### Tony Laureano

#### 14/12/05 || Lord K Philipson

We bring you one insane interview with somewhat legendary drummer extra-ordinaire, Tony Laureano. This piece can quite possibly be one of the finest coverages on this site and we salute Tony for taking so much time with it, making sure he’d grace us with one fantastic read. Fello staff-fucker Tom Ass joined me with some (drum-related) questions for Tony. And we didn’t quite go soft on him.

Global Domination: Good fucken morning Tony, or whatever time of the day it might be for you. Not only are you cool enough to come to the show we played this summer with God Among Insects at Gates Of Metal, but yer also cool enough to take the time to do this crap. Shouldn’t you be busy being a rockstar you think? Fuck knows I am.

Tony: Thanks, Guys, good morning to you as well. Yes, being a rock star of massive metallic proportions can be a burden sometimes, but you know, you just have to roll with it. Of course, one of the benefits of being a rock star is that you have plenty of time to sit about rock starring, which can be a tough job in itself as you always have to show your rock stardomness even when no one is around. Gotta represent, you know? It’s also cool because it gives me the time to do things such as checking out worthy bands like God Among Insects when I am playing metal festivals thousands of miles away from home. Oh yeah, I guess play some drums somewhere in there as well.

How the fuck did you end up with Dimmu Borgir anyways? It’s not like you were living door to door with them, or were you? Set the fucken facts straight for anyone wondering how come you joined the damn band.

I’ve known the guys for about 4 years, we’ve toured together on a previous occassion, and some of them knew of my work with Angelcorpse and Nile and they liked it. Basically, I was one of the first people called when they needed a new drummer after Nick. They eventually settled with another drummer that was much closer to them (Reno from Denmark), but apparently they weren’t overly happy with his playing. Then he did something that made it impossible for him to get his US Work Visa in time for the Ozzfest tour in America. Facing cancellation, they called me to fill in for a week or two while they tried to get Reno’s visa. They immediately flew me to Norway where I rehearsed only 2 times with them before we had to get back to the US to start the tour. Apparently they liked playing with me much more because they called the hotel that night and told me I had the whole tour and that they were sending Reno home. And that’s how I ended up doing a 2 month tour with 2 days notice and 2 rehearsals. Wow. 222. You think there’s some satanic context in there? Fuck it, I say there is. Just multiply it by 3, it’ll be alright.

Peter Forsberg is now in Philadelphia, you know this I hope… What’s yer take on the NHL? What team do you root for? Who’s the best damn player in the league? You have to agree with me that the NHL is fucken metal?

At the risk of unleashing the eternal anger of the Lord, I have to say I’m too metal for sports. Don’t watch ‘em, don’t know shit about ‘em. I have no take on the NHL, I root for no team, and I know fuck all about who the best player in the league is. I will agree that as far as sports, NHL is kind of metal, and they get extra points for having a team called The Devils.

So, I credited you wrong on the Nile-album I reviewed (to be found at the site somewhere). Thanx for pointing that out and shit. But seriously, shouldn’t that have made you aware that we know jack-fuck about nothing when it comes to metal? We can’t even get the correct info for the albums we review you know. Are you here to educate us in the world of metal?

Maybe I am, ‘cause that line-up was just about all wrong. Chief Spires (whom you credited as bass/vocals) had also been gone for a good year when we recorded that album, and my bud Jon Vesano did vocals on it. But, hey, it’s only silly details. You did the right thing and corrected the drummer issue in the line-up notes. That was the REALLY important thing.

If I asked you to play drums on the next The Project Hate album, do you think you could do it? I mean both performance-wise and for no cash whatsoever. Did you ever do any session jobs like that? What’s yer fee if you are asked to do something like this?

It varies, but the important thing when I do session gigs is that I like the music and I’m interested in doing the material, or if I’m doing the project with people I like. Otherwise, there is no point in doing it.

But I would very much be into doing some drums for The Project Hate, not only would I be playing with the fucken Lord K, but I’d also be working with Jorgen. He was in Grave, and Into the Grave and You’ll Never See… are some of the best goddamn death metal albums of all time, so yeah, it would be pretty cool. No cash? No problem. Just have plenty of booze, drugs, broads (but don’t tell my girlfriend…What? Oh, nothing, honey, we’re talking about someone else…), midgets, porn, midget porn, cigarettes, chewing tabbacco (just so I can fit in with you Scandos), and also make sure Stellan Skarsgård comes down so he can regale us with his tales of dry-humping Salma Hayek in the movie “Timecode”.

While some people said that yer performance (drumwise now) at Gates Of metal was flawless, some said that you were sloppy. I sat in the car when you guys played and from what I heard you did a good job for sure and I couldn’t pick out any mistakes from the backstage area so the question is… Did you play great or did you not? What are your thought on the festival as a whole and did you bother to checkout any of the other bands there? Did you meet any cool people? Any people you wanted to fucken smack on the mouth? How was the after-party anyways? Why the fuck weren’t we invited? Lemme hear some stories here, and make sure they are good.

Well, first off, God Among Insects was invited to the after-party. YOU are the one that didn’t show up. Actually, Tobias didn’t show up either, but Magnus and Elof did, and we had a roaring good time. Anders from Unleashed was there as well, and some of the other Dimmu guys, and a bunch of other people whose names and faces I don’t remember. I do recall a pretty girl coming outside while we’re polluting our lungs. Of course she then proceeded to show us she was no lady by repeatedly spitting between every 5 words she spoke, and finally saying she had to go to the bathroom, and didn’t want to go inside, so she pulled her pants down and squated right there in front of the hotel. Let’s see, what else can I remember…

Oh, wait, one of the guitar players from Children of Bodom hung out for a good stretch before he passed out, but that was not before he fell down in drunken stumble and hurt his back on a heater in a hotel room. I do recall that the look on his face told us that the accident was not pleasant. I, of course, was the reigning king, and never went down. For proof of my statements, I have photographic evidence that was taken the following morning before we left the hotel. It’s me with my drum tech. The corpsepaint hangover still apparent on areas of my face, as well as the classic bottle of wine in my pocket. (Thanks, Caligula!) Wow, lot’s of questions in this question. Plus, I seem to be going backwards as well. Fuck it, that’s kind of satanic too. People I wanted to smack? Hmmmm, there was one person that kept interrupting me when I was talking to Tobben backstage. I think he wanted to give with the smack as well, and I think the only reason we let the smackdown slide was because she was a woman, and, you know, that’s not gentlemanly. As far as the festival, I guess it was okay. I didn’t get much of a chance to look around as we arrived shortly before the GAI set, and I didn’t see any other band except GAI, and a bit of COB.

But wait, this whole Gates of Metal thing started with asking how I played at GOM. Okay, it was a so-so performance, nothing to write home about. I did fuck up a drumfill that starts out the song “Behing the Curtains of Night-Phantasmaghoria”, so that was mildly retarded, and since I was the only one playing, it was pretty obvious. And while I played the rest of that song, I was too busy cursing to myself to play a top-notch version of that one. Another thing that pretty much sucked is that about a third of the way into the set, it started getting really cold. Maybe it wasn’t too cold for you Swedes, but for a fella that lives in Miami, it was pretty fucken cold, and that didn’t exactly help in keeping the uplifting mood for an ass-kicking performance.

I can imagine you’ve been on quite a few tours in yer career… Tell us who the biggest assholes were so far and also who the nicest fucken bunch of musicians are, ok? Any band you’d never want to tour with again? Dreamband to head for a 6 month tour with? Yes, they’d have to have the opening-slot.

Well, I know you love hearing dirt of this type, but I’d rather not mention assholes. That type of talk can sometimes come back and bite you in the ass, and you never know when you may have some use for them. But the nicest bunch? I think I’m going to have to go with Strapping Young Lad. Yeah, I get along great with those guys. Six month tour with SYL? I am so there. Where do I sign up?

How fucken gay are drumsolos, really?

In metal? Über gay. Except when Max from Krisiun does them, then it’s okay because his are pretty fucken barbaric. I do have to admit to watching some of those drumming super-heroes go the fuck off. Guys like Marco Minnemann, Thomas Lang, and Virgil Donati are actually pretty cool to watch. Well, maybe not for you, but I dig it.

Are you a full member of Dimmu Borgir nowadays or are you just a hired gun? I’m sure you get some cash to play with them, care to tell me what the deal looks like? I’m fucken curious you know.

Nah, I’m just a session drummer, and I am paid for my services with unlimited supplies of corpse paint, and all the leather, studs, and bullet belts I could want. Unfortunately, it’s hard to wear some of that shit when I’m blasting away, so I usually keep that stuff to wear on a quiet night around the house when my girlfriend and I are watching a movie. I just have to be careful not to poke her in the eye with a spike, and make sure I don’t get any corpse paint on the couch. That shit is hard to get off the fabric, you know.

What was the reason for the split with Nile and how do you rank the guys who came in after you? Preferebly pna scale from 1-10, where a 10 is top notch.

Well, it boils down to the fact that I was not happy with the politics within the band. There were too many things that I thought were totally craptastic and not fair for everyone in the band, and I just wasn’t happy being in that situation anymore. I have never really talked about it publicly before as I was honestly quite bent about it for a little bit after I quit, kind of feeling as if I had wasted 4 years of my life being in that band, but it’s been a few years now, so I don’t mind shedding a little light into the subject. Basically, what really started the downward spiral was an incident that took place in the spring of 2003. We didn’t have anything going on between March and June. The only thing that was a possibility of happening was a tour with Danzig called “Blackest of the Black” that our management was trying to get us on, but it wasn’t looking like it was going to happen, as management was expressing some doubts about it. At this point, Malevolent Creation, who were friends of mine, and were the first band that I ever toured with back in ‘95, were asking me to do a month and a half in Europe with them as they were having some drummer difficulties. I really didn’t want to take 3 months off, so I agreed to do their tour, but I told Nile that if the Danzig tour came up, that I would scrap the Malevolent Creation tour.

So about a week before I’m about to leave for Europe with Malevolent, Nile gets the Danzig thing, except now it’s no longer a tour, it’s only 2 shows. Before anything else, I’m figuring that we’ll fly to California, do the 2 shows, and come back. So rather than blowing out a whole tour for 2 shows, I come up with the sensible solution to do the Malevolent tour, and then skip about a week in the middle of it so I can fly back to the US and do the Danzig shows, and then fly back to Europe and finish the Malevolent tour. But I was told that the plan was for Nile to set up some quick dates in secondary and third markets so we could do shows to and from the West coast where the Danzig shows were going to be. First off, barring anything else, I thought it was a dumb idea to set up solo shows (as it only would be Nile and local acts) with only 30 days notice in markets that were already weak even when we rolled through with plenty of advance notice and a complete touring package. Knowing that the extra shows would be really weak, and if I didn’t go with Malevolent they would have to cancel the entire tour, I asked that the extra shows not be booked, and said that I would fly over from Europe at my own cost, and come to do the important shows.

While one member of the band whole-heartedly agreed with me, the other two guys and management shot down my proposal and started questioning my loyalty to Nile. That REALLY pissed me off because some time before that, another member of the band that shall remain nameless (but is still in the band today) decided that he didn’t want to go on a fully booked month long tour of Europe with Hate Eternal, Incantation, and Impaled, and cancelled the whole thing 2 weeks before the start of the tour without talking to anyone else in the band about it, and it was just swept under the carpet. Meanwhile, here I was asking to not do some minor shows that were not booked yet with credible reason,and I was getting crucified. So, anyway, for those shows they took another drummer who, according to the rest of the band, had a tough time with the material, and as I predicted, everything but the Danzig shows and the one other show I agreed to do were utter crap.

That incident totally opened my eyes and I saw all of the hypocricy that was going on, and that basically opened the flood gates for all sorts of other bullshit that had been simmering in the background to be brought to the forefront. I became really disillusioned, and I started thinking about leaving the band. At the insistence of our frontman Jon Vesano, I made a last ditch attempt to fix things. We had a meeting, and we talked about everything for hours, and I said that if things didn’t change and become fair for everyone, I would leave the band at the end of the touring cycle. I was told this would happen, but it never did. I even waited another 6 months, but it just never happened. So I left, and only then did I hear musings of how we could have worked things out. Too little, too late.

Since then, I’ve just been doing various different things. I’m doing recordings with four different projects (Insidious Disease, Aurora Borealis, plus two other ones that don’t have names yet), and on occassion I do live shows with four or five other bands, so I’m keeping myself quite busy musically. I am really enjoying the freedom to do all that, and I am not in any rush to hook up with another band on a more permanent basis at this time.

As for my opinion on my replacement, I can’t say how he’s done in the band as I haven’t heard the new album or seen him play with them. I have seen some videos from his old band, and he was doing some cool shit there. But obviously the guy must be killer if they bothered bringing him over all the way from Greece.

You fucken played with Angelcorpse as well at some point. What was that like? Reason behind the split? I know that J (formerly of Grave and Entombed) loved you guys and when he played you to me I dug the shit quite a fucken lot. Any chance of you going back to play with them if this new deal doesn’t work out?

I loved playing in Angelcorpse. They were one of my favorite bands, that’s why I joined them to begin with. The band got little overall recognition, but Angelcorpse were one of, if not the first band to kick-in the über high-speed aspect into death metal, way before Hate Eternal, Nile, and many others. You can’t even say Morbid Angel did it with Formulas Fatal to the Flesh because Exterminate was recorded at the same time, and as much as I like Formulas…, I prefer Exterminate, and I can say that objectively because I wasn’t in the band at the time. Plus, Hammer of Gods was recorded in 96 while Morbid Angel was touring for Domination, which isn’t exactly a high speed album, so really, Angelcorpse was just going for the high speed sound from the get go. Let’s be clear here, though, I’m not talking about Angelcorpse being the first band that did blasting death metal, because Morbid did that in ‘89 (and, no, Carcass and Napalm Death don’t count because they were more grindcore than death metal at the time) I’m talking about the constant high-speed boost in death metal that is very apparent today.

Anyway, the reason we broke up is because Pete Helmkamp’s (bassist/vocalist) then girlfriend and future wife was attacked by some degenerate while we were on tour, this incident forced him to abandon the tour we were on (quite understandable, under the circumstances), leaving us to finish out the tour with Alex from Krisiun doing the vocals, and upon returning home, he announced that he didn’t want to tour anymore and he was going to leave the band. He gave us his blessing in getting a replacement for him, but I didn’t like the idea of doing it without him, as he was an integral part of Angelcorpse, so we opted to break up instead of continuing as a lesser version of the band.

I would very much like to do Angelcorpse again, but only on the condition that we write brand new material together. The reason I say that is because a few years ago, we started talking about playing together again and doing a new record, but the guitarist (Gene Palubicki) wanted to use a mix of old material that we had written for another project we did with some members of Cannibal Corpse that never came to fruition, and some other material that he wrote by himself, none of which sounded like Angelcorpse to me. It had shades of Angelcorpse, but it was downtuned, technical death metal, and it lacked the harshness of the Angelcorpse sound. More importantly, it was written with virtually no group dynamic, unlike the other albums which were put together as a band, and it didn’t feel right to me. I suggested that we write all-new material together, but Palubicki kept resisting this, so I just lost interest in doing it. But as I said before, if we can get together and write brand new stuff, I would love to do another album.

You played with Aurora Borealis at one point (or two) as well… That’s seriously some of the worst shit I have ever heard. As far as I know, you are not playing on the album that I bashed some years ago, thank fucken Satan. One of the losers in this band decided to jump onto our forum and cry like a bitch about the review. How not metal is that? Are those guys seriously this sucky or is it just pure talent? I think you just recorded another album with them in 2005. Why? You can tell the guy(s) in the band that we despise people who can’t fucken take a bad review. But we love them becoz you are cool.

Haha, yeah, well, I guess some people can’t take negative criticism. Personally, if someone doesn’t like my playing or an album I played on, I don’t give a fuck. Doesn’t bother me in the least. You think I don’t get shit for playing with Dimmu Borgir? Man, I see people crying about it all the time on the internet. Do I care? Fuck no. I do what I do because I want to do it. I totally appreciate the fans of the bands I’ve played in and the fans of my drumming, but I’m not about to ask their permission to play with this band or that band. So why did I do the new AB album? Well, aside from the fact that the guy can be a bit touchy, I like Ron and I did his first one, and was interested to see what could be done if I put forth some of my influence into the music. If it makes you feel better, I don’t really like that album that you reviewed either, but I like some of the other ones. That said, I think this new one is the best Aurora Borealis album ever. Will you like it? Maybe or maybe not. It’s much better than that last one. It’s not an entirely different band, but there’s better songwriting, better playing, and the production is pretty fucken good. But I will tell Ron that you now love him because I am cool.

Without cheating, what’s Peter Forsberg’s jersey-number?

666?

Are you better than Nick Barker? Are you playing his Dimmu-stuff as he created it or do you add yer own fills and shit to it? I must say that Nick is a damn good drummer from what I know, then again, I’m a fucken guitarist and knows shit about drums.

Better, schmetter, whatever. Nick’s a killer drummer, a good friend, and I’m proud to be playing his drum parts. I mostly play the stuff like he did, but the Dimmu guys have encouraged me to add my own thing to the songs, so I’ve mixed a bit of my style into the drum parts. Also, I give the songs different dynamics since I don’t trigger the entire kit like Nick did (I only trigger the kicks), so my drum sound is more natural, and allows me to do some more accenting on the drum fills.

Is there a chance you would wanna join our forums at Global Domination? Ours look much better than yours you know, and also, we host some of the best fucken bands in the world there. Is it frustrating to get the same questions on yer forum over and over again? How many times a day do you wanna tell the kids there to go fuck themselves, seriously?

Well, whenever I start getting a bit inflamed about something I read there, I remind myself that some of them are very young, so that helps the blood pressure go down. But they are a good bunch of people, and I’ve gotten to know a few of them rather well. I do need a few mods , though, someone to lay down the fucken law in there when I have my back turned, as I have had a few instances where the fire hose has had to come out. As for joining the GD forums, maybe. But I don’t know about yours looking better than mine. I have that blue thing going, and it gives off a cool, minty vibe, like spearmint gum. I don’t get that minty fresh feel from your colors. But I do like your emoticons, rather ingenious, those. I had to sign up just so I could use them.

Do you wear corpsepaint with Dimmu Borgir? Is corpsepaint metal? Is Dimmu Borgir metal? Is Dimmu Borgir more metal than Angel Corpse? What’s the definition of metal or you?

Yes, I wear corpse paint in Dimmu. Is it metal? I don’t know if it’s “metal” metal, but it is black metal. And Dimmu is most certainly metal, and they cover many aspects of metal. I know this because with them I have to play all sorts of metal drumbeats from blast, to double bass, to straight up Twisted Sister beat, and so on. They have it all. But is Dimmu Borgir more metal than Angelcorpse? No, that is impossible. No one can be more metal than Angelcorpse. Angelcorpse was the only band I’ve ever been in that collectively did not like sports. That’s pretty fucken metal. A couple of the guys were SO metal, that even after they moved down to Florida where I was living, they never ever wore shorts. No matter how hot it got (and believe me, it gets very hot in Florida) these guys flew the flag of metal by always wearing long black pants. You want to know the definition of metal? Here it is… Any of a category of electropositive elements that usually have a shiny surface, are generally good conductors of heat and electricity, and can be melted or fused, hammered into thin sheets, or drawn into this… oh, you mean music metal…. How about Motörhead, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden with a bit of Merciful Fate thrown in?

Most drummers seem a bit weird and confused. Why is it that people have that notion about you guys? I played drums for 9 years myself but never considered myself the least weird and confused. Do drummers deserve the reputation they have?

Wait…. What?.... I’m not sure what you’re saying….. Seriously, though, I don’t really know. Some of them actually get off on people seeing them that way. Kinda dumb, if you ask me, but hey, to each their own. The only times I feel weird and confused nowadays is when I take a puff of Holland’s finest. I used to do that shit a lot, but I’m mellowing out in my old age, and rarely touch it anymore, so it knocks me the fuck out when I do it now.

Do you have any special routines that you perform before going on stage? Maybe a small sacrifice to Satan in form of a kitten, 10 minutes before the show? Something at all? Or are you just the regular drummer who warms up, blasts, drinks and crashes in the hotel-room/bus/igloo.

Nah, I’m pretty normal. I just do some warm ups, maybe drink a Red Bull if possible. Hell, sometimes I don’t even warm up, I just have a Red Ball and a cigarette (if I’m smoking that month). Although I have to admit to admit that I don’t mind a good bruhaha (after-party, Nachspiel) after the show.

We are going to end this with a bunch of completely drum-related questions (not really, but fuck it), becoz you are a… drummer. There is always constant argument among extreme metal drummers about the use of triggers and technology (Pro Tools etc). What’s your thoughts on this? Do you consider it cheating?

The thing about about triggers is that they are a tool to help your sound be clearer. They’re not going to magickly make you play better, and in reality, it’s harder to play with them since any mistake you do make is clearly audible. The only way triggers might help a drummer “cheat” is if he hits the drums softly, as the triggers will make the hits sound powerful and consistent, but music is obviously audio based, it’s all about what you hear anyway, so how much you can say that using triggers is cheating when the notes are being played correctly is relative.

Personally, I only like to trigger the bass drums, as I love a good natural drum sound. I don’t care if it’s the best trigger unit in the world, nothing is going to sound as good as a drum that is perfectly tuned. The thing with the bass drums is that 1) it’s very difficult to get two bass drums to sound exactly the same, and 2) most times, double bass at higher tempos sounds like ass through a PA unless it’s triggered. To get a good consistent sound for double bass without triggers you need good soundgear (speakers, compressors, gates, etc.) and an excellent soundman, and even then, as the show progresses, the drummer will start getting tired, and while he may continue to play perfectly, the power of the strokes on the faster parts won’t be as strong as they were at the begining of the show, and there’s not much a soundman can do about that, because if he tries to raise the parameters for the kickdrum sound on the faster bits, as soon as the drummer comes back to a part with a slower tempo, the kick drums will be too loud because now the drummer will be playing with his natural power. With the triggers, it’s as easy as getting them to sound good, and that’s that. Consistent sound all night long.

As far as the snare and the toms, I don’t like to use triggeres for those, as they just tend to sound fake and, to me anyway, lifeless. However, on the new Aurora Borealis, a sample was mixed with my snare drum just to make the sound thicker. Initially, the playing was very consistent, even at the higher tempos, and even now you can hear the natural snare over the sample. The only reason it was used was because the sound of the snare itself was a bit thin. And that’s a perfect example of using the tools of technology to help the overall sound of the recording. There’s no cheating about it since I still hit the drum with volume even on the fast parts. The thing is that no matter what, that snare drum was never going to sound like it does now without the sample.

Another touchy subject is Pro Tools. First off, it’s a recording system that is widely used, and as it’s name implies, it’s a tool to make recording easier. It’s actually an incredible piece of software, you can do so much that would be impossible with the old tape machines, none of which have anything to do with cheating. One aspect that some consider “cheating” is that now you can punch-in with drums, something that was previously near impossible to do. But is that really cheating? I don’t think so. They don’t call it cheating when vocalists, guitar, bass, keyboard players do it, so why would it be cheating on drums? Personally, I don’t think you should look at a studio album like a live album, unless that “live” vibe is what you want on your recording. The only way you could call something like that cheating is if it’s something that one couldn’t possibly replicate in a live situation.

Ultimately, recording with Pro Tools (or any similar system) is like making a movie, while recording without it is similar to rehearsing theater in the case that it’s more “live” but you can still try another take, while playing a live show is like a live theater show where you only have one chance to do a good job. When making a movie, even the best actors don’t nail things in one complete take, they do multiple takes, and they are edited together, and they do all that to make the absolute best movie possible under the circimstances, and to me, it’s the same with music, the difference being that the best musicians can both make the “movie” and do the “theater”.

Any current metal drummers that you’re impressed with? Some overrated ones not worthy of the exposure they have gotten?

Hellhammer is always killer, I like Dirk Verbeuren from Scarve/Soilwork, Derek Roddy is doing some cool shit with his band, but I’m really into old school thrash drummers like Gene Hoglan, Dave Lombardo, Dennis The Menace, Paul Bostaph, and others like that, as well as guys like Bill Ward and Nicko McBrain. As far as overrated, can’t really think of any, since I find something good in most drummers, so I don’t really think in those terms.

Are you happy being a “session drummer” or would you eventually like to settle into a more permanent setting.

Well, my last band experience really soured me, so I’ve been happy just doing various things and being a full-on session player. It’s cool in that I have time to do various different projects, and I can schedule them fairly easily as opposed to having to turn down stuff or having to work things around a band schedule, so I haven’t exactly been in a hurry to join another band. That said, I do consider things that come my way, but if I’m going to make a permanent move, it has to be a band I like and a situation I can be happy in. Otherwise, I might as well just keep doing my own thing.

Do you have any “horror stories” as far as forgetting songs/dropping sticks, things falling apart on you?

Well, there’s the afore-mentioned fuck up at Gates of Metal. I drop sticks ocassionally, but I’m pretty good with keeping things together with one stick, and I’m a quick-draw with picking up another one, so if I do drop a stick, it’s barely a hic-up.

One horror story I do have is of a show I did with Malevolent Creation in 2003 in Holland. We had partied the night before, and the whole band was extremely hung over the next day. The bad part is that it was an early show, and it was a “festival” tour, so some of the bands flipped slots daily and it was our turn to play first, which meant we had to play around 4 in the afternoon. I was trying to do anything and everything possible to shake the hangover, but nothing was working as what I needed most (time) is what I didn’t have, so I went on to play one of the, if not the most horrid shows I’ve ever played. The simplest of beats took so much concentration to play, it was like trying to drive a car while drunk knowing there’s a police car on your ass, where you’re trying your absolute hardest to keep it together while not letting on how fucked up you are. It was bad, man. Apparently I did an okay job of fooling the cop, as a lot of people didn’t notice, but I knew how bad it really was. That’s what I got for partying REALLY hard on tour, which is not something I do normally. Thankfully, the band wasn’t pissed either, because they were utter wrecks themselves, so they didn’t fare much better than I did. Definetly not behaviour that I would recommend.

I can imagine blasting away every night on tour can take its toll on your body, are there any particular rituals you follow to keep your self in shape to pull off such demanding drumming night after night?

Nah, I just play the material. It really is second nature for the most part. Sure, sometimes one is bound to have an off night, but the thing that bothers me the most is cold temperatures. It’s hard for me to keep things consistent if I am cold.

Do you see yourself playing metal the rest of your life, or can we expect something non-metal in the future. Well, you do some stuff with Aurora Borealis so I guess the non-metal thing is answered. ZING!

I’ll play whatever I want to play without any apologies. I love metal and I’m sure I’ll always play some sort of metal, but that doesn’t mean that I will always exclusively play metal. For example, a guy I’ve known since 1994 plays guitar in Andrew W.K.’s live band, and he was trying to get me that gig as the touring drummer. Andrew ended up sticking with the drummer he had, and Dimmu Borgir asked me to do the festival shows, so nothing ever panned out. But had I gotten the call, I more than likely would have done it. Now, I know some of the fans of my drumming who just read this probably had their jaws bounce off the ground just now, but what’s the big deal? So what if I had gone on tour playing on something like that? I would still be doing Insidious Disease, and the rest of my death/black metal projects. It’s not like I would have stopped listening to fucken Autopsy if I was playing for AWK.

I think some people worry too much about that type of shit, they take it like some sort of personal betrayal. I can understand their outrage if their favorite evil and brutal band all of a sudden starts adding a blues-rock element to their music and they start doing ZZ Top covers, but I really can’t see why someone would get pissed about someone doing a country music project on the side if they want, while keeping their evil and brutal band evil and brutal. Seems a bit misguided to me.

What do you like better/what kind of drummer do you think you are… Live or studio?

I like both, they each got their pros and cons. Live, of course, is really fun, except when you have to play outdoors in fucken Sweden and it’s cold as fuck. GRRRRR!

Was there ever a time in taking on a live project/recording where you felt it was too much to take on and wanted to quit?

Only when I had to tour with people I no longer wanted around me. Nothing worse than being stuck in a bus for weeks on end with people you don’t even want to look at, let alone have to interact with on some level or another. Other than that, never.

How often does your set-up change as far as cymbal types and adding toms are concerned, what is the difference between (let’s say) your Nile set up and your Dimmu Borgir set up?

I try to change around from band to band depending on what I need for the music. For example, since Angelcorpse only really played at fast tempos, I only used 3 rack toms and one floor tom, and I used small toms (8”, 10”, 12”, and 14” floor), but Nile had some slower, heavier parts, and a lot of rolls, so I added a 13” rack, and a 16” floor in addition to what I already had. With Dimmu, it’s almost the same set up, but I use 2 ride cymbals to do all the Barker tricks. I used 2 rides back around ‘95-’97, but then I started doing less technical stuff, so I dropped the second ride. For other things, I go down to 2 rack toms, and one floor tom. The cymbals usually remain the same, with minor variations sometimes. But ultimately, for me the set up changes according to the project. This is also a good way to get used to playing different set ups, and not get stuck in the rut of only being able to play a certain way. I know some drummers that almost have nervous breakdowns when they face the prospect of playing a kit that’s a bit different than how they normally play their own.

What performance recorded or live performance are you most proud of?

I don’t really think too much about that, because I see the flaws more than anything, and I always want to do better, but if if I had to pick, I’d say Angelcorpse’s “The Inexorable”, and Nile’s “In Their Darkened Shrines”. I’m pretty proud of those in that I tried to at least bring some creativity in a high-speed environment, which is not nescessarily the easiest thing to do, as well as pushing the speed envelope for extreme metal.

Where do you see metal drumming going in the next 10 years,? Faster? More technical?

Man, that’s really hard to say. On one end, you could say that it couldn’t possibly get any faster, but some people have been saying that for the past 20 years, and it obviously has, so I don’t know. I do know that the level playing will continue to improve as more drummers keep pushing the boundaries. And you have to know how important pushing the boundaries is, just look at that beard you are sporting. Is that where I’m staying if I come over to visit you?

Again man, thanx for yer time. Make sure to keep in touch now and lemme know if you need someone to write riffs and songs for Aurora Boulebais. We at GD officially love you for doing this.

How can you not? To not love me IS a crime. Thanks a lot for an entertaining interview, fellas. Maybe I’ll get to come back and do another one if you mofos like some of the other projects I’m doing. And, no, K, I don’t mean Aurora Borealis, ya nitwit. Although, you should check it out, ‘cause, you know, I rule. All right, horns up, and keep rock starring ‘til you drop.