Chad Wackerman Decides To Beat It
Sunday, May 09, 2004
Last Sunday I was leafing through the music pages of one of the entertainment industry gossip compendiums that masquerades as a newspaper â (this is not a criticism; I read them for their entertainment gossip and Iâd have no scruples to overcome were I ever given the opportunity to help them compile entertainment gossip in an on-going, professional capacity) â when I came across a little piece on Chad Wackerman.
I was first aware of Chad Wackermanâs presence in Australia back in the mid-90s, when he was serving as the drummer for the house band on Roy & HGâs show Club Buggery on the ABC. As it happens, Chad had married an Australian, and after the pair had lived in Los Angeles for eight years, they decided to move to Australia. At the time, I was working weekends in a music shop and one of my duties was to field inquiries from hard-core Frank Zappa fans. The process of remastering and re-issuing Zappaâs back-catelogue (and a wonderful smattering of new releases) was continuing posthumously, but no local label had bought into the deal yet in Australia; everything had to be imported. Thus, as titles would come up for release, the hard-core fans who would come in wanting to place orders would be stonewalled by shop assistants who of course would not be able to find any mention of Zappa product in the local release schedules. At that time, Shock was the distribution company that would bring in European pressings on the Music For Nations imprint, right up until Festival in Australia struck a deal with Rykodisc in the late 90s. My job was to allay the fears of the hard-core fans: of course I knew what they were talking about; of course our shop would be getting copies of the album; of course weâd call them when the stock arrived. I got to know a lot of Zappa fans at that time, and naturally expected that theyâd be as excited as I was to discover that Chad Wackerman, who had been Zappaâs longest-serving drummer, was now living in Australia. âOh yeah, I know,â most of them would reply when Iâd tell them. âHe gave a drum clinic the weekend before last. Heâs been here for a while.â They were clearly more hard-core than me.
The journalist working for the gossip compendium had really outdone himself (or herself) since, in addition to announcing that Wackerman would be launching his new album at the Basement the following evening and that the legendary drummer would soon be quitting his adopted home of Australia, the item also discussed the piece of music known as âThe Black Pageâ at some length. Clearly, this was more than the mere re-writing of a press release. (It turns out that âThe Black Pageâ was a reference to a difficult piece of music one of Zappaâs bandmembers had to play at a session. Not shown the music prior to turning up, he was handed sheet music so difficult, staves so dense with musical notation, that the page looked more black than white. Zappa responded by composing his own version, a piece of music so deliberately difficult that it deserved the epithet âblack pageâ as an official title.) I thought Iâd be a good little journalist and attempt to get my own interview out of Mr Wackerman, particularly since he would soon be leaving the country.
When I rang the Basement in order to find a contact for Wackerman, I was encouraged to come down in person and try my luck. I am indebted to people at the venue, Wackermanâs management and Chad Wackerman himself for allowing me to stick around in order to stick a microphone in Wackermanâs face backstage before the gig. Now I regret that I didnât ask a few more questions â like how Chad felt about augmenting his drumkit with synthesiser drums when he was in Zappaâs band, seeing as how he eschews the use of drum loops and the dated feel they automatically give to music. (Try listening to live Zappa recordings from 1984 â on albums like You Canât Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 3, for example â to hear state-of-the-art technology of the time sounding painfully out-of-date.) I also would have liked to ask what inspired some of the titles, let alone the tracks, on the new album. âLegs Elevenâ, descriptively referring to the hindu-arabic numeral for eleven, is a turn of phrase I suspect native if not to Australia, then at least to countries of the Commonwealth that set great store in bingo. The track âTangaraâ seems to refer to the train of the same name, a model introduced to Sydneyâs CityRail network in the early 90s during Liberal Premier Nick Greinerâs time in office. (This tangent is proof, if you needed any, that hard-core Frank Zappa fans are trainspotters!) âTangaraâ supposedly translates (from the language of indigenous Australians?) as âletâs goâ, so it is quite apt as a title for a Chad Wackerman composition at this point in his career. The track âNewtownâ is of course named after the colourful inner-city Sydney suburb favoured by students, bohemians and beggars.
The interview was broadcast Saturday 8 May.
Music: âNo Time Like The Futureâ (drum intro) by Chad Wackerman, from the album Legs Eleven
Demetrius Romeo: Chad, I wonât be the first person to make this observation; you have the perfect name â âWackermanâ â to be a drummer. How did you come to the drums?
CHAD WACKERMAN: My father is a drummer and a music teacher. He teaches at a high school, has taught at a high school for thirty-five years now, in California. When I was a little kid, my dad would be practicing on the drums, and I just naturally gravitated towards the drums, towards what my father was doing.
Music: âNo Time Like The Futureâ (drum intro) by Chad Wackerman, from the album Legs Eleven
CHAD WACKERMAN: I played violin for a while in school as well, and a little bit of marimba, but that didnât last too long; I was must further along with drumming.
Music: âSt Etienneâ by Frank Zappa, from the album Jazz From Hell
Demetrius Romeo: A lot of people know of you through your work with Frank Zappa. What was it like playing with him?
CHAD WACKERMAN: Playing with Frank was amazing. It was an amazing learning experience. It encompassed so many different styles. It was like being in a rock ânâ roll band, it was like being in a great jazz ensemble, it was like being in a chamber orchestra as well. He wrote a lot of music, to say the very least, and a lot of it was difficult, very detailed and complicated music, and I think a lot of it was very beautiful as well. He really knew what he wanted. His music was difficult, but if you were playing it, there was no problem. He spent a lot of time working on that music and he wanted to hear it played right. It was a great experience. It was a great, growing experience and it affected me in a huge way.
Music: âTangaraâ by Chad Wackerman, from the album Legs Eleven
Demetrius Romeo: Youâve just released a new album called Legs Eleven. Tell me a bit about it.
CHAD WACKERMAN: It features this great band that I have here, which is Leon Gaer on bass, James Muller on guitar and Daryl Pratt on vibraphone and electronics. Iâm really, really proud of this record. Itâs the second record that weâve put out with this band, the first was called Scream, and itâs been five or six years since weâd done Scream, so the band has done a lot together; weâve toured in Europe together.
Music: âTangaraâ by Chad Wackerman, from the album Legs Eleven
CHAD WACKERMAN: Thereâs just a tighter chemistry within the group now, and I think Legs Eleven really proves that. Iâm really proud of their performances and proud of the compositions. Itâs a mixture of band compositions and some short drum and percussion pieces mixed inbetween the band tunes, so it has quite a lot of contrast to it.
Music: âField Of Marsâ by Chad Wackerman, from the album Legs Eleven
Demetrius Romeo: Whatâs it like leading a band from the drum stool?
CHAD WACKERMAN: Well, I find it a very natural thing. I donât know if a lot of people donât really this, but the drummer has a lot of control over the music, I think more than anyone else on the stage. If the drummer, for example, decides to give more energy to the last chorus that youâre playing, or to make a verse quieter, typically the band will follow you very directly. So youâre always kind of leading them anyway. Youâre in the back, normally, youâre the sideman normally, but you have the most power over the band anyway, so itâs really a natural thing. Itâs not unusual.
Music: âTonightâ by Rachel Gaudry, from the (Chad Wackerman-produced) album Leaving Traces
Demetrius Romeo: You also produce other people, for example, you produced Rachel Gaudryâs first album. When push comes to shove, do you prefer playing someoneâs band, playing in your own band, or producing someone else?
CHAD WACKERMAN: I enjoy all aspects of music, and producing can be really fun, if you get someone like Rachel who is really enjoyable. I produced Rachel, and Rachel is a really wonderful singer/songwriter. My approach to production is very organic, I guess⦠Iâm always aware of not over-producing people, because I think you should find people with lots of talent and really let them do what they do and just surround them with the best kind of atmosphere that they need to really shine and show-off what they can do, and Iâve been lucky to have done that a few times.
Music: âTonightâ by Rachel Gaudry, from the (Chad Wackerman-produced) album Leaving Traces
CHAD WACKERMAN: I donât go for too much gimmickry, I donât use too many loops or things like that because I think it really puts a date-stamp on it. If you hear a loop in ten years, youâre going to go, âoh, we know when this record was recordedâ, but if you go back and even hear some of the great singer-songwriters from the 70s like James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, theyâre still pretty much making records in the same way: live band, itâs all played by live musicians and it doesnât sound dated. So I have more of that approach when I produce people.
Music: âBalancing Actsâ by Chad Wackerman, from the album Legs Eleven
Demetrius Romeo: Now youâre about to leave our country. Whatâs taking you away from us?
CHAD WACKERMAN: Weâve been here ten years, actually, and throughout the ten years, Iâve been having to travel quite a bit, usually doing three or four trips, out of the country, usually to Los Angeles, but sometimes on tours to Europe or Japan, tours of the US, or just for album work, and itâs getting to the point where itâs a bit crazy. Weâll be back here â weâre planning on a trip at least once a year, and Iâm hoping to get the band together and do a tour at that time.
Music: âBalancing Actsâ by Chad Wackerman, from the album Legs Eleven
Demetrius Romeo: Chad Wackerman, thank you very much for your time.
CHAD WACKERMAN: Thank you very much, Dom.
Music: âBalancing Actsâ by Chad Wackerman, from the album Legs Eleven