Drumtalk: Joey Jordison

c.2017

INTRO 1

JOEY: You did Billy Cobham?

Q: Yeah 

JOEY: That rules, man. Spectrum is one of my favorite albums...most favorite albums. That's just legendary man.

INTRO 2

JOEY: Hey everybody. My name is Joey Jordison. I'm from the band Vimic, and also been playing in a band Sinsaenum, and here just touring over here in Europe. Like, we're completing our tour, got like a few more days left. It's been an amazing run, and thank all to the fans for all your support.  

ON VIMIC

JOEY: Vimic is actually out of the ashes of a band called Scar the Martyr, that I did for a while, and basically we parted ways with our singer, and our guitar player and our keyboard player. But you know, there's still, you know Kyle, and Jed and Matt that actually filled in like the last part of the Scar run. So I changed the name, and we went in the studio and you know, recorded 'Open Your Omen', and I did it with one of my best friends, you know, that replaced our old vocalist in Scar, Kalen, that I toured with when I was in Korn. And like yeah, he's been an amazing, you know, asset to the band. He's just a killer vocalist, so we finally got the right line up, so it feels real good.

ON DRUM LOVE

Q: There are many things I love about drumming. The simplicity of one heartbeat, that's all you need, to move, to dance, it's just this (claps hands together). It's the oldest instrument we have. And you have the most complex Terry Bozio stuff. The thing is, it's just your instrument. It's not a guitar which everyone plays. No, this reflects your personality. So I love this ambivalence from absolutely primitive to super complex and very personal. This is what I love about the idea of drumming, but what is yours?

JOEY: Very similar. You know, the thing is, the simplest beats, you know that, you know rock music or any music has been formed on, sometimes actually can be the toughest beats to execute and perform, because it's really easy to not respect a simple 4/4 beat because people always want to play fast, and sometimes a lot of drummers will try and rush into, you know, the technicality of like if it isn't fast, or I'm not faster than this guy, or faster than that guy, that you know, I'm not a good drummer. My advice always is to start very simple, and master like your timing, and you know, the most simple, simple beats that you can, and you keep elevating from that. Trying to go right in from playing fast all the time is not necessarily the best way to go about it, because if you don't have your foundation locked, it's hard to progress, because it's very hard to go back. So, I know a lot of drummers that just went into speed, and they have a very hard time locking into just a really simple groove, and it's...it's really weird, so I'd say start from the ground up at the basics, and move forward from there. I mean, that's the way I did it anyways, but it worked for me. That's all I can really say.  

Q: It's so much space you have to fill at the right moment, with the right...I mean, and then you have to think about dynamics, and you realize that for guys, that like Dave Weckl, they have like one hundred different steps of loud or soft, and you have maybe like four or five... 

JOEY: The thing is, you know, playing simple. I mean...I would spend...if I was to give advice to s starting drummer...everyone wants to play fast, I mean, that's a musician. They...you know...you want to be the Eddie Van Halen, you want to be the Dave Lombardo, and I understand that. And I was like that too. But I realized that when I just kind of hand to sit down and really get like the meat and potatoes of like what the drums really meant, because the song was the most important thing. Once, so I went to like kind of a rhythm and blues and jazz instructor, and I started studying jazz for a long time, and just like straight up like basic rock and funk, is like how I started. And just learning rhythms. Even though I was listening to a lot of metal at the time, and I wanted to like you know, get into the thrash stuff, and I was only doing that on my own time, but as like as far as like studying everything I started really basic, and without that, I don't think I'd have the chops that I have today. So it really helped me out a lot, so that would be my advice.

Q: Sure, doing things that are not necessarily fun in the first place. 

JOEY: Yeah, their not fun because you know, you wanna go crazy, but I mean there's the discipline of like, you gotta realize that if you don't have your chops right, the songs not ever gonna be right, because it's you know, your songs are not drum solos. It's wide open. That's the best thing about music, it's like you can do anything you want with it, but always learn your basics first. 

The thing is, never lose sight of like what you were saying...this is what I would like to tell people, like kids starting out, you're gonna progress. Always practice, but the thing is, I encourage kids to do is listen to an entire like catalogue of different music. Even if you don't like it a lot, you know, stick with what you want to play, but never be scared to venture out, and try to, you know, just learn or adapt to different styles of music, because it's gonna really help out like where you end up, like in your career. If there's something that like it's challenging for me, I like to like attack it and like try and get out, and like see if I can uh, you know, make you know some sort of sense out of it. It always seems to help, no matter like if I master it or not, it doesn't matter, it's always like what did I learn, you know, this time and like where am I at? So that's what I'd like to like tell kids and everything about like you know, when you're listening to music like never never be scared to go out of your comfort zone.  

ON HEALTH

JOEY: The thing is you don't know. You never know. With me, I would never lose my sight of music like music is actually, you know, what really got me through a lot of it, because I'm like, 'there's no way this thing is gonna beat me. There's no way that I'm not gonna be back out on tour. There's no way I'm not gonna play drums. There's just...it's not gonna happen. You know, and I'd ask the doctors and stuff like that, and be like 'You know gonna be able to walk again, and you know, and play drum"s, and like honestly the doctors look at me, and they wouldn't be able to tell me and from that moment I knew I was gonna beat it, and I was not gonna like let anything like stop me.  

Q: Yeah, at the same...there was a doctor who was say like, "Your hand, you won't be able to change your career". (?) (Note - interviewer has an excellent command of English, but this does not always translate well - I think what he wants to say here is that he had a hand injury and was told he would never drum again) It was like "What the fuck".

JOEY: Yeah, I'd tell him to fuck off man. That's not cool to say to someone. Not whatsoever. 

Q: How did you do it? Maybe have you tips for me?

JOEY: Yeah

Q: How to stay in focus, or how to... 

JOEY: It's a difficult question, because I can't tell you how to feel the way I did is I took myself back to before everything happened like in my life and my career. Like, why did I play music in the first place? And uh, it's cos because like it gave me a place to belong, even though you know, I had a bunch of killer friends you know when I was growing up, but I was very much kind of a loner because I was sticking to music constantly, and I just knew that no matter what, I was gonna do that. You know, I could not live the rest of my live without still playing drums, still forming music, and when you have the music flowing through you like that, you have great support of like you know, your family and your trainers, and like your lady, you know and everybody that's behind you, especially your band members, you know. There's nothing that you can't accomplish, and you know, I got back stronger than I ever have been man. I've been playing better now than I have in years, because all I do is practice, because I don't take it for granted anymore. I don't take it for granted at all anymore man. Like, I'll be up at 4 o'clock, still playing...four o'clock in the morning and still playing, and getting yelled at from my lady upstairs, telling me to shut up and everything. But I don't even know what time it is, because I've been playing for six hours straight. But, uh, I enjoy now in my life, playing more than I ever have, because it's like, it just feels you know, different than it did before, because like sometimes you know, you are in a groove to like to were it does become a routine, even though you love it...  

Q (interrupting slightly as Joey is going a little off tangent): It becomes a routine, even though you love it?

JOEY: Yeah, you do take it for granted a little bit, and then. I think it was the best thing that honestly ever happened to me, is...it really was...as much as it sucked, and how hard it was, you know I got myself back, so like you know, I'm really thankful for all the trainers and the doctors and everything, and my lady, and just, you know, like inner strength and I got back man.  

Q: So sometimes these obstacles can be a blessing?

JOEY: Yeah, they are. Yeah, they absolutely are, man. And it might not seem like it at the time, but as they say, you know, sometimes life takes you down troubled paths. Not to hurt you. But to cleanse you, and put you down the right path, you know? So I think that's really what it was. 

ON EXPLORING

JOEY: You know, all music is different. The fact is like, I always, you know, said, 'You'll never learn to play it all because it's impossible, but always strive to'. Never, you know, count a certain type of music out. That's why, even if there's a certain type of music that I don't necessarily like, I'll still sit down, and you know, I'll play along with it, trying to figure out, you know, exactly like, you know, what their perspective on music is and like where they're coming from, and trying to understand like what they're trying to say, how their composer is and stuff like that. Just like when I was playing like in Grade School, or Middle School or High School, and playing songs that I didn't necessarily want to play, but how much it taught me. You know? And I was like, we flipped on that. Like, you know, I don't want to play this song, you know, I'd rather be playing, you know, obviously something different, but you know I stayed in, you know, band and stuff until, you know, for Fourth Grade until I graduated and of course went on out of state, you know, jazz contests like when I started playing kit. You know, in Fifth Grade in school, I was playing kit before that like at home...yeah man, it's just...just trying to just expand like your horizons because like, like I said like if there's like a certain type of music that you don't necessarily like, but there's something to be learned from it, definitely study it. Even if it takes just like twenty minutes or thirty minutes out of your practice time, you know, you'll learn a lot more than you think.   

Q: Yeah, I focused my drumming because I lost the time. So I know I'm bunch of practices, but always five minutes, and you have to do the five minutes. 

JOEY: Yeah, absolutely. 

Q: No matter what...

JOEY: Yeah, exactly. It's like you know like when you go to gym and like they make you warm up when you just want to go and like you know, just get your exercise on, you know like "I don't want to warm up, but I have to." (laughs)

ON EYE-OPENINGS

JOEY: Oh there's been...man, there's been a ton, it depends on like eye opening to what. What's cool about making music is like when you create a record it comes from somewhere, and when you're connecting with people that you see eye-to-eye on and they're feeling like the same thing that you're feeling or you're feeling the same thing that they are, like you can climb tons of musical mountains with it, man. And the fact is, the best reward is when you get out there and you throw it out to a bunch of people they catch on to it, and they throw it back and they've been listening to it for a long time, and you come, you know, like especially all the way over here, and you get like a crowd reaction, you know, sent back to you like through songs that you wrote in your basement. I mean that just shows you the power of music, and like you know, how it can move people and move nations if it, you know, even if it could, it's...it's a real powerful, real powerful thing.  

ON CROWDS

JOEY: There's always a connection. I don't care. Like, take the barricade, if you're talking about festivals and stuff like that, (we just for back from South America with Megadeth), we're dealing with the same type of thing. Those kids, and those fans, I don't want to say 'kids', cos it was all ages, they were so insane, man. It just felt like they were literally on the stage with you...it didn't matter...the barricade didn't matter, like all the security didn't matter. It was absolutely stunning. Like you know, those shows...and the same things happened, like all over Europe. When we go to Japan, when we go to Australia, Canada, the United States, everywhere that we played is just, you know, all the fans they react like a little bit different, but it doesn't matter because they got their own culture and that's what's the best thing is about touring, you get to go to all these beautiful places and meet so many different types of people, you see how like their culture reacts to your music, and just music in general. It's a real special thing. 

ON 100%

Q: What were your ways to get at least 80% out of yourself, because there is so much stuff happening for you, probably you can't do the same 100% every evening.

JOEY: No, you can't...but I mean like, uh, the thing is, you don't have to play at a hundred percent all the time to get your passion across, or still have one of your best shows. We played...I played shows where the band's been spot-on perfect, and the audience just hasn't totally been there, and we played shows that we've maybe been like at a you know like of a grade like maybe playing like a C+ because we've been on tour for like eight months straight, and the crowd is absolutely ballistic. You know, like we might not even be feeling it. Then you get sick on the road. You get cold. You get the flu. You know, then you get stuff that happens at home that you have to deal with. You know, being on the road is not as easy as it seems, and it's it's very taxing on the body, and on the mind, so unless you're really cut out for this, and like your belief in music and what you want to do and what you want to portray as far as like giving something back to the music that meant so much to you when you were growing up, it might not be for you, because it is hard. It's very very hard work.  

Q: This thing on the stage man, this is the easy part...

JOEY: That is totally the easy part, that is like...that's basically like you know, you spend all your day, you're doing all this other stuff, you know, they're still taking you...you're away from home, like miles and miles away from home, and you never know what's going on there because you know you got your families, and you know, you know everything, and there's stuff that always goes wrong when you are totally far away, and you can't do anything about it because you are on tour, but you know, no matter what, I would not change one thing, man. I would not change anything, it's been a blast this whole time, and I'm very thankful for it."

ON PERSONALITY

Q: What is it that shines through the most of your personality on your instrument? 

JOEY: I think it's just if you...just the fact that me stopping on stage and sitting down, connecting with the audience. I always take a real hard look and try and see as many faces as possible, or count a song off, just to try and connect with everybody really quick, even though I don't have a lot of time, but I can do it, you know, between songs and stuff like that. I always, like go out and watch a little bit of like you know, the opening bands and everything, just to get a vibe in the room and see like how it's you know, how it feels out there and everything just to kind of let it soak in before I go on stage, and when I get up there man, it's kind of like in a way...first of all it's a celebration, and a thank you, but then once I sit down it's almost like a blackout, because I kind of just like, as soon as the four count happens and I go into it, and the head banging starts, I just kind of zone out into like another world. I don't see much, you know. I try and focus as much as I can, you know, between songs to communicate with kids and stuff like that, but once I start it's pretty much in a different galaxy. 

Yeah, there's a passion. I know I won't ever mention names, but I mean, I know a ton of bands that are...that are huge, (and you all know 'em too), yeah, you know not necessarily the tightest bands, but their shows will always go over well, because the passion they put into it. Like, rock and roll is not supposed to be perfect. It's not. It never has been, and it never will be. There's bands that are, and sometimes like when you see bands like that all the time that are spot-on like note-for-note perfect every night, it's almost kind of like watching the same movie every night, so it's kind of like, gets a little bit boring after a while, so I kind of like bands who are a little bit more off the cuff, a little bit more unpredictable. 

ON MUSICIANS

JOEY: Well, the thing is, a lot of people, like through life, they're gonna change regardless, because that's just what life is, and it's always gonna throw you two different curveballs and stuff like that, and people...you...you...I mean, no-one's always gonna always be like on the exact same page. You can be on the same page and make it work, because there's always got to be compromises in bands, but you can't control anyone's life man, they're gonna do what they're gonna wanna do, but the thing is I mean that there's tons...there's tons of musicians in the world, and then the more people you can play with, I would totally suggest that because you're always going to learn something from someone that can help you out. I'm still learning from people, you know, like...and like it's helped, it's still helping me out immensely. You know, I'm like crossed over into my forties now, and I'm still learning tons of stuff that I didn't even know. If you start thinking that you know everything, and realize that you don't, so the more experiences you can get, you know. That would be my best advice. Play with as many people as possible. Always try to learn as much music as possible, even if you don't like it, and even if you don't take lessons and you are self taught. I'm self taught actually, and then I started taking lessons again, and just...just to get someone else's perspective, and it helped me out like crazy, man. I cannot believe it, you know. I would just want to show me that, man. I don't know as much as I thought I did (laughs). You know, and it's tremendously, you know, just helped me out a lot, and I've learned a ton of stuff so L love learning from people.

ON FAREWELL

JOEY: Thank you guys very much. I really appreciate that. That was awesome, thank you very much. This is Joey Jordison, I'll see you on stage tonight, and if I don't see you on stage tonight, I'll see you very soon. Thank you very much.

Q: Was it cool for you? 

JOEY: Yeah, it was great. It was great.