Drumrock

Kirk Covington: Volto, Tribal Tech, Captain Kirk
Winter NAMM, 2010
Los Angeles, CA
Interview by: T. Robinson
Pics by T. Robinson and courtesy Drummerworld.com (used with permission)

A couple years ago my bro Kyle told me about a band named Volto, and at the time, what intrigued me most was the fact that Danny Carey from Tool was sitting behind a kit for this band.

Flash forward a few months after him telling me and Winter NAMM 2009 - lo and behold - Volto is doing a show the first night of NAMM at the Baked Potato in L.A. of course Drumrocks Hitsme and I went to see it. Yes it was the shit seeing a drummer of Danny's caliber that close. But what I walked away from that night with was a huge respect for the other three musicians in the band, John Ziegler (aka Volto, Guitars), Lance Morrison, (Bass) and the subject of this interview, Kirk Covington, (Keys, vocals, and drums). Yes you read that right "and drums"...Volto's certainly not the first band to have two drummers but I'll be damned if they aren't the best. And not just because Danny is sitting there - this band is good because the musicians are tight and the drumming is phenominal because the dynamic between Kirk and Danny is the best I've ever seen.

I have to, again, apologize profusely to Kirk for this interview taking 8 months to get put up. A lot going on in life that doesn't need to be gotten into here has kept me away from getting this (among other things) done and Kirk has to be one of the nicest people I've ever met, and one of the most patient to boot. I owe you some drinks bro, and when I'm down in L.A. in October (around the 16th as a matter of fact), you're rounds are on me.

Kirk's been around awhile, done a lot. I'm not going to drop the details of his history here unless you read it in the below conversation, for the rest check out his profile page on Drummer World here:

http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Kirk_Covington.html

So here's our conversation, not quite in its entirety as some of it should just stay between drummers having a chat and not be aired for the world to see.

Kirk: Let me take these thing out so I don’t scream at ya….(removes his earplugs)

Tim: Scream at me - I honestly don’t know how well this thing (waves voice recorder in the air) is going to work ….

Kirk: I don’t wear these to play music – I wear ‘em on the freeway and for the NAMM show, and the ex wife so I’m not tired. Noise pollution makes you tired and people don’t realize it. Visual pollution too. It stresses you out and you get tired. Right now I’m like completely relaxed and I can really hear. But I’ve been screaming all day because I’ve been wearing these.

TIM: Maybe that’s why I’m so exhausted after three days roaming around here….

KIRK: Dude. I’m tellin’ ya you should wear these. You don’t really think about it for this type of thing – usually you think about it for decibles

TIM: I have to wear them when I play now…

KIRK: Really? Are you guys whackin’ hard? You’re doing dance music right?

Tim: Well we do rock covers, 60’s, 70’s, and on…

KIRK: But you’re playing in bars and clubs…

TIM: Bars mostly…

KIRK: So dance band. It’s a global thing I use. A dance gig is a dance gig wherever you’re playing. I guarantee you there are people out there doing this (makes a little dance move)

TIM: Yeah usually…

KIRK: The thing is, you’re hitting pretty hard?

TIM: I do yeah, I tend to hit pretty hard…

KIRK: Which, I’m all in favor of of course. I’ve noticed I just can’t wear them. It’s harder and a drag if you need to wear them but I understand. The thing is, if it’s a gig like that, it’s not like it’s demanding musically. You’re just groovin’ and slammin’ and that’s ok. Save you’re hearing because you’re not playing some wicked Tribal Tech stuff ya know, that you really really have to hear. But me, I just can’t wear ‘em. I’ve had my hearing checked and I can still hear well. I was amazed. The doctor said when you’re born you can hear between 15 and 17K and I can hear down to 12 really well. So that’s engineer level shit. Hell I dunno how because I’ve been slammin’ for a long time. I was a swimmer growing up and when I quit I quit because I had some real serious ear problems. My ears produce a lot of wax so I have some natural hearing protection. <looks around> Not as many pretty girls down here either <sips drink> Man this is really good….thanks again. TIM: Yep. Excellent…excellent… KIRK: Man this is about as much NAMM show as I can handle anymore. One day. But I can dig it if you’ve never seen it before (he directs this towards GFYs keyboard player Joe.) Joe: I know! I’m having a great time! KIRK: The instruments and the amount of people…It’s just…it’s just really something….Did you get in last night? Joe: Yeah… KIRK: Did you see or hear anything… TIM: We went to the Sabian Live show last night.

KIRK: What was that all about? Who was there?

TIM: Mike Portnoy, Dom Famularo…

Kirk: Oh…Dom is everywhere!!!

TIM: Yeah I know! We interviewed him last year.

KIRK: I don’t think he’s just one guy. I think there are at least two or three. I think there’s Dom and two clones. I’ve literally seen him at the Montreal Drum Festival one day and like the next afternoon out in the middle of nowhere someplace.

TIM: Who else.. oh Chad Smith and the Bombastic Meatbats…

KIRK: How was that?

TIM: Rockin’ Then Bozzio and his band got up there…

KIRK: How was that?

Joe: Freaky.

TIM: Ya know, I dig his kit….

KIRK: The clamshell kit? The million dollar millions of drums kit?

TIM: That’s the one…

KIRK: Where he’s got like 1 drum for every note. He’s got like 2 ½ octaves or something like that? Here’s the problem with that. You can’t tell me that stays in tune after one whacking…

Tim: Maybe that’s why he has so many…

KIRK: Well he has a lot but even then. You start whackin ‘em. I mean they are drums…

TIM: Well, he was playing them like one stroke at a time. And pretty gentle on ‘em…

KIRK: I told someone I talked to earlier I would love to see Terry on a five piece kit….playing really good music….Five pieces, playing Tribal Tech type stuff, Weather Report, or Missing Persons..Zappa - anything cool…and see him play a 5 piece kit…it would be very coo

TIM: I don’t think I’ve ever seen him play a 5 piece kit.

KIRK: He’s a bad ass. Seriously. Take all that stuff away. For everybody, strip them down, put everyone on a 5 piece kit.

TIM: Well I see what you play. A kick, tom, snare, a few cymbals, that’s it.

KIRK: I’ve got a “jocko” kit.

TIM: And Danny’s back behind you and you guys just go at it back and forth.

KIRK: Yeah that little drum set works too. I’m amazed at that little 18 man.

TIM: So that kick is 18?

KIRK: Yeah. No muffling with those heads it just rocks.

TIM: What heads are you using on that?

KIRK: PS3’s on both sides.

TIM: Right on.

KIRK: And I use hard beaters and it’s not ported. Nothing, not a thing, because it sounds REALLY good. It’s kind of amazing that it keeps up. I call it the little Thomas the Tank Engine Drum.

TIM: So do you ever use anything, at least with Volto, other than that size of a kit?

KIRK: Well , we did this Modern Drum Festival a couple years ago and this is sort of a sad story because Danny, he’s such a beautiful cat. When he does one of his monkey shows he invites his band to go along. He doesn’t want to do a monkey show he wants to play music.

So we’re doing the MD Festival and between Danny and I we’re like Yamaha, Sonor, Paiste, Zildjian, Remo, Evans, Vic Firth and Zildjian sticks.

TIM: That’s what? Half the sponsors?

KIRK: That’s almost all of the companies there. So he had a 10 or 11 piece blue sparkle Sonor kit. One of the prettiest kits I’ve ever seen and I had an 11 piece Yamaha Vintage Maple Absolutes and Joe Testa and Matt Conners and Johny D. were all helping me, underfoot, scurrying around , getting the kingly treatment, and Danny’s guys and his Sonor guys were scurrying around and it was a beautiful gig. What we did was we set up symmetrical. Just like the drum festival the other night with the bass guitar in the middle, Danny and me and the keyboard rig, so I had to do some jumping back and forth, which was one of the drags. And guitar. And we really hadn’t done the double drum thing like you saw. You saw us at the spud? TIM: Yeah. It’s the only place I’ve ever seen you guys play together. KIRK: But you saw at the BP where we really do it? TIM: Yep… KIRK: And we just launch sometimes. We just launch the jam. Back then we hadn’t really done it as much and we never really talked about it. Never talked about one word between us what we were going to do.

TIM: You just do it?

KIRK: We just do it and it got pretty damn good.

(At this point Kirk gets pretty animated and knocks his drink over onto the guy in the booth beside us…apologizing profusely…)

KIRK: (looking sad) Man that angers me in a subliminal way…

TIM: I bet…

KIRK: I’ll get another one. So Rick Van Horn was the Modern Drummer guy still back then. And Rick has seen me, and been there at the Montreal Drum Festival and my big hits and said “Man, I’ve got to have you at the MD Festival, I’m gonna have you next year…” and he never would come through. So Danny gets the call and calls us. So I kind of slipped in the side door.

The only thing we kind of had planned was to launch on Stratus. Like we did the other night. We did Stratus and we launched and did it like <Kirk proceeds to lay down the groove vocally>

We launched and Rick Van Horn, Danny’s the headliner on Saturday night, HELLO!!! We barely get started and at that point we weren’t doing a lot like we do now. So that was going to be our big splash and at the end I was going to jump back and double drum out. Sixty seconds into the launch and Rick Van Horn is on the side of the stage…and he CUT US..

TIM: Wha?!?!

KIRK: He cut Danny Carey. And I’ll tell you why he did. We showed up and this is what those guys do. They had three cameras, serious cameras, ready to shoot. They shoot these gigs and sell the DVD’s and the artists don’t get a penny.

TIM: See that’s not right…

KIRK: Modern Drummer sells those. The ’08 Modern Drummer Festival – “BUY THE DVD!!!”

TIM: Didn’t you say earlier today something about Danny having a rider where they can’t just do that…?

KIRK: Yeah and Danny’s in Tool man. F**K that S**t. He went over to Rick and said “Bag the cameras or I don’t play…” and Rick replied that they always shoot every one of these gigs and Danny said “BAG the cameras or we don’t play.” And Rick was going blah blah blah. Danny finally tells him to call Pete, Tool’s hard ass mafia manager. And then we go on stage and they’d bagged the cameras. Danny’s not going to stand for that, he’s in Tool. There’s a lot of money and stuff involved in that gig. He’s a big shot so he can’t do that kind of stuff, ya know?

But that’s the kind of deal and now we do this thing like we did the other day – which is WAY cooler musically....

Tim: This year seemed more intricate and involved than last year, in so far as what you guys did.

KIRK: At which show? Me and Danny?

TIM: Yea you two.

KIRK: Me and Danny yeah, there’s no limit to what we can do now.

TIM: Yeah at the BP last year it was great. To be honest last year I came because it’s Danny back there and I had never really heard any of the other guys or heard you play. This year though it was for Volto as a band. It’s just bad ass….

KIRK: And the thing is the double drum thing, now is, I mean… See Danny, he’s coming out of a certain thing. I approached it empathetically to his vocabulary. Where once I learned him and I jammed around his stuff. Now he trusts me and knows I’m not going to freak on him too much and it’s tight. Bad ass.

TIM: It’s very tight…

KIRK: We’ve gotta record a record. Lots of double drums…

TIM: You guys TOTALLY should record…

KIRK: We’re gonna.

TIM: You said that last year.

KIRK: I know. But the thing is it’s one of those things that in its own time.

TIM: If I come back in October.

KIRK: I’m probably going to eat my words. Danny’s been real busy with Tool ya know. They were doing their record and toured for a couple years. And now I’m hearing Danny talk like this so that means it’s gonna happen.

TIM: Cool! That’s cool….

KIRK: He’s got the most clout in the band. I’ve got some clout, Lance has some clout.

TIM: You’ve got quite a history…

KIRK: Yeah and Lance has a lot of clout with Don Henley and all his stuff. Volto (John Ziegler) hasn’t been here that long. He’s from Houston but between Danny and I we can get it out there. We could sell enough records on the internet to be happy…

TIM: I was gonna ask that. How would you approach that given that whole scene is changing dramatically?

KIRK: I doubt very seriously if Danny’s interested in talking to a record label. The Tool website alone has like a million hits a day or whatever.

TIM: Tools last tour was the first time I’d ever seen him play and I was amazed. The guy’s a machine.

KIRK: Like I told Kyle (Kirks brother) There are not many acts out there that can do a two nighter at Staples and sell out 25000 seats a night. Besides the Lakers. And I was there and saw it and was like “Yeah...you guys own this place...” So here’s what happened. I’m sitting at La Va Lee playing with Henderson and Kinsey and some other bass players and we did a Wednesday night that lasted forever. Every Wednesday and for a long time we were just jammin’ because we got balls. And the thing is when you start jammin’ with these guys you better have a deep vocabulary because somebody will start some hip jazz tune that you better know and all that is is a launch vehicle. Or we’ll launch and go into Nardis or Countdown or some other hard jazz tune that you gotta be able to blow. You gotta have a fusion vocabulary. You’ve gotta have a rock and a blues vocabulary. So all of a sudden Danny Carrey is sitting front and center every night. That was at La Va Lee which is now closed. I’d only just heard of Tool and him. When I first heard Tool it was on the TV I pulled my boys up into the room and said “Listen to this drum sound. Listen to this guy. I didn’t know him from Adam. I dug Tool, I dug Soundgarden, I dug Nine Inch Nails because they’re good bands. And I’m sitting there back then going listen to that drum sound!!! We’re talkin’ sonic. Not WHAT he played, though what he played was GREAT, but the SOUND. How he fit into the mix with all those stupid guitars. Then he starts coming out every night and it’s like a mutual admiriation. But here’s the thing. He wasn’t there to see me, he loves my work, he’s been listening to Tribal Tech since college, he was there to hear the band because he’s a musician.

TIM: Yea as it should be…

KIRK: So, instant connection and we said let’s do a double drum band! The first guy we called was Volto, who’s real name is John Ziegler, but his nickname is Volto..

TIM: I was wondering about that. I’d heard a couple people refer to him as Volto.

KIRK: Henderson gave him that nickname. So it was just natural to call the band Volto. I don’t even know how we did it, we just did it, just called it Volto.

Then we had a bass player that lasted about a minute and then we got Lance. And let me tell you Lance and Danny, they just groove. And you were saying this earlier: Lance is a perfect fit. Like Jack Bruce or Noel Redding was to Hendrix. Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell were busy as shit. Mitch was a busy drummer and Jimmy was right there and Noel was just over there holding it down. This band doesn’t need a Willis or a super Victor Wooten. This band needs someone back there playing with a pick, a super FAT sound.

Did you hear us do Nasty Dogs and Kings by ZZ Top?

TIM: Yeah…

KIRK: Did you seem me turn around. Danny sits back there and goes like 10 minutes without playing a fill and I’m just like “This is INCREDIBLE!!!” It’s like a 110 car train. It ain’t never gonna stop

So that’s how that happened. All we gotta do is record. We have a bunch of original stuff. I’m writing some vocal stuff and we’ll probably do two covers.

Tim: I think you only did one the other night with vocals.

KIRK: Yeah everything else is Zepp or Whipping Post. So it’s a great band. We do all our favorite stuff. We do Funk 49.

TIM: I KNOW! You did it last year. I was floored…

KIRK: Dude we do Funk 49, we do Stevie Ray, we do Hendrix. We haven’t done any Hendrix lately ….<At this point Kirk pops off another long vocalized drum groove….>

TIM: I have no idea how I’m going to transcribe that…I may have to put this up as an audio interview…

KIRK: Funny that you say that one of the first interviews I did I learned really fast not to cuss…<laughs>

So we’ll do a couple covers, we’ll do Whipping Post which is what kind of brought us to the dance, ya know? I mean we’re music in pure form. Like when we do “Good Times, Bad Times” we do it like the record. Everybody, they’re busting my balls, because I do <another vocalized musical riff> I never could do that cowbell part right, anyway. So that’ll be the shape of the record, we’ll do the fusion stuff, I’ll write some vocal material, we’ll do a couple covers, maybe Zepp. Did we ever do ”Wanton Song”?

TIM: Not sure…

<Kirk runs off a few bars vocally again>

TIM: Yeah you did….

KIRK: That song KILLS and we have no qualms about doing it exactly like the record….except for the blow up ’cause it’s worth it, ya know? Why try and reinvent the wheel?

Tim: What else is happening?

KIRK: Doing a second record with Scott Kinsey. Kinesthetics is his first record. Go listen to it on iTunes. Jimmy Early, Gary Willis, Scott Henderson, Michael Landau, and Steve Tavaglione. It’s killer. So second record with Kinsey. Tribal Techs doing a record in April.

TIM: It’s been a while hasn’t it?

KIRK: It’s freakin’ everybody out. It’s been a lot longer than a while. I never thought we’d play together again.

TIM: Since ’95?

KIRK: No it hasn’t been that long. In 2001 we did Rocket Science. That was the last one. There were two jam records: Kick and Rocket Science. We had three or four thoroughly composed records where Willis and Henderson brought in four or five tunes apiece. Hard stuff, ya know. The we did the two records that were just total jam records. And what was cool about that is that we jammed and then different guys in the band took different tunes home and wrote over the tune in post. If there was something nice in the jam, a melody, a part, they would incorporate it into the song. So the tunes sound like these heavy written tunes with a live drum track. So those two records, Kick and Rocket Science the drums are like more expressive than a learned tune kind of feel. So I don’t know really what we’re gonna do. If they’re going to bring in tunes or a jam. It was a great band. I don’t dig never. Why never? It’s been a lot of years building up our kind of cult following. It seems kind of stupid not to keep it going. I have another band called Captain Kirk. It’s a trio with me and Scott Tibbs on keys. Which by the way he’s a total bad ass like Kinsey. And Rufus Philpot on Bass. It’s kind of a Tribal Tech heavy. Nervy. We have a few vocal tuned and five or six Tibbs tunes. Bad ass keyboards. So that’s coming. So I’m hopping between all of that to get more out there. Have you heard the Willis records I’ve done? There’s one called Slaughterhouse 3. Me and Willis and a Spanish sax player named Llibet Fortuny who plays acoustic horns thru a big ass guitar pedal board. So it’s sort of old school triggering and this kid is really bad ass...

TIM: So that’s Slaughterhouse 3?

KIRK: Yea. And there’s another Willis record called Actual Fiction. Check ‘em out. Me and Willis just keepin it out there. So that was the last couple of years. And the Kinsey thing. So I’m glad we’re doing Tribal now.Other than that I need to get off my ass and write. I’ve always written. I’ve done the keyboard thing, the harmony thing, ya know. It’s just doing it ya know? It’s no problem, just a different set of responsibilities. I’ll probably live out here another 5, 6, 7 years then I’ll probably move back to Texas...

TIM: That’s where you’re from originally….?

KIRK: That’s where I’m from. I went to North Texas State. It’s all out there on the internet.

TIM: Yeah. I generally read up but don’t go into too much detail unless it comes out in the conversation. Have you seen your photo’s on Drummer world? You look like that actor John Goodman.

KIRK: Yeah I’ve heard that before. <laughs> John Goodman, He’s a great actor btw, But the North Texas thing just enabled me to meet some great musicians. The Gary Willis’, etc. Just lots of incredible guys that mostly ended up here and a few ended up in New York. So that was a great thing, ya know? That’s how I got the Tribal gig. Came out here in 1990 and it’s all good.

KIRK: Your turn…

TIM: My turn?

KIRK: Oh yeah, you don’t like to do questions…

TIM: Nope I like to let the artist talk.

KIRK: Well you’ve got my life history…

TIM: Well what’s here and what people can find on the ‘net fills it in nicely…

KIRK: I’ve got a MySpace page. It’s fairly current. Mostly about Captain Kirk.

TIM: I’ll check it out and link it up.

KIRK: It took me years to get that built. I’m an idiot with that stuff. I’m pretty much more “real time.” I need to be on it more ya know but….

TIM: Don’t do the Facebook thing?

KIRK: Ya know I went up there and filled out all the stuff and never went back. Not one time. I have 119 waiting monkey’s. Whatever, yeah, yeah, all friends. I didn’t know I even had that many friends.

TIM: We do a Facebook page for Good For You. It actually works out pretty well.

KIRK: But you have a reason! Use all of that you can possibly use! The rest, I don’t give a rip what someone is doing right now. I’ll pick up my cell and call. But with Facebook, I just can’t right now use my time that way. I like to hear a person. I like to pick up the phone and hear somebody’s voice. But I also realize I need to do more but I’ve never been one for self promotion…

TIM: I interviewed Ryan Hoyle two years ago. That dude is one of the most self promoted people I’ve ever met.

KIRK: Yeah, there’s cats out there who have it together like that and that’s awesome. It’s a little busy to me. My friends that are like that - they pick up the phone and call and hang out.

One of the things I plan on doing this is feed my MySpace page better.

TIM: Yeah?

KIRK: Posting my gigs as they get closer, uploading cool stuff. Like I should have some Volto from Thursday up on my MySpace right now and I will. Did you see that guy sitting in the corner of the bar with the Volto shirt on? Stevie V? He’s another Dom. He’s everywhere. He’s everybody’s favorite videographer because he goes home, he burns the DVD, deletes the files, and mails you your DVD. Strictly an aficionado. There’s not a marketing bone, not a bad bone, in his body. So everybody allows him, even Danny, no problem, to do it. But sometimes he’s at like three of four clubs a night. I swear at the same time. I don’t know how he does that. It’s weird. I think they cloned the guy, Him and Dom. They’re just clones… TIM: Dom’s incredible… KIRK: He’s a cool guy. I like him… TIM: What impressed me was that a year after I interviewed him, he was the first person I saw this year he still remembered my name… KIRK: Well Tim is easy for me because my friend growing up, the guy who took me to the Texas/USC Rosebowl is the same – so I’ll remember your name…

TIM: So did you look at any of the new gear?

KIRK: Of course I looked at my Yamaha stuff. I know all about it but I looked. DW has a really cool throw off throws off in the same direction as the strainer but the butt end has a 3 way toggle on it.

Tim: I did not see that…

KIRK: It tightens from tight to loose. Which is cool as long as it works.

Kyle (kirks brother): It pulls really tight a really tight “whack” sound to kinda loose.

KIRK: “Ballady” loose…

Tim: So you don’t have to sit and constantly twist…

KIRK: Twist the knob –that’s it. You can accomplish the same thing with a twist knob but the cool thing about this is you’re actually moving the whole strainer the way they’ve got it rigged. I don’t know if it works well or not or if it lasts but it is a cool idea.

Then I went and saw Sockeye Snare Drums….

TIM: Sockeye?

KIRK: That’s the owner of Yamaha’s grandson. He started a company. Sockeye Rhythm. It’s sort of a Tokyo bad ass drum shop. They’re all Yamaha guys. So he started his own thing. $1200 snare drums man. . Bubinga, Maple, Beech, Mahogany. The beech sounded incredible. The maple sounded normal. But the bubinga and the beech and the mahogany all sounded wicked bad man. I dunno if they’re $1200 bad. I won’t have to pay that. They’ll cut me a deal. He won’t give me one. Ross Miller had to buy one, and if he has to buy one, I’ve gotta buy one. I saw some really cool new Zildjian stuff. TIM: Did you look a the Z3’s at all? KIRK: Nah, I don’t know about those. But I am looking at the new K Flat Ride. TIM: I saw that one. KIRK: Can’t play it loud, it’s more bop, but they are sweet sounding cymbals man. And the K rides. Tell you what they’re doing. They’re going back to the old school.

TIM: You’re the second or third person I’ve heard say that.KIRK: Yeah and the reason why is they got all clean, sweet, pretty and nice and everyone’s going “Where’s the 60’s Zildjian cymbals? Where are the beautiful sounding K’s and nice crashes and stuff?” Now Zildjians coming back and they gotta get retro again. Like crashes with the holes in ‘em.TIM: I’ve noticed a lot of manufacturers working along those lines

KIRK: ‘Cause ya now, rock and roll in the studio is the big Ringo sounding cymbals that have this big wide spread…not the super sweet and zingy sound you hear a lot of.

TIM: I play (at the time of this interview) all Sabian’s and end up running on the left hand side of my kit more than the right side – the right is all HHX and my ride really isn’t suited that well for what I do with GFY…we tried to do a ballad once so I could play softer and..       

KIRK: And the monkeys sitting out there staring at you are going “What are you thinking…”

TIM: Pretty much…

TIM: So anything else that you liked at the show?

KIRK: Paul Reed guitars very cool stuff. Ya know Remo. I didn’t like their cardboard drums at first but their percussion stuff is pretty cool.

TIM: Yeah it is.

KIRK: It sounds good, I mean the drums…I remember the day it came out it was “oh” but I’m a head guy ya know. They know I’ve never really liked their drums, but now I like ‘em well enough, they’ve gotten pretty good and they sound decent.

But all their percussion stuff sounds really good and did from the start. All of it sounds really good.

Matt Connors at Remo, that’s my boy, I hope he sticks around and doesn’t go the way of Joe (Testa).

TIM: Is he the artist relations guy?

KIRK: Dude I’ve had Joe Testa, Matt Connors, and Johnny D. Johnny D since 1990, Joe Testa since 96, 97 and I’ve had Matt Connors for a good 10 years. And a lot of us are and were very spoiled. We were thinking like the corporate world’s never gonna end and it does. People get fired.

You don’t get fired from music. You can get fired from a band, but you don’t get fired from music. Sad.

I got to see Joe get it. I got to see my boy and Jordan Barth, who’s now with DW. Which is incredibly..and you can print this: I think it’s an incredible injustice that Yamaha is stupid enough to fire Joe and Jordan. And now Jordan is with DW. Who by the way had a baby less than a year ago and they fired him. And that’s the greatest joke of all. And they can totally read that I do not agree with their decision at all. The first thing I said is well, it’s Yamaha, why don’t they just get rid of the blue wind breakers, and they can keep Joe and Jordan’s Jobs? But not the red ones! Keep those. Just get rid of the blue ones. It’s Yamaha, they make everything. Hell this couch, that table, all were both probably made by Yamaha.

I mean here’s a guy who has don’t untold amounts of things for them above and beyond the corporate call of duty and even more than that from Steve Gadd on down the line everybody loved the hell out of him. He was like a band member.

TIM: That’s just sad…

KIRK: I’m not over it. Jordan’s got a gig. So Jordan I’m over, I’m cool. Joe doesn’t have a gig yet. Joe was the head guy at BGI/WB video for Yamaha. That’s how I met him. The dude is heavy man. And those guys. it wasn’t a job, it was a brotherhood. I just can’t believe a corporation that has that much money just lets people go. And they say it’s economic, it wasn’t. It was a power play. One or two guys up top didn’t like Joe. All they really gotta do is get rid of the Yamaha penis pumps and they could keep him! And you can print that…<laughs>

At this point the conversation turned to things best left unprinted said by both sides about various topics for a bit longer. At some point I turned off the recorder and we just shot the shit for a bit, me, Kirk, Kirk’s brother Kyle, and GFY keyboardist Joe Cresanti

It was a great conversation and I really want to thank Kirk for his time (and patience!). He didn’t have to give us the time of day yet he was happy to do just that and pro

And here, eight months later, is the result of the bulk of that conversation. The fact that Kirk was not only willing but still enthusiastic about getting this out there says a lot about the man’s character. I’m headed to Los Angeles in mid-October and hope to catch a Volto show while there and Kirks drinks during that set are entirely on me. The dude is top notch, a hell of a musician, a f@#king killer drummer, and doesn’t get enough attention.

Keep rockin’ bro and thanks again for your time and patience with us (me!)

Kirk endorses the following products:

    

YAMAHA DRUMS BOTH ABSOLUTE AND PHOENIX SHELLS Reps: JOHN WITTMAN/DARYL
ANDERSON

22" KICK
18" KICK
8" 10" 12" 13" RACK TOMS
16" FLOOR
TONS OF SNARES

ZILDJIAN CYMBALS Rep: JOHNNY D

REMO DRUMS HEADS Rep: MATT CONNORS

SMOOTH WHITE EMPERORS
COATED AMBASSADOR X

VIC FIRTH STICKS Rep: JOE TESTA