Ask The Expert - With Jimmy Chamberlin - Part 2

Ask the Expert - with Jimmy Chamberlin

New JC interview;


More coming soon, apparently: http://officialmusicunited.blogspot.co.uk/?view=classic

'Another' [...Be Specific] Interview with Jimmy Chamberlin

Over at the Washington Post thus;

...You're just going out on short tour. Are you thinking about a full tour later?
...There's lots of ways to put a band over these days. Doing it 200 people at a time doesn't make a lot of sense to me economically, spiritually and energetically. It doesn't add up to what it used to. You used to go out and play to a thousand people and look at [sales figures] the next day and see that 800 of those people went out and bought the record ….For me the idea of going out for two, three years to build a band in sweaty nightclubs, having done that for most of my life and being in my 40s now [is untenable]. It's not that I don't enjoy playing, but I think three good ideas are better than 50 shows ….Part of the reason I left my old band is because it was all encompassing, and I didn't have time for my family. It's just a different set of values.
When you say your old band, do you mean the Pumpkins or Zwan?
No — I was talking about the Pumpkins. Part of the reason that I left the Pumpkins is because it was becoming all-consuming. Being the only member of that band who had two kids and a wife, it was a hard decision, but ultimately it was a decision I'm comfortable with.

Was it hard to decompress from being a Pumpkin? There must have been a level of post-traumatic stress involved.
There was no post-traumatic stress, but there was a level of decompression. It took a while to be like, okay, I do have a family, I do have two kids and a wife. From the start of [Pumpkins album] “Zeitgeist” to the time I left, we had been full tilt for three years. When you have a four year-old son, that's 75% of his life...

 

Jimmy Chamberlin - Songwriter

Putting the Sophistication back into Society

Check out the full interview, over at Songwriters on Process,  right >here<

Selected morsels >below<

On Skysaw; With a song like "Sad Reasons" on this record, I sat down in my office and just played the song from start from start to finish on my guitar... It didn't involve a lot of process other than making myself available to what was going on around me. That song in particular was a telling exercise because I was interested in how it would change over time after I recorded it and again after I delivered it to the band.  But the first version I laid down in my studio in the basement is the one that made it to the record."

On Tonight Tonight; "...the muse can take many different forms. Ideally, the greatest gift it to be hand-delivered a song from the cosmos and have it be the version. Billy Corgan often writes the same way. Like with "Tonight Tonight," he said he just woke up one morning, went down to the piano, and played it. And much like with a lot of those drum parts that happened in the Pumpkins, the first time he played it for me, the drum part you hear is the first drum part I thought of."

On playing the guitar; "I'm not that sophisticated of a guitar player to be able to come up with ... the riff of the century."

On Tolkien, Thelonious Monk and Mark Twain; In the arranging and production of songs, when I'm building them from the chords up and putting layerings of production in a song, I want to feel like I'm building this Tolkienesque world of music that's available to people on many layers... Thelonius Monk was always good at playing something that on the surface appeared simple, but as you delved deeper you realized that the chord structure on which the melody was based was so complex.. The idea behind playing the drums is to play something simple enough so that people can rhythmically attach to it, but as an artist my job is also to satisfy myself with a sophistication that exists within the music.  Mark Twain invites you into his world with seeming simplicity, but once you get into his writing, you realize how complex it is.

 On Zeitgeist; When I was with the Pumpkins and we did  Zeitgeist, it had been almost seven years since we made the album before it.  So having to go and play that style of drumming again, I was often I was at loggerheads with myself because I was saying, "I don't really play like this anymore..."  It became difficult to mine that stuff from 1996 and relearn how to play like that.  It would be like writing in the style you did when you were a sophomore in college.  That would be difficult since you've moved on...

Again, go check out the full thing. It's rather insightful indeed.

Interview with Jimmy Chamberlin - Dynasty Podcast

CVU86 - Jimmy Chamberlin by DYNASTY PODCASTS

In this, one of the last ever Local Q101 interviews (?), Chamberlin talks about the current state of the music industry, touring, the future of Skysaw and more.

Interview with Jimmy Chamberlin

Chamberlin talks Song-writing, Skysaw and Smashing Pumpkins

Over at "The Swerve Magazine", apportioned here;

TS: How is the collaborative process with Skysaw different than with the Pumpkins?

JC: With Smashing Pumpkins we were primarily working on the work of one writer and the rest of the band was in charge of arranging the material. With Skysaw everyone kind of writes. Everybody brings songs in and we all work on each other's songs. It's really more of a band situation. More of a collaborative effort insomuch that everybody; myself, Mike Reina and Anthony Pirog, are all songwriters. With the Pumpkins, it really got to the point where Billy was writing so much material that that's all we really worked on.

TS: You wrote a lot of the music, and then brought Mike in the handle most of the lyrics, is that right?

JC: Mike wrote all the lyrics on the record, and that's not to say that there's not lyrics that I've written for the songs that I wrote, because some of the songs on the Skysaw record have alternative lyrics. I have always felt as a musician and a song writer that, unless it's a cover, if it's a song that Mike's going to work on, I feel he should have an investment in the lyrics and what the lyrics are saying. Obviously, for me to tell him, "Here's the lyrics, I want you to sing about this uncomfortable experience" . . . I didn't want to do that to anybody [...]

TS: After working with Smashing Pumpkins where Billy Corgan is the frontman in the spotlight, what is it like to shift into more of a leadership position?

JC: [...] I feel like being in the Pumpkins was a harder job than being in Skysaw just because I had 20 years of legacy to uphold all the time, and I felt like I had to be a certain kind of person to be in that band.  That necessarily wasn't the person I had become as an individual. With Skysaw it really gives me free reign to be myself and not have to deal with any preconceived notions of what the people in Skysaw are like. Being in the Pumpkins, you are a Pumpkin, so to speak. You go to work. You put that hat on, and you become that person. With this, it's a lot more open and I feel it's more representative of how I feel day-to-day.

TS: What was your inspiration in writing the Skysaw album?

JC: It's just asking yourself, "What does my life sound like now?" If I don't want to be in this situation, and I want to create something new what does that new situation sound like? And I think once you go down into your studio and pick up a guitar, you start to figure out, "Okay, this is what it sounds like. Now I can expand on this and kind of take it to the next level."

I found myself with a bunch of songs and needed and outlet with which to purge myself of those songs, and that was really Skysaw.  I go through cycles. When I write a bunch of pop songs I have to find somewhere to jettison them so that I can move onto the next thing. The same thing with the Complex. I found myself being drawn to a lot of early 70s prog/jazz fusion, and in writing that stuff it was necessary to find a vehicle in which to jettison that stuff.

Anyway, go and read the whole thing - tis worth it.

The Answer to Your Question, the Answer to Your Guess...

Jimmy Chamberlin and Mike Reina talk SKYSAW, Smashing Pumpkins, Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, SP Archives and... Mike Byrne

Special thanks to John Prinzo we've got a couple of your questions answered below.
Check out his site or the suburbanapologist.com for the full interview. The whole thing is most definitely worth a read.

The typical trajectory of a band starting off is to tour then record – how does it feel to turn that concept on its head?

MR: It’s interesting to construct tightly wound songs and then go looking for the places where they can stretch out a bit live.

Who put together the orchestral arrangement on “Am I Second?”

MR: Jimmy wrote the orchestral arrangement, Anthony transcribed it and we recorded it at my place.

How many songs have you recorded as SkySaw?
MR: Eleven – I think and demoed probably 12-15 others.

What was Roy Thomas Baker’s involvement with the record?

JC: We worked with Roy early on.  Jimmy sent him “No One Can Tell” and asked if he wanted to be involved.  He loved the song and came out to my place to work with us for two weeks.  After the first two weeks we decided to remain insular and produce the record ourselves.  We started from scratch and continued working together as we had previous to our stint with Roy.  He was hilarious, by the way.

Have you changed up your kit for SkySaw? I noticed a few pictures that didn’t seem to have the left mounted 14” tom or quite as many cymbals. If so, is this a reflection of your approach to this sound or brand of music?

JC: I moved things around for one show. My configuration is the same.

(DP: The drummer for the Constellations, who are joining Minus the Bear and Skysaw on tour tweets: "Wanted 2 clarify-he's still using yellow Yamahas while his DW kit is being made."

What is the name of this song…

…and will it see a release?

JC: “Cathedral.” It is fairly new, not yet recorded and will be on the next release following Great Civilizations

Rumors are that the Jimmy Chamberlin Complex had a couple of tracks in the works, details?

JC: The complex lives and will rise up again at some point. Mohler and I started working on stuff before I left the Pumpkins and we continue to do so.  It’s really just a time issue. We are both very busy these days.

What, if anything, can you say about the upcoming Smashing Pumpkin re-masters and re-releases?

JC: I am very excited.  Those records are sacred to me and I’m thrilled that they will be Repackaged and marketed to another generation. The Pumpkins still have a lot to offer, old and new I’m sure.

As a respected musician and accomplished drummer, what is your summation of Mike Byrne? Ya know, if you were evaluating him or grading him or just your opinion.

JC: I think Mike is perfect for what Billy is doing now; a great drummer with an extremely bright future.

__________________________________
 Again, check out the full interview right, here

Interview/Podcast with Jimmy Chamberlin

http://www.stationcaster.com/player_skinned.php?s=39&c=245&f=78102

"Mase talks it up with former Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin about his new band SKYSAW...playing clubs again and ripping off his own drum parts. " 

Just having a listen now...

EDIT:

Skysaw is not about making a hit record... it’s about having fun 

Chamberlin clarifies his statement in the recent SPIN magazine interview "I've learned that you can call it a band, but unless everyone is contributing it's not really” and says that this doesn’t apply to his time in the Pumpkins; in particular with his song-writing relationship with Billy.

With regards to recording: JC recorded the drums, bass, guitar and vocals to tape – loaded to pro-tools for mixing; “24 Tracks just wasn’t enough”.

In terms of Roy Thomas Baker, it appears his presence was a little ‘imposing’; “Mike and Anthony were a little freaked out”; the sounds he was getting were ‘bigger than the band...he brings more than just his Rolls Royce to the studio” and they didn’t actually end up using any of the tracks recorded with RTB on this record, but he hopes to record again in the future with him and his “stamp” is all over Great Civilizations. 

They talked briefly about the Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, writing, recording, and mixing in 40 days... nothing about anything new from them (JC and Billy Mohler) though...

With regards to hitting the club scene again; the feeling of playing doesn’t change whether or not you’re getting your drums out of the back of a (white?) van and setting them up yourself and if you’re a millionaire getting a massage before a show. It’s the same experience; just as long as people are having a good time.

With regards to the Pumpkins; JC left it in the immortal words of D’arcy; “being in the Pumpkins, was like being in a marriage with 3 people you wouldn’t even consider dating”.

SP ARCHIVES UPDATE:

JC is not involved at all, other than giving it the green light.

Another Interview with Mike Reina of SKYSAW

HERE

Including a little bit more talk about the cross-country collaboration involved the recording of Great Civilizations.

Mike Reina Interviewed about Skysaw

Right here

Apparently Mike writes the lyrics and they might play some festivals this summer

Jimmy Chamberlin on Drum Channel - theTitbits!

A very animated Jimmy Chamberlin joins Chad Szeliga, Terry Bozzio and Danny Seraphine in a round table discussion on Drum Channel.

Jimmy talks a little about his recent switch to the ‘Drum Worshop community’ he feels that DW will be able to support “the search for a better sound and evolution of the instrument and artist”. He talks a little about building his DW drum kit online initially; probably using this.

He talked about getting back his (don’t call it leopard) Jaguar print Zwan kit which was leant out to a drum shop, and having that set-up in his home studio at the moment.

A viewer asks; “Have any of you zoned out during a gig?”

Chamberlin: What was the question?

JC would, dependant on the gig and set list - ‘inadvertently’ skip a track or two if he didn’t like them; It was up to the band if they went with it or stopped... Maybe he really hated Starz:

According to Chamberlin shark fishing in Nova Scotia with Taylor Hawkins and Josh Freeze leaves the joints a little sore for a gig the next day.

The one that got away...  Chamberlin talks about shark fishing

A little talk around click tracks and maintaining a pulse through a fill. Jimmy went on to say “No clicks used in the Pumpkins and it certainly shows” but post Pumpkins he started to use one (in Zwan). He talks about ‘seeing time’ and a ‘having a clear musical picture in the mind’ about [how a fill should sit in a beat] before even playing it. He also goes on to say that some of “my favourite drummers are sloppy as hell, but as long as it sounds good [to him] and [the grove] has an emotional basis, it doesn’t matter”.

Chamberlin talked a little about recording some tracks for Mellon Collie at Pumpkinland and a little problem which occurred; apparently transmissions from a local taxicab company radios got picked up on their tapes.  He also talked about how in order to look at his drum parts in a different way when working with Flood, sometimes Flood would remove all of Chamberlin's cymbals in order to force him to approach songs in a different way.

In terms of practising; Chamberlin revealed that he is currently working on double bass playing and experimenting with Swiss triplets and poly-rhythms from African style drumming.  He started off using a couple of books; One on ostinatos, recommended by Bozzio and The Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming by Bobby Roninelli. 

Hope you enjoy the slide-show below;

Jimmy Chamberlin Guided to Leave Smashing Pumpkins...

(Picture: A Shaman plays a drum [not Shaman Durek])

In a profile of Shaman Durek in Metrosource Magazine, Chamberlin is interviewed and recounts being guided to leave the Smashing Pumpkins, back in 2009...

"...Durek was the one that took me aside and said, ‘Look, there’s nothing to be afraid of; only good will come out of this,’” says Chamberlin. Since then, Chamberlin feels he has more balance in his life."  

Thanks to HU for the heads-up. 

Here Goes Nothing (again)

Catch Taylor Hawkins again on Drum Channel rebroadcast, on January the 11th, fluffing Jimmy's parts.

In other news, Drum Channel have put up a couple of teaser vids for the Jimmy Chamberlin interview and jam with Terry Bozzio on their Youtube site...

Terry Bozzio Auditioned for Smashing Pumpkins

That was something I did not know...

I'll keep you posted with any more info from the Drum Channel feature as I watch...

Ah, too much to go into now. Sorry. Fail blog. Twas very good...

But I will just say, based on what Chamberlin says in this interview & everything Jimmy has said since leaving the Pumpkins, at the clinics, on the radio shows; anyone who buys into Corgan saying that Jimmy wanted the band to be an 'oldies' act, is just plain wrong.

Just one last thing > HOLY SHIT the Terry Bozzio / Jimmy Chamberlin drum jam is absolute & pure GENIUS. 

Chamberlin Renames 'THIS' - 'SKYSAW'

Highlights from the Shamon Durek interview...

• 'THIS' is now called 'SKYSAW' will be touring next year sometime > Spring/Summer 2011.
• They have 'inked a deal' with Dangerbird.
• Jimmy has been working with Shaman Durek, on a record. 
• Lots of stuff about resonance, harmony & 'spiritual stuff'... JC is reading, rather, listening to an [audio]book "The China Study".
• JC has been playing the drums for 38 years... :O

So, if you want to listen to it yourself: pick up the Get Real interview, under the downloads tab, or direct link >  right here. Kudos to Sotherbee on Blamo for the grab...

Get Real - Jimmy Chamberlin

Remember this guy, well apparently JC will be on his radio show this Thursday, between 9-10PM PST...

If someone could cap it for us, that would be splendid - I don't fancy getting up at 5:00AM really...

Jimmy Chamberlin on the Drum Channel

Coming Monday December 13th > Interviewed by Terri Bozzio and a performance with Gannin Arnold et al.

My guess is it will be available right here  (though you might will need a subscription...)

On the Brink of This...

A Look Inside: The Brink Studio

In the first in their series of "music geek pieces", Better Propaganda  brings us some shots of a studio called The Brink. The space is owned by Mike Reina.  Jimmy Chamberlin and Mike just finished recording the new THIS record there. Although, it appears to me that not all of the album was recorded there... Anyway, here's some words, from Mike and some piccys. Be sure to visit Better Propaganda for the full set of photos and texts....

Mike Reina: "Aside from the obligatory 4 tracking in high school and college, my recording experience was mostly limited to digital until my band got an MCI 1" 8 track. I hate to admit that a machine could have the power to change my life, but there is more than enough evidence in the racks to conclude that It did.

Since then, I have been assembling, disassembling and reassembling my studio with an obligation to keep all of this aging technology alive. There are plenty of people fighting that fight, but I feel an unnerving awareness that it will all slip away somehow, and that it's just a matter of time before it reaches relic status. As melodramatic as all of this sounds, I swear that I am not an analog snob!

I think digital platforms are great, but early on, I stumbled across the realization that the main benefit of tape wasn't it's great, vibrant sound. It was the edge of the canvas that it drew...the guardrail at the side of the highway. Limitation became my favorite influence on creativity. I began to see how limitation had guided my hand in all that I did leading up to this point in my life.

I graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Architectural Design and there, too, limitation was a driving force acting on my work. Recording with a tape machine felt like an extension of the creative process that had been slowly etching a path in my mind since school. In comparison, recording to Pro Tools felt like jumping off a cliff into a vast, blank sky. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face because the limitlessness was blinding.

I got along great with this old gear until one night, the tape wouldn't stop rolling...literally. If I was going to continue working with vintage equipment, I knew I would have to learn how to maintain it. To my own annoyance, I became rather obsessive about it.

The studio is centered around a 42 channel 1978 MCI JH-500 series console. I love this desk because it has Jensen input transformers for the microphones, output transformers, and a four band inductor based EQ section using switches instead of pots for frequency selection and boost/cut. I soldered everything in the studio directly to the back of the console. I record to an MCI JH-24 16 and 24 track depending on the song or project. I mix to an Ampex ATR-100 1/2" 2 track. My tube compressor/limiter collection includes a Gates SA-39B, Gates Sta Level, RCA 86A-1, Collins 26U-1, Collins 26W, (5) Federal AM-864/U, GE Unilevel, (2) Fairchild Model C. I built (2) 1176 clones, and adapted (2) Russian made tube EQs. I recapped and in many cases rebuilt all of the vintage gear in the studio."

You Can't Quit, You're Fired.

Anyone remember this little article in RS, where Corgan claimed to have fired Jimmy Chamberlin from the Smashing Pumpkins in 2009?  As you recall, this was contrary to the previous statement by Chamberlin and indeed, Chamberlin denied Corgan's account himself in the RS article.

Well, guess what, Corgan's recollection of the affair, is a different this time around in a new interview with the Sidney Morning Herald.

"...it was a serious decision for both of us..."

Corgan states about the departure of Chamberlin. Last time I thought about what being fired by someone meant, it had little to do with a decision made by both parties...  

He continues "...we had invested a lot of energy bringing the band back. There was a point where we couldn't see eye to eye". This, at least seems more congrous with Chamberlin's own account. Then, in a reversal of his original "fuck you", Corgan actually echo's Chamberlin's original sentiments towards his one time 'musical soulmate', saying "I wish him the best. He's an incredible musician [the best drummer in the world - by Corgan's own account - DP]".

However, he again wraps himself up in another contradiction as he goes on to complain that his solo record was ignored because it wasn't "Smashing Pumpkins". What basis then does he have to expect something different of his ex-bandmates? But he does; "The stuff they have done (since) is off the radar from the general public."

Now, considering he hasn't spoken to Chamberlin since his departure, I guess he isn't aware that Chamberlin has been working on an new album, by This, this past year.  Maybe this isn't wider public knowledge, but since Chamberlin decided to take himself out of the music hype machine, taking a stance against prolific self-publicisation last year, maybe he doesn't... [deep breath]... care. I'm sure if he did and played by Billy's rules, he would undoubtedly have made an announcement about making an announcement, about announcing how great it will be, well before now... 

But perhaps, just perhaps, he has slightly more important things to do beside coaxing "a wider public knowledge" of his forthcoming record. Perhaps like Jimmy has said, his family means a little more than a bunch of cash and a few gold records.

Rush Fans are like NASCAR Fans...

So says Jimmy Chamberlin.

Don't know quite how long this will be up on teh utubez, but here's the relevant (bits that Jimmy appears in) parts of the afore mentioned Rush documentary, "'Beyond the Lighted Stage";





You should really give the whole thing a watch, if you haven't already. It's very very very good.