“I’ve been good, been busy all day; doing a lot of interviews for the album and my other project, the “Guitar Zeus” video. I’ve been doing a lot of interviews for both; talking about everything,” says one of the quintessential rock drummers of all time, Carmine Appice as he discussed his hectic schedule in support of his latest efforts; “Guitar Zeus” and “Appice Perdomo Project.”
Appice has worked with so many of music’s greatest names over his stellar career which as spanned multiple decades; from Vanilla Fudge to Rod Stewart he has left an indelible mark on various genres and young drummers worldwide.
This latest notch on his drumsticks is etched along with a talented multi-instrumentalist by the name of Fernando Perdomo who Appice happened upon through the relatives of an old friend.
“I got a call from the great producer Tom Dowd’s daughter and his wife; Tom passed away and they were friends of mine and they told me that this guy Fernando was looking to get a hold of me,” he began to explain. “I asked them why and they said he was a talented musician who Tom was working with and he wanted to know if I’d play on a couple of tracks on his album. I usually don’t do that with unknown guys but at the time I had just opened my studio at my house and I was learning to operate it and I figured the more I work with it the better I’d get at it. So, I thought it might be a good idea to do something like that and he called me we talked and I sent him something I had wrote on my iPad in Garage Band and I said, look, you play this stuff the way you want and send it back to me and I’ll put drums on it. He sent it back to me and it sounded great, I put the drums on it and it sounded even better and we mixed it and that became a song called “Thunder” and that was the first thing we did. Then I sent him another one, “Funky Jackson” and he did the same thing with that and I thought he played great and he played bass, keyboard and guitar and then he sent me something and I played on it and that became “Little Havana, Big Havana” which he played guitars and everything to my drum tracks. Then we kept doing that back and forth and I said, let me send you some drum tracks and see what you do. The first one I sent was “Rocket To The Sun” and he played to the drum track and he said, “Your drums are very easy to play to because you’ve got dynamics and I can tell when the verse is done and where the chorus starts and you change the groove” and I said, wow that’s interesting; I sent him four more drum tracks and he did guitars to those. We kept doing that back and forth and finally after about three months of work he came to Miami because he has family there and I live in Florida and he came to visit, I met him for the first time and we hung out and we got along great and when I went to L.A. I went to his studio and we did the videos. Then we kept recording and we ended up with 18 tracks and I said, let’s take 12 tracks and put out a record; I’ll talk to my buddies at Cleopatra Records and see if they’ll do a deal. They were interested and we did the deal and here we are. So, now we are doing this and we have six tracks for a new album already recorded; It’s a follow up. I learned my lesson in this business, if you are putting something out and people like it, don’t change it.”
Ah yes, another modern technology success story and from Carmine’s point of view; it’s the gift that keeps on giving.
“It’s called “Energy Overload,” we released it the end of September beginning of October; I think the first track came out around then. It is such a different ballgame now; before when you’d release something, if it didn’t happen within three weeks you were done. Now it goes on forever because you’ve got interviews like I’m doing with yourself that are all over the place because nobody has that huge giant audience like a radio station would have. You get a little here and a little there so that it keeps moving on and if you have a PR guy that can keep hooking you up, you’re still out there so that you have a chance to still do something.”
In today’s music environment, the visual senses need to be stimulated as much as the auditory and from something that began as a “Fun” let’s throw it out there kind of thing; it has evolved into videos as well.
“We were just having fun and wanted to put it out and see who would enjoy it and do a proper promotion and see where it goes. We weren’t like, oh, this one is for radio or oh, this one is a video; we just did it all and when it was done as an album we said, well; which one do you think should be the first video? We all said, let’s do “Rocket To The Sun” because it really shows displays of you guys playing and it has a lot of energy and for the second one we said, let’s make it “Flower Child” because it’s melodic and it has good hooks and it’s a visual thing; a flower child is a visual sell; ya’ know? I think the next one is going to be “Pure Ecstasy,” so, we’ll see.”
When asked if playing this fusion style of music was a refreshing change of pace for him; he was quick to point out his previous woks.
“I’ve been playing fusion kind of stuff; I was originally on “Blow By Blow” with Jeff Beck and BBA was right on the edge of fusion. I’ve been doing fusion kind of stuff since then and teaching it, putting it in my books; I have 9/8 and 7/8 timing, linear stuff in my books which is all fusion based but I do it heavy rock I don’t do it light, my fusion is heavy.”
“All of my career has been like this really; you take Cactus, we jammed on those riffs, with BBA we jammed, with Ted Nugent we jammed, my Guitar Zeus records which are also out were all about jamming. So, I’ve been jamming forever and this has some overtones of fusion but it has a lot of heavy rock overtones; progressive rock. Take Yes, they’re not fusion, they are rock but they’re progressive rock. Progressive rock is using time signatures and stuff like that; the only thing that makes this more fusion is that it’s instrumental. The melodies are very strong melodies; one time I was in the shower and I started humming this melody and I thought; what the hell is that? It was one of the tracks off of this album; Fernando makes the guitar talk to you. The grooves are very strong and very heavy and they are not your everyday 4/4 things. There is three bars of four, then a bar of seven, then it goes into 7/8, then back to the combination or it might go to a solo in 4/4, it’s always changing and it keeps your interest because you don’t know where it’s going.”
One thing he had not done before was work with a group like New Jersey’s own RockNRoll Chorus, an all vocal ensemble comprised of mostly high school students which uses their voices to create sounds of full instrumentation as they recreate classic hits. Appice saw them and immediately became involved and played the only actual instrument on their version of Led Zeppelin’s, “The Song Remains The Same.”
“Did that ever come out? I loved that, I loved the whole thing,” he said with much enthusiasm. “I would’ve loved to have done the whole album, that is so unique.”
Unique also describes “Energy Overload,” and its 12 tracks of instrumental genius. So; what is next? Are there any plans to support it with a tour or appearances?
“I think we’re gonna let this one do what it’s gonna do and then finish up another six tracks and release another one and then maybe on the release date of that maybe do a show in South Florida where I live, where he’s got relatives and he’s got a lot of great musicians because he’s from that area. Then maybe do a show in New York like at The Iridium and then maybe a show in L.A. and Chicago; just enough to get it out that we’re like a jam band.”
To discover more about Carmine Appice, “Energy Overload” and “Guitar Zeus,” please visit www.carmineappice.net.
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
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