I’ve always liked to be the kind of drummer and musician who likes to go outside of what’s expected of me.
No matter how much success you’re having, you can’t continue working together if you can’t communicate.
Live life to the fullest, and focus on the positive.
The fact that Eddie Vedder likes to play 3 hour plus shows a night, I have to be ready for that.
The music has had a certain quality that people like just because it’s a real true expression of how we are as musicians.
I always loose a little weight on the road, so I constantly have to be on top of my nutrition and hydration.
I try and stay limber, swim, run, ride motorcycles.
I’m always going to get more of a charge playing Chicago than I will Duluth or some place like that. Just because of the history and the people there are way more knowledgeable than a lot of other cities. It’s an amazing music scene with some great bands and great musicians.
A lot of times, when a band finds success with a certain style or sound, they have a really hard time breaking away from that to grow as artists.
I’ve talked to some drummers who seem to have a very hard time staying in shape on the road, including some drummers touring with high-profile acts that don’t have to live on fast food every night.
In my last band, Soundgarden, I had a couple of different drummers sit in on some stuff and it was fun for me to kind of take a break and watch the band.
So, I just kind of played the way I played and then eventually we kind of figured out what worked best for the band. So, I definitely changed my stuff up and I think we’re playing really tight now.
For me, I just try to make sure I eat enough and drink enough water and that’s about it.
Creatively, I thought we were still viable and could do more records. But our working relationship just wasn’t happening at all, and our chemistry as people broke down because of that.
Ben was more improvisational, and relied less on methodology, and basically is a guitarist who switched to bass, whereas Jeff has a more traditional approach to playing bass in a band, and has a great sense of what his band sounds like, and we lock up nicely.
I guess by taking lessons early on, and really trying to play all the rudimentary stuff, and try to have it sound as good as my teacher. It took a lot of practice, which I enjoyed, and still do.
I think it’s really important these days to be able to relate to how the music flows and be able to speak the same language as your bandmates and the producer, rather than just talking drums.
Little things can make such a big difference during recording.
When I first went on tour with PJ in ’98, I was still in shock having gone through the Soundgarden break up.
My recording career has luckily run the gamut of recording environments.