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MATT SORUM ROCKS WITH VELVET
REVOLVER
VELVET REVOLVER TAKES ROCK
BACK TO THE BASICS
by David Weiss
Enough with the sensitive
guy stuff. It’s time for some serious
rockers to blast the arenas, trash the hotel,
and blow out of town on a rolling party
of a bus. That’s the attitude behind
Velvet Revolver, the first true rock supergroup
to show up in a long time. Their drummer,
Matt Sorum, is with the program and then
some.
“I still like to look
at rock and roll as my lifestyle,”
says Sorum, talking on – what else?
– a cell phone from the backyard of
his home in – where else? – Los
Angeles. “It’s not just a job
that I do. I like to live it full on, stay
out there, keep my ear to the street, date
hot girls, or whatever. Sometimes it’s
gotten the best of me, but it’s good
for me and will be until I decide to put
the drum sticks down and live it differently.”
Got it? In case you missed
the point, Sorum is done doing things halfway.
Arguably on e of the strongest-sounding
drummers in rock, he’s been through
enough big hits and near misses for three
L.A. session players. But now it’s
2004 and he’s back, playing harder
than ever and, if life is fair, poised to
re-educate the world on what a true rock
drummer sounds like.
The rebirth of Sorum’s
much-deserved high profile comes courtesy
of the release of Contraband, the explosive
debut album from Velvet Revolver. With a
lineup that includes the wildly unpredictable
lead vocalist Scott Weiland (ex-Stone Temple
Pilots), guitar-god Slash (from Guns ‘N’
Roses), bassist Duff McKagan (GNR again),
and guitarist Dave Kushner (Electric Love
Hogs, Dave Navarro), Sorum is surrounded
by the kind of star power that he craves.
And provided Weiland can keep his smack-addicted
ass out of rehab and/or jail for more than
a minute, Sorum and his bandmates might
actually get to show the world what they
can do.
After surviving the emotional
swings of working with an egomaniac like
Guns ‘N’ Roses’ infamous
Axl Rose, Sorum believes a wild card like
Weiland is a gamble worth taking. “Most
of the singers I’ve worked with are
a little crazy, but it usually makes for
a great rock band,” he says. “When
they’re comfy and sweet, they usually
suck! It’s the same with drummers.
Drummers that aren’t complete animals
or out of their minds usually suck. Most
rock drummers I know are maniacs –
the good ones anyway. But there’s a
lot of room for Velvet Revolver to step
right in and fill a void, because I don’t
think there’s a rock band out there
like us right now.”
While Sorum is at his happiest
when he’s viewing an arena from behind
a drum kit, there’s plenty more he
can do – and in fact, has had to do
– to keep himself in the game. Looking
at the big picture, Sorum’s career
is a modern prototype for the working musician,
drawing on versatility, talent, resiliency,
a flexible attitude, and total commitment
in order to sustain his career. Besides
drumming, Sorum has taken successful turns
as a film composer, record producer, and
also did his own album of material, Hollywood
Zen, where he sang and played most of the
instruments himself (check it out at mattsorum.com).
The theme through it all
has been a mixture of true grit, creativity
and that aforementioned love of rock and
everything it stands for. His rise to the
top in the late ‘80’s, with Tori
Amos and the Cult, and then his mega-breakout
in 1990 with GNR, is well-documented. Being
a member of a band that sold 30 million
albums after he joined (Use Your Illusion
I & II and The Spaghetti Incident) also
came with another 30 million headaches,
however, as GNR put Sorum and their fans
through a litany of temper tantrums, drug
problems, breakups, and general mayhem that
would stretch clear unit 1997.
His 1996 side project,
Neurotic Outsiders (with McKagan, Duran
Duran’s John Taylor, and Sex Pistol
Steve Jones) was the true beginning of the
end for Sorum and GNR. “Every time
we went out on the road,” Sorum recalls,
“Slash would pull us back in and say,
‘Don’t tour, we’re going
to record,’ and then he wouldn’t
show up at the studio. So it started to
be a pisser. It became a real thorn in my
side, and I was like, ‘I’m going
to have to let down the moniker of ‘Drummer
of Guns ‘N’ Roses’ and just
go back to being ‘Matt Sorum, Drummer.”
I felt the music was becoming secondary
to my position or status, so I let go of
that.
“Then in 1997 we got
into an argument and I said, ‘This
is not right, we’ve got to pull the
band together. This is not brain surgery,
this is rock and roll: two guitars, bass,
vocals, and drums. Don’t over-think
it.’ He said, ‘Are you going to
quit?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said,
‘You’re fired.’”
Just like that, Sorum was
a free agent again, and the doors to a new
beginning opened up. He produced a Top 40
single for the band Poe, and then formed
Orange Curtain Productions with his partner
Lanny Cordola. The results of that partnership
were impressive, yielding six film scores
and production gigs with Candlebox, Sen-Dog
from Cypress Hill, blues legend Little Milton,
and Ronnie Spector.
It wouldn’t be long
until Sorum felt the need to return, cautiously,
to what he does best: overwhelming a drum
set. “I said, ‘I’m tired
of this band business.’ It was getting
too political. So I got into making music
with people. Before I was in the Cult or
Tori Amos, I was in 50 bands. I played with
everyone. I didn’t care, as long as
it was music and it was good.”
In 1999 Sorum was back
with some old friends, the Cult, and back
on the roller coaster. “We got back
together for a reunion tour, had an awesome
time, and then a bunch of labels had a bidding
war,” he says. “We made a record
with Bob Rock, Beyond Good and Evil, which
came out on the Lava/Atlantic label, and
did a big tour around that. It was very
fun, but Ian (Astbury) and Billy (Duffy)
really didn’t like the radio business
and that kind of stuff. Times have changed,
you have to kiss a lot more ass, and we
weren’t willing to do it.
“The record sold 200,000
copies, which isn’t bad, but not much
in this day and age. We opened for Aerosmith
and did some arenas, which is where I feel
at home – I love that stuff. But then
there was a lot of stuff happening with
the record company. It got bought out by
AOL Time Warner, and any band that hadn’t
sold enough units was let go. We were let
go.”
Discouraged and cut loose
again in 2001, Sorum started working on
the solo album that would become Hollywood
Zen. His work would be interrupted by sad
news: his friend and Ozzy/Motley Crue drummer
Randy Castillo had been diagnosed with a
form and cancer called Squamous Cell Carcinoma.
Before the music community could finish
organizing a benefit, however, the popular
and talented Castillo passed away on March
26, 2002, at the age of 51.
But the show must go on,
and the benefit became a tribute. Castillo
would no doubt be pleased to know that,
besides showcasing a night of phenomenal
drumming, his sendoff would be the starting
point for the hard artistry of Velvet Revolver.
Reunited on stage with Slash and McKagan
(known to all as Duff), the three must have
decided that they didn’t really hate
each other’s guts after all, and started
fresh.
With the chemistry between
them bubbling up, the ex-GNR trio recruited
Kushner as their second guitarist. Now all
they needed was a singer, but filling that
job would prove to be the hard part. After
an unsuccessful early stint with Josh Todd
of Buckcherry, the group made the unusual
move of trying an open call for a new frontman.
VH1 documented the process for a special,
but what they captured on tape wasn’t
pretty. “We heard so many different
singers, and every singer lent itself to
a different vibe,” Sorum recalls. “As
soon as we heard the vocals that people
were sending in, we knew we were in trouble.”
While most of the singers
coming in off the streets, unfortunately,
sucked, Velvet Revolver benefited by going
in unexpected new directions during the
various auditions. Meanwhile, Duff was hanging
out with Weiland socially, and managed to
draw the gravelly-voiced singer into the
fold. The lineup set, Velvet Revolver was
ready to go to work.
The band had a hit almost
immediately after they formed, recording
the single “Set Me Free” for The
Hulk soundtrack. The strength of the song,
a 162 bpm barn-burner, started another bidding
war, and this time the winner of the Sorum
lottery was the legendary Clive Davis, now
heading RCA Records. “Clive made us
a true offer, he showed us the utmost respect,
and just seemed passionate about it,”
says Sorum. “When I’m lucky enough
to get five minutes with him, he’s
the most awesome, sweetest person. He knows
what he’s doing. He’s got the
vision.”
For Sorum, his professional
situation had come full circle. He was back
in the saddle with Slash and Duff, and all
he had to do was the thing he loves best.
“I’ve gotten more into drumming
than ever,” he confirms. “I kind
of had a lull there after GNR where I didn’t
want to touch the drums for a while. But
I look at it like, if it wasn’t for
the drums, I wouldn’t have had any
of the experiences that I’ve had in
my life. Everywhere I’ve traveled,
every position or gig I’ve gotten was
because I’m a good drummer, real simple.
For some reason, people like the way I play
the drums. I’m good at it. I should
stick by it, and do the other things as
a branch of my musicality.”
Working with the goal of
recording a highly modern-sounding CD quickly
without over-intellectualizing the process,
Velvet Revolver hired producer Josh Abraham
(Limp Bizkit, Orgy, Staind) to crack the
whip. “I wanted to approach this differently,”
says Sorum. “I didn’t want to
play a bunch of old rock beats. I wanted
to just go forward and push it a little
more. There’s a simplicity to rock
and roll – the ‘boom whack boom
boom whack’ approach – which I
could have played, but I wanted to make
more of a percussive element and really
drive the music. I wanted to be inspired
by some of the records I’ve liked over
the last couple of years, like Queens of
the Stone Age (Songs for the Deaf, the way
Dave Grohl played on that was insane. And
some stuff, like the Refused, I took it
back like a Ringo tip: I only used two microphones,
miked it up old-school and played it real
light. Stuff I never did with GNR.”
Sorum’s endeavors
outside of drumming made him all the more
ready to try some new tricks for Contraband.
“Getting into film scores changed my
approach to drums,” he notes. “I
got more into the technique. Some of the
tracks, I’m not hitting the drums as
hard as I used to be. I’ve noticed
over the years you can get a lot of different
kinds of tones in the studio if you don’t
whack it so hard. But a lot of times, I’m
beating the hell out of the drums, because
I’m inspired to. With Slash going,
I can’t sit there and tickly them!
Then you watch Led Zeppelin, and the space
that was created for his drumming. My animal
is trying t fit my stuff around all that
stuff.”
The rhythm section took
a stream-of-consciousness approach to getting
their parts done for the new songs. “The
riffs would come in, and I would play what
I felt for them initially. Me and Duff don’t
get analytical about it. We’re not
Tool, that’s for sure. We let it rip.
If anybody puts their foot down and says,
‘That’s enough!’ it’s
usually Duff. If we want to do more than
three takes, he’s usually over it.
The record is pretty live. We tracked everything
live – the only track where we did
bass and drums separately was ‘Headspace.’”
The result is an album,
and drum tracks, that will leave an impression.
A preview listen revealed a CD with no bad
songs, and a number of tunes that slam,
coming out of the gate with total destructive
force. Songs like the opener, “Sucker
Train Blues” announce the band’s
arrival with a vengeance, featuring ripping
Slash guitar tracks and strong playing by
Sorum, loaded with a barrage of fast fills.
“Do It for the Kids” is thick
rock featuring great punch on the snare
and juicy hi-hat work. Later, “Big
Machine” gives Sorum the space he’s
been craving, while “Illegal”
features a hyper-fast snare intro and a
breathtaking, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants
feel. Later, try not to get your head crushed
by the big toms of “Fall to Pieces.”
“We recorded the bigger
rock stuff at NRG Studios in the Valley,”
Sorum reports. “It’s funny, when
Andy Wallace mixed it, he didn’t use
a lot of the room. The drums are really
tight and in your face. He did some interesting
things texturing the drums, but it sounds
modern. It still sounds like me. And then
we did the one track that’s called
‘You Got No Right,’ which is like
a mid-tempo ballad that was recorded in
more of a ‘70s room. I wanted a really
in-you-face drum sound, and they’re
really punchy. For ‘Loving the Alien,’
I did a two-mike setup on the drum kit with
some baffles.”
Sorum’s considerable
expertise in the studio shows with his careful
consideration of snare drums. “I mixed
it up with a few different snares. I thought
I needed a couple of higher-sounding snares
because it brought out the attitude a lot,
and really moved the track in a fresher
perspective. When it’s all thumpy and
padded down, it doesn’t seem to give
it much attitude. If you have a little more
boink in the snare, you get a little more
sizzle out of the track. On a ballad where
I want something deeper, like the nice pocket
on ‘Dirty Little Thing,’ which
sounds like an old STP song, I used the
bell brass, just to make it sound honking.”
Serving as a great complement
to the thrust of Sorum’s snare work
is his hat mastery, which comes through
in subtly effective ways throughout the
disc. “It’s all about the open
hat, isn’t it?” he says. “I
used 14” Zildjians – they had
a lot of attitude. I love a nice swishy,
open hat. For years I played 15s, they were
a little deeper and darker sounding, but
for some reason the set of 14s that I found,
people were like, ‘What’s up with
those?’ So I just like playing them,
and I left them up the whole album.
“I’ve always
felt like I’ve been more finesseful
on my cymbals than on my drums. When I play
my cymbals, I try to finesse something and
play them with some swing. I like the open
hats, but I listen to Ian Paice and John
Bonahm, they used some great ‘sneaky
Petes,’ you know, the ‘tssss tssss.’
I’m like, ‘That’s so cool!’
I kind of do them randomly. If you listen
to old rock drummers, they just randomly
did them, they weren’t in any order,
and he’d just throw them in there,
like the and of two, not even a spot where
you’d expect it. I think that comes
from funk drumming, and Duff McKagan.”
Whatever happens next with
Velvet Revolver, Matt Sorum is happy to
have Contraband under his belt, and the
feeling that he’s back at the top of
the drumming game. “When you put everything
into it, it’s an explosive craft we’ve
got,” says Sorum. “You have t
load yourself up with ammo, and I still
do it in different ways. I’m probably
more intense about it now than ever. I just
want it to be the best it possibly can be.
That’s how I am – I’m just
hard on myself. I’m really passionate
abut drumming, and I don’t think I’ve
changed.
“I don’t look
at my drum tracks under a microscope. I
look at what I’m setting up for the
band to do their thing on. I’m the
foundation of a great track. I only know
that from experience, recording a great
drum track and then having to record the
other instruments over it. Having a bad
drum track – that really sucks. A good
one makes it go down easy like butter on
toast. It just slides on there, really nice.”
Sorum's Timeline
1960: Born in Venice Beach,
California.
1974: Forms high school
band Prophecy and begins playing L.A. clubs
like the Starwood, Whiskey a Go-Go, and
Gazzarri’s.
1978: Moves to New Orleans,
then back to L.A. In the following years
he plays sessions and gigs with artists
like Shawn Cassidy, Belinda Carlisle, and
King Solomon Burke.
1986: Forms Y Kant Tori
Read with Tori Amos, which releases self-titled
album on Atlantic. Appears on Wired Up (Polygram)
by Jeff Paris Band.
1988: Auditions and lands
the gig for The Cult, touring the world
opening for bands like Metallica and Aerosmith.
1990: Replaces Steven Adler
in Guns N’ Roses
1991: First show with GNR
in front of 140,000 people in Rio de Janeiro.
GNR releases Use Your Illusion I and II
(Geffen).
1992: Wins two awards at
the MTV Music Awards. Plays with GNR in
front of 72,000 people at the Freddie Mercury
Tribute at Wembley Arena.
1993: GNR releases The
Spaghetti Incident? (Geffen). Appears on
Duff McKagan’s solo album Bellieve
In Me (Geffen).
1994: Appears with the
Buddy Rich Big Band on Burnin’ For
Buddy (Atlantic), an all-star drummers tribute
CD produced by Neil Peart dedicated to the
memory of Buddy Rich
1995: Appears on Gilby
Clarke’s Pawnshop Guitars (Virgin),
and It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere
(Geffen) by Slash’s Snakepit. Produces
Poe’s CD Hello (Atlantic).
1996: Releases Neurotic
Outsiders (Warner Bros), a self-titled album
recorded with Steve Jones, John Taylor,
and Duff McKagan. Plays the opening of the
Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas backing up artists
like Seal, Bo Diddley, Mellissa Etheridge,
and B.B. King. Plays the Elvis Presley Tribute
in Memphis with Sammy Hagar and Don Was.
Appears on The Tonight Show with Billy Idol.
1997: Quits Guns N’
Roses. Records Marching To Mars (MCA) with
Sammy Hagar. Forms Orange Curtain Productions
with partner Lanny Cordola.
1998: Releases instructional
video Drum Licks + Tricks from the Rock
+ Roll Jungle (Hal Leonard).
1999: Rejoins The Cult
for sold-out summer tour. Records The Way
It Is (Shrapnel) with Glenn Hughes. Temporarily
fills in after Tommy Lee quits Motley Crue.
2000: Releases Feel (EMI)
with Glenn Hughes.
2001: Releases Beyond Good
And Evil (Atlantic) with The Cult. Regroups
with Slash and Duff McKagan to form Velvet
Revolver.
2003: Tours with his own
band Camp Freddy, featuring Dave Navarro.
Releases solo album Hollywood Zen (Brash
Music), with Sorum on guitar, vocals, and
drums.
SORUM’S SET
DRUMS: DW
1. 24” x 18” Bass Drum
2. 14” x 5 ½” Brass Snare
3. 13” x 10” Tom
4. 16” x 14” Floor Tom
5. 18” x 16” Floor Tom
CYMBALS: ZILDJIAN
A. 14” A Custom New Beat Hi-Hats
B. 18” A Custom Crash
C. 19” A Custom Projection Crash
D. 22” Rock Ride
E. 19” A Custom Medium Crash
F. 20” A Custom Medium Thin Crash
PERCUSSION: LP
G. Ridge Rider Cowbell
Matt Sorum also uses Remo
heads, Zildjian sticks, XL Specialty cases,
Levy’s Leather bags, and DW hardware
and pedals.
DUFF MCKAGAN - 142 WORDS
WITH SORUM’S RHYTHM SECTION COUNTERPART
 When
Duff McKagan, bassist for Velvet Revolver
and a GNR bad boy in his own right, barged
into Sorum’s house during our interview,
we were afraid the drummer would get distracted.
But it was all good – McKagan actually
grabbed the cell phone to back up Sorum’s
claim that the bass player had written the
beat for their song, “Illegal”
when Sorum was late for practice one day.
“I took a very technical
approach to that drumbeat,” giggles
McKagan. “I was listening to the Refused
album The Shape Of Punk To Come on the way
over, which is high-aggression punk rock
with a lot of fills. I would highly suggest
that record to listen to, for drumming.”
Wait, Duff, don’t
hang up! Why do you like playing with Matt
Sorum? “It makes it a lot easier!”
he says. “Matt makes me a better bass
player. It’s easier to play with Matt
because of the pocket, and we instinctively
know when not to step into each other, and
when to go for a turnaround or passing note.
We know what to do when Slash is doing the
solo. I have to play a lot to his kick –
he switches up his kick pattern a lot. Our
ultimate destiny, we hope is to be Bonham/John
Paul Jones, but at least for now, we’re
the heaviest rhythm section there is.”
-David Weiss
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