Shaun Foist (Breaking Benjamin) + Harley DeWinter
Ari Gold talk with Shaun Foist of Breaking Benjamin and Harley DeWinter about Neil Peart, Drums, and being on the road.
Transcript of INTERVIEW WITH Shaun Foist of Breaking Benjamin and Harley DeWinter.
Ari Gold
Greetings ladies and gentlemen, my name is Ari Gold. I am the Guinness world record holder for yard drumming and the air drum movie versus the power which Neil Pierce's in and I am pleased privileged, honored, tickled and psyched that two amazing drummers who are geniuses in their own right but also did this incredible tribute to Neil Pierre on with me this week. Shawn foist of Breaking Benjamin and and life and racecar driving and Harley DeWinter of the monta and siren and undivided and a plus dropouts and bring it off.
Harley DeWinter
Wow.
Ari Gold
So great to have you guys here. I think we have Shawn stuck in stuck in Cincinnati or in Cincinnati stuck sounds like you don't want to be there. But you're gonna grow up.
Shaun Foist
Weather's terrible. So we're here. We're gonna make the best of it. I got my wine. We're gonna do
Ari Gold
it. So,
Shaun Foist
yes, go ahead and just say thanks for having us.
Ari Gold
Yeah, it's it's an honor and really wonderful to have you guys here. So, yeah, we've been talking to a lot of drummers. In the past, we've just gotten a little bit drunk and talk about what we talked about. But I do have some questions. I'd love to ask you guys about drumming. Perhaps we could start with the fascinating story of how Shawn you got into wrench into Breaking Benjamin. What how did that all come about?
Shaun Foist
That's a weird one. I get asked that one a lot. It's gonna take a couple of minutes. But I
Ari Gold
think the whole thing.
Shaun Foist
Yeah, just everybody's like, right now. It's like intermission where you leave the concert during the drum solo and you go get your fear. That's this. But no, I started at a really early age of drumming. And by 10 You know, I was pretty excelled and doing my thing. And my dad found out that I was doing a spurt we had a school talent show coming up. And, you know, I obviously avoided it. I didn't even think about doing anything like that. And he's like, No, you need to do this whole thing. I'm like, Okay. And so, you know, long story short, he talked me into performing an Allman Brothers song with us. And it was called in memory of Elizabeth three. And I was like, Okay, that's a really long song. And you know, so we put together this drum part. I had my little audition tape and went to school with the teacher was like, It's awfully long. But is that really, you know, because back then that was just audio tape. You know, like, it wasn't anything like you can take your iPhone and give it to me. And they couldn't believe it was even me. So needless to say, I did the performance got a standing ovation. Like that's exactly what I want to do as a career. And then fast forward. My first major gig was Greg Goldman's daughter, Brooklyn omen for man called Pictionary broken. Well, in the midst of all that, I was also found Breaking Benjamin, and in and out of Turin. I went to some Breaking Benjamin shows. I knew the previous drummer really well. And I met Ben on the tour bus in 2009. He said, Hey, so what do you do? And I so I play drums. And he goes, cool. That was it. That was the end of it. We go watch the show and I had my best friend with me. And he looks at me and we're in the crowd. He goes you're gonna be in this band one day and I'm looking at him I see your truck Shut up. You know it was one of those kind of moments he goes now man like you're gonna be in this van. I'm telling it like whatever man so yeah, went on to do the picture of the broken thing which picture me broken was produced by David tetanus who also did Breaking Benjamin. So to start see where This is going. So I did record a picture of me broken and we're touring. We got offered the tour that was Cooper. And we're a week from going out on that tour and I'm walking down the sidewalk in LA to get a coffee. I get a phone call and it's from the engineer at the studio that Pictionary Birkins. Records. This What are you doing? So yeah, I'm just getting a coffee. What's up? He goes, Well, I got this bam, that's really interested in having you try out. I'm like, Oh, now you know, I'm doing this. I got this big tour. He goes now like, trust me, it's a band that you may or may not have heard of. It's called Breaking Benjamin. Like, whatever. Shut up like you're messing with me. Because can I give Ben your number?
Shaun Foist
Okay, sure.
Shaun Foist
Then calls. And I'm like, I didn't get the coffee. By the way. I'd never made it there. I was running up and down the sidewalk and excitement. I never even got the coffee. And I mean, I remember like just walking aimlessly around LA not even knowing where I'm walking and talking to this guy. And he was like, I saw you on YouTube. Why didn't you tell me back then that you were great. I'm like, you had a great drummer, there was no point like, and he was like, I want you in my bands. Please send me some videos that you play in my stuff. So I contacted my manager at the time Lonnie reader. And it had to be secret because I couldn't talk about it. And I rented out this lock out and recorded myself playing these songs. And you know, I'm a week going into a tour. I did it, send it to them left for tour didn't hear anything. I'm like, Well, I blew it. Because he told me to take my time. I sent it the same day. And he calls me he's like, Yeah, so just want to kind of go over, you know, your auditions. And I'm like, I blew it. Yeah, you nailed it. And I was like, Oh my God, and I'm like, I'm in the middle of this tour, like awkward, you know, whatever you want to do. And he goes now, get the arena experience because you're gonna need it. So I finished a three month run with Alice Cooper. And the last show, I quit the band rented a U haul truck, pickup truck, put my drums in the back of it and drove from Miami, Florida, to Ohio saw my mom for a couple of days because my dad had just died in the midst of all this tour. So I had to see my mom, and then drove from there to Pennsylvania. Ben and I play diary of James together and he just says you want to gig. I'm just like, wow. So now you can see what the story is so crazy. You know, I call my brother's Brooklyn
Ari Gold
friend who knew that you were going to get the gig before the gig was even available.
Shaun Foist
Okay, it gets even crazier. So I had worked at a place called Guitar Center. Everybody knows Guitar Center. And he was the store manager in Cincinnati, Ohio. And I hit it off with this dude, immediately. And we became just such great friends. And he Yeah, he just said you're gonna be in this band one day. So I remember when I got the job. And we didn't have a band. Like there was no bass boy bass players, no lead guitar player or anything. And he's like, you know, you can have any drum tech you want Sean it's all yours. I called that guy. Because I hate by the way up. I need a drum tech. I think it's I can't do it for nothing. I know. Picture me broken leg pan. It's Breaking Benjamin. Degas are freaking out. Yeah. So he had the crystal ball. He knew. And it was like it was crazy. Like the story like people unbelievable. So that really happened.
Ari Gold
Meeting. Okay,
Shaun Foist
exactly. Good story.
Ari Gold
I mean, I would like to I would like to pivot right to Carly talking about when the psychic plant his future. But you probably don't have this like story. You do? I quit. That's what I mean. Let's Can we can we say Ricky raka from poisoned as a psychic. And he somehow like did some like witchery over your sleeping body at one point and to make you a drummer early.
Harley DeWinter
He may have you know, for a long time. I mean, he's my dad's best friend for gosh, 30 years they met at sunset tattoo. I think it was and they just were, you know, bonding over motorcycles. So long time my dad and Ricky were best pals and I was going to poison concert since I was like three. And so I was always kind of air drumming and tapping on my chest and stuff but narrow drumming. You were in there, right? Yeah. And tapping on my chest and stuff. But I was never, you know, never had considered a drumset and then I think when I was nine, I got one. Ricky's company. Originally it was the chop shop drums. I remember I had that. He they built me a kit and what did I do? I never touched it. Just it wasn't for me at the time. But I started joined concert band. And when I was like 10. And then when I got to middle school, I joined jazz band. I wanted to do that because I could play drumset I didn't, I didn't like concert snare drum. I liked reading and learning how to do that. But I did not like just sitting at one drum, and playing that only I liked drum set. So I would wake up at 6am, I'd go to jazz band, I had auditioned and I got in at a great teacher, Joe Shaw. And then I had another great teacher, still, my teacher, his name's Evan stone, not the porn star.
Ari Gold
I didn't know that a porn star. So know the porn stars.
Harley DeWinter
You know, I only know that because I would look up my teacher on you know, Google, he played for like Ali and AJ. And then but I would just find the porn star. And I'm just like, that's not my teacher. But anyways, so that's what got me into drumming, I guess at the age of 12. And I started my own band did that for a while. And then I kind of was just in and out of bands a lot like just doing this doing that having my hands and a lot of pots so that I could figure out a what style I like playing who I like working with what type of people I like working with. So eventually that, you know, I was working with another band called siren. And then that led to, well, it didn't really lead to but I was working with them for a long time they got my experience up, I flew to Rocklahoma, I played my first Rocklahoma Festival at 15 or 16 years old and 2014. And then 2015, I graduated high school at OSHA, which was an arts school here in Santa Ana. And then I went on Warped Tour A week later with a plus dropout. So we talked about and and that was that was my first touring experience. And that was grueling. Can we hear a little bit about more tour. Warped Tour is nuts. Traveling Circus is the only way you can really describe it. I mean, props to Kevin Lyman and that entire clan for creating something so magical. And I really wish that we still were blessed with that, you know, people are still blessed with that kind of tour. Because, you know, there's very few of those kinds of tours that where there's it's a it's a festival, it's 40 band festival, or you know even more than that, I think but traveling circus is the only way I can describe it. It's eight stages, something like that a day, I only did three weeks with the you know, the band only had three weeks, but we had or the Ernie Ball stage every day our time shifted. So sometimes we played noon, sometimes I play 6pm anywhere in between. And, you know, that's where I kind of like cut my teeth, I really got started. I liked the grind. I liked waking up early and unloading gear and you know, stuff in and just paying my dues is what I always thought of it. As you know, I've always tried to make sure that I never let anything get to my head. So I did that I was doing like 40,000 steps a day like walking 10 or 15 miles a day just on that tour, loading gear and playing drums and doing all that 100 degree heat and every day. And it was the best experience of my life. So that's when I knew it was like that's what I want to do for the rest of my life as you know, as long as I physically am able to and then move on to you know, whatever studio mixing anything like that still maintaining the music career, but doing something that you know, involves a desk a little bit more, but I still love touring. So that part did for me. Before that, what's
Ari Gold
your favorite place to play? Like, what's your favorite venue?
Harley DeWinter
Oh, my gosh, um, you know, we played a lot of great amphitheaters on the tour together. Sean and I did. What was it hard for or No, Guilford New Hampshire?
Ari Gold
That's, that's your favorite. That's what about Guilford? Yeah,
Harley DeWinter
it's a fantastic venue. And then they have like tricycles and bikes and all sorts of fun stuff and they have like a mini golf course and like a pool backstage. It's just a fun, like hanging after the show, you know? So that's the stuff that's memorable for me because I you know, I wake up even with like Giamatti I on tour wake up relatively early to what touring is not as early as the crew guys, but wake up, unload the trailer, set up all the gear with my production manager and play a show at like five o'clock in the afternoon and then be done by seven with loading a trailer back up and then it's kind of like the rest of the night I have off but those first seven hours of my day when it was when I woke up at noon and loaded in you know, it was just kind of
Ari Gold
what are your rituals? Do you have any pre show rituals that you do?
Harley DeWinter
pre show rituals with de Montaigne? No more because I think just it caught up to us, but um, tequila shots before the show Patro and silver, that's death. That is the worst thing to do and reheat on a summer.
Ari Gold
I mean, well, if you're not mixing it, I actually find tequilas totally fine. It's just if you then have some juice or you then have a beer, but if you're just drinking tequila you're fine.
Harley DeWinter
Tequila on its own as as shots is fine. So like to have those just you know, it's not it's not my first choice. I'm a bourbon guy. So it's like for me I prefer that kind of burn and smoothness from Bourbon versus like tequila to me as soon as you get your nose right to the glass, it's like an assaulting kind of smell. So but you know, it was fun. It was fun to do that I had a couple of nights where Yeah, mixing, like wine, you know, hanging out. And then during the pre show tequila shot, and I looked back at my drop Tech, I remember one night in April. And I was like, I can't make it. Play like one of my favorite shows ever. I have video of it. And I had audio of it. I mixed it and, and playing wise, it was fantastic. But I was like, at the time, I was like, I'm not going to make it through this show. Because I'm just dead. Like,
Shaun Foist
that's all equal spinning. Yeah, exactly.
Harley DeWinter
Also equals awesome drum drills.
Shaun Foist
At the time, they see what's at the time. They seem
Harley DeWinter
awesome. They're not such great ideas. But no, like, you know, I toured, I did the a plus dropouts walkthrough thing. I got a bunch of I've just worked. I live in Orange County, but I was always driving up to LA and trying to just network and meet people. I had an audition with John five, like end of 2016. And he was great. Yeah, that came out that came about from a guy named Barry squire. You know, he's kind of like the, you know, Guide to know for connecting auditions at least, you know, a lot of the cats in the 90s got that that way. I think Taylor Hawkins got Abra Levine or not ever not ever loving Jesus. A lot more sir. Yeah, that was that was two different arrows right there. I just missed that
Shaun Foist
was a big difference.
Ari Gold
It's all ancient history now. That's fine. So I want to refer to ever Levine as dad rock.
Shaun Foist
Why? Because she married the guy from Nickelback, or,
Ari Gold
well, maybe but I mean, yeah, that's an issue, but
Harley DeWinter
like, you know, me listen to Nickelback all the time.
Shaun Foist
Yeah. I love Nickelback.
Harley DeWinter
I love Nickelback. But no, I know that Taylor got the Atlantis gig through like very sparse. So just he, you know, recommends a lot of people. So he recommended me for that. John like me, but it didn't work out at the time, I was still pretty green to touring. So I got recommended for another gig with a band called The high Fox. I played with them for a year and a half, we did a lot of touring together. And then I got the call for DeMonte. And we, you know, grown up on the same circuit. We played all the same pizza bars and all that junk for years. And I always said, I want to play drums for her. I think she's really cool.
Ari Gold
I know we mentioned this before, but Taylor Carroll her. Her man was on our show lit. He's so are you are you friends with him? Or is this? Yeah, no, he's he's a good buddy. You know, it's
Harley DeWinter
funny because I think they've been together for nearly a year now. And we didn't meet until July of last year, da Matta had a live stream. And so Taylor was a guest and he played a couple he played drums on a couple of songs even play guitar and one song. So that was my first time meeting him and handing him the you know, the keys to my car basically with the with the drum set. But great guy Great.
Ari Gold
What what drums Do you play? What's your kid right now,
Harley DeWinter
I play DW drums. So I have several kits right now I actually have one we're in my studio right now. So I have a Purple Heart kit set up this couch and we can't really see what's going on. But with the module,
Ari Gold
as an air drummer, I should point out the DW is an official air drums
Harley DeWinter
of power. It that's that's what you have in your head when you're playing.
Ari Gold
Well, it there's a scene in the movie where he were he's where my character is forced to sit on a stool. And it's DW stool, and zooms, and you can see it and then actually don Lombardi who runs DW as well as drum channel. He was a big supporter of the movie. And he he shot these videos with me and Neal peered after we did the movie. And we did all that at at a DW or the drum channel studio. So yeah, fantastic, soft spot in my heart and Don Lombardi and DW.
Harley DeWinter
He's a fantastic man, him and John and then you know, the entire Lombardi family now is involved in a company and they're just fantastic. And yeah, you know, I just they always push the limits of like, what I think can be done for, you know, price wise, customization wise, anything like that, they always push the limit. And that's what I really love about them is that that's a company that feels like they're not in it to I mean, you know, any good businesses and it to be profitable, but that isn't part of it. They love it. That loves what they do. And they innovate for the sake of innovation. It's like Apple for drums. I mean, they're just, that's the company. Yeah,
Ari Gold
Harley. What do you play?
Harley DeWinter
Me or show me?
Ari Gold
Oh, sorry. I got confused for a second look. A little windows. already. You
Harley DeWinter
need one. More glass of wine.
Shaun Foist
That's exactly right. No, I actually I actually just switched to DW last month. I was wasn't told previously for about four and a half years. And we were doing the Neil Pierre tribute. And I was playing Harley's kit. So I was like, you know, like, I used to be a DW guy early on my first real drum set that my mom bought me was a DW kit. And it was it was something almost like you know, you get back on you play and it was just like, this is where I need to be. And I made the switch where the new kits being built right now can't wait to get it. So it's massive we went you know, all the way from an eight inch Tom's is the 23 inch gallon drum we did the whole collection exotic would
Ari Gold
have you I have played Terry bozos insane kit. Oh, view? Like, where do you start? 350 that's got like, the all of the notes of the scale as different, like bass drums. It's crazy. C C sharp, D D sharp. E. I mean, the whole thing, like in a circle.
Shaun Foist
You have to be like Beethoven to play that kid. It's insane.
Ari Gold
I'm not Beethoven. I just made a lot of noise. I did a little video with Gary where like, my character busts into the shop and plays his drums and he yells at me.
Shaun Foist
That's really cool. Well, that kid's got like 100 different pedals to they like fan out.
Harley DeWinter
It's madness. Totally.
Shaun Foist
Fine. I have seen it. I wouldn't know where to start the plant.
Ari Gold
Yeah, I didn't either. I just I because I was in character. I had the excuse to display really badly. If I if I sat down with a kid as myself, I would be too embarrassed in touch.
Shaun Foist
I think I would too. I wouldn't even know where to start. Yeah. So.
Ari Gold
So what are the what's the what's the link up between racecar driving and?
Shaun Foist
And? Yeah, job. My dad was heavy in the cars. You know, there was always a hot rod on the driveway growing up. He had a 69 z 28 dz that he had since 1988. And I was there so basically, it's a 69 Camaro with a special as a special edition 69 Camaro I had a 302 versus like you had some that had 396 or 420 sevens, yada, yada yada. It was a rare option with front disc brakes. But he had that for years and another Camaro and we had Corvette, which he ended up turning me loose with in high school, which that didn't last very long. I think I had the car two weeks before he like, held his hand out for the keys. Get caught trying to drive six girls home from school when it's a two seater. So that was cool. But I so yeah, I just got heavy into cars. And then when I was old enough to start working, I bought my own Mustang and it's always been Mustangs, which really made my dad mad because he was a Chevy guy. But I converted him. And currently now I have a 1400 horsepower motors converted him
Ari Gold
like he's switched over to Mustangs. What he
Shaun Foist
started driving, he started driving mindless things and falling in love with them. Even though he was a Chevy guy, like first one I bought and I pulled it in the driveway, he's he's get that out of my driveway. Don't even Park it here. Take it somewhere else. Like that's how diehard, he was about Chevy. So but yeah, so currently I have a 1400 horsepower Mustang. That's a drag car. And it's I haven't even raced it. It's still on the shop being built. So hopefully we'll get it out at some point here.
Ari Gold
What city is that in? Cincinnati? That's all so your base there. You were just going to go to Texas to visit Harley.
Shaun Foist
Yeah. Awesome. All my connecting flight to Texas. I was going to Orange County, but I can't get there.
Ari Gold
Early. You're still in OC. Yeah. Okay. When you say you're in Thai, or you are in Texas now.
Shaun Foist
No, that's just for the connection. Okay, would you say yeah, so.
Ari Gold
So, I would love to hear or you guys share a little bit about how you ended up? Well, how Neil Pierre inspired you and how you ended up doing this incredible medley
Shaun Foist
you know, it goes back to even as my dad was a drummer and you had bands with me growing up. And I'll never forget. He had band practice one day. And he was playing when he got up to use the restroom or, you know, go smoke a cigarette or something. I just jumped on the drums and his bass player was standing there. And I remember I just started playing these crazy bills, you know, it's when dad wasn't that style drummer. And at this point, I hadn't even heard of rush at all. I was more into like, Led Zeppelin and the who and stuff like that.
Ari Gold
These are respectable drummers.
Shaun Foist
Yeah. And this guy looks at me and he was like, Hey, man, like, you're good. Like, don't tell your dad, but you're good. And he asked one day, he's like, Hey, do you care if I come over jam with a kid? And you know, when we're not having band practice? My dad's like, absolutely. And I'll never forget, he came over one day, and this is back when he burnt CDs. I mentioned I'm old. So this takes me way back. And he come over to had the CD and the cover the CD, which he had rip on hand wrote on the thing, so awesome drummers. Awesome. What the hell's this? So I put it in my little, portable CD player, headphones. And I heard, I think, what rush song Jacob's Ladder effect he had on there. But it was a series of great drummers, but it's Jacob's Ladder. And so below, this is cool, and begged my mom to take me to the local Best Buy. And I bought my first record, which I have here is exit stage left. This was not this isn't the one I bought. But it looks like it's signed by someone. It's signed by the whole band. My singer bought this for me for Christmas, three years ago. That was the first CD I bought. And it has the very lengthy drum solo coming out of YYC, that you're probably familiar with. And I was like, Oh, my God, like, this is life changing. So the next thing you know, I'm down in the basement, I'm playing along next stage left. And that's when my dad was like you, you're doing things over and beyond what I could ever do. So I surpassed my dad by, you know, 1011 12 years old, and my dad had been playing for years. And it just started escalating from there. And then, you know,
Shaun Foist
I got into like,
Shaun Foist
school band like jazz man. And I was always the guy that was in jazz band playing the drum kit and playing the rush from about he's, you know, it just went to that. You know, it was always an inspiration, like, it was always something musically, that evolved in my plane that Neil came up, you know, like, a, something always happened. And then, you know, when he passed away, I said, you know, it'd be really cool to do a tribute to Neil, but at the time, like, I was on tour, and it just didn't work out, I didn't really have a lot of time, I was gonna do a, a rotor drum solo, that I was just going to perform in our set was cut short, so we weren't the headliner. So I wasn't able to perform it, and then a pandemic happened. And touring stopped. And then that's when I went out to visit Harley, and most sitting in a studio. And, you know, two, three bottles of wine, I'm just sitting there and looking at this DW kit, turned around, looked at him, I said, How many of these drum kits do you have? And he's like, Oh, three, or four and, like, got enough to put together a new peer kit. I guess what do you want to do that for? I'm like, I want to do a tribute to Neil, but not only do I want to do the tribute and you know, how cool would it be? If two guys did it? And he was like, okay, so we put on a couple of songs. And at first, it was just going to be leave that not Yeah. Or where's my thing from roll the bones instrumental? And we listened to it. And then the next thing I'm like, You know what, it'd be cooler, if we just put together a bunch of songs.
Ari Gold
I immediately start hearing how the transitions are gonna work. I mean, well, that was
Shaun Foist
the thing I didn't I had no idea like how it was gonna work. And then, you know, Harley is like, so let me get this straight. You want to just like start putting these songs together and cutting them and and when do you want to do this, I'm like the anniversary of his death, which will be in about a week and a half. And he just looked at me and goes, Oh, Jesus, like you're out of your mind. So he opens up this computer software or whatever, because he's an engineer. I don't know how to do any of that stuff, really. And we started picking songs like things that I revisited from my childhood, like this song would be cool. This song would be cool. And I just started cutting in like a cut it there, put that there, cut that there and then he started getting into going whoa, this would be cool to put it here. And he's all getting excited. And I'm like this is gonna be ridiculous. And we hadn't even rehearsed anything we were like we spent like a whole week putting together the the snippets of
Ari Gold
songs. You have to learn it.
Shaun Foist
Yeah, we didn't even learn it. Yeah, we're just sitting there with like air drum and basically literally
Ari Gold
aerodrome drumming. See? Yeah, we're mentioning that make me feel comfortable.
Shaun Foist
That comes into the studio. He's like, You guys have lost your mind. Because let alone wanting you to do this. Both of you. I'm like, oh, yeah, not only that, like we're gonna hit the exact symbols and the exact Tom's the whole deal. And then even I was questioning and also commonly when we can do this like, are we going to pull it off by the deadline? And then so we put together to thing we got to worry want to. And then I remember we made a couple passes. And I was like, You know what? That wasn't bad. Okay, cool. Well painted, Harley comes in the mix and goes, Hey, do so I was listening to the songs you know that you know that song called mission that you played me with the xylophone part? We should do that. And I'm like, No, we should not do that. Because all my buddies got a mallet cat. So the mallet cat shows up. And then we're back to the drawing board. And here we are trying to figure
Harley DeWinter
that out. He rewrote the whole medley Yeah, the whole method
Shaun Foist
you have rewritten. And it just like, as soon as we would get one thing done, we would just one up each other. And he looks at me again. And he's like, you know, we shouldn't do like both of those really long fills and spirit Radio. I'm like, You know what, you're really pissing me off right now. Because we got it where we want it, you keep making it harder, which I'm so glad that you did. Because like it was epic. And then you know, it went from we rolling the four or five minutes of rush to now it's eight minutes and 30 seconds of rush. But you know, we did it. And I remember we finished rehearsing the night before the shoot. And I did two takes of it. And I was like, I'm good. I'm not even gonna force it. And I remember his dad looks at me and goes, you're making a mistake you need to practice. It's fine. And yeah, he did the same thing. And we just left it alone. And then the film guy shows up. You know, we knocked it out. And it blew up. People loved it. I still watch it.
Ari Gold
Yeah, go ahead.
Shaun Foist
I still watch it and just shake my head and go, Wow, we were crazy. Like to even think about doing something on that extent. Because, you know, it's hard for one drummer to play Russian and play it correctly. And that was the other thing with the thing. I said, I'm not doing it unless it's right. You know, it has to be right. Or we're gonna get just, you know, torn apart online. So we dissected each Phil. I know, like, there was one song we spent two or three days just working on one, Phil,
Harley DeWinter
we were googling transcriptions. And we were really, yeah, you're auditing each other. So I would sit here in the chair, watch him play, and listen really intently. And then he'd sit there and watch me play. And luckily, no fistfights broke out.
Shaun Foist
It was intense. Because it was to the point like he said, we were standing in front of each other when we're playing and won't stop. You missed assemble. Stop too many kick drums stop. Like, I am surprised. We didn't fight. But it was all good.
Harley DeWinter
Constructive, and it was it was really like it was great for both of us. I think as musicians too. I mean,
Shaun Foist
I came out a better drummer just from doing that. Yeah. I feel better
Harley DeWinter
about playing in general and reignited a passion.
Shaun Foist
Yeah, I mean, cuz even he looked at me and he was like, you know, I wouldn't have been a million years thought to even do anything like this. But now I like, I'm fired up about drums again, I didn't even want to play drums. So you know what, we were both just over it. And even me, like, you know, toured for so long that the pandemic hit, and the break was good for me, like I was fine not playing shows, I was fine not being in the studio. And then when we did this, it was like, now I want to play shows, I feel better, I feel that I'm refreshed. And I've challenged myself. And you know, it's gonna make me play my own stuff better. So you know, it all around, it made both of us better drummers. And we were more inspired. And we're actually thinking about doing a part two.
Ari Gold
Really? So how many songs were included in the existing one?
Harley DeWinter
I think 11 I
Shaun Foist
think it's a little reason alone.
Unknown Speaker
I think because we even have like your eight or 11 you have like add some Well,
Shaun Foist
I don't remember because there's four versions or four versions we
Harley DeWinter
did. I think we did a five minute pass and that had eight songs originally and we were originally trying to do nine I think subdivisions was supposed to be there and we couldn't we couldn't make it flow that was the only thing it was like there's so many fantastic songs there but it was the flow between each song we were trying to really like okay, how can we make that drum fill go into this even with like y y z we did a 15 second clip and but it happens to be a very similar fill to digital man and we completely changed the field to went from like a straightforward to now all of a sudden you know, very six eight kind of thing. And so, you know, we were we were stressing trying to figure out what to put in there, where to put it and how to transition it. So there were songs that didn't make the cut that we were like, Okay, well, we need to now do of course, you know, so
Shaun Foist
I He didn't want to be typical and be like everybody else do Tom Sawyer why? Why is the time? Like? Yeah
Ari Gold
yeah, it was not all the obvious stuff. I mean,
Shaun Foist
the next one like who wouldn't even thought to do that I get I'm like, No, but we're gonna do a live verse like stupid
Ari Gold
there's I should mention, by the way that you know, they're the meal period special. The festival special from Modern Drummer is no longer it's no longer streaming on Modern Drummer, but there's a lot of beautiful, Neil appeared stuff that they have. They have Neo legends framed art, the legends book bundle, and I encourage everyone to go to modern drummer.com/shop Use promo code fab fab 20 Catchy right? Fabulous February 25 20. Oh, that's because it's 20% off. Fa V and get your Neil gear at modern drummer.com. And also, I'll give a plug for myself. Come to adventures empower.com. And you can look at all my bonus videos with Neil period. I have a long interview with him I have my drum off with with Neil where I played. We played veal and I played the obvious one we played the most obvious we played Tom Sawyer, but it's now I feel terrible. I'm over here going.
Shaun Foist
I don't want to do the typical thing. And you're like, hey, well,
Ari Gold
I will say when I will say when I asked him to be in the movie. I did get a message. He said Yes, first. But then he did say, What do you think about maybe doing something not as obvious as Tom Sawyer and I was like, come on the movie, man. Let's just do the one that, you know, let's do like the original thing that the aerodrome was, you know, eardrum was whatever genesis of the Bible of air grubbing.
Harley DeWinter
But yeah, it goes across. Does the Tom Sawyer Phil? Yeah.
Ari Gold
So yeah, I had a amazing experience getting to know him. I mean, I did not expected. I didn't even know the message will get through. I sent out a kind of fan letter invitation to the independent movie. And he had been pretty reclusive for a while. And he apparently wanted to have some fun and do something goofy. And he came and he acted, playing himself. And, and then when the movie, the movie, independent film, we finished it. We played Sundance, we got some, like, people loved it. And there were people who hated it. And he came out to support and was like, Look, you can't listen to the people who love you or the people who hate you. Because if you listen to one, you're gonna believe the other. And it was really wise, beautiful advice. And then, and then we did a bunch of extra videos like we're dropping to Tom Sawyer. And then I went off to Europe, and I did some air drum covers. I did why why is the I know another obvious one, but. And he was very impressed. He said, I might be the world's best air drummer. When I sent him the YZ video. I agree. In score, you're really good.
Shaun Foist
Drum, the Breaking Benjamin that's
Ari Gold
Oh, and do that or you put me up to it. He did see me play real drums. He came to my band, I played in a band called The honey brothers. And I wasn't the drummer, I play ukulele player, and sometimes singer. But I was swapped with the drummer, who was the actor Adrian during a who was also in Adventures of power, but he was the official drummer from the band, but two songs I would play drums. And so Neil came to see us play. And, and it was like a small venue like intimate venue celebrating the movie, you know, like private thing. So like, he was right there in front of me playing drums. And I'm looking at him like, I feel like such an asshole right now. But he was like, You know what, when you sat down the energy in the room got a lot hotter?
Shaun Foist
Yeah. Yeah, I can imagine.
Harley DeWinter
I actually didn't know that. Adrian played drums that makes me love him even more, because I just grew up on entourage.
Ari Gold
We all when you meet a guy named Ari Gold.
Harley DeWinter
Yeah, I was like, we follow me. I was like, Oh my God.
Shaun Foist
I remember that. We were in a car. Ari Gold just phoned
Ari Gold
me. He did. See my reputation precedes me or something. But yeah, he's Yeah, he played drums for years. And we're not my band. It was our band. And total pleasure, a total pleasure to work with like always, like the bandwidth. We had. We had a fair number of fights. And Adrian was always the ones that kind of like I ended the fight, because he always just be like, you know, like and then he used a lot of fights and and I was actually concerned, you know, because he was such a kind of like loosey goosey type drummer, like
Ari Gold
when I cast him in Adventures of power like you know, you're gonna have to learn a Neil peered song like, perfectly like every single accent every you know and so that you can aerodrome it because for the competition, I just needed it to be like a dance where like we're drumming to where air drumming next to each other and like every single beat I wanted it to be like, spot on. And he nailed it. And so there's when I watched like the climactic battle between me and him doing Tom Sawyer and I and I see Adrian doing like doing this part playing this cowboy doing Neal peered it's there's something like really touching about it because he really he put the work in
Ari Gold
wireless he does it flawlessly. So I mean, not like the master of course, but you know,
Shaun Foist
well, yeah, um, you know, we know what can be like demand. I mentioned. I said, No one can
Ari Gold
dethrone the king. Yes, no one can. I have Hold on a second. I'm gonna, I'm gonna bring it home. I get it. Like there's gonna have a little show and tell for you
Shaun Foist
what it means he's gonna go fill those wineglass up secretly.
Ari Gold
We have an official adventures to power. Oh, my little it's a little worn from the years. But there's the route right there. This. This is inspired. I can't remember what drummer I saw. From the 70s Probably like a headband. new drummer. I feel like that was a thing. thing. Yeah, I guess it was a thing. Loverboy Yeah. Loverboy Yeah. Loverboy there's a little boy song in the movie. But there were others too. I think Stewart Copeland also sometimes wore a headband. So
Harley DeWinter
it was a frickin this outfit, basically.
Ari Gold
Yeah, he he retweeted my air drum video recently. That's the closest I've gotten to Stewart Copeland, but that was kind of nice. And then speaking of the crown that I have this, ah, brown, yes. And with my new beard, it's, it's rockin. So we, you know, I think we're about out of time, we're going to be moving towards streaming the movie. For those who want to watch the movie, we'll continue to chat. Or you can watch the movie anytime you like, on Amazon. It's called Adventures of power and every stream of the movie, we send it and it's free on Amazon. But we're still sending money for each stream to MusiCares, which supports musicians in need, which is really important in this time, especially gigging musicians who don't have a support system. Or retired musicians. MusiCares is really, really essential, because without, without the musicians, we don't have a culture, we don't have a soul as a nation. And so MusiCares is a great organization to support. So watch the movie, and you're supporting it. And please review us to write a nice review on Amazon. If you like it. You can also buy it on Vimeo and then even more money goes to MusiCares. And you can also donate to MusiCares. Just straight up, because it's a great thing to do. So that's a little a little plug. I will be running also for those of you who don't want to watch the movie on your phones. A what a Amazon watch party for the first 100 People who do who come in here. It's Adventures of power.com backslash. Watch watching. Hold on, let me make sure I got this right. Versus the power.com. Watching. I think that's right. Yes, that's right. And, and you can't be on safari apparently, but then I'll be able to chat to you while you're watching the movie as well. If you have questions and want to drink some wine and talk about all the rock that's in it. Is there anything that you Harley, Harley or Shawn want to say to your people, or my people or each other's people about music, drumming, life philosophy?
Shaun Foist
That I think we nailed it, you know, the music cares is a big thing. You know, a lot of people don't realize the impact that the music business took the whole pandemic thing too. And it's a cruise. I mean, nurses are 12 million people in the business that are still unemployed. You know, so it's a good thing. You know, like, I think you're doing a really good thing and it's awesome. So I just want to thank you personally for doing what you're doing. because it's amazing, and I think more people need to pick up on that. So sharing it you know, like, especially with the cruise you know without the cruise the bands can't do what they do and you know, even band wise there's bands that are hurting. I mean, bands aren't millionaires like they all think that we are so
Ari Gold
yeah, that's the thing. There's a perception that oh, you're a musician you know I got is a gravy train. It's like it's a gravy train for a couple of people. Well, there's a person said 12 million people getting employed by an industry that's now basically on the rocks. It's on the rocks. It's on the ropes. Excellent. We're on. This is on the rock. It's on the ropes. I was on the rocks and mixing my my drinking and boxing metaphors.
Ari Gold
But yeah, so MusiCares is a great, great organization. And,
Ari Gold
and it's such a pleasure to talk to you guys.