A Day with Josh Freese

I'll be honest: I'm terribly late in getting to this.

So on May 10th, I spent the day with Josh Freese. Who's Josh Freese? A badass drummer, nice dude, and all around great guy. You've most likely heard him play drums before.

I hooked it all up through this special series of packages he had for his previous LP, which included a lesson, hang time and a snare. But I got so much more.

With that said, Josh and I are both super busy dudes. It took over 6 months to find one day, one single day, that we could both get together. BUT! We finally got it together.

I bought my tickets super last minute, because I'm an idiot basically. The flight there had a layover in Phoenix, but I sat next to this really great business woman from TREND publishing. We chatted and had a great conversation; definitely the best flight conversation I've had with a stranger. She and my friend Mike White from DeadlyDesigns were almost more excited than I was!

I land at LAX finally and get my rental car. I begin my trek down the 405 to Long Beach, now realizing that Avis left the passenger rearview folded in. Nice guys. Then I get to be the sketchy guy at the hotel checking in super late at the night window. I attempt to get some practice pad time in, but I just collapse after I realize its around 3 am back in GA. Sleep.

The day has arrived. I wake up super early (FOR ME) local time. 8 AM. I get clean and make it to the continental breakfast that I was all "I'll never get up in time for that BS!" As soon as I finish my glass of juice and I'm throwing away my trash, I get an email: "Don't eat too much. We're gonna have brunch with Joe Escalante. See you at 10:45. What street is your hotel on?" Looks like Lemmy is gonna be STUFT.

10:37 - Blocked Call
Me: Hello! (enthusiasm!)
Josh: Hey man, it's Josh. I'm real. I'm actually coming. I bet you were like "man I hope this guy shows the hell up!"
Me: well, your assistant did email me back to the total of 40 emails, so I felt good about my odds.
Josh: Gnarly man. I'm on my way. I'm in a weird color Prius. See ya then!

He rolls up at exactly 10:45. Gives me the hang ten and I hop in. We talk about where I'm from; which apparently he was misinformed that I was from St. Louis! We talk about random stuff and he starts to tell me his Atlanta story, which then fragments heavily into about 7 other stories. I get a short tour of a section of Long Beach as we roll up to Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles. Josh is wicked excited about this place. He always tries to eat here, but something has ALWAYS gotten in his way and this will be our first time!

For those who don't know who Joe Escalante is, he plays bass in The Vandals, is a lawyer, a judge, and a bullfighter. Yes. No lie. I asked. He's also one of those guys who is so funny that he makes you feel completely unfunny. We all order the Carol C. Joe also rolls the dice and gets a PIT BULL energy drink, which we guessed had booze in it, as it was in the booze section. It didn't, but it was stated to provide a 'refreshing lift,' to which only Joe can speak for.

Josh and Joe talked and shared stories about people I did and didn't know, which was ultimately super entertaining. We talked music business and what we've been up to. They asked about my name and what I do for a living; my answer of I'm a drummer seemed to surprise Josh. Complete with ripping on musicals, we discussed what I'd been up to. And finally our chicken and waffles had been defeated.

We parted our ways with Joe and headed to Glendale. What's in Glendale? Drum Doctors. This was quite a long ride, as Glendale is north of LA and Long Beach is about 25 miles south of LA. We talked a lot about drums, what we liked playing, drummers we enjoyed and generally told ridiculous stories. He asked me a lot of questions and was very genuinely interested in what I do, which is pretty awesome because he's Josh Freese. He could easily have not cared if he was a douche; he is not a douche.

We roll up to Drum Doctors, which is the premier drum storage/carting/rental/workshop in LA. Everyone that works there is wicked nice, especially Ross, the owner. When we roll up, a guy is loading some drums and Josh exclaims "those are my drums!" What he meant was, they were his drums, but ended up back at DW and Dave Elitch picked them up. Dave is an awesome dude; super nice, amazing player, really funny, and gives Dominick Howard lessons. Yes, the dude from MUSE. Ross turns over Dave's repaired snare and Dave is on his way to rock!

This place is a drummer's heaven. There are all kinds of kits set up
-A teal sparkle Trixon kit that Steve Jordan loves and always tries to buy
-another Trixon kit with their funny bass drum
-another Trixon kit that looks exactly like this
-a weird percussion kit that had a lot of brazilian-esque parts, and the kick, which was a percussion thing (I think a surdo?) sounded more like a Bonham kick than any other kick I've ever heard. Oh yeah, and it had a 24" or 26" china. Rock.

There's two big racks of snares, drums stacked high in the warehouse and cases everywhere. Abe Laboriel Jr keeps his stuff there. So does Joey Waronker, complete with his Trixon Conical kit. Jim Keltner's Korner is MASSIVE and amazing and a wonderful playground of amazing things. Josh and I got down to business finally and started packing his set for A Perfect Circle rehearsals for their upcoming Ohio gig. This is also where he picked up the snare that would become mine, complete with a Shhh gesture so Ross wouldn't know! Ross and Josh told hilarious stories about many famous drummers and it was hilarious and amazing. I could live there. Ross also has a lot of kits he's customized. Check out the Drum Doctors site for some more pics of amazing gear. Harvey Mason had some gear picked up whilst we were there and Steve Jordan had some gear, but I'm not big on pictures of EVERYTHING heh.

Josh and I call it a day at the Doctors and head back to his house in Long Beach. We talk about teaching lessons and other challenges of being a for hire player. I ask him a lot of questions and he always answers them straight up, which is quite refreshing.

We make it to his nice little home in Long Beach. It's a single story home that's one street from the beach with a studio in the converted garage. We go in for some water and I meet his kids and wife, who is a photographer that takes great photos. After meeting his two year old, we head out to the shed. I get to play the kit that's on the DW poster in my teaching studio! We discussed what to work on in our lesson since he didn't really know where I stood as a player. I told him I wanted the STRAIGHT UP STUFF. Meaning, if I sucked or had some weird thing that I shouldn't, that I wanted to know. I was a big boy. I played a couple of songs that I play with bands or have recorded to see if my feel is good mostly. He really digs "Dirty Talk" by Monahan and we talk about composing the part and how you have those times in the studio where the person knows EXACTLY what they want or they have no clue and everything between. I get very high praise from him, which I can't express how much of a confidence boost that is. We then start showing one another stuff and playing songs. He plays some "Hot For Teacher" and some NIN tunes. I play some dope beats I like and a Portishead song, which the name eludes me. We're out there doing drum stuff for what seems like 3 hours; it was killer man. We talk about reading music and musicals and jazz and everything. He tells me his story and I tell mine.

We finish up our lesson and we take his oldest and the aforementioned two year old to his oldest's school band concert. It was awesome and we had a great time. Although, we did almost have a serious diaper emergency. For those at home, he's got FOUR kids. He told me the story about when he found out about the 4th, and that was very entertaining.

After playing with the two year old outside the school while Josh goes to find the elder, we roll back his pad. Now, it's goodie time. I get the hookup on some CDs, t-shirts (including a SUPER rare DEVO shirt), and I get my snare. He signs the head and hands it over. It's a frickin' DW Super Solid Shell with a black matte finish. That he's recorded with a lot. And loves. It's amazing.

I give him my great thanks on the way back and he drops me at the hotel. We talk for a few more and then he's off to a dinner meeting, which I think was with JR Robinson!

All in all, it was a chance to meet one of my big influences and he did not disappoint. He could have easily done it by the books and fulfilled his obligations, but he went way above and beyond. He customized the day for me since I was drummer and we had an awesome time. It was amazing to get to meet his family. He and his wife work hard to be great parents, and it really does show. I'm sure that seems like a load of BS coming from an unmarried with no kids drummer, but I deal with a lot of kids and parents. They really work hard for them. It was nice. He was a super cool guy and I can't express how awesome my day with him truly was. It was an experience I'll cherish forever. Thanks Josh for being you and encouraging everyone to be themselves.

Here's two vids of the two shows that I played the snare (with the signed head) at!
WATCH EM in 1080p SON!

http://youtu.be/nGiaT3ekdHE

http://youtu.be/VVM-FOCbrAA


*UPDATE*
Here's the first recording that was done with it, it's the track "Knives"
http://www.misfortune500.com/demo.html