Victor Indrizzo Interview Even If You've Never Heard of Victor
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Victor Indrizzo Interview Even if you've never heard of Victor Indrizzo, you've heard Victor Indrizzo. FREQUENTLY. As a prolific session player, his presence is on an astoundingly large number of hit records that span across a wide range of genres: rock, hip- hop, country, singer/songwriter, Latin, and more. With a chameleon-like ability to incorporate himself into any musical situation and play the appropriate thing, top producers like Joe Chiccarelli continually turn to Victor for tracking drums. From the punk-influenced pop of Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" to the earthy, bare bones of Willie Nelson's Teatro album, Victor delivers with a sound that Joe describes as "the perfect combination of band-member swagger and studio drummer finesse." Victor’s diversity and flexibility have opened opportunities for him to play for countless major artists. You'll hear him playing on Alanis Morissette's latest album, or on records for Colbie Caillat, Sheryl Crow, Depeche Mode, Macy Gray, Shakira, Rob Thomas and many more. He’s toured with acts like Beck, Samiam, and Scott Weiland. His drumming is also featured on the Cafe Tacuba album Cuatro Caminos, which won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album, as well as two Latin Grammy awards for Best Alternative Album and Best Rock Song (for the track "Eres"). The album was also named "Best Album of the Decade" by website Club Fonograma. In addition to his session work for music artists, Victor is very active recording movie scores and soundtracks. You'll hear him playing on movies like Spiderman 1 & 2, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Wedding Crashers, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and you'll even see him as the drummer of "Infant Sorrow" in Get Him Lowell Parker Victor Indrizzo Interview to the Greek. As movie scores evolve into a sound that more closely resembles popular music, demand for Victor's playing has only increased. Feature film composer and former Beck guitarist, Lyle Workman, frequently uses Victor for his movie projects, due to his "superb feel, timing, and choice of sound." Despite his major impression across music and movies, Victor may well be the industry's best kept secret when it comes to drumming. His name is not common knowledge among casual music fans, and with downloading and streaming technology keeping the liner notes out of listeners' hands, he (and session drummers like him) may largely remain a secret. But with his wealth of knowledge, experience, and vast catalog of exceptional drumming, Victor's name is certainly one that every drummer should learn. After all, you've already been listening to him. MD: You've worked with such an amazingly wide range of artists, that it's difficult to even categorize the work you've done. How did you become the go-to session drummer for so many great artists? Victor: I got into session drumming as a fluke. I was a band guy, and a resurgence of punk-influenced rock started happening in the early '90s. Labels were signing up all these bands, but none of the guys could play to a click track. And I could, so I started ghosting on their records. People would hire me because I was familiar with that style of music and could play to a click track. So I started getting work. I never really meant to go into sessions - never even thought it was possible - because I wasn't a schooled musician. And just luckily, Lowell Parker Victor Indrizzo Interview slowly, building on that through the years and though being a fan of so many different styles of music, I just started getting in there more and more. One guy tells another guy, who tells another guy, who tells another, and I find myself working. MD: So being familiar with a click track helped get you into the session business? Victor: Playing with a click can be a very daunting thing. Very early on, when I was a kid, I remember reading in Modern Drummer a round-table interview with a bunch of session guys, and they were all talking about playing with clicks and how important that was. And I took that very seriously. When I was about 19, I was doing my first record, and I didn't want to get replaced. I knew I had to practice with a click track, and so I bought a metronome and I started sleeping with it under my pillow, and spending a lot of time with it to erase the fear of it. I would imagine different beats all around the click: half-time, double-time, everything. Just having it as part of the groove made things so much easier for me. Since then, I've played to clicks almost every day of my life, which has made me very comfortable with it. I'm the kind of player that I don't want to think about things, other than what I'm doing or feeling. I'm not a thinking player - I'm a feeling player. And if I have to start thinking about the click track, then I'm already in trouble. So it was really necessary for me to get to a place where the click felt like just one more thing that I was playing along with, as opposed to something I'm trying to follow. So now when I'm playing with a click track, it's just there - I'm Lowell Parker Victor Indrizzo Interview not thinking about it. It's just part of the song and it's part of everything that's going on. I've learned how to lay behind it a little bit, or go on top of it to make the song sound a little more urgent, or I can just hang right with it. It's really such an important thing, especially for drummers, to just make friends with it and not be afraid of it. People always put it on the drummers, but really, anybody who plays any instrument should be able to play well to a click. There are professional guys that I prefer to play with based on how well they play to a click, because they make my job easier. Everybody needs to be with the click and figure out their place with it. Too many times it gets slopped on the drummers. MD: Once you had begun doing sessions, was there a certain point that you decided to pursue it as a career? Victor: There are so many factors to playing drums for a living and actually making a living at it. I think nowadays it's probably harder than ever, and for younger guys coming up and starting, it can be brutal. But I think it depends on the individual - I always had an attitude of "This is what I'm going to do and that's it. There is nothing else." I was a high school dropout and I just knew I wanted to play music and so I just went after it like there was no other choice for me. I've always been of the mindset that I say "yes" to almost everything. If someone's going to pay me to play drums, then that is a winning scenario. But now as a father with kids, there are obviously things I can't do because they don't pay enough. But with that being said, I've always been the guy willing to work as hard or as long as necessary and do whatever I had to do to make a living at this. Lowell Parker Victor Indrizzo Interview And over many years of drumming, it's paid off and I've gotten into a nice spot where I can do it. But I also know that my situation can change. I look at the history of musicians - guys who were the top session drummers - and there just comes a day when the phone stops ringing. It may be that what they're doing has gone out of style for a second, or maybe people want to use the younger guy, or whatever the reason may be (and there's tons of reasons). So I just keep going after it like it's all I've got - and it is all I've got - to a degree. I think it's going to be harder for the next generation of guys. The thing that's harder about the music business now is that people are less willing to take chances. Let's say you're a young drummer who comes to Los Angeles and you want to play on a record. Nobody wants to take the chance if they don't know you. Whereas before, the budgets were so big they could afford to lose a day if you didn't work out. They'd let you try for a day and if you weren't cutting it they'd just call the next guy. Now if they lost a day, it would be a tragedy. They don't have the budgets any more to spend a day on a guy that's not cutting it. MD: How much of your work involves live studio sessions, as opposed to using file transfers and working remotely? Victor: It really varies. I have my own studio, and people often come to me with a hard drive, and I can track drums. But it does fluctuate. Sometimes there will be a bunch of sessions where all the guys are there again, and it will be the top guys, and we just knock out a bunch of songs in a day.