The current lineup is myself on drums and vocals, Demian Heftel on guitar, Belial Koblak on guitar and backing vocals, Daniel Tucker on bass and Josh Holdren on keyboards. Right now we are writing songs for our second album, we have the music to three of them written already and we have several Festivals coming up this summer. Maryland Death Fest in May, Brutal Assault and Party Sans in August and Sublime Terror Fest in October in London, we havent been to the UK in a while, so that will be awesome!
I mean you been in a lot of different groups Morbid Angel for example.,
And your writing abilities on the drums does it affect you At times like bringing a different style of element into your Performancetechnicality along with your vocals?
I have been singing and playing drums together now for quite a long time, so it has become kind ofva natural thing for me to do both. Actually some of these newer Nocturnus AD songs are more difficult than most of the old Morbid Angel and Nocturnus stuff is. I write all of the lyrics now, so that I can make sure that I can sing over the riffs. We have always written the music first and then once we figure out where all the guitar leads go, then I add the lyrics in last. I have about 15 or 20 song titles written down and the whole idea of what the song is about, so I listen to the music and see what song title works best with the overall feel of the music. The hardest part is memorizing all the lyrics, once that is done, it becomes a lot easier to sing and play it together. When people ask me how I do both when we play live, I always tell them, I don’t think about it! I just click the sticks and go. If I try to think about a part, it usually will make me fuck up because everything is happening so fast live, every song is like a whirlwind once I start playing!
How do you Find time between the groups and your home life?
I barely sleep! Lol I work a full time job at the water department and have primary custody of my 12 year old daughter and I do the band and 3d artwork and animation too. My days seem to be busy from thec second I wake up untill I go to sleep, but I only sleep 4 or 5 hours a night usually.
Between going to the studio and being on tour,, Rehearsing new material and so forth on?
We only usually rehearse once a week with everyone unless we have a show or recording coming up, so then we will add more days in depending on the situation. We have converted my garage into a soundproof studio, so that we can rehearse just about whenever we want to, plus we have everything miced up so that we can record our practices. When we are in writing mode we usually run the guitars, bass and keys through a mixer into headphones so we can record new material right then, but when we are rehearsing for a live show, then we usually practice loud through the PA and guitar cabs.
Being with Nocturnus ad what is one of your favorite moments on tours?
Probably playing Hellfest was one of my favorite moments, they had 5 different drum sets that they let me choose from and the drum monitors sounded amazing. Usually when we play smaller shows, the drums I am supplied with are in horrible condition and the monitors sound terrible, which makes it a lot harder for me to play our songs with. I use a lot of tom fills in our songs and I rarely get a drum set to use that is equal to my personal drum set at home.
When you were younger and starting playing the drums how often were you rehearsing before you got into your First group professionally?
My first band was an early incarnation of Morbid Angel and back then we were young and had a lot more time, so we used to practice several times a week. In the early Nocturnus days we used to practice 5 days a week M-F every night.
Who were some of your of Influences on the drums?, and do you still listen to them artist and do you ever just get the urge to start playing Along with those old Songs?
I always like drummers like John Bonham and Neil Peart and then got into Tommy Aldridge when he was playing with Ozzy because he would add a lot of double bass to the Black Sabbath songs. Growing up in the 1970’s there still werent many drummers using double bass, so it wasn’t till the mid 1980’s till I started playing double bass myself. These days I don’t really get the time to sit down and play to the old stuff, but I still do listen to it a lot in the car when I am driving around at work or doing other stuff.
Last question do you ever write lyrics or play Any other instruments beside the drums?, and if so do you write original material and presented to your band members as well?
I write all the lyrics for Nocturnus AD, so that keeps me pretty busy, but I do mess around with the keyboards quite often still. I wrote most of the keyboard intros and outros on our Paradox album and I write all the keyboard music for all.
Articles written by D.C
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