, again, both of these bands are just political punk bands when I was like a little yeah, grebo punk. Um, badass. Then I did a band called Lou Kang, which was, it just sounded like, um, Poisoned Well, um, poison the well, uh, it was just hardcore with, yeah, sadness, sad hardcore band. That's actually on Spotify.

That's when I was six, when I was 16, that was. but that band that came about I was at a show in my other band talking to some other kids and we were like wouldn't it be funny if there was like a band where all the all the songs were like themed about dinosaurs but it was a hardcore band and you could have each song was be a bit about a different dinosaur and I don't know why we said that and then it got to like wouldn't it be cool if it was like about streetfills? fighter and then we were thinking about i think we were nearly called m bison which i think is a way harder name that's really bad that's uh and then after that i joined viatrophy which is my main

main first real band did an album so how many are we on there that's five already that's what is and then i did a band called the seventh cross which was a metal core band uh like a london metal core band they were quite big before i joined i didn't do any albums with them then happened you join in then i they were like not then i yeah i fucked it

then i then i filled in for dead swans for a bit which is a bridge nine bridge nine hardcore band that's seven um then i did the heart machine eight brutality will prevail

nine straight from the path ten there you go and then i've like done session stuff for like death of anna and vision of the tour and stuff like that. So we're looking at

maybe 15 to 20 different. Dude. That's a resume if I've ever heard one. It's also just, it's a man with ADD. Just, I just get, I either get bored or I fall out with people.

Yeah. That happens and look where you are now, mate. Yeah, it's the only band where I don't hate everyone. In all my other bands, I at least hated one person. I think it's pretty I think you're in a good situation to be honest

you're in a band with like three of the funniest people on the planet yeah they're the fucking best my viatrophy we we would kick out a member every week just whoever was being annoying that we'd be like nah you're out the band and we'd be like what and be like nah you're fucking out and then what we would do is we would change we would change the MySpace password

to whoever they'd be like their name is out would be the new password when they left but then people people started realizing once they've been kicked out that that's what the password was getting changed to because they'd witnessed other people get kicked out so then they knew what the password was so we had to change it we started putting we started putting 666 at the end so it'd be like yeah frank out 666 easy well easy smart yeah i've just yeah dude just uh Never really found a band that I get on with the people and I like the music and the message is there. It's always one of the other.

Yeah. It's a tight, it's a, yeah, it's a hard like tightrope to walk really. Band's life in that sense. Like you've got to have, yeah, you've got to have pretty much everything aligned for you, for it to work. Otherwise it will fuck out at some point. And you just got to keep going. Because I could have, I could have quit after five bands. I'd be like, this is never going to work, is it?

Yeah. Are you stubborn? I'm a stubborn. I don't know anything else, Nick. No, I don't do anything else. Yeah. Get this. So lately, so I've been home for a couple months, and I've gotten quite bored.

And so I thought, you know what, I'll start doing some work. I'll work somewhere. And luckily my friend at the time was doing some laboring. And he said, yeah, dude, we need someone to help us out. So I was like, yeah, sure. I can do laboring. I did this when I was 17 or whatever. But it's a different story 10 years later.

Like, laboring is a young man's game. Really? Oh, dude, I've been getting rinsed. Like, absolutely rinsed. And I mean, to some other people, I reckon they'd be like, mate, come on. It's nothing, but I don't know. My backs these days is not as sprightly as it used to be. and I get weird sort of like niggles in my hands which just freaks me out so I ended up

stopping but yeah it's came to the same inclusion man I'm like I just oh I'm just gonna have to stick to drumming hey what maybe I could what kind of niggles so we did niggles in my wrist and my knuckles in my ring finger knuckle both sides which is really weird but I went to the physio and stuff about it I don't know it's just like a just like a dull pain after after i mean i was doing you know quite intensive labor doing a lot of shoveling and bucketing stuff so your hands do need to be quite strong but i when i went to the physio about it you know she wasn't worried because i got arthritis in my toes as well it's in my family my mom's got it in the same toes my grandma obviously it's hereditary so i got that in the back

of my mind like god please don't be arthritis so um but yeah physio you don't you've got to it in one toe in two so the first metatarsal of my toe to any doctors foot doctors out there who they'll know what i'm talking about it's actually just like the big knuckle in your toe in your big toe yeah i broke the one in my hand once you broke your hand knuckle i broke the metal yeah the metatarsal in the first metatarsal that that isn't that is a funny story and i will tell that story in a minute but carry on so you've got it in one one toe two toes a bit But two toes, my right one's worse than the left, but doesn't... Is it in a big toe?

Yeah. Yeah, both big toes. Do you use your big toe when you're playing kick drum? Well, I wear shoes and I have orthotics, and I have had since I was like 13 or 14. So it actually doesn't... With shoes on, I don't notice it. So I play heel up, so it would be putting a lot of pressure on that joint. But, I mean, after a show, it might be a little bit sore, but it's okay.

But like I've noticed in certain sections I'll play with my toe Like I'm concentrating on my toe going down Right Not my foot But my foot technique is fucking dog shit Is that like heel toe Are you doing like doubles?

Is that what you mean? No, no no I'm just like concentrating on my toe Have you got orthotics for the toe Or for flat feet? For my feet So the orthotics like lift the arch of my feet So that there's no way

on that side, yeah. See, I have a fucked up arch as well. So I started, when I went to a Cairo about my hip, they were like, yeah, your feet are kind of fucked as well. Yeah. So I started playing with a, like, just one of those cushioned orthotic things that are supposed to help people with planter for whatever it is, that problem with the arch of your foot.

Yeah. And I swear it made me play better. and what you don't you don't use it now no i still use it yeah good good i've still got the same pair of stage shoes yeah i think once you find think i remember one playing back in the day playing some rural show and this is when i was drummed without shoes and i just remember it being so painful at this one gig like halfway through i was like god this is grinding like this is yeah so toe or foot the toe the joint in my toe yeah the arthritis

toe. That sucks, but in the grand scheme of things, a toe is much better than like spine. Yeah, well my spine is a little bit dodgy too,

but, yeah. That's from, that's from like head banging while drumming. Yeah, you do that a lot, don't you?

Oh, I get it sometimes on tour when I'll just move my head and it's like crackling in my neck. Yeah. You ever hit those nerves and it like makes your tongue go numb? That happens to me. What?

No. You better have done that in your neck, you know when you hit those weird nerves and you're like, I don't know, it shends like a shooting pain up the back of your neck. And for some reason, my tongue goes numb. What the fuck? No. Yeah, that happens when I'm in the surf and when I'm playing drama sometimes. Jesus. And it's from the hair flick when I'm in the surf.

You do a duck dive and then flick the hair out of the way. And that movement just like hits this. nerve and you're like ah you never had that ever like when you flicked your head i mean i don't surf i could probably surf with the weather outside here in england right now i'm looking at it right now it looks like a scene from fucking twister no i mean like you know if you it's sure that you've hit that nerve like you've done something maybe you've no i don't know it happens it's happened to me while i'm trying anyway that's a weird thing um yeah i've never had any numbness or anything like that.

Josh Millerton had a couple of days of numb finger and that was something to do with his neck and he freaked out about that. But I went to a physio and they sorted that out. People forget that to do what we do and to be, in my case, relatively good, in your case very good. In Josh Millerton's case,

an absolute fucking circus freak show of a human being. You need to put so much practicing that your body gets fucked. Yep. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah, for me, it's been from like, if you're standing up and like, say if you're playing guitar and you're rocking out on stage or whatever, like your whole body

sort of moves with the motion. But when you're sitting on drums and you sort of bopping along, since you're sitting on a stool or thrown or whatever, the motion stops at your lower back. Like when you're, you're bopping around and that point in my, in my spine has just gotten a bit bit delicate over the years. So now I have to focus on my posture, which my mum has been telling me for years. But now I've got to take it seriously. Why don't you start deadlifting?

Deadlifting? Because I used to have, yeah, because I used to have lower back pain when I played the drums. And when I got into the gym doing dead lifts, which you would expect to really hurt your back, actually just strengthens up that lower back. And I've never had it again since.

Maybe I needed deadlift then. It's also fucking sick. there's the other cool thing about it is it's fucking sick i just can't do the gym though i just can't tell it's it's not for everyone i fucking love it yeah i'm going to the gym straight after this get it son the guy the shoulders you're going to pump up these little shoulders yeah big baby that's it i like to exercise i've done boxing for years but just the gym is just not what i'm about i just don't like the ego thing going on i'm not i'm not a big go I'm not trying to get big but every time I'm being to the gym it's like what is this dude

looking at me for like I know I'm I'm a twig just let me be a twig and you be a giant but the thing is I don't think anyone ever does look at people like that really I think you you just assume they're looking at maybe I'm just self-conscious in that scenario don't give me wrong there it's full of dickheads absolutely full of dickheads and I'm probably a dickhead I kind of love it you just yeah well if you if you love it man then go you know let's see i'm not dicker but i ain't going in there to judge anyone no just love you're there to pump it up i like the i like the i like the i can't i like the the beating your own personal best element of it that's what i love about it

it's like a little achievement every day yeah i think it's a really really really good thing to do especially if you mental health is something like that for sure and like what what you're doing like pushing yourself like breaking limits that you've you've set super the problem is now i'm getting a bit older though it's like my you know it's like people saying oh no pain no gain like push through or whatever my mental strength is far stronger than my physical strength so i end up just hurting myself yeah yeah that's bad well we're getting older now man like i've definitely noticed that my body is older i feel like my body is far older than my fine

far off I'm just gonna wait I'm gonna wait until I'm like 40 and then I'll be like I'll go to the doctor I'll be like I'll be like yo what what's the deal with

you need to get it sorted now Craig and I'm gonna go nah I'm just gonna go I check my testosterone level and I'll be like well yeah it's a 40 year old man and be like oh can you just

augment that for me so it becomes an 18 year old boy again and he'd be like do you mean exogenous drugs and I'll be like yeah on then, dog. And I'll go, you wait, I'll get to 40, I'm going to pump myself full of the shit.

I'm going to age backwards. Oh, God. I'm going to be like Benjamin Button. When I die, I'm going to be pumped up with, like, growth hormone and growth hormone, and all the shit. Give me all the fucking Arnie shit. And my heart will just explode. Yeah, that's how you go out. Literally, your body will just pop.

I look like a baby, but with a giant heart. that's just like fucking popping out my chest. And it blows up on stage. That would be sick. That's the dream. I mean, it's not the dream. You know what? I can't remember who it was.

Someone died. Someone died, had a heart attack on stage, like a drummer in a band. I can't remember. Maybe, oh, the exploited. That old punk band had exploited. I mean, I have hung out with the exploited before at a festival. and, you know, they like, you know, things that would make your heart explode. But he had a heart attack on stage.

I'm fairly sure he died. And people have been posting like, oh, I mean, maybe he didn't die, but maybe it's a wrong band. But I'm sorry if I got that wrong. But people were like, oh, at least he went out doing something he loved. Nope. I don't want that. I want to die in bed. You're like, yeah, guys.

you go like really giving up my all to the point where no my heart has stopped I would prefer and also like if I

if it happens to me it's going to happen now I've done this I've manifested it if that happens to me and someone's like oh at least he died doing something he loved

no I tell you what I don't love I don't like extreme pain and I don't like embarrassment yes in showcasing

my Like getting, you're doing a fill and you're like, I'm having an art attack. But I've got to carry on. Carry on, yeah. I'm going to die right here. And then at what point do you stop playing to clutch your chest? Like that is, nah, not for me. Sounds bad, yeah.

Let's not. Let's hope that doesn't happen. So maybe not do what you're planning on doing because. I mean, I'm not really, save it until you're done. you think save it till I'm on yeah sometimes I want to go I want to say to my dad like oh hey first fucking juice you up like like because my dad does cycling and he does like golf and that I was like fuck you just smash a bit of roy he did you should see my dad my dad's a big guy is your dad roydid is he roided he's not roided but he's been to the gym he's he's

he's almost 70 70 come this year and he's been to the gym ever since he was like 20 or something and you wouldn't think he's my dad I'll have to show you a photo bro he's a beat that's so is he like is he does he look way younger than he is yeah for sure

it's the thing Drew's dad Drew from Australia his dad is 77 maybe even 80 now he looks 60 yeah and he's been going in the gym

yeah my and I think my I've been Katie's mum says I've looked exactly the same for the last six years. There you go. So I'm hoping I'm just sort of stalling.

Because I looked about 80 when I was 21. So I'm thinking I'm just going to look 80 forever. But I'm not going to look more 80. I'm not going to look 85 ever. That's good. I guess. That's positive. I'll take it.

I don't really drink that much alcohol though. That's why I think alcohol is a big ageer. Yeah, I'm not a big drinking myself. If I have one beer, I went to, trade wind show the other day and I had one beer and like my sinuses just go fucking shit and then because of that I can't sleep and then the next day I feel hung over but it's just because I haven't slept properly yeah hangovers just suck man I can't I just don't want to I just not worth it just so not worth it's definitely not worth it

couple hours I probably have I probably have two blowouts a year yeah I reckon I reckon it's even less for me these days I've had a couple blowouts in the last couple I've had a couple blowouts in the last couple years but yeah um anyway let's talk about

let's talk about magic magic shit not not magic with a K I've just done a podcast with Daniel P Carter yeah from the Radio One rock show yeah and we were talking about magic with a K which is you know

the elements of using art to will and manifest things into existence but with you I'm talking about magic with a see a sort of light-hearted fucking some David Blaine shit. Oh god nowhere near that.

There dude I know some simple, simple tricks. Yeah but they're so sick. They are fun. It's a good way to make someone smile. I definitely you can get people and like just actually just making people

like mind blown with something so simple like when you know how to do it. And I'm not a good magician. Like, I'm not a magician at all. I know some petty... How do you learn it, though? Dude, I don't blow the magician's code by saying YouTube.

It's all on YouTube, man. It's so easy. You just got to learn a couple things, a couple slight of hand things. And it's all about the delivery as well. If you can deliver it to someone, well, then you can make an easy trick seem way cooler. Do you know who else is a drummer and he's... really good at magic. No?

Do you know Art Cruz? No. Art Cruz. Yeah, he was in Winds of Plague and now he's filling in for Lamb of God. Sick. He's very good at magic as well. Yeah? It's weird.

You're two magic drummers. I'm not good though. I'm really not good. Like if anyone who wasn't like a magician, a pro magician, saw me doing what I was doing, they would laugh at me and be like cute. Really cute. but it was simple it's dead set dude dead set i've always been impressed have you do

i did the appearing card trick with tom williams i think i think i made a key a card appear any stage pants or something yeah that was effective yeah he fucking lost his mind yeah and then we made that fake trailer for gambit that was good fun straight from the bath loves to make a fake trailer that's been some good one

ones that one of you what is it called um is it me and Josh yes what's it called the the hard way the hard way there's the hard way and then there's the hard way too as well and the hard way one at the end when we touched tongues together that was a moment Josh was adamant it was just like let's just fully kiss and I was like I just don't want to kiss you dry I don't want to kiss you so instead we just like touch tongues and it actually looks worse yeah it looks crazy looks crazy i mean not that that's crazy thing to do just knowing you and i'm like wow but because because next camera's so good it's like what is this this looks like it looks legit an actual movie that's it when the first time i saw it yeah

yeah literally the first time i saw it i was like this is legit and then the end i was like holy fuck it's not legit did you see the second one we have props in the second one I don't remember the second one the second one had like a story arc where it was like we were on a spaceship and there was like a glowing

it was a glowing crystal but in the end we just stripped naked that was it that was the big giveaway cool sounds like a good story line it's dumb

being on tour is fucking dumb it is you just get bored get bored and you go crazy it's almost like when you get in the plane you go through a portal of some sort like the plane must it must fly through a portal because by the time you get off everything's different not only you're in a different place but mentally you're like I'm already an absolute psychopath and I've it's like being it's like being a child again yeah it just transports you into a world of

not having any responsibility even the way I conduct myself in public on tour. It's just unacceptable. Yeah. Yeah, you can get away with a lot. Totally. It's a different world. It's a different world. It takes a minute to adjust when you get home again. Yep. It takes a couple of minutes for me. I got a few minutes, yeah. Dead set. It's just weird coming, like, you know, you spend a month or longer or shorter or whatever.

You spend an amount of time with a bunch of dudes, something else sometimes. and you get so comfortable with being, you know, being stimulated throughout every moment in the day. You don't even need to be in a conversation, but like you still, there's a conversation going on next to you or someone's doing something crazy or, you know, and you're always stimulated. Then you go home and it's the polar opposite and you're like, oh, God, now I'm alone in this. Do you ever get depressed? Yeah. When you come over control. Definitely, man.

I never even noticed it, but mine like manifests as OCD, basically. Okay. I'll come home and if like the house isn't spotless, because you've been on tour with whoever, and you've been around dirt and mess for the whole time. I come home and I'm mega OCD. Yeah. And then I'm like really weird.

Katie's like, you do realize this is just because you come back from tour and it's your way of dealing with not having, that dopamine release every single night. Yeah, yeah, that adrenaline, you get so addicted to you're sure. And then you come home, you're like, oh, okay, well, I'm still awake. It's, you know, especially when you're playing gigs late at night, you get home and you're like, oh, it's 11 o'clock. I should actually be starting to play a show right now.

But really, you're lying in bed. Your girlfriend's, like, so tired. And, yeah, and you're like, I'm wide awake. I could gig. Yeah. and I have no adrenaline. Zero adrenaline. I'm not punch.

Watching Game of Thrones. Yeah. That's it. That comes with it, I think. As long as you're aware of that, then that's all it matters, I guess. If you're not, if you come home and you're just like flipping out, you don't really know what's going on, that's the problem.

But I'm not a psychologist, so. Don't put yourself down. You are a psychologist. You think so? Oh, your microphone's going nuts. Whatever microphone you've got plugged it out. let's fine now yeah so i thought that yeah i heard something going on and i was like is this me it's all right we're good um we should probably talk about drums yeah let's do that

just we've got i mean it's pretty long already so i'm gonna be real short what's your hardest thing about being on tour playing wise do you think you play good all the time and if not what is your like big weakness hell no i am like so critical on the way i play like savagely critical. And that can be that can be a bummer, but obviously if you do a string of shit shows,

I guess what I consider shit show is not what someone else would consider me playing shit, I think. But I don't know. I just want things to be tight and flowy when I'm playing. I think it's easy to sort of overthink things and like

fall behind the click or something and I don't know I just want to I just want to be in the moment when I'm playing and when I'm not and I'm like thinking thinking about other things and that's when I that's when I sort of don't really have a great show if I'm just lost in the show then oh it'll be like the show will end and I'll not even remember anything that happens just there like the whole time I don't know that's ideal for me I like how critical you are because I remember when we were on that tour

I could ask you I could go how was that and you'd honestly be like you're rushing your feet a little bit tonight and I would go fuck you're right and I did you are right

but it happens I wouldn't thought of that and then the next night I would consciously be able to fix that and it would actually you really helped me. You didn't do it every night.

I think maybe you only did it once. But I appreciate that kind of feedback. It's not just like, yeah, it was great. No, yeah. Constructed. Yeah, it was good, but, you know, it sounded like, you weren't mean about it. You were like, it sounded like you were maybe rushing your feet a little bit.

And I was like, fuck, yeah, you're right, you can. And then I fixed it. Good. So I appreciate that. I know, my pleasure. I appreciate that kind of feedback. too. Like as you know if you're going to, how was it? Oh dude that was amazing. It's like oh okay. How was? Don't tell me how good it was. Tell me what I can fix. Yeah, yeah.

Tell me what sucked. I want to know what sucked. Um, we, yeah. We've started playing to a click since then. Well, I have. Wow. That's half of half the set. Let's just stop right there. That is breakthrough stray news. I mean, it's, it's as far away as an actual click that anyone could be. It's, it's a point-rock. A video, I took a video of a live show. Yeah. And then I mapped out the click. Wow.

So it goes up and down almost every bar. And then if there's a bit where Drew or Tom is on its own, it just drops out for the rest of the song. So it's, it's like a pair of stabilizers. Your click isn't even like, like, gridded at all. It's literally, you've manually made a click. I mean, it is gridded, but it's like every four bars it will go up. up 2 bpm or whatever. Really?

Is that full section? But it means... It basically, it means it just there's a consistency there now every night. It's like... Whereas before, you'd be like, you could say that

oh, you're sounding like you were rushing your feet a little bit and it was probably because that song was fucking 7 BPM faster than we played at the night before. Yeah, and you've got no reference. Like, if you have a click, then you have a reference to sit on. And like, you know if you're racing that as well. right exactly yeah so exactly and it's helped I think in the last time the last tour we did the amount of people who we know from bands they don't know about the

click thing and they've just said that's the tightest I've ever seen straight yeah last time I saw you my tightest for sure and I think you know I was no click that was no click then oh well I remember you weren't happy as well you had a sore wrist and I was like dude that was tight so that was in that was in that was Sydney, wasn't it? Yeah, factory theater. That was a good show. That was a good show.

I mean, I don't think I played well, but I think it was a good show. I thought you played well. You looked like you were in pain, though. I could tell you. Yeah, I fuck my wrist on that, too. But you pulled through. But I fixed my wrist now. Good lad.

My wrist is fixed. It's all good. But yeah, I think it's... So I was going to say something before about the click thing. Like, even if you had a straight click, like, you a human aren't it doesn't mean that you're going to play like locked in the whole time you'll still sway over that right yeah exactly it's like you go you can go in and out of it but it's like it's like having stabilizers on a bike yeah you're still riding the bike yes but there's just a

couple of extra wheels yeah keeping you from riding the bike at one angle yes it means you fall off and look like shit in front of thousand people there you go there's there's an analogy the old click oh my god tool just released their fucking album oh their album release date holy shit this is that's crazy you know what i was doing a podcast yesterday with daniel p k car we talked about tool we talked about real magic with a k right and at the end of it i said to him you know we're going to manifest some sort of tool announcement in the next 24 hours and he said no we're not and look what's fucking happened damn that's real magic that's crazy dude Can't believe it.

Well, in. Anyway, what we're talking about? We're still talking about drums. We're still talking about cliques. Where were we? Let's talk about what drums you play. Yeah, I play timer drums. Yay!

Which are mad, as you know? Same as me. Yeah, baby. They're the best. In Australia, I've got a straight Buebinga Star Classic, and it is the most filthy drum kit ever. It is so, so. Like I've never heard anything.

What is it? A Bbinga? Yeah, straight Bbinger. And they're not going to make these anymore as of this year. I just got a straight Bbinger. Did you? A good lad. How good are they?

Yeah, they're done. And my new kits is straight Bavinger and it's 24, 14, 16, 18. What the hell? 14 inch rack, my friend. Holy shit, how deep is it? Eight. Okay, wow. It's like a giant snare.

I'm an insane person. That is insane, dude. You should put it, you should dead set, put a throw off on the bottom of that. And it could be a gnarly snare as well as a time. That is kind of sick. I would try that. What's your setup then? Your set up's crazy, so let's talk about that.

It's pretty weird. I'm using a 22 inch kick. I used to use 20s a lot. I really liked the 20. but the last couple years have just changed over to the 22. Mainly I use the 20. He's gone bigger. Yeah, I've gone bigger.

Just because the 20, I could fit, I have such a cramped setup. And the 20 made it possible to sort of get the rack tom over a little bit more, over the bass drum because it's lower. But yeah, the 22 is the way to go, I think. I couldn't do 24, but 22 I'm really into. I'm getting used to it. Yeah. And then I got a 10 inch 10 by 8 rack.

14 by 14 floor, 16 by 14 floor. And I use a Evert's Nick Pedersen signature snare drum, which is like a custom Sydney company, which is so sick. It's such a sick snare drum, which is Tasmania and Blackwood, 14 by 7. And yeah, yeah, that's the shells. of what I've been using. On the new record we just recorded, that's coming out soon.

I used a 12-inch rack for some songs as well. I switched the 10 out for a 12, and I really liked that as well. I like how the 10-inch cuts, but the 12 sits better with the 14-16. I've been playing with this 14-inch rack for about two months now, that I saw a 10-inch Tom the other day,

and I thought it was an eight. It was like it warps your reality. My reality is fully fucking warped now. And I saw a 22 and I was like, is that 20? Yeah. I was like, no, it's 22. That's cute. Yeah, I'm in like...

You're going big, man. You're a big boy. He wants to go be in the drum world and in the gym. I just want to fucking, yeah. Just want to be juiced up. Everything, juice me up. The thing, the 24, right? if I just got one of those

Porter and Davies butt kicker things how's that mate you if you try one once it will change your fucking life that's what I've heard I couldn't believe it

I thought it was hype like that reflex pad I was like this is fucking hype and I played one I was like actually this is the sickest thing on earth oh my God yeah and then the this Porter and Davies thing I just a kid that listens to the podcast

was like, oh, I heard that you want one. I've got one. I don't really use it. You can have it for this much. I was like, what? So I bought it off as good. And it's incredible. So it's a giant subwoofer inside the throne.

But the mic goes through that. And it's just, you know, if you've got ear protection in or you've got your gates set too high or whatever, you can't hear those feathered kick drums. Like if you go, boom. You can't hear the first one sometimes. and then what I do is if I can't hear it, instead of going,

yeah, I know that happened. I trust my playing enough to know that happened. I just hit much harder for that first one, and it tires me out. Yeah. But with this, you can do the slightest little just tap on the kick drum, and because of all the low end, you feel it in your ass. It makes me play way more on and behind the beat as opposed to early. because I feel the action of the kick drum immediately.

Yeah, that's this, yeah, I should get on that. What about double pedal shit? Is it like bowel rupturing kind of material? It sometimes will overheat. Overheat the whole thing, so it stops working? No, it has tubes in it. What? It has tubes in it like a guitar out.

So when it overheats, it saturates and it naturally turns itself down. That is fucking cool. So when you play really fast, it gets less, less ruptuary. Drummers got valves now. Mate, it's incredible. Vowel me up. Give me some valves. You, it'll be perfect for your playing.

It makes me groove. You're a groove king and it makes me groove. The way I explain it, I'm not endorsed. I don't have to say this about the product. But what it makes me, everyone's trying to make me explain. it and I wish someone had explained it like this to me. Yeah. Remember when you're a kid, in your case when you were six years old.

Yeah. And you sat down on a drum kit for the first time and you hit a bass drum for the first time. Yeah. And it was like earth shattering. Like it rumbled your whole body. It was the loudest thing on earth. Oh yeah. And then you kind of just get used to that.

Yeah. It's like that again. It's like the first time you sit on a drum kit again and it rumbles the ground beneath you. Damn. You should be endorsed by these guys Because that was a That was an angle Well here's the thing

I messaged them Because I don't want to It's heavy I don't want to fly with it I'm messaging them to see if I could Maybe get a artist deal For a second one And they're gonna keep in America

Smart man And they fucking ghosted me Heavy How many times have been Got a nice ghosting there Savage I'm sorry to hear that They'll kick themselves later

They will I mean they won't Because I'm obviously I'm still talking about the product like it's amazing it is. Actually, no, say this. Say like whoever's listening and has been

completely sold by Craig's pitch. Then maybe in, you know, if you are going to pick one up, send them a quick email. Send them, send them an email of who got you onto them. Yeah. And then maybe that will turn them around. It was. Craig Rose from the Downbeat podcast. Yes, that's who

was. In the Pearson actually, while we're at it, while we're at it, Nick Peterson was there. I said it sound like cool. I haven't used it. I haven't used it. But give me, I mean, I could definitely try one out if you want to kind of hook us up. Do you know what? I've got like a fear of pronouncing people's names wrong on the podcast.

That in my head then I was like, oh my God, I've said his name wrong. Peterson. It is, it's Peterson like properly, because that's two T's Peterson rather than Peterson. But to be honest, man, my name never gets said right. Ever. Or spelt. So I did say it wrong.

You said it, you said Peterson. Yeah, you said it's slightly wrong. But that's okay. I fucked it. You haven't fucked it? I said it at the beginning of the podcast as well. That's okay. That's okay.

Because anyone else would say that. It's now, I totally don't even, it's not even a thing for me. I don't expect anyone to say Petterson. Well, I've fucked it. I'm going to edit it out of the intro. Okay, say it right now again and then just put it back. Nick Patterson. There you go.

Do you know what? I'm going to cut that and I'm going to put it into the intro. In fact, no, no, no, I can just add an intro on. I can answer this right the whole time. Ha ha ha ha. Technology. That's clever. You edit your drums.

I think my microphone's turned up way too loud. I just saw that clip, so I hope this isn't dog shit. No. I'm going to wrap this up. You're going to tell me your top five bands ever. My top five bands ever. Should have briefed you on that. No, I've listened to your podcast.

I was aware. I've listened to. Have you? Have you? Yeah, I have. He's done it. He's done it. He's done it.

You know when I've listened. I've listened to when I've been. laboring. So I was doing hard yacker in someone's backyard. Hard fucking yacker. Yeah, mate. And you guys got me through. Who was I listening to? I don't know who I was listening to. You, I was you and Tom. You and Tom got me through those couple hours. That was really nice of you guys. So thank you. Um, that's yeah. Anyway, that's what I do. Yeah, five top bands. Yeah. I'm gonna, I'm just going to throw a limp biscuit up the top because they were probably the most inspirational key point in my life where I all of a sudden had a favorite band and drummer and

wanted to learn heaps of songs. So I'm going to throw them up there at number one. Wow, number one. Yeah, I'm going to throw them up there. Just because it true, like, if I think of a band that inspired me, like, I think that was a point. I mean, you said top five bands, but like, I think it's kind of hard question because to me, what is the top band? Is the band, top band, the one that you listen to the most or the one that you might not listen to right now, but at a point in your life, if you hadn't have listened to it, you wouldn't be listening to the things that you're listening to right now. Yeah, that count. So that, that's why I hold that so highly. Second one, the misery signals. I am an absolutely misery signals sweater. Now, Brandon Morgan, the drummer

in misery signals, like the one I first heard of malice and Magnum Heart, like, and all the other records are all amazing, but just the way he approached drums was like, mind blowing to me like he was coming out of like metal drums he was coming at it from a completely different angle oh he nearly joined straight did you know that no way yeah dude i would he was in the running oh wow and they went with me to fucking god god wow that's huge in my opinion that's huge like he's so good man he's so so so he's so good he's so good that's your way of saying in my opinion they should have done that's that's your way of saying in my opinion that.

In my opinion, they should have fucking done that. He's one of my favorite dramas ever. Does anyone said that to me I'm going to go?

If you, if he, if someone threw me, if he was to join North Lane, say if he somehow came out of the blocks and then the Northland guys like, yeah,

sorry, Brandon's shit us up, said he's keen, I'd be like totally cool. That's fine. Yeah, but... I'm not saying you're bad. Is he kissing

Josh James for a funny video on the internet? I don't know. You tell me. That's how, That's how I get these things. Right, number three. Number three.

Number three, number four, number five. Okay, number three, uh, I'm going to say, Carnival. Yeah, fucking amazing band. So good. Another one that like totally blew my mind strumming and instrumental wise,

like the way they write is like no one else. If you haven't heard of that band, weird that a lot of people haven't, but if you haven't got it. It's not weird. They've got the worst name on earth. True, true. But they're so good.

They're so, so, so good so. I avoided listening to them for five years of everyone telling me to listen to them because I was like, Carnival! Are you fucking joking? There's no way I'm listening to that band because I thought it was going to be like fucking circus music. I thought it was going to be like ICP and then it ends up they're amazing. Yeah, they're unbelievable. No offense, Steve Judd, if you listen to this.

He came to a stray song. He came to a straight song. He came to a show and I didn't know it was him. And we flew directly into Perth. Yeah. And we played. And it might have been one of the worst times I've ever played. And then he introduced himself afterwards. And I was like, oh, for fuck's sake.

Why have you watched that gig? Oh, dude. We did a tour with them once. We did, like we supported them in Australia. It was just us and them. And this was back when we just released singularity. So it was like, you know, it was metal. And they are not metal.

I mean, they could probably slip into a metal show. But anyway, weird, weird. lineup, but I was flipping out because I loved Carnot all so long. I was like, we are not worthy. And as a, when I was a kid, I had a photo of Steve Judd, like, laminated onto one of my school books. I had a schoolbook with all my favorite drummers on it. And at the last show, he was laminated on. Yeah, bro, he was on there. I'd cut him out of, I don't know, where it was from. You know, he's amongst a couple of other drummers. And yeah, Josh, Josh Smith told him about it last show. He's like, yo, Nick, Nick used to have you on his schoolbook or whatever. And then I had to go

talk to him. I was like, dude, why would you do that? Oh. Come on, man. That's so savage. I mean, playing it so cool. Yeah, so I went after him. I was like, dude, I heard you, you know, heard you heard you heard about the school book. And he's like, dude, I was about to bring a schoolbook with photos of you stuck on it. And I was like, that's fucking funny. I would have flipped out. But yeah, carnival. Amazing. What's your favourite Carnival album? Oh, you've got to stay on that just for... Okay, well, the one that...

Obviously, when I heard, The Mato was the first one I heard, and I frothed on it, but I think the best one's Sound Awake. 100% Sound Awake is... Yeah. I mean, I really like the one after Sound Awoke. Oh, so good as well.

A-Cimetry, yeah, so, so good. But... The song that has the super chill bit with the ride bell that goes over the bar line. Do you know the bit I mean? I can't remember the name of the song. I can't remember the name here. But there's so many cool sections like that where they just, yeah, they're sick musicians.

He's a phenomenal drummer. Yeah, he's a wep. Absolute wept. Absolute wep. He's a wep. It's so fucking funny. I think it's called, uh, I think it's the song, the refusal, maybe. Okay.

I don't know. On asymmetry. Yeah. Or maybe it's AM war. I don't know. It's like half a few. and it has this ride bell pattern that goes over it's like groups of five or something I think lovely you know and then all right number four number five and then I'm going to the gym to pump

up these little boy shoulders into little men shoulders what of mine then if yours a little boy shoulders I have like toddler shoulders anyway I've got body dysmorphia carry on fourth one would be cloud kicker I could probably slip power kicker higher as well I think really yeah really into cloud Guga I think that's some some some some some of the drums that guy's written I don't think he knows what's that guy doing now I don't know who knows are we leaving him I've heard that he doesn't want a tour and stuff so he just writes he's kind of yeah I think he's done it too come on mate it's half the battle yeah yeah I definitely did a tour because yes I did that boy that boris guy that

filled in for periphery yeah he did the drums I think right okay yeah that yeah Yeah, it's because they toured with four or three in the States. Anyway, yeah, there's multiple great albums by Cloud Geekar. So just so many good beats. He makes like odd time signatures feel straight. Like he'll throw... I've never listened to it. Oh, bro.

Go listen to a song called... There's actually two songs. It's on the album called Beacons. And it's like, I think the first one's called, uh, I admit it. I was scared. And the second one's called, we were all scared or something like that. they're pretty much one song. One song goes into the next, but the beats in 11, but it doesn't feel like that at all. It's so chill. It's so cool. I'll check it out. Yeah. Okay, number five.

Number five, I'm going to throw in, God, I mean, like, like Michael Jackson was a big, big, uh, big guy for me when I was, when I was younger. My mom loved Michael Jackson, so I kind of grew up on that. Um, and there's so many, so many. Yeah. But. Yeah, yeah, controversial. So I'm going to say, I was going to say MJ, but I'm just going to throw, I don't really, oh, God, I actually kind of find it hard, but I'm just going to go off something that I listen to regularly and have done for years.

And that's probably the Red Shore. It's probably that album, Arroa Sivan Man, dude. Yeah, like, I've listened to that a lot and, like, probably too much. Like, it's the album when I'm feeling shit or angry, I'm just like, I only listen to this because this album gets me. I'm going to listen to it at the gym. Do it, man. It slams.

I'm listening to it in so long. The awakening and, um, there's another one. They slam. It's like blast beats, but head bangable. It's weird. Do you know who I love from fucking Tasmania? You know who I'm going to say. 12 foot ninja?

No. Sycroptic. Oh, psychoptic. Yes, do be honest, man, I'm not a big death meddler. Yeah, but the Red Shore is they took so much from Sycroptic. I know. But they were kind of like at the beginning of the Death Corps era. And I liked the Death Corps stuff more than,

I liked the breakdowns and shit over constant blast beats. And I kind of gravitated. It was a middle ground that really worked for me. So like, yeah, some of the death metal stuff is a little bit too much for me. Do you ever do? I mean, there's many, there's, I do regional listening. to music when I'm on tour. Okay.

So when I'm in Australia, I listen to a lot of North Lane. Yeah. I listen to a lot of psychoptic, a lot of carnival. Nice. And then when I'm in like, if I'm, if we're driving through like a certain state in America, I'll listen to a band that I know that's from that state. Oh, that's cool idea. And look at a window and imagine their shit.

I mean, there's another level of this where you can regionally wank to the, porn from the place that you're visiting, which is another level of that, which I can't you know, I'm not saying I've done that. I'm just saying that's a variation on the theme. Okay. It's like a, it's just a regional vibe.

Yeah, I get it, I get it. But give it a go, not the wanking one. Okay. Not saying I've done the wanking one either, but but like... The regional music. Okay, cool. If I'm in Japan, I'll listen to a lot a mono, you know, it just

it makes you think, like, oh, I'm going to be here. I wonder what band's from here. Oh, that band's from here. I'm going to listen to it. And then if you're looking out the window and you're bored on tour, you could be like imagining what they thought of, like, always listen to it. Like if we drive through fucking Des Moines or something, and then I'll put on the first Slipknot album. And I'll be like looking out the window and just be like,

yeah, that's why they fucking make this. That's a cool idea. I like that. Anyway, let's leave it on my cool idea because I need to get these little toothpicks bigger. Go get them. You know? Go get them. And I'm going to listen to the Red Shore.

Yes. This has been sick. Yeah, I'm glad we finally got to do this. Me too, mate. Thanks for coming on. We're going to do a fake goodbye, which is when we actually just press the space bar. Yeah. And then we'll sort of debrief.

Okay. Sounds great. Bye. Bye.