Showing posts with label Thomas Pridgen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thomas Pridgen. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
The Memorials: Duo set to bring psychedelic soul to the amphitheater
By
Erinn Grotefend
The progressive rock, psychedelic soul and fusion band consists of Viveca Hawkins (vocals) and Thomas Pridgen (drums), who formed the band in November 2009.
“We are walking memorials,” said Hawkins. “Living breathing monuments to a sound that might be forgotten or a sound to be remembered.”
Before Pridgen formed The Memorials, he was a part of the rock band, The Mars Volta. His eagerness to express himself to his fullest extent led him to form his own band.
“I don’t know what void I was trying to fill in music,” said Pridgen. “I think the music filled up a void me.”
The Memorials released their latest album, Delirium, on June 5 this year. Hawkins described the record as polished and more refined.
“This record inside and out, visually, musically and lyrically shows that we are weird,” Hawkins said. “We are trained and able to play a variety of styles.”
Hawkins writes the lyrics for the songs using life as her inspiration.
The band’s first album, The Memorials, was released on Feb. 14. Hawkins said the first record was rushed and she was pressed for time to write lyrics.
“I had never made this type of music before so I was just popping songs out with no vision or desire for cohesion,” Hawkins said. “This time we really tried to make sure that we put a little more order in all of it.”
According to Hawkins, Delirium has a dream, nightmare and insomnia theme. With songs like “Dream,” “Delirium” and “Gone” the theme is twisted throughout the album.
Hawkins’ mother, who sings gospel and jazz, influenced her when she was a little girl. The lead singer would attend class with her mother who was studying for her associates’ degree in music.
“I don’t try to emulate other artists. My voice alone sets me apart,” Hawkins said.
Towards the end of October, The Memorials will tour throughout Europe including Germany, France and Portugal. This is the first European tour for the band.
“We feel like it’s going to be a blast,” Pridgen said. “We’re so stoked to be able to play in places people dream of going.”
For now, the band is going to take their time and tour. Beginning in January and February, The Memorials will get back into the studio and start recording.
In addition to attending the Wednesday concert at the Becker, listeners can find The Memorials on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
http://www.dailytitan.com/2012/09/the-memorials-duo-set-to-bring-psychedelic-soul-to-the-amphitheater/
Monday, September 24, 2012
SUB. INTERVIEW: THE MEMORIALS
Leave it to an overseas tour with EDM artists to change everything for The Memorials drummer Thomas Pridgen. “I was tripped out because people would start dancing before the music starts,” he remembers, “here… I don’t know anything dude. I guess when I got to that point it just kinda got weird.”
Weird? Sure, but also inspiring. The experience helped Pridgen come to an epiphany. “I think now music is starting to be at a point where as much as you think you know, you really don’t know shit, so I’m like, I don’t know shit anymore, so fuck it, let’s play around, let’s just do whatever we want, let’s go to places that people don’t ever go to, because I don’t really know anything. I’m just now going into a complete experimental mode where I feel like let’s just try it. Let’s try it, and if it fails, it fucking fails miserably, but let’s just try it.”
It was with that ideology that Pridgen, and singer Viveca Hawkins, went to work on Delirium, The Memorials sophomore album that was released this spring. “We mixed stuff up with the first record (The Memorials), but not as drastically,” Pridgen explains. “I thought it was cool to be able to fuck with the listener, and be like oh you think we’re gonna go here, but we’re gonna go HERE.” Even with a fairly radical take on experimentalism, there were a few things Pridgen wanted to make sure happened on Delirium. “For me it was the sound, and the arrangements, and being able to hear Viv.” He continued, adding “let’s show Viv can sing jazz. Let’s show I can play drum and bass. I’m just showcasing all our talents.”
According to Pridgen, The Memorials still have a long road ahead of them. He feels, as a Black duo in rock music, they’re going to have to put in extra effort. That being said, Pridgen is actually excited at that prospect, saying “I’m down for it. It’s feeling like now, fuck it dude, let’s just go in, because we don’t have anybody to say no to us and I think that’s what Jimi (Hendrix) was about. I think Jimi was working harder than all those motherfuckers. Everybody else would sit there and play their gig, he would come out there and he would thrash the gig. If you look at James Brown, if you look at everybody that was Black who had any kind of influence, they had to work their fuckin ass off to get the notoriety.”
Pridgen, who graduated from the Berklee College of Music at the age of 15, and was the drummer for The Mars Volta from 2007-2009, says, point blank, “people will notice after a while that we’re working our asses off.”
Currently, The Memorials’ hard work has them on a US tour through September 20th, and after that they’ll be headed to Europe until the end of the fall. By the time they come back, The Memorials may be a household name for rock fans.
The Memorials
By Adam Bernard
http://www.substreammusicpress.com/home/2012/09/23/sub-interview-the-memorials/
Thursday, July 26, 2012
The Memorials Live on Radio Valencia TONIGHT!
The Memorials
Don't forget to let the fans know they can listen live at http://radiovalencia.fm 8pm PST
The Memorials were spearheaded by Bay Area drumming prodigy, Thomas Pridgen, in December of 2009. After a few years performing with The Mars Volta, Thomas turned his attention to forming his own group, incorporating a range of styles as diverse as the experiences of the bands members. Instead of becoming another rock bands’ heartbeat, the focus was to collaborate with proficient musicians whom Thomas felt would fill a void he has heard in rock music throughout his life. Thomas reached out to friends and former students of the esteemed Berklee College of Music, Viveca Hawkins (vocals), and Nick Brewer (guitars), to join him in his newest endeavor. Recording with his friend’s yielded a family vibe that enabled a comfortable yet intense recording process. The groups’ assets were rounded out with the addition of a bass, organ, synthesizers, and multiple percussive elements.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Thomas Pridgen: Maintaining Sole Creative Custody
Thomas Pridgen is about as outspoken and honest as they come when it gets down to creativity. No barrier is large enough to hold him back on his journey to find and nurture an identity. Seemingly this has worked out very well for him. The Oakland native has pursued stints with the Mars Volta, Berklee College of Music, and many other gigs before settling into it with his own band, The Memorials. Two records in and they have created some buzz worthy music for our eager ears. Read his story below and take a listen to some of the tracks.
You became very interested in music at a relatively young age. How did your passion for drums start?
Man, I just tried very, very hard to be a musician. My mom would take me out on date-nights and we would just go to like Kimball’s East in Emeryville. She would take me to see a lot of musicians. I don’t know, I was always into the music. I met a lot of musicians really early that were famous and some of them were rich as fuck. They never had a job. I always wanted to play music and I never could see myself getting a regular job. Everybody growing up would be like, “I want to be a doctor,” and I’d just be like, “I want to play drums!” I just always wanted to be on the drum set.
You won a drumming competition early on. How did that go down?
It wasn’t about beating the other people. It was more about me than it was about them. I really wanted the drum set that was being offered. My grandmother didn’t have the money at the time to be able to afford the drum set. So, it was almost like my only way to get that kit was to win it. I wanted it so bad. I told my grandmother I was going to win. It wasn’t about anything but the drum set for me. I never necessarily wanted to be in a drum competition or show people that I could whoop ass or anything like that. I just wanted that drum set.
What’s your favorite equipment to use now?
Right now I’m still using my DW’s, still love them. My friend Andrew is building these kits called Thump Drums. They’re made out of fiberglass. People were calling them kits made out of recycled surfboards. It’s the same material, but he’s not using surfboards. So he’s using that material, painting and wrapping it. I have one of those kits. Zach Hill also has one. There aren’t too many of them around. I’ve been partnering with him because I really want him to get to a point where he’s selling a lot of drums. But I’m still playing my Zildjians and all of the same stuff as usual. It’s all stuff that holds up. I’ve been with Zildjian since I was ten. They’re like family to me. I like the tradition as well. So many people I look up to use this equipment. Also DW is in LA and I like that I can go to the factory and go hang out with them. Even if I’m not picking anything up I can still just go hang out and talk drums or look at new stuff. Sometimes when your endorsement company is in like Japan, they make assembly line drums. You can’t really get them custom or ask them for different things.
You’ve had a pretty diverse career thus far between going to Berklee and doing the jazz thing, and then moving into the rock arena. How did you become so in-demand in every genre?
Well, when I was younger I was playing in church and I was practicing a lot of hip-hop and R&B styles. I was about to go to high school, but in my high school they only had jazz. I wasn’t used to playing a swing pattern with the high hat clicking on two and four or whatever. I basically had to learn how to play jazz. It kind of humbled me because I wasn’t really good at it instantly. Just doing that and having people around me, especially my grandmother, saying like, “You need to learn all styles of music. If you want to do it, you need to really do it.” So learning all different styles of music and getting into a place where I could apply them. Like when I got into the Mars Volta, it was really easy to apply all of these styles I had. Before that, I was applying only one style at a time. I was not able to flourish in the way I constantly am now. With the Mars Volta it was real cool because I got to really dive into it. They were doing a lot of Latin stuff and then a lot of heavy stuff, I got some funk grooves in there and we’d go into some dub-step parts, then some actual dub and some ballads. So I got to showcase my talents a lot more than I have before.
And then I didn’t really get to play any fills as much. In R&B and church they kind of try to dumb you down. They’ll be like, “Oh don’t play that; people don’t want to hear that.” Or I’m playing jazz where it’s strictly improvisation or some other crazy shit. I never got to be able to reel it in and then play my Latin stuff and then play my rock stuff. So after seeing how people respond to that, it’s crazy. I didn’t know I could do all of that and the crowd would go nuts. Like, I knew that my friends went nuts, but I didn’t think normal people would. So after that it was no holds barred. I’m going in on every level.
What was the studio situation like with the Mars Volta, I’ve heard that it is pretty tough?
It was a situation where someone is trying to get you to do something, but they can’t explain it. When I got into the Mars Volta, I didn’t know what I was doing. I was in a fucking roller coaster of madness and chaos. I just did it though. I was like, “Fuck it, this is what it is.” So when we got in the studio, it was crazy because it started dawning on me what band I was in. And instead of letting me relax and play a record the way I hear it, it was more like, “We have no time and I want you to play all of this crazy shit that drummers don’t play.” They never made anyone else play this shit, so I was like, “Why me?” He was asking me to play shit that doesn’t exist in drummer world, much less in anyone else’s world. On that level I think it was hard just because I wasn’t used to it. But I’ve done four or five records with Omar, and after the first one it was easier because I kind of knew what he wanted. I had a thought pattern of what he likes in a drummer and what he likes me to play. If you listen to it, every drummer plays completely different over that music.
From my personal experience, maybe on the record, maybe off the record, it’s just really hard to have somebody put their name all over the record, call the album Omar’s Volta and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Production, Omar everything. Omar produced it, Omar wrote it, Omar played the guitar, Omar played the shaker. At that point, when a motherfucker is playing his ass off and that shit ain’t on all of the records, you’ve got to put Thomas Pridgen in that motherfucker one time. Put Juan [Alderete] in there. I felt like those insecurities made the whole situation fucked up because it makes people weird. You’ve got to treat people like it’s a family if you want people to share with you.
Now with your own band, The Memorials, how are things going for you?
I got out of the Mars Volta and I wanted to do some even crazier shit. I felt like in the Mars Volta, people weren’t as inspired as me because I was the youngest dude in the band. So I got out of the band and I wanted to make music with some more young people. The first person I could think of was Viv [Hawkins] because I’ve known her since we were twelve and Nick [Brewer] because I played with him at Berklee School of Music. We had a band together also. The first thing we did was we went into the studio and I was so used to making records so fast that we made a record in about a week before we even played a show. We made the record, mixed the record, finished the record and started playing shows. Then we toured for like two tours. Amid all of that, we decided to do another record. That record just came out on June 5th and that is the first record as a real band I’d say. To me it sounds hella awesome. We never had a legit, stick-around bass player or keyboard player for the simple fact that it’s really hard to keep people who play at such high levels around all of the time. You know, I got out of the Mars Volta and I had some reason and some money to be able to hustle. I never had a job. Most people I know have a job. Most people I know play with other people. If they play and they’re dope, they’ve got a gig. So I’m trying to play with these awesome people and I can’t always get them. So sometimes we have to sub out a keyboard player or whatever. And then Nick had to stay home because it was hard for him to do the gigs, so we had to get a new guitar player to tour.
So The Memorials has turned into this thing where it’s just us. It’s just us as a band, you know, me and Viv. It’s more like a community of people we work with. It’s like the same family over and over again in different ways, kind of like some Parliament shit. Parliament is mostly George Clinton, but he has albums with Bootsy Collins, Dennis Chambers, and albums with all of these great people. They’re all affiliated, but they can’t always be there.
How did the music evolve between the first and second records?
I worked my ass off. I wanted the first record to come out so bad that I didn’t have time to work on certain things that I really wanted to work on. Usually when people have a first record or second record, they spend all of their life trying to do one record instead of understanding that people might not even check the first record, so you might as well keep doing music. I wanted to play shows and I knew that we could have a better sound, but for me it was like, lets get this first official thing out and make it the first of many. So on this new record I got to take my time. I had my boy Dave Jackson on keyboards. He’s like a virtuoso; he can play drums, he can play all this other shit and play keys. So playing songs that are in 11 aren’t hard for him. Within two minutes he’s got the count. I’m playing with virtuosos on this record. John killed all of the bass stuff he did. Trying to get someone to learn it is really hard. It’s John shit. I’m just starting to understand that the people you bring around you are stars. They have their own way to shine that you can’t always do. I just did an electronic festival with Thundercat and Flying Lotus and everybody from Brainfeeder. That’s the one thing I was saying to myself. It’s cool to hear all of these people making music, but it’s really something to have other people to feed off of and influence you. I’m watching people start dancing before the music even comes on. I’m like, “This shit ain’t even hot yet and they’re dancing!” The ways of listening to things is changing, but I’m just really happy to have these people around me.
What’s the songwriting process like? Coming out of Berklee, do you have a strong compositional background?
I have a strong compositional background from growing up in church and playing on records. If you play on church records, you’ve got a week to learn the whole record and then you have a day at the end of the week to play the whole record in front of a crowd. If you fuck up, you’re in front of a crowd. At this point I can make records because I’ve been on other people’s records. I’ve sat with producers who have been like, “No we should put another hit here,” and whatever. It was stuff I didn’t understand until I heard it later. Or dealing with Omar who has a totally different way of approaching it. I’m learning from everybody.
In fact, I’m actually stealing everything. All of the drum fills I play…stole all of that shit! Stole everything in the compositions. It’s all coming from my influences. I just hear it that way. I’m also dealing with time constraints as well as my own constraints. Like this album was supposed to have strings on it. I have a ProTools rig, but all of the songs were over 100 tracks. I can’t run over 100 tracks on my home ProTools rig and then add 50 tracks of strings. So it’s a lot of shit. The moment I get like Trent Reznor where I can buy everything and everything comes to my house for free, the music will get hella crazier.
Who are some of your top influences that you like to “steal” from?
Well, I had a week of not listening to anything except electronic music. I just got a new computer so I downloaded Ghost and I download the new Deftones, which isn’t so new. I downloaded my record just to add some more sales to it [laughs]. But I’m listening to lots of things. I’m really into this dude right now, DJ Rashad, because he’s doing like Miami Bass music. He got signed in London, but he’s from Chicago and that shit just reminds me of hood shit. He’s rocking crowds like Skrillex though. It’s hood shit though. It’s completely stripper music. I’m still learning by all of these people who seem to be coming out of nowhere onto the scene. I feel like I don’t know shit.
What’s in store for the next couple months?
I did a record with Doug Pinnick and Eric Gales. I’m touring with Thundercat still. He’s supposed to be doing some opening shows for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. My band goes on tour July 27 through September 22. Then I also did a record with Eric McFadden and Norwood from Fishbone that is supposed to come out after I get home. After that, my band goes to Europe in October. I’m just trying to do as much as possible. I just want to keep playing with cool people and getting to see cool cities. I love playing in my band because, all of the things I see people miss, I get to do. I’m having fun branding myself, because I don’t know who I am. I don’t know what anything is. I’m being fully creative and not giving up on anything.
What’s been the defining moment in your musical career?
The defining moment would probably be getting to play on Dave Letterman. I always got to see like Buddy Rich on Johnny Carson. Buddy Rich would be playing on TV and he would act like the cameras weren’t even there. He played on so many TV shows that he didn’t care. Where as a lot of my friends go on and play with mainstream artists and they’re in the back with a hat. You can’t even see them! It’s not really cool, where as I got to be cool and do what I want on TV. That was pretty awesome.
On the other hand, I think that defining moments keep happening and I don’t really understand them until later. Like when I played on Dave Letterman, I didn’t know what that shit was until I got home. And I don’t think I fully understood it until months later. So now, putting out our own record with The Memorials is amazing. Hieroglyphics, I’ve got to shout them out. They’re from the Bay area and they sell more merch than anyone. More merch than Wiz Khalifa, than 50, and they were giving us props on how our merch looks. Those kinds of moments where people that you look up to, who you know are killing the game, are defining. I see people in Japan rocking Hiero shirts.
What is your vision for The Memorials going into the future? Do you have plans to get more of a solid line-up or keep the collective going?
I just want people to do what they want. If they want to play, cool. I really want to get to a point where everyone sees how fun it is. Sometimes when you’re grinding it out, people can’t see it. Some people just won’t see it and that’s cool, but I’d like to have people who ride it out with me. Musically, I just want to keep making music as a collective. I think it’s the most fun and the most non-stressful. I’m a beat-maker, I know how to produce, but there is something about having all of these people around me. I get bored by myself. I’m an only child as it is; I get bored already.
Is there anyone you really want to work with?
Hell yeah, there are like 20 people I’d like to work with. But there are two keyboard players, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, just because those are OGs. I don’t have to do a tour, nothing. We could sit down and play at a jam session and I’d be happy. I’d probably want to play with Prince at a jam session too, just to say I did and also to see him in some high heels playing. That would be awesome.
All the young cats too. I’d be down to do something with Justice or deadmau5. I’ve been talking to Flying Lotus about doing some shit. Mainly I would like my band to tour with different bands. I just want to have shows with people because it’s fucking fun. I would like to sit in the studio with Trent Reznor to see how he makes shit, because he’s a weirdo. I saw his show from the stage and just by how meticulous everything was I could tell he was a strange dude. I would play with some of the rappers I like, you know, but if I die without playing with Tyler I won’t cry or anything. Whoever though. I’m down to play with anybody. I like to keep it fun and experimental. I don’t want to do some stale shit. Even if I got the call to do a stale record with like Stevie Wonder, I’d say yes, but I’d be thinking like, “Damn, this sucks.”
Having played so many different styles of music, how do you adapt to playing on someone else’s gig? Do you wait for their cues or do you give your own input and style?
I initially let them lead it. I hear what they have to say first. Some people don’t have anything to say, which are the weirdest ones. Even Omar had a certain direction. I like people who know what they want. A lot of times even if they’re like, “Put your shit here,” I’ll put down what’s on the record anyway. It’s easy for me to play my own shit over everything, but it takes away from the music. I also wouldn’t learn as much if I did that. I would learn less because I would only be in my own head. Like when I play with Thundercat, he tells me he loves me because I listen to his record. A lot of his record is not real drums, it’s programming. I’m trying to cop the sounds from these programmed drums. For the first couple gigs they were alright. By the last two gigs, people were like, “That drummer sounds like a fucking electronic drummer!” They don’t know that it’s real drums. It helps me too, because when I go to play with my own band, I’ve already played some shit that doesn’t sounds real so I can go even crazier with it sounding like electronic drums. I’ll make everything on one part of a song sound like electronic drums. I’m constantly playing with all of this because I don’t have no damn job. I don’t have a label telling me what to do. I don’t have a manager saying, “ Go play with Dream Theater.” It’s just me! I can do whatever I want creatively.
Grab a copy of The Memorials’ Delirium Now!
Interview by Eric Sandler
http://revivalist.okayplayer.com/2012/07/11/thomas-pridgen-maintaining-sole-creative-custody/
Man, I just tried very, very hard to be a musician. My mom would take me out on date-nights and we would just go to like Kimball’s East in Emeryville. She would take me to see a lot of musicians. I don’t know, I was always into the music. I met a lot of musicians really early that were famous and some of them were rich as fuck. They never had a job. I always wanted to play music and I never could see myself getting a regular job. Everybody growing up would be like, “I want to be a doctor,” and I’d just be like, “I want to play drums!” I just always wanted to be on the drum set.
You won a drumming competition early on. How did that go down?
It wasn’t about beating the other people. It was more about me than it was about them. I really wanted the drum set that was being offered. My grandmother didn’t have the money at the time to be able to afford the drum set. So, it was almost like my only way to get that kit was to win it. I wanted it so bad. I told my grandmother I was going to win. It wasn’t about anything but the drum set for me. I never necessarily wanted to be in a drum competition or show people that I could whoop ass or anything like that. I just wanted that drum set.
What’s your favorite equipment to use now?
Right now I’m still using my DW’s, still love them. My friend Andrew is building these kits called Thump Drums. They’re made out of fiberglass. People were calling them kits made out of recycled surfboards. It’s the same material, but he’s not using surfboards. So he’s using that material, painting and wrapping it. I have one of those kits. Zach Hill also has one. There aren’t too many of them around. I’ve been partnering with him because I really want him to get to a point where he’s selling a lot of drums. But I’m still playing my Zildjians and all of the same stuff as usual. It’s all stuff that holds up. I’ve been with Zildjian since I was ten. They’re like family to me. I like the tradition as well. So many people I look up to use this equipment. Also DW is in LA and I like that I can go to the factory and go hang out with them. Even if I’m not picking anything up I can still just go hang out and talk drums or look at new stuff. Sometimes when your endorsement company is in like Japan, they make assembly line drums. You can’t really get them custom or ask them for different things.
You’ve had a pretty diverse career thus far between going to Berklee and doing the jazz thing, and then moving into the rock arena. How did you become so in-demand in every genre?
Well, when I was younger I was playing in church and I was practicing a lot of hip-hop and R&B styles. I was about to go to high school, but in my high school they only had jazz. I wasn’t used to playing a swing pattern with the high hat clicking on two and four or whatever. I basically had to learn how to play jazz. It kind of humbled me because I wasn’t really good at it instantly. Just doing that and having people around me, especially my grandmother, saying like, “You need to learn all styles of music. If you want to do it, you need to really do it.” So learning all different styles of music and getting into a place where I could apply them. Like when I got into the Mars Volta, it was really easy to apply all of these styles I had. Before that, I was applying only one style at a time. I was not able to flourish in the way I constantly am now. With the Mars Volta it was real cool because I got to really dive into it. They were doing a lot of Latin stuff and then a lot of heavy stuff, I got some funk grooves in there and we’d go into some dub-step parts, then some actual dub and some ballads. So I got to showcase my talents a lot more than I have before.
And then I didn’t really get to play any fills as much. In R&B and church they kind of try to dumb you down. They’ll be like, “Oh don’t play that; people don’t want to hear that.” Or I’m playing jazz where it’s strictly improvisation or some other crazy shit. I never got to be able to reel it in and then play my Latin stuff and then play my rock stuff. So after seeing how people respond to that, it’s crazy. I didn’t know I could do all of that and the crowd would go nuts. Like, I knew that my friends went nuts, but I didn’t think normal people would. So after that it was no holds barred. I’m going in on every level.
What was the studio situation like with the Mars Volta, I’ve heard that it is pretty tough?
It was a situation where someone is trying to get you to do something, but they can’t explain it. When I got into the Mars Volta, I didn’t know what I was doing. I was in a fucking roller coaster of madness and chaos. I just did it though. I was like, “Fuck it, this is what it is.” So when we got in the studio, it was crazy because it started dawning on me what band I was in. And instead of letting me relax and play a record the way I hear it, it was more like, “We have no time and I want you to play all of this crazy shit that drummers don’t play.” They never made anyone else play this shit, so I was like, “Why me?” He was asking me to play shit that doesn’t exist in drummer world, much less in anyone else’s world. On that level I think it was hard just because I wasn’t used to it. But I’ve done four or five records with Omar, and after the first one it was easier because I kind of knew what he wanted. I had a thought pattern of what he likes in a drummer and what he likes me to play. If you listen to it, every drummer plays completely different over that music.
From my personal experience, maybe on the record, maybe off the record, it’s just really hard to have somebody put their name all over the record, call the album Omar’s Volta and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Production, Omar everything. Omar produced it, Omar wrote it, Omar played the guitar, Omar played the shaker. At that point, when a motherfucker is playing his ass off and that shit ain’t on all of the records, you’ve got to put Thomas Pridgen in that motherfucker one time. Put Juan [Alderete] in there. I felt like those insecurities made the whole situation fucked up because it makes people weird. You’ve got to treat people like it’s a family if you want people to share with you.
Now with your own band, The Memorials, how are things going for you?
I got out of the Mars Volta and I wanted to do some even crazier shit. I felt like in the Mars Volta, people weren’t as inspired as me because I was the youngest dude in the band. So I got out of the band and I wanted to make music with some more young people. The first person I could think of was Viv [Hawkins] because I’ve known her since we were twelve and Nick [Brewer] because I played with him at Berklee School of Music. We had a band together also. The first thing we did was we went into the studio and I was so used to making records so fast that we made a record in about a week before we even played a show. We made the record, mixed the record, finished the record and started playing shows. Then we toured for like two tours. Amid all of that, we decided to do another record. That record just came out on June 5th and that is the first record as a real band I’d say. To me it sounds hella awesome. We never had a legit, stick-around bass player or keyboard player for the simple fact that it’s really hard to keep people who play at such high levels around all of the time. You know, I got out of the Mars Volta and I had some reason and some money to be able to hustle. I never had a job. Most people I know have a job. Most people I know play with other people. If they play and they’re dope, they’ve got a gig. So I’m trying to play with these awesome people and I can’t always get them. So sometimes we have to sub out a keyboard player or whatever. And then Nick had to stay home because it was hard for him to do the gigs, so we had to get a new guitar player to tour.
How did the music evolve between the first and second records?
I worked my ass off. I wanted the first record to come out so bad that I didn’t have time to work on certain things that I really wanted to work on. Usually when people have a first record or second record, they spend all of their life trying to do one record instead of understanding that people might not even check the first record, so you might as well keep doing music. I wanted to play shows and I knew that we could have a better sound, but for me it was like, lets get this first official thing out and make it the first of many. So on this new record I got to take my time. I had my boy Dave Jackson on keyboards. He’s like a virtuoso; he can play drums, he can play all this other shit and play keys. So playing songs that are in 11 aren’t hard for him. Within two minutes he’s got the count. I’m playing with virtuosos on this record. John killed all of the bass stuff he did. Trying to get someone to learn it is really hard. It’s John shit. I’m just starting to understand that the people you bring around you are stars. They have their own way to shine that you can’t always do. I just did an electronic festival with Thundercat and Flying Lotus and everybody from Brainfeeder. That’s the one thing I was saying to myself. It’s cool to hear all of these people making music, but it’s really something to have other people to feed off of and influence you. I’m watching people start dancing before the music even comes on. I’m like, “This shit ain’t even hot yet and they’re dancing!” The ways of listening to things is changing, but I’m just really happy to have these people around me.
What’s the songwriting process like? Coming out of Berklee, do you have a strong compositional background?
I have a strong compositional background from growing up in church and playing on records. If you play on church records, you’ve got a week to learn the whole record and then you have a day at the end of the week to play the whole record in front of a crowd. If you fuck up, you’re in front of a crowd. At this point I can make records because I’ve been on other people’s records. I’ve sat with producers who have been like, “No we should put another hit here,” and whatever. It was stuff I didn’t understand until I heard it later. Or dealing with Omar who has a totally different way of approaching it. I’m learning from everybody.
In fact, I’m actually stealing everything. All of the drum fills I play…stole all of that shit! Stole everything in the compositions. It’s all coming from my influences. I just hear it that way. I’m also dealing with time constraints as well as my own constraints. Like this album was supposed to have strings on it. I have a ProTools rig, but all of the songs were over 100 tracks. I can’t run over 100 tracks on my home ProTools rig and then add 50 tracks of strings. So it’s a lot of shit. The moment I get like Trent Reznor where I can buy everything and everything comes to my house for free, the music will get hella crazier.
Who are some of your top influences that you like to “steal” from?
Well, I had a week of not listening to anything except electronic music. I just got a new computer so I downloaded Ghost and I download the new Deftones, which isn’t so new. I downloaded my record just to add some more sales to it [laughs]. But I’m listening to lots of things. I’m really into this dude right now, DJ Rashad, because he’s doing like Miami Bass music. He got signed in London, but he’s from Chicago and that shit just reminds me of hood shit. He’s rocking crowds like Skrillex though. It’s hood shit though. It’s completely stripper music. I’m still learning by all of these people who seem to be coming out of nowhere onto the scene. I feel like I don’t know shit.
What’s in store for the next couple months?
I did a record with Doug Pinnick and Eric Gales. I’m touring with Thundercat still. He’s supposed to be doing some opening shows for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. My band goes on tour July 27 through September 22. Then I also did a record with Eric McFadden and Norwood from Fishbone that is supposed to come out after I get home. After that, my band goes to Europe in October. I’m just trying to do as much as possible. I just want to keep playing with cool people and getting to see cool cities. I love playing in my band because, all of the things I see people miss, I get to do. I’m having fun branding myself, because I don’t know who I am. I don’t know what anything is. I’m being fully creative and not giving up on anything.
What’s been the defining moment in your musical career?
The defining moment would probably be getting to play on Dave Letterman. I always got to see like Buddy Rich on Johnny Carson. Buddy Rich would be playing on TV and he would act like the cameras weren’t even there. He played on so many TV shows that he didn’t care. Where as a lot of my friends go on and play with mainstream artists and they’re in the back with a hat. You can’t even see them! It’s not really cool, where as I got to be cool and do what I want on TV. That was pretty awesome.
What is your vision for The Memorials going into the future? Do you have plans to get more of a solid line-up or keep the collective going?
I just want people to do what they want. If they want to play, cool. I really want to get to a point where everyone sees how fun it is. Sometimes when you’re grinding it out, people can’t see it. Some people just won’t see it and that’s cool, but I’d like to have people who ride it out with me. Musically, I just want to keep making music as a collective. I think it’s the most fun and the most non-stressful. I’m a beat-maker, I know how to produce, but there is something about having all of these people around me. I get bored by myself. I’m an only child as it is; I get bored already.
Is there anyone you really want to work with?
Hell yeah, there are like 20 people I’d like to work with. But there are two keyboard players, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, just because those are OGs. I don’t have to do a tour, nothing. We could sit down and play at a jam session and I’d be happy. I’d probably want to play with Prince at a jam session too, just to say I did and also to see him in some high heels playing. That would be awesome.
All the young cats too. I’d be down to do something with Justice or deadmau5. I’ve been talking to Flying Lotus about doing some shit. Mainly I would like my band to tour with different bands. I just want to have shows with people because it’s fucking fun. I would like to sit in the studio with Trent Reznor to see how he makes shit, because he’s a weirdo. I saw his show from the stage and just by how meticulous everything was I could tell he was a strange dude. I would play with some of the rappers I like, you know, but if I die without playing with Tyler I won’t cry or anything. Whoever though. I’m down to play with anybody. I like to keep it fun and experimental. I don’t want to do some stale shit. Even if I got the call to do a stale record with like Stevie Wonder, I’d say yes, but I’d be thinking like, “Damn, this sucks.”
Having played so many different styles of music, how do you adapt to playing on someone else’s gig? Do you wait for their cues or do you give your own input and style?
I initially let them lead it. I hear what they have to say first. Some people don’t have anything to say, which are the weirdest ones. Even Omar had a certain direction. I like people who know what they want. A lot of times even if they’re like, “Put your shit here,” I’ll put down what’s on the record anyway. It’s easy for me to play my own shit over everything, but it takes away from the music. I also wouldn’t learn as much if I did that. I would learn less because I would only be in my own head. Like when I play with Thundercat, he tells me he loves me because I listen to his record. A lot of his record is not real drums, it’s programming. I’m trying to cop the sounds from these programmed drums. For the first couple gigs they were alright. By the last two gigs, people were like, “That drummer sounds like a fucking electronic drummer!” They don’t know that it’s real drums. It helps me too, because when I go to play with my own band, I’ve already played some shit that doesn’t sounds real so I can go even crazier with it sounding like electronic drums. I’ll make everything on one part of a song sound like electronic drums. I’m constantly playing with all of this because I don’t have no damn job. I don’t have a label telling me what to do. I don’t have a manager saying, “ Go play with Dream Theater.” It’s just me! I can do whatever I want creatively.
Grab a copy of The Memorials’ Delirium Now!
Interview by Eric Sandler
http://revivalist.okayplayer.com/2012/07/11/thomas-pridgen-maintaining-sole-creative-custody/
Thursday, June 7, 2012
phenomenal talent on display (THE MEMORIALS)
The Memorials
Delirium
Self-Released; 2012
In my review of the self-titled debut record from The Memorials, I made specific mention of the phenomenal talent on display, but I was also confused by the attempts to water down the prog rock with some generic ‘60s-‘70s hard rock tropes. Not to take any real credit here, but it does seem that the band took my constructive criticism to heart when recording Delirium, since it’s difficult to detect a false step or wrong paths taken. Simply put, there’s less fluff and much more focus to the direction of the music, all of which leads to a stellar sophomore release.
From beginning to end, Viveca Hawkins reaches out through the speakers and shakes the listener around, using both the strength of her soulful voice and the weight of her sociopolitical lyrics. Criticism of the drug war and the prison-industrial complex are pared with heartfelt pleas for increased cultural awareness – admittedly, it’s nice to hear someone not within the punk and folk spheres actually sing about something specific that’s not related to tales of sex, love, or romantic longing. More importantly, Hawkins displays a very unique sort of power and intensity that I find most compelling, in that I’m not sure I’d find these songs quite as interesting if the singer was a typically histrionic male rock star type.
Musically, the songs combine hip-hop, post-prog, and arena rock with style – imagine Lauren Hill fronting At The Drive In or M.I.A. collaborating with Muse. And I would be remiss to not mention the rich fusion of funk, soul, and jazz textures, which call to mind thick slices of Parliament Funkadelic, Sly & The Family Stone, Robert Randolph, and Ben Harper. Nick Brewer’s guitar aptitude is off the charts, and Thomas Pridgen wails on the drums with a fury, purpose, and appreciation for time signature fluctuations reminiscent of Mike Portnoy. In fact, my Dream Theater-loving brothers would probably enjoy wide swathes of this record, especially in how the lengthy, embellished arrangements give all the instruments a chance to shine.
Delirium aims for the highest of heights, and achieves them easily, especially on “Fluorescent’s Unforgiving,” “Gone,” “Daisies,” and “Mr. Entitled.” On the whole, I’m really pleased to hear how much The Memorials have grown as a band in the last two years – political prog rock might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I truly enjoyed this record.
Monday, June 4, 2012
THE MEMORIALS CD REVIEW
By Dr. Abner Mality
The Memorials are one of the most unpredictable outfits in rock n' roll right now. They've labelled themselves "Afro-punk" but that doesn't even really begin to cover the swirling cauldron that their music has become. Their debut album was also pretty off the hook, but "Delirium", in fitting with its title, is more so. Yet it is also more refined in some ways.
Now basically down to a duo accompanied by talented session musicians, the band restricts itself from NOTHING on "Delirium". The odd beginning track "Dreams" is off putting with its heavy reliance on synth breakbeats, spacy sounds and rapped vocals from singer Viveca Hawkins. Suffice to say, it's not my cup of tea at all, yet it has a big, almost ethereal sound. One thing's for sure...Viveca Hawkins can SING. She has a soulful, multi-faceted voice that avoids the blatant "oversouling" that so many nightmare American Idol karaoke contestants beat into the ground. She is never less than compelling. With second track "Fluorescents", the heaviness of The Memorials' kicks in. Ex Mars Volta man Thomas Pridgen is a whiz on the guitar and cuts loose with both brutal riffs and screaming leads throughout the course of this song, which also includes saxophone and gospel-like female vocals.
You can hear just about anything at any time during the course of this album. There's way-out power electronics on "I'm So Anti-Me", jazz fusion improvisation on the title track, thrash on "Daiseys" and hardcore soul/funk on "Heavyweight". But never are those sounds just by themselves...they're coupled with other musical styles that come out of nowhere. The result is loose, unpredictable, progressive and sometimes jarring. Last cut "Mr. Entitled" is way, way too long at over eleven minutes and just seems like an unfocused mess. But excepting that and "Dreams", the album never fails to be exciting and mercurial and featuring some outstanding talent.
http://www.wormwoodchronicles.com/torture-chamber/memorials-the-2
Saturday, June 2, 2012
THE MEMORIALS / Delirium (ind. - merci à /thanks to XO Publicity)
THE MEMORIALS / Delirium (ind. - merci à /thanks to XO Publicity)
Une collaboration entre la chanteuse Viveca Hawkins (qui a fait du chemin dans la soul) et le batteur Thomas Pridgen (The Mars Volta). Plusieurs musiciens les entourent. Un rock alternatif torché, aux influences diverses - hip-hop, métal, punk, afrofunk. Les chansons song longues (entre sept et neuf minutes pour la majorité) mais portées par des mélodies efficaces et, surtout, une attitude qui fait plaisir. Puissant et divertissant.
A collaboration between singer Viveca Hawkins (she has a track record in soul music) and drummer Thomas Pridgen (of The Mars Volta). Several musicians surround them. Edgy alt rock with a mixed bag of influences: hip-hop, metal, punk, afrofunk. Songs are long (7 to 9 minutes for most) but caried by successful melodies and, most of all, an attitude that won’t quit. Fun powerful stuff.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Album Review - The Memorials "Delirium"
Just a year ago I reviewed the incredibly exciting debut album from The Memorials. The self-titled disc was a challenging first listen, full of complex arrangements and progressive approaches to what heavy music can sound like. It truly was a unique album, one that I would not have imagined would be easy to top. After just a year's time, The Memorials are set to release their sophomore disc, Delirium. I've been listening to an advance copy of it for a few weeks now and I must say...
...this album is even better than their first one. Fans of loud music and intricate song structures will find much to enjoy within its notes. The band explores elements of fusion and jazz even further than on their first outing and blend it so incredibly well with their heavy sound.
This is not an album you casually listen to. Don't put it on as background sound because you are doing yourself a disservice. Put on some headphones to enjoy the subtleties or play it loud through your sound system. Either way, don't just listen, but listen to it and you will begin to understand why The Memorials are as good as they are. As I did a track-by-track break down of their first album, it only makes sense to do it again. So on to track one, where right from the start, Thomas Pridgen throws convention right out the window.
"Dream (Future Perfekt Remix)" - You have to have all the confidence in the world and huge brass ones to open your sophomore disc with a remix of a song from your debut album. The Memorials pull it off in style with Mitchell Wilcox' Future Perfekt remix of "Dream". The track swerves across the EDM map from D+B to Dubstep but does so in excellent fashion. This is not a throwaway mix meant as B-side filler.
"Fluorescent's Unforgiving" - This song feels like it could have been the opener, but again, props to The Memorials for thinking outside the box. Viveca Hawkins goes from dropping lyrics like a pro to dishing out potent urban spoken word for good measure without missing a beat. The chorus is haunting and beautiful amidst the angst ridden message. A jazz trumpet at the bridge takes the piece in a wholly unique direction, followed by an acoustic guitar breakdown and Hawkins vocalizing in a Middle Eastern/Goa style, until the heavy riffs punch you in the face on the out.
"Gone" - A computerized percussion assault opens this one, quickly shifting to a live drum and funky wah pedal guitar attack held together with an all to underused organ line. It is a curious mix of 70's funk and hard rock. Nick Brewer is melting faces and strings with his relentless riffing throughout the song and Viveca Hawkins' vocals, especially in the chorus will remain stuck in your head right alongside it.
"Heavyweight" - Here is a slice of metallic jazz fusion you had no idea you wanted to hear. This one has a cleaner tone and trademark Viveca Hawkins multitracked vocals, which are just as key to The Memorials sound as the instruments themselves. Hawkins has a truly distinctive singing style, one that needs more ears to hear her.
"Daisies" - A love song positively dripping in 80s metal riffage. The melodic guitar open slams into a heavier version of itself backed by a syncopated rhythm. Hawkins rocks a great vocal against Thomas Pridgen's pounding drums and Nick Brewer's six string. On its surface, this one seems much more straight forward and less progressive, but listen specifically to Thomas Pridgen's masterful stick work to reveal what is driving this song.
"Delirium" - If by this point on the album you aren't convinced Thomas Pridgen is one of the best drummers currently active then obviously you weren't listening close enough. What starts as seemingly an in the pocket performance similar to the previous song, branches out with some wicked snake charmer riffing from Nick Brewer and a killer, drum powered breakdown at the bridge. Again, props to Thomas Pridgen for his subtle use of organ tones.
"So Anti Me" - With a heavy beat bordering on mosh inducing, Pridgen goes positively off the deep end, playing enough drums for three songs yet holding it all together and never drifting into drum noodling territory. Further use of an organ adds a nice extra tone to the track. The song downshifts into torch song jazz lounge mode and it totally works. This is another example of actively listening being a better experience. The piece further develops into just a throbbing bass line backing Hawkins as it pulses to a close.
"Mr. Entitled" - Running nearly 12 minutes, this is an epic way to close the album. Every note from The Memorials' play book is here: heavy riffage, masterful drumming, Hawkins in full effect and unexpected but deftly executed shifts into a jazzier space. A well placed flute accents the second section quite nicely. It runs back to heavy and then into a jazz realm again before an eye-popping synth bridge that I would love to hear more from The Memorials on album number three. Another furious, heavy assault and the piece ends on soft synths and a sax solo from Adrián Terrazas-González, who played with Pridgen in The Mars Volta. For an extended length song, it certainly does not feel overly long and the 12 minutes passes all too quickly.
Much like their debut album, I've enjoyed Delirium more with each successive spin, plus each song gets progressively better as you listen. So, for anyone who continually bemoans the "death of the album," I will counter with this.
If you are a fan of loud music, performed with artistry and passion but perhaps most importantly doesn't sound like anything else out there, get yourself a copy of The Memorials' Delirium to wrap your ears around. And if you have not yet experienced their first album, do yourself a favor and listen to both. Delirium drops on June 5th.
-rick
Monday, May 28, 2012
The Memorials - Delirium
The Memorials "Delirium",2012
(Bloodthirsty Unicorn)
Often a mix of various genres doesn’t look good on paper but can still sound great. Take Faith No More for example, their fusion of heavy metal, funk, hip-hop, and progressive rock sounds like the worst concept in the universe on paper however the band themselves are great. Similar to Faith No More, The Memorials are also San Francisco dwellers. The Memorials feature drummer, Thomas Pridgen, who was once in the MARS VOLTA and that alone correctly suggests unpredictability for the group’s song structures and a drummer who bangs the rhythm out hard and steady with the sticks.
The band combine hip hop rhythms combined a no-nonsense garage rock approach although there is an interlude where a brass section lays a downbeat jazzy vibe amongst the angst in “Flourescent’s Unforgiving”. In the song, the band lyrically take on the American prison system using free labour and the illegality of the growth of a sometimes medicinal herb. Funky bass rythms blare out in “Gone” as the soothing soulful voice of Vivecia Hawkens smooths out a smattering of the jagged edges although later in the tune the guitarist suprises due to an allowed permit to go wild. Deceptively “Daisies” starts out like an all to familiar radio rock song but then Hawkins sings in the fashion of the Throwing Muses, Kirstin Hersh and is able convince that she genuinely is sorting out her lovelife by picking the petals off flowers. Deftones style nu-metal weighs heavily in the title track but the band’s potpourri of colliding sounds ensures that there is much more for the listener to be dragged in by with soul and progressive rock all hanging out the bait. “Heavyweight” carries a Mike Tyson punch with steady drumming right through and the soul crooning belies the rock layered underneath until concluding with a strong self-assurance. The close to twelve minutes “Mr Entitled” ensures that the song’s duration doesn’t equate tto edium owing to the band constantly surprising.
Often listening to “Delirium” is akin to peeling an onion with multiple layers underneath. A quirky catchiness mirrored with unpredictability provides the often-lengthy songs with an easy listenability. The vocal talents of Vivecia Hawkins are definitely a huge part of the band’s sound with her ability to provide smooth sultry vocals and then rapidly seethe with rage. It’s tough to pick a highlight or a lowlight on “Delirium” as all the tunes are equally electrifying. Those that need a change from their Bellrays albums will find similar yet far gruntier tunes with this album. I haven’t heard The Memorials’ first album but if it’s of the same merit then ownership is mandatory.
5/5
www.thememorialsmusic.com
The memorials on facebook
The small takeover on facebook
The Memorials "Delirium",2012
(Bloodthirsty Unicorn)
Often a mix of various genres doesn’t look good on paper but can still sound great. Take Faith No More for example, their fusion of heavy metal, funk, hip-hop, and progressive rock sounds like the worst concept in the universe on paper however the band themselves are great. Similar to Faith No More, The Memorials are also San Francisco dwellers. The Memorials feature drummer, Thomas Pridgen, who was once in the MARS VOLTA and that alone correctly suggests unpredictability for the group’s song structures and a drummer who bangs the rhythm out hard and steady with the sticks.
The band combine hip hop rhythms combined a no-nonsense garage rock approach although there is an interlude where a brass section lays a downbeat jazzy vibe amongst the angst in “Flourescent’s Unforgiving”. In the song, the band lyrically take on the American prison system using free labour and the illegality of the growth of a sometimes medicinal herb. Funky bass rythms blare out in “Gone” as the soothing soulful voice of Vivecia Hawkens smooths out a smattering of the jagged edges although later in the tune the guitarist suprises due to an allowed permit to go wild. Deceptively “Daisies” starts out like an all to familiar radio rock song but then Hawkins sings in the fashion of the Throwing Muses, Kirstin Hersh and is able convince that she genuinely is sorting out her lovelife by picking the petals off flowers. Deftones style nu-metal weighs heavily in the title track but the band’s potpourri of colliding sounds ensures that there is much more for the listener to be dragged in by with soul and progressive rock all hanging out the bait. “Heavyweight” carries a Mike Tyson punch with steady drumming right through and the soul crooning belies the rock layered underneath until concluding with a strong self-assurance. The close to twelve minutes “Mr Entitled” ensures that the song’s duration doesn’t equate tto edium owing to the band constantly surprising.
Often listening to “Delirium” is akin to peeling an onion with multiple layers underneath. A quirky catchiness mirrored with unpredictability provides the often-lengthy songs with an easy listenability. The vocal talents of Vivecia Hawkins are definitely a huge part of the band’s sound with her ability to provide smooth sultry vocals and then rapidly seethe with rage. It’s tough to pick a highlight or a lowlight on “Delirium” as all the tunes are equally electrifying. Those that need a change from their Bellrays albums will find similar yet far gruntier tunes with this album. I haven’t heard The Memorials’ first album but if it’s of the same merit then ownership is mandatory.
5/5
www.thememorialsmusic.com
The memorials on facebook
The small takeover on facebook
http://smalltakeover.blogspot.com/2012/05/memorials-delerium2012-bloodthirsty.html
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Friday, October 15, 2010
THE MEMORIALS (We All Got The Beat) SUBMERGE MAGAZINE
We All Got The Beat
Posted on 12 October 2010 by dubs
read here
Thomas Pridgen Makes Honest Sounds for Anyone and Everyone With The Memorials
Words by Robin Bacior
The most stereotypical complaint of any musicians attempting to form a band is that there just aren’t enough drummers in the world. Percussion is the heartbeat, that aggressive slap of stick to skin or steel, an intensity that can’t be mimicked by any other instrument. So why the lack of drummers when they add so much? There’s something so universally understood, yet confusing, about drums; but not for people like Thomas Pridgen, who started playing early on, not even as a conscious decision.
“My grandmother was a piano player in the church,” explained Pridgen. “Where I grew up, all the drummers used to switch off. It was kind of like playing basketball in the hood; everybody did it, so I had no choice but to.”
Pridgen quickly separated himself as a prodigious talent. Not only did he win The Guitar Center drum-off at age 9, and a year later become the youngest recipient of a Zildjian endorsement, but he also was given a full scholarship to the esteemed Berklee School of Music, at age 15.
“Yeah, I was a little badass,” said Pridgen with a laugh.
Now only 26, he’s played with musicians like Dennis Chambers and Walfredo Reyes, Jr., and enjoyed a stint with the highly regarded, extraordinarily progressive force known as The Mars Volta.
At one point while working as a musical director for a childhood friend, Pridgen received a somewhat out-of-the-blue invitation from prog-rock luminary Omar Rodriguez Lopez to hang out on Halloween. In the middle of a few drinks, Lopez casually mentioned he wanted Pridgen to join their set for the night, which happened to be opening for Red Hot Chili Peppers to an audience of roughly 20,000 people.
That was essentially the beginning of Pridgen’s time with The Mars Volta, during which he found a home for his somewhat aurally chaotic style that he thought was outside of most listeners’ realms of tolerance. In fact, they not only understood it, but liked it.
“Sometimes as musicians you kind of feel like stuff you’re doing is over people’s heads, and sometimes when the normal person can like what you’re doing, and actually gravitate toward it, it’s kind of big,” Pridgen said. “I learned I can play all my crazy shit and be as crazy as I want, and it wasn’t far from normal. It wasn’t too abstract that people didn’t get it.”
In December 2009, Pridgen decided to break from Volta and focus on his own creation, something to fill a certain void he felt existed in the current state of rock music. Something that’s purely about sound, regardless of style or ethnicity.
“It’s kind of like if you’re a gangster rapper and you’re from the suburbs then nobody respects you, so in this [rock music], nobody cares where you’re from; but for us, we’re from the hood, from the ghetto, especially when I’m living in Oakland, where it’s predominately black and they’re not playing rock. It’s predominately hip-hop and R&B,” Pridgen said. “I could walk anywhere in my type of black neighborhood and they would not recognize me, but then when I come to more eclectic neighborhoods, they’re like ‘you’re the guy from The Mars Volta!’”
It can be hard to maintain a balance of equally representing your individual style and self with music, especially if the two haven’t historically gone hand-in-hand, but it’s something that Pridgen strives for, and feels like people can get behind.
“For me it’s kind of like a fine line, of trying to have people that respect you and know you’re from a place that’s predominately urban or whatever, and to do a music that most people of your color aren’t doing,” Pridgen said. “That’s why I feel like that voice is missing; Fishbone and Bad Brains, they’re super older than us, there aren’t too many young bands that come from where we come from.”
Pridgen wanted to assemble a band that didn’t have to build an image around the sound, but more just played honestly what they felt regardless of suit or trends.
“We don’t go play rock music and dress up like we’re in the ‘80s. We go and look just like we look when I walk in the hood, so for people my color to see that, it’s inspiring,” Pridgen said. “It’s inspiring to me to see other people—even if they’re not black—just to see people doing their kind of music with 100 percent passion,” Pridgen said.
From all this came the birth of his newest project, The Memorials.
The drums are the meat of The Memorials, with Pridgen’s impressively clean and rapid percussive builds that make for a thick base for their songs, melted over by Nick Brewer’s hammered/licked and sustained electric-guitar noises, drizzled with a glaze of Viveca Hawkin’s smooth, mellow vocals. Stacked and peppered with cameo contributions from various talented instrumentalists (Uriah Duffy on bass, Michael Aaberg on keys), it makes for a unique plate that at one point Pridgen might have questioned if people could even stomach, but now realizes they may even crave. “I never thought it would fail, but I never thought it would be this big so fast,” Pridgen said.
In the history of Pridgen’s impressively long resume of collaborating with other talent, this is the first time he’s actually the appointed head of a group. While it might sound like more pressure, it’s around the same level of obligation, just more hands-on in the entire process of a band’s duties.
“The only difference is I’m there from ground one—all the mixing and mastering, all the headaches—I’m getting the brunt of it,” Pridgen said. “It’s just a lot more on my shoulders, but it’s actually more fun.”
Not even a year old, The Memorials will be releasing their first record on Nov. 23, 2010, according to Pridgen. Coincidentally, the date is also his birthday. However, they’re more excited to go test them out in front of crowds.
“We made all these songs so we could go play them live,” Pridgen said. The core focus of The Memorials is to be able to play as many live shows as possible, to offer their eclectic creation to whomever wants to listen, and to be reciprocated with the experience of fine-tuning that very sound. Even though the group is now a solid trio, they remain open to guests and new ideas.
“I’m totally open to experiment, because I don’t want to make the same kind of records over and over again,” Pridgen said.
No matter who comes or goes, there will of course, always be drums.
Posted on 12 October 2010 by dubs
read here
Thomas Pridgen Makes Honest Sounds for Anyone and Everyone With The Memorials
Words by Robin Bacior
The most stereotypical complaint of any musicians attempting to form a band is that there just aren’t enough drummers in the world. Percussion is the heartbeat, that aggressive slap of stick to skin or steel, an intensity that can’t be mimicked by any other instrument. So why the lack of drummers when they add so much? There’s something so universally understood, yet confusing, about drums; but not for people like Thomas Pridgen, who started playing early on, not even as a conscious decision.
“My grandmother was a piano player in the church,” explained Pridgen. “Where I grew up, all the drummers used to switch off. It was kind of like playing basketball in the hood; everybody did it, so I had no choice but to.”
Pridgen quickly separated himself as a prodigious talent. Not only did he win The Guitar Center drum-off at age 9, and a year later become the youngest recipient of a Zildjian endorsement, but he also was given a full scholarship to the esteemed Berklee School of Music, at age 15.
“Yeah, I was a little badass,” said Pridgen with a laugh.
Now only 26, he’s played with musicians like Dennis Chambers and Walfredo Reyes, Jr., and enjoyed a stint with the highly regarded, extraordinarily progressive force known as The Mars Volta.
At one point while working as a musical director for a childhood friend, Pridgen received a somewhat out-of-the-blue invitation from prog-rock luminary Omar Rodriguez Lopez to hang out on Halloween. In the middle of a few drinks, Lopez casually mentioned he wanted Pridgen to join their set for the night, which happened to be opening for Red Hot Chili Peppers to an audience of roughly 20,000 people.
That was essentially the beginning of Pridgen’s time with The Mars Volta, during which he found a home for his somewhat aurally chaotic style that he thought was outside of most listeners’ realms of tolerance. In fact, they not only understood it, but liked it.
“Sometimes as musicians you kind of feel like stuff you’re doing is over people’s heads, and sometimes when the normal person can like what you’re doing, and actually gravitate toward it, it’s kind of big,” Pridgen said. “I learned I can play all my crazy shit and be as crazy as I want, and it wasn’t far from normal. It wasn’t too abstract that people didn’t get it.”
In December 2009, Pridgen decided to break from Volta and focus on his own creation, something to fill a certain void he felt existed in the current state of rock music. Something that’s purely about sound, regardless of style or ethnicity.
“It’s kind of like if you’re a gangster rapper and you’re from the suburbs then nobody respects you, so in this [rock music], nobody cares where you’re from; but for us, we’re from the hood, from the ghetto, especially when I’m living in Oakland, where it’s predominately black and they’re not playing rock. It’s predominately hip-hop and R&B,” Pridgen said. “I could walk anywhere in my type of black neighborhood and they would not recognize me, but then when I come to more eclectic neighborhoods, they’re like ‘you’re the guy from The Mars Volta!’”
It can be hard to maintain a balance of equally representing your individual style and self with music, especially if the two haven’t historically gone hand-in-hand, but it’s something that Pridgen strives for, and feels like people can get behind.
“For me it’s kind of like a fine line, of trying to have people that respect you and know you’re from a place that’s predominately urban or whatever, and to do a music that most people of your color aren’t doing,” Pridgen said. “That’s why I feel like that voice is missing; Fishbone and Bad Brains, they’re super older than us, there aren’t too many young bands that come from where we come from.”
Pridgen wanted to assemble a band that didn’t have to build an image around the sound, but more just played honestly what they felt regardless of suit or trends.
“We don’t go play rock music and dress up like we’re in the ‘80s. We go and look just like we look when I walk in the hood, so for people my color to see that, it’s inspiring,” Pridgen said. “It’s inspiring to me to see other people—even if they’re not black—just to see people doing their kind of music with 100 percent passion,” Pridgen said.
From all this came the birth of his newest project, The Memorials.
The drums are the meat of The Memorials, with Pridgen’s impressively clean and rapid percussive builds that make for a thick base for their songs, melted over by Nick Brewer’s hammered/licked and sustained electric-guitar noises, drizzled with a glaze of Viveca Hawkin’s smooth, mellow vocals. Stacked and peppered with cameo contributions from various talented instrumentalists (Uriah Duffy on bass, Michael Aaberg on keys), it makes for a unique plate that at one point Pridgen might have questioned if people could even stomach, but now realizes they may even crave. “I never thought it would fail, but I never thought it would be this big so fast,” Pridgen said.
In the history of Pridgen’s impressively long resume of collaborating with other talent, this is the first time he’s actually the appointed head of a group. While it might sound like more pressure, it’s around the same level of obligation, just more hands-on in the entire process of a band’s duties.
“The only difference is I’m there from ground one—all the mixing and mastering, all the headaches—I’m getting the brunt of it,” Pridgen said. “It’s just a lot more on my shoulders, but it’s actually more fun.”
Not even a year old, The Memorials will be releasing their first record on Nov. 23, 2010, according to Pridgen. Coincidentally, the date is also his birthday. However, they’re more excited to go test them out in front of crowds.
“We made all these songs so we could go play them live,” Pridgen said. The core focus of The Memorials is to be able to play as many live shows as possible, to offer their eclectic creation to whomever wants to listen, and to be reciprocated with the experience of fine-tuning that very sound. Even though the group is now a solid trio, they remain open to guests and new ideas.
“I’m totally open to experiment, because I don’t want to make the same kind of records over and over again,” Pridgen said.
No matter who comes or goes, there will of course, always be drums.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)