Whitesnake Drummer Tommy Aldridge - Interview

by Tina Whelski

Drummer Tommy Aldridge admits he’s enjoyed a very blessed career. He’s performed alongside the likes of guitarist Randy Rhoades, Ozzy Osbourne, John Sykes, Yngwie Malmsteen, Pat Travers and currently Whitesnake, who he’ll appear with at the Beacon Theatre on July 28.

“I met David Coverdale [Whitesnake frontman] when I was working with Ozzy touring in Europe supporting Whitesnake when Randy Rhoades was alive—in the good old days,” says Aldridge. “...David just out of the blue one day phoned me and we’ve been kind of hooked up off and on ever since…I’ve been really really blessed to have worked with some really really great guitar players and great musicians over the years.”

Coverdale qualifies as one of those exceptional talents.

“There are just a handful of guys like that in the history of the genre,” says Aldridge about Coverdale. “…He’s the real deal. It’s not somebody out there struggling to maintain the status quo. The guy gets better every year. It’s amazing.”

While Aldridge humbly credits some of rock’s greatest vocalists and riff players as inspiration, he feels equal admiration for the drummers whose well-written parts he’s playing on tour.

“There have been some really great drummers, Ian Pace, Cozy Powell, and Aynsley Dunbar associated with Whitesnake,” says Aldridge. “Even though I don’t play things exactly the way someone else would, I try to faithfully re-produce whatever magic was created in Cozy’s parts and particularly with Aynsley Dunbars because really the incarnation of Whitesnake that really set Whitesnake up was that 1987 record with John Sykes on guitar and Aynsley Dunbar on drums. It’s just a stellar record. Those drum parts could in no shape or form be improved upon…If I can’t successfully in my mind improve upon what’s there, then I won’t touch it. It’s the same with some of that early Ozzy stuff. When you’re working with someone like Randy Rhoades and he comes in with a guitar riff, like “Over The Mountain” the drum part is like built in. I really feel in a lot of ways how Mitch Mitchell must have felt when, not to compare myself with him, but when Jimi Hendrix would come in with some of those ridiculous guitar riffs or Jimi Page would come in with some of those unearthly guitar riffs, how inspiring to a drummer that is. Again, I don’t take a lot of credit for some of the parts that I’ve come up with working with Travers [Pat] and some of those guys. They’re just inspired by the riff you know? So you just sit down behind the kit and they kind of play themselves.”

Aldridge’s personal approach to writing is akin to “separating the weed from the chaff.”

“When I’m coming up with material I always overplay,” says Aldridge. “Like most drummers I like to play more notes than really are called for. I think it’s a complex from being constantly pushed to the back. We try to compensate for it by making as much racket as we possibly can. So I try to start simplifying things…We’ll throw stuff down in Pro Tools or something and I’ll listen to it and study it at home at night and come in the next day and just try to make it as simple as possible…The bottom line is really coming up with something creative that I haven’t heard everyone else play and it becomes ever more challenging with every passing year. Being the oldest instrument on the planet, it’s a real challenge to go in the rehearsal room and come up with something that’s different. It’s kind of daunting sometimes.”

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 7/27/05.

Tommy Aldridge performing "Here I Go Again" live with Whitesnake.

Judas Priest - Concert Review

Jones Beach
Wantagh, NY
June 17

“Breaking the what?” teased Judas Priest singer Rob Halford, his studded, leather glove to ear. “Breaking the what?” Then as we’ve been conditioned to expect after 30 years, all hell broke loose as “Breaking The Law” thundered from the speakers during Judas Priest’s Jones Beach show on June 17. What made the anthem more meaningful than ever however, was that it was revved by the definitive lineup of rule benders themselves, here on their first headlining U.S. tour since the release of 1990's Painkiller. With a new CD, Angel of Retribution (Epic), the band’s first collaboration in 15 years, lead guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, bass guitarist Ian Hill, drummer Scott Travis and Halford not only returned to introduce their latest sounds, but with a set list of classics tucked under Hellraiser garbed arms, its members were out to remind us that Judas Priest created heavy metal.

“Judas Priest is re-united bringing you more than thirty years of heavy ‘meh-tal,’” declared Halford with his signature exaggeration of the holy word.

Opening the show with “Electric Eye” Halford emerged mysteriously, his former serpentine moves more Godzilla-like now, but equally commanding. Stomping the stage deliberately in silver-spurred biker boots he raised tasseled arms in defiance, stretching his impressive vocal chords clear across Jones Beach. Halford’s range was particularly mesmerizing on “Diamonds and Rust,” where his wail pinched with such high pitch he seemed impressed himself. He expressed his approval afterwards. “Fucking great song, yeah? That’s going all the way back to 1976.”

Halford wasn’t the only one carrying headbangers back to their metal roots. The tones exiting Tipton’s and Downing’s guitars, although live, had that familiar, immortalized record quality. The dueling axe-men weren’t just recalling Priest riffs; the hard tones of their guitars hit you in the face flat.

Before “Living After Midnight,” Halford shouted “You know the song. Sing along.” Invitations were obviously not necessary for this affair, because everyone knew nearly all tunes during this hits show: “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin,’” “Turbo Lover,” “Metal Gods,” “Painkiller.” During the encore Halford, observing Priest tradition, emerged on his motorcycle to sing “Hell Bent For Leather.”

The double bass driven classic “Exciter” marked a turning point in the show, where the audience now fully mystified by the aura of sound, saw the band return to its youth. The players ran across stage lifted by a glimmer of the former Birmingham steel town lads they were when they began this chrome-laden musical quest.

Among Halford’s theatrics was the planting of a flag bearing Judas Priest’s crest. The former opera singer positioned it with ceremony and allegiance. Every empire needs its symbol, and it was satisfying to see Priest’s banner mark their role in heavy metal history.

Origionally published in The Aquarian Weekly 7/13/05.

Judas Priest "Breaking The Law" Video.

Breaking Benjamin - Ben Burnley Interview

BREAKING BENJAMIN’S BEN BURNLEY

TALKS ABOUT BILLY CORGAN, RAT TAILS AND REALLY BAD TV

The concept of a songwriting deadline was completely new to Breaking Benjamin’s Ben Burnley as he came off of the success of the band’s debut album, Polyamorous and into their sophomore effort, We Are Not Alone (Hollywood Records). Combine that with the fact that he was not only collaborating for the first time, but that it happened to be with one of his musical influences, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, and it was in the cards that Burnley was in for a “thrill ride.” Burnley talks to The Aquarian about working with Corgan on the now nearly Platinum record, how movies and TV factor into his songwriting (and laughs at the shows that didn’t make the tracks).

AW: There was a period of time in high school where you constantly listened to Smashing Pumpkins. What was it like getting to write with Billy Corgan?

BURNLEY: Well obviously it’s an amazing thing. Billy to me is like a living legend. We wrote really well together and the songs turned out really well, so it wasn’t just to go out there [to Chicago] to meet him. It was actually productive and we actually turned out something that was worthwhile.

AW: What made you pick Billy Corgan?

BURNLEY: I think he kind of more picked me (laughs)…We were pretty much a bottom-of-the-barrel band. A mutual friend of ours at the label hooked us up.

AW: What were those first few minutes like?

BURNLEY: Well, that’s funny because when I first went to work with him the first thing he said is, “O.K. Sit down and play.” So, I did…I played him some stuff I wanted his help on and then we got to work right away from there.

AW: How did you work off of each other?

BURNLEY: Well I had a basic outline of the songs and he was just able to say, “Try this” and I’d try it and then once the music was all said and done with, we sat down with it and bashed out the lyrics. He would come up with a line or I would come up with a line that rhymed with it or didn’t rhyme with it or whatever and we just fed off of each other that way. It’s really cool to hear Billy Corgan singing your songs. One time I came up with a line, and I can’t remember what it is, but he’s like, “I wish I would have come up with that.” That was cool.

AW: You wanted to write an album that was different from the first. Factoring in that you spent years experiencing what you wrote about on the first CD, and that going into the dreaded sophomore album you had time constraints, which was new to you, it seems pretty challenging to achieve that. What did you do try to make We Are Not Alone different than Polyamorous?

BURNLEY: Well a lot of that had to do with our producer as well because the first record I pretty much produced myself. We got David Bendeth (Vertical Horizon) to do the record. He didn’t really write anything. He just says, “Why are you doing this part here and why don’t you change this and write a new section here?” and so on and so forth. So that really changed the formula of how I write songs because the first record for the most part is a lot of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, end—kind of basic stuff. That does have its place and we do have some of that on the second record, but we just looked for different ways to arrange music. With the moods and music we’re also taking ourselves a little more seriously and being less fictitious with it. The first record doesn’t really have much to do with me at all personally. They’re just stories. This one is a little more personal to me.

AW: You’ve had a lot of success with the single, “So Cold,” now “Sooner or Later,” and you’ve been working the album hard by touring relentlessly. Are you surprised by the band’s success or did you know it was just a matter of time until it would catch on?

BURNLEY: Oh, no. We were all very surprised. Of course we think what we do is good or else we wouldn’t do it. It’s a known thing, but it only takes one song to get you anywhere and “So Cold” is what did that for us. We were just glad to get our foot in the door. We got a gold record from pretty much one song and now hopefully it’s going to place platinum. It’s just a thrill ride and we’ve been enjoying it. We never put any expectations on it, so it was a definite surprise, not only to us, but to our hardcore fans.

AW: Your song “Blow Me Away” is also featured in the Halo 2 video game. What’s it like playing to your own music?

BURNLEY: …It’s towards the end where you have to fight off all the bad guys. It’s just a sequence of it, but it’s still pretty damn cool to be associated with something like that.

AW: You have to fight off the bad guys to get to your music? So people have to be skilled at the game to hear you?

BURNLEY: No. They can play on easy (laughs).

AW: There was a time growing up you used to watch music and think, “Why do people even get into music.” Are you surprised that music’s now your career?

BURNLEY: Yeah. When I was growing up I didn’t like it and did not get it at all.

AW: What kinds of stuff were you listening to, or trying not to listen to?

BURNLEY: Well, you had hair bands and stuff like that, like Motley Crue. I’m not one of those guys that liked it. I never did. You know maybe when I’d go to the skating rink when I was like eight-years-old. My brother always would put it on MTV and I’d see the videos and I always thought they looked so stupid. I never got how it could be entertaining to watch that.

AW: Oh come on. You secretly wanted that hair.

BURNLEY: No (laughs), but you know as a kid I had a rat tail. [That’s a dear friend of the mullet].

AW: You did not!

BURNLEY: I did. Then I grew up and Nirvana came along and it was something I was actually entertained by. I just loved it for some reason, so I started to get into it.

AW: You’ve commented before that many rockers outstay their welcome in the industry. When does one reach that point and what is your career plan?

BURNLEY: I’ll write probably one more record, maybe two with this band. I think three or four records is enough. I was talking about bands like Limp Bizkit and Scott Staph from Creed. Nobody likes them. They’re just so annoying to me. It’s like, “You’re rich. You’ve got your money. Go away.” For me, I love writing music. I love performing now and then. I don’t really like being out on the road for months at a time, but if it got to the point where I’ve done what I needed to do and made my money, I’d be more than happy to stop and sit on a boat somewhere for the rest of my life, you know what I mean? Go fishing? Do everything that I like to do and not have to travel and all that. There are entertainers who force themselves on you and then there are entertainers that the public actually wants. It’s like Ted Danson with Becker. You ever see that show? See Ted Danson pays to have that show on the air (laughs) because he just doesn’t want to leave. We don’t want Sam Malone. It’s like, “OK Sam Mallone get out of here already.” It’s not one of those things where it’s like, “Hey. Did you see that episode of Becker last night?” “No.” You don’t sit there and go, “Becker’s on everybody!” They’re like, “So?” Joey too. You weren’t like, “Joey’s on!” “So what?” You know? With Friends, it was great. Then Joey comes along. Poor Joey.

AW: The object then is not to be Joey?

BURNLEY: Yeah. The object is to not be Joey. Yes. I’m all about the Johnny Carson thing and getting out while you’re on top. That’s what you should do before you spoil yourself, especially if you’re as annoying as Scott Staph.

AW: I know you don’t like to talk much about what songs are about specifically, but will you talk about them generally?

BURNLEY: It’s just a typical artist thing. I don’t really like to say what a song is about. It’s kind of known that I get a lot my ideas from watching movies, so if someone asks me what a song is about I’ll say, “Watch this movie.”A

AW: O.K. So if I was listening to your new album and I wanted to get insight into what you were thinking about on a few tracks, what movies should I watch?

BURNLEY: Well “So Cold” is 28 Days Later. “Forget It” is a movie called Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind…TV and everything else fills in the rest of the gap with the record. I guess that just proves that I don’t have a life and that’s all I do (laughs).

AW: Well at least you’re not writing about Becker or Joey?

BURNLEY: Not yet (laughs). That’s for the next record! Becker. What an awful show. It’s like comedy’s throw up…I don’t have cable at my house cause I’m not going to pay a cable bill when I’m barely there, but we’ll spend a week or two home every now and then, so I have to watch Becker cause there’s nothing else on.

AW: As TV also figures so prominently in your songwriting we should find out, when you do have cable, what do you like to watch?

BURNLEY: …I stay on the bus because we have a satellite dish, so all the movie channels like HBO and stuff. If there’s nothing on I’ll see if there’s something on Comedy Central or Cartoon Network. I like Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. Shit like that. That’s the one good thing about the road is I don’t have to watch Becker anymore. It’s funny because Ted Danson, when you see him apart from a show, he’s like bald and he’s really old. Then when he goes on a show, he’s like an android. He must have like twenty guys working on him. They give him hair and you know what I mean? He’s like Darth Vader, mostly machine now. It’s awesome. There’s so much garbage on TV to pick from now to rot our minds out.

AW: You know I have to watch it now. What night is it on?

BURNLEY: Unfortunately it’s on every damn night.

Originaly published in The Aquarian Weekly 7/6/05.

Breaking Benjamin performing "Sooner Or Later."

Otep Shamaya - Interview

Heavy Mental Rock

Whether you love or hate Otep does not concern front-woman Otep Shamaya, so long as her music provokes something in you. What the disturbing poet does obsess about, however, is a fear of that moment when she stops being a “pilgrim for invention.” Fortunately on House of Secrets (Capitol), her newest release and second album, there are no signs of her brimming imagination waning.

In her lovely, brutal voice she confesses that she doesn’t value her self-worth on anything other than how hard she works at being creative and that to be successful at art, you have to make yourself vulnerable.

On House of Secrets Otep’s distressing imagery pushes boundaries, forcing her various influences in art, poetry, movement and music to squirm until they create a cohesive, rhythmic outpouring of emotive sounds. Otep’s dynamic passages are violent, troubling and authentically felt. Whether she’s ominously singing “I don’t feel pretty today” in the title track “House of Secrets” or whispering “Surrender is your only hope” at the end of “Requiem” (after a disturbingly violent spoken word introduction), the messages seethe. With haunted visions screaming from its walls, this House constructed by Lee Rios (guitar), Doug Pelerin (drums), eVil j (bass), guest drummer Joey Jordison (Slipknot) and Otep is not for the faint of heart. In fact the band first captured the interest of the mother of metal herself, Sharon Osbourne, who offered Otep a third stage slot at Ozzfest 2001 after she and son Jack noticed the band performing at the Roxy in Los Angeles. A record deal soon followed.

Otep took a break on her Mouth of Madness tour to talk to WomanRock.

WOMANROCK: Otep’s music has been described as ‘Heavy Mental Rock.” Does that fit?

OTEP SHAMAYA: I think it’s accurate. Our music is a synthesis of many forms of art. It attacks the brain in a way that stimulates a very sacred experience from the emotional cargo hold of the soul. The music is sometimes formulated in odd meters, composed and arranged according to the instinct of the song. It has been described as avant-garde, a dissident cabaret, a total assault on the senses in the purest sense; A tribute to Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty. I don't mean to imply the listener has to be an art snob to understand or appreciate our music, but I think those that experience what we do understand it is not the same ole formulaic claptrap that congests the airwaves these days.”

WOMANROCK: You mentioned that for art to be successful you have to make yourself vulnerable. A lot of people are afraid to be thought of as weak, but your only fear is not being creative. Can you go with that idea?

OTEP: I am obsessed with the spiritual connection I feel when creating or performing. Having a dry spell or writer’s block or becoming stagnant seems worse than death to me. I want to evolve, polish my talents, whatever they may be, and give back to the muses a fitting tribute and sacrificial offering that allows me to explore every territory of art and invention that I have yet to discover. That gives meaning and purpose to my existence.

WOMANROCK: You describe yourself as a conduit, the conductor through which everything flows. Can you talk about bringing your art, poetry, movement and music
together?

OTEP: I think all creative people are conduits, sponges of experience, and once we are soaking with life, we must squeeze every drop from our swollen souls. I am still learning, still trying to awaken pieces of me that remain trapped in slumber. The movement is the message and the message is evident in the music.

WOMANROCK: You've said that once you broke through the gates of metal it was lonely not just because of your gender, but because of the overall environment. How did you counter those negative elements?

OTEP: The odds have always been against me. I actually kind of enjoy the fight. This is nothing new. We have made many friends in the aggro community and elsewhere that proves what we are attempting to do and the music we make is important. We have mutual respect with many bands but if or when we encounter some strange opposition we just focus on what we do, our purpose and intention, and then annihilate it with our live shows.

WOMANROCK: Certainly having support helps. Sharon Osborne was so captivated by your live show she offered your band a third-stage slot on Ozzfest 2001 before you signed a record deal. You had only formed in 2000 and this was only your eighth gig! What was it like having the mother of metal take you under her wing?

OTEP: It was overwhelming and an honor and validating and empowering. She is one of
the best people I know.

WOMANROCK: Interestingly you said you never performed in your life really, but that you felt compelled to try. Why? How did you prepare yourself?

OTEP: I'm not sure really. It was just an echo in my head, an itch I needed to scratch. I never really thought much about it. I was really focused on finding the right musicians and learning everything that I could about songwriting and singing. I was basically on the verge of being homeless and this just seemed the only alternative. Either use the muse or evacuate.

WOMANROCK: So you taught yourself to sing then?

OTEP: I’ve never taken a vocal lesson in my life…The only thing I ever did was went to this opera teacher who taught me how to use diaphragmatic breathing…With the amount of touring we do you have to. On our last tour we were doing six nights a week for seven weeks solid.

WOMANROCK: Can you talk about why you include the “You Are Not Alone” page on your website?

OTEP: The most terrifying place for me to be, other than being absent of creativity, would be isolation… I wanted to give people an opportunity in the privacy, and I guess anonymity, of the internet to have a place that’s sort of an oasis for people who may be experiencing depression for the first time. Or maybe they want help with managing their cutting or suicide, or whatever. I just thought it was important that people realize that lots of people go through these things and you’re not alone and here’s proof. I think it empowers people when you don’t feel so lonely…I wanted to give people an opportunity to connect…Sort of a support group for the counterculture (laughs)…Yeah, sometimes life hurts, but its the obstacles we overcome that define who we are.

WOMANROCK: The literary figure Sappho is a favorite of yours. Why?

OTEP: Sappho has been called the 10th muse. She was one of the most revered poets in all of antiquity, but only fragments of her work remain. They were destroyed mainly due to her gender and puritan morality. She changed the way we use poetry. She made it personal and that was very appealing to me.

WOMANROCK: Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison joins you on six cuts for House of Secrets and producer Greg Wells also worked with you. What did they add to the record?

OTEP: It was an honor to work with both Joey and Greg. We had so much fun making
this album. They brought elements of creative depth that I felt were needed for House of Secrets. I learned a lot from them and they both aided my creative growth.

WOMANROCK: What are you listening to right now?

OTEP: I have been listening to a lot of Mike Patton lately, Hole (1st album), Jeff Buckley, Corey Taylor, Kurt Cobain, Wu Tang Clan, Thom York, Cannibal Oxe, Mudvayne, Bloodsimple, Blackstar and a collection of spoken poetry from the Beat Poets, which is very interesting to me now as I have performed twice on HBO'S Def
Poetry and will be on an episode in early August.

Check out the band’s website: http://www.otep.com/ and tune into HBO’s late-night series, "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry” when Otep makes a return appearance August 5 (11:30 p.m.-midnight ET/PT).

Originally posted to WomanRock.com July '05.

OTEP video "Buried Alive."