music: interview

> LITTLE DRUMMER BOY: PART II
Joe Travers is the touring drummer with Duran Duran, the vaultmeister for the Zappa family and a pretty darn nice guy. Did we mention he's from Erie?

DURAN DURAN

EE: Did you have any favorite stops on the [Summer 2000] American tour with Duran Duran?
JT: I thought that Dallas was a lot of fun. And I thought that Vegas was fun and the LA week -- you know we did a week of sold-out shows at the House of Blues in LA and that was really crazy. And my birthday was a lot of fun too. My birthday [August 20th] was in Columbus, OH and they had a little cake and all sorts of cool stuff. It was fun. Uhhhh, Dallas was crazy.

EE: Everyone I’ve talked to has great things to say about you, that you’re really nice to all the fans.
JT: There’s no reason to not be, you know. I’m never in that position where I feel like I’m better than anyone else so it’s fun to meet all sorts of people and hang out, you know. I wouldn’t get any opportunity to do it otherwise, that’s for sure.

EE: Are you surprised at how the fans have taken to you?
JT: Well, I’m surprised that there’s a Joe Travers fan club now. I never really thought that there would ever be such a thing but there is. That’s pretty funny but, no I guess I’m not really surprised because I know that Duran Duran fans take what they do seriously and all that so you know it’s... it’s cool to be accepted.

EE: Do you have to focus on anything differently when you’re playing for Duran Duran vs. anybody else?
JT: Well, yes because playing with Duran Duran you’re not just playing with a live group, you’re playing with a live group, plus you’re playing with a sequencer and you’re playing with a click track as well. So, you have to keep that stuff in mind a lot when you’re doing the show. So, not every live band does that. I mean a lot of acts do that nowadays but you know just a regular band atmosphere doesn’t have click tracks and stuff like that. So, it is different. You have to put your mind in a different mindset, but for me it’s easier because once I get the music memorized then I don’t really need to focus too much on when things change and dadada-dada because they change at the same time all the time and all I have to do is just make sure that I’m with the sequencer, you know? A sequencer is added music you know -- like on a tape. So as long as I’m with that then I’m, then I’m cool.

EE: Are you used to playing with a click track?
JT: Well I wasn’t when I first joined the band but I’m definitely used to it now and I’ve been in a lot of studio situations where you have to play on a click track so I’ve done it before but in a live situation, it’s a bit you know it’s a little different but yes, it’s been, it’s been it’s been going really well.

EE: Is there any chance of you recording with Duran Duran?
JT: They’re talking about it. I don’t know when. I mean they said that the next time they record that they would like to use me so ... if anything happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. You know, I’m not gonna you know sit around and wait for it. If it happens, I would love to do it, you know.

EE: And the Duran tour resumes around the holidays, right?
JT: Yes, we’re doing three weeks in the UK in December right before Christmas and then they’re talking about possibly doing a House of Blues run sometime in February where you do all the House of Blueses and stuff around the States. I don’t know if that’s gonna happen. It’s you know. They mentioned it. Whether or not it happens is another story.

EE: How about a Duran version of Z's Deadly Medley?
JT: I doubt it. I don’t think any band in their right mind would ever want to take something on like that.

EE: Ah, but it would be so much fun.
JT: Yes, it really was. I love that thing. We were just talking about that medley the other day. I was doing a session for a producer here in LA for a film and when he found out that I played with Dweezil [Zappa], he said, were you, did you guys used to do that medley? The infamous medley. That thing is a monster.

THE ZAPPA FAMILY

EE: Have you done any work with Dweezil recently?
JT: Yes, I’m still working for the Zappas. Dweezil and I are always doing studio projects together. He’s got a CD that [was released] in November on a label called Favored Nations and it’s owned by Steve Vai. And that’s going to be Dweezil’s first solo release since Confessions that came out in 1990. And it’s gonna be good. I’m on there -- as well as two other drummers that he worked with before me. And it’s gonna be... it’s really good! I heard it the other day and it’s cool. He’s got you know what you would expect plus some oddities like the theme from How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Ahmet singing and also the theme from Hawaii 5-0 done with all guitars. It’s pretty cool.

EE: What is the status of Dweezil's infamous guitar project?
JT: Well that is not being worked on at the moment. It’s just kind of sitting around waiting to be mixed and stuff and and put together. And he still has a couple of guitar players that he would like to record on it but that’s always been put on the backburner. He’s got other things that he’s put on the priority list. Whether or not that gets back up on the priority list, I don’t know. But hopefully [it does] cuz there’s some neat stuff on there.

EE: and you’re still working with the Zappa family managing the vault?
JT: That’s right. Yes, we’re still trudging through the vault and we’re still finding cool stuff and hopefully someday soon everyone else’ll be able to hear it as well. It’s a great job. I love it.

EE: Do you have any favorite Zappa tracks or albums or are there just too many to choose from?
JT: Yes, there’s way too many. I would have to say that Hot Rats is probably up there. It’s just an album that that was the second Zappa album I ever got. And I just -- to this day I just really love that album. Apostrophe was the first one that I ever got but it’s not one of my favorites. I mean I love it and everything but they’re all so good. I love every period that he’s ever done so it’s hard. It’s hard for me to say. I’m such a fanatic you know.

EE: How did you get into Zappa?
JT: Well, my uncle Gary in 1979 got the albumum Sheik Yerbouti and he played that for me as well as he was responsible for playing a lot of things for me but it ended up that he played that album for me and it -- that’s what started it all. I was 10 years old and it just blew my mind and I always wanted him to play it and about a year later I got my first Zappa album and it was just from 10 on you know. It was the humor and the crazy words, the weirdness of it that got me, you know, when I was that young but as I got older I understood more about the music and what the words meant and all that stuff and I just got sucked into it. I wanted everything.

And at the time... cuz I’m a collector of music as it is... at its prime, Frank’s records were not available on CD and they weren’t available on album because they were phasing out albums in a lot of the stores and a lot of stuff that Frank did was out of print so to find them, you had to buy them used in bigger cities like we would go to Cleveland and I would get you know used copies of records and stuff and some of them were rarer than others and I was trying to find originals and the whole deal. So it became this really time-consuming project that took about I don’t know eleven years to get all of them. It was pretty fun though.

My uncle and my parents were responsible for introducing me to a lot of music. Everytime I come home, I always [go to] the Docksider [an Erie tavern] and they have Hot Rats on the jukebox down there. I’m always playing it.

BALL

EE: How’s the Ball CD doing in Japan?
JT: Well, I don’t know, but Ball will be releasing its first debut CD here in the States later on. Um. It’s gonna be on Time Bomb Record[ing]s and it was recorded with Gilby Clarke who is an ex-Guns N' Roses member and he produced it and engineered it and we recorded it earlier this year and it’s already mixed and mastered and ready to go. It’s just a matter of timing now. It’s just a matter of when they’re gonna put it out and it’s gonna be really cool. It’s uh... It turned out great. I thought it turned out really good. I’m on I think four tracks – 4 or 5 tracks I think – 4 maybe and the rest of it’s all Brian [Tichy, Ball mastermind].

EE: And this is different than the one in Japan?
JT: Yeah. It’s uh -- some of it are the same songs; some of it aren’t. but the ones that are the same songs, they’ve been rerecorded so it’s not the same exact version. If you had the Japan disc then you know you would hear the same songs but they would be different versions so...

EE: Will you tour after that?
JT: Well, there’s talk of it and whether or not I’m available to do that is another story. It depends on what I’m doing at the time with the Zappas and that kind of thing. I would definitely love to do it and maybe scheduling between Duran and Ball might work out you know but it’s too close right now to to tell. I don’t know really what-what’s gonna happen. I definitely would like to though cuz I love that band and I want to do it. But we’ll just have to see where it goes. We’ll see what happens.

EE: What you can fit in?
JT: Yes, exactly.

I, CLAUDIUS

EE: Tell me about the side-project with Wes [Wehmiller, Duran Duran's touring bassist].
JT: Oh, I, Claudius? Well, that’s his, that’s his band which I wasn’t playing with in the beginning but now that the drummer that they were using moved back to Texas, I just said I would play. So, that’s just for fun. We really like to just…

Being in I, Claudius for me gives me an excuse to go out and play some fun music with some really good friends and be social out in the club scene in LA you know and I think everybody in that band knows it’s just a lot of fun to go out and play original -- good original music that they wrote you know and just have some fun. We don’t really get paid that much money and we don’t really need to go out and do it but we do it cuz it keeps us busy and we like to play and we like to play together you know so that’s what I, Claudius is all about. Plus they like to keep a really funny website for it, too.

EE: You knew Wes from school, right?
JT: Yes. Berklee [College of Music] in Boston. That’s where we met. He left the school and I kept going. He left after like two years I think or something but we lived pretty much right down the hall from each other. We became friends and we all had the same friends who were playing together and it just kinda went from there.

OTHER PROJECTS

EE: Is there anyone else you want to work with? Do you have anybody in mind?
JT: Oh. Well, I’d like to be in Lisa Loeb’s band, that’s for sure. She’s, she’s really cool. She’s dating Dweezil right now. She has an album that’s gonna be coming out eventually which I will be on as well. And I’d like to drum with her. Um, but you know really, it’s just whoever, you know, whatever. You know, if I like the music I’ll play with them cuz I don’t write music myself. I just play other people’s music. So, I don’t -- I’m not real picky unless something like you know any of the modern type of rock that I don’t like like Limp Bizkit and stuff like that, I wouldn’t... I wouldn’t be in a band like that. But I’m actually very happy with the different situations that I’m in.

I mean with Ball, it’s great because I get a chance to play in the style of music, in the style I grew up playing with you know. I love Led Zeppelin and I love Black Sabbath and I love stuff like that so I get to play like that but I also love to play pop music. I love to be in bands like Duran Duran and stuff like that and play that kind of music. It’s a lot of fun. It’s also... the type of people that go to those concerts are a lot of fun so I like that.

EE: Do you have any other projects on the table right now?
JT: Just keeping real busy and real tight with the Zappas keeping tight with Dweezil and Lisa and looking forward to the future Duran stuff and and maybe some future Ball stuff and that’s really about it right now. That’s keeping me pretty busy. I’d like to do a lot more session work around LA so hopefully if you’re a producer or musician in Los Angeles and you’re reading this, you can call me. [laughs]

In Part III, we get Joe talking about the Internet. Continue >>>