I filled in for Papa Roach because we weren't doing much. Unwritten Law had a few more shows booked, but I got the call to fill in again at the end of the year. I was like, "I have to make myself available to these guys."
I'm the drummer that kind of plays more on top of the beat.
You always go in with the intention of playing your best and knowing the material you're auditioning.
I have known people throughout my years of playing where maybe they had a gig, but then lost the gig because they didn't really move forward with them.
But being energetic in my playing is something I've always thought was the right thing to do. Like I'm never forcing it, like "My God, I've gotta play so hard tonight!"
I mean that's something we're very conscious of when writing. Tempos are very important. Like "Oh we can't play the song too fast because people aren't going to feel it." There's a pulse to a song. You can't play it too slow. We're always trying to find the perfect tempo.
Papa Roach is actually a band that's great at playing arenas. Not every band is suited for that environment. But besides the huge energy you guys bring, the songs are very grand and anthemic. "Kick in the Teeth" being an example as a song that's made for huge crowd sing-alongs, not tiny little club shows.
Papa Roach are not just going to take tours just to take tours.
After doing those Mötley Crüe and Nickelback shows where the demographic is a little older, Papa Roach got a lot of fans from those tours. And now we have parents saying "Yeah my kids are into you guys!" It's cool.
We[ Papa Roach ]'re always trying to get bigger and bigger. It's weird because I wasn't around when they sold millions of records. Now it's just always about "OK what new people can we get to." We're trying to package up with younger bands like Bring Me the Horizon or Of Mice and Men. Those bands always get talked about, because their demographic is so young. But, actually we are seeing a lot of younger people at shows which is awesome.
When a label is throwing money at you, you have to recoup it.
When I joined, they were like "Woah, dude!", because I came right out of that type of playing. But obviously with P. Roach there's more groove. I like doing those slower big fills, but I also like injecting some of that punk rock urgency. But I definitely need to mix it up, because if I was playing all fast fills all the time, it just wouldn't work.
The band that I was I auditioning for, they were just all like, dreads and stuff, so I did look kind of out of place. But I had learned the material and it sounded cool as f**k when we were rehearsing.
I was still doing the punk thing, but also playing in some indie bands, I had a less crazy hairstyle.
We're striving to stay in the arenas. We [Papa Roach] had just little things that just took our show a step up and were so stoked for that.
