FX: How did you first get interested in making music?
SP: I started drumming at about 10 years old. I had an old kit of my grandpas sitting in the basement. After joining my first punk band at 13 I was hooked.
FX: When you first started drumming who were the drummers that you looked to for inspiration?
SP: My grandpa was my first inspiration. After that it was mostly skate punk drummers and the speeds they were playing. I thought I would never be able to play like that.
FX: And today who or what is inspiring to you?
SP: I have inspiration from all over the place. John Longstreth, Marco Minnemann, Jojo Mayer, Buddy Rich. I'm all over the map.
FX: What are you working on at the moment?
SP: I have just finished a full length with Dissolution. We are now in the writing phase for the next album and planning our tour. As far as drums I am working on going back to the basics and trying to get everything as tight as possible.
FX: Has BFD3 had an impact on the way you make music and if so in what way?
SP: Yes. It makes it easy to write riffs over midi drums that sound real and play around with our song writing. It also makes it worth while to use the electric kit because BFD drums sound so real!
FX: How do you use BFD3 in the writing and production process?
SP: We don't write our songs at jam. So often I will be given a guitar track which I can add drums to. Sometimes the guitar players will program some drums as well just to write the song.. We all have the ability to change them as we all use BFD3. Once the song is complete I usually have to learn some crazy fill our guitar player made up in his mind or some other fast part that doesn't translate to a human very easily!
FX: Do you have any engineering tricks that you use over and over?
SP: No. being self produced, and doing our own recording we like to try all kinds of different stuff. New rooms, new techniques. For quick mix downs I do like to have presets, saved kits, and settings that I can use in a hurry.
FX: Other than BFD3, what are the essential pieces of equipment in your studio?
SP: I have a nice set of Audix mics and a Focusrite saffire pro that gets a lot of use. I sometimes will use my acoustic kit as a hybrid kit and trigger different items.
FX: What do you have planed for the rest of the year?
SP: Writing and playing. We have a bunch of shows being planned out for the fall in support of our new album.
Interview: July 2014