Keep up with Joe here:
Theories: www.facebook.com/theoriesgrind
Joe Axler, born 1980 in Queens New York. I played drums very briefly in my parents basement when I was 14 and learned how to play my first real beat to Michael Jacksons 'Beat It'. I picked up drumming again when I moved to Seattl,e Washington when I was 19. Started out playing punk and hardcore, then moved on to grind and metal. After an intensive wrist surgery, removing muscle and tendon in 2005, I had to start learning new techniques and new ways to play to compensate. I have an undying love for blast beats and cats.
Band History: Skarp, Book Of Black Earth, Samothrace, Splatterhouse, Theories, Spitting Teeth, IAMTHETHORN.
Joe Axler Interview:
SDM: You are known as one of the hardest working metal drummers in Seattle. How do you manage to do it all, and find the mix of keeping it different and unique?
Joe: Haha, thanks! I wouldnt really call it work, I mean there is a lot of work that goes into making music and playing drums, but I consider it a priviledge and honor that I get to do something this rad that I love with my life and not to just get stuck in the mundane B.S. As for keeping it unique or different, regardless of what we all would like to think we are all a product of our environment. We absorbe what we see and do everyday and we take a little from the things we like and it rounds us into who we are. I think what I do is a little of everything I have seen added into whatever has become my own style. Also every band I have have played in helps me develop technique, every musician in every band I've been a part of has their own style and learning to play with them and their own style molds me into what I do. does that make sense?
SDM: Did you ever take any lessons?
Joe: When I was 14 I took lessons for a couple months. I was young and didn't care very much, I had more important shit to do like hang out with the neighborhood kids on the corner and get into trouble. This was before the internet and the craziest video game was super nintendo and this was also Queens NY, in the 90's before it was gentrified hipster garbage, so kids actually went outside and did stuff. Well, theres a long-winded off the topic rant.
SDM: Who are your favorites?
Joe: I love watching Mike Mangini solo videos! I gotta give it up to Rob Proctor who is easily the first grind drummer I heard that made me fall in love with the style. I had been a fan of grind before, but it was hearing Assuck that made me love it! Also a big fan of Flo Mounier, his style is like controlled sloppiness, its crazy to watch. I'm also highly influenced by my peers, friends and bands I've toured with: Bryan Fajardo, Danny Walker, Dave McGraw, Dave Witte and Issac Davis who has taught me a lot about the style I play and has always been one step ahead of me. Check out his new(est) band, Burials, out of PDX.
SDM: Touring can be taxing on the body, especially for drummers. Do you have any tips to stay healthy and focused while on tour?
Joe: Party as hard as you want, do whatever you wanna do, the important thing is sleep! You can rage hard or not at all, regardless if you are tired, you're screwed. Drumming is really taxing on your body and the only way to let it heal is sleep, so make sure you get enough! ha, I sound like a parent
SDM: There's a lot of drummer's out there that want to be doing what you do. Any tips for aspiring touring musicians?
Joe: Yep, plan on being a nobody, being broke and destroying your body. But on the bright side you'll be left with a ton of stories and experiences that a majority of the world only reads about.
SDM: Do you have a warm up routine?
Joe: Yea, I have a very specific stretching routine I stick to that my good friend and drummer Chris Common showed me a while ago that really helps. I'm also kinda OCD, I have to pick my sticks and back-up sticks for each show before I start stretching and I have a numbered pattern I play on my teeth and fingers before I start a set. Wow, I sound like a crazy person.
SDM: What are you currently listening to?
Joe: Loss, Despond. Anhedonist, Netherwards. Noisear, Subvert. Cattle Decapitation, Monolith. Assuck, all. Discordance Axis, all.
SDM: Who gave the best performance you've ever seen?
Joe: This is kinda weird and musically not really my thing, but drum-wise the performance that blew me away the most ever was Dave Lombardo playing for Fantomas in I wanna say 2004. Dave Lombardo set up sideways in the front of the stage so you could see everything he was doing. I was right up front and stood there mesmerized by what he was doing and how out of the norm the stuff he was doing was, the whole time chugging red bull, ha.
SDM: Does playing in different bands help you keep your creative side from going stale?
Joe: Definitely! It forces me to not get stuck playing one style. It's good to have your niche, but you have to be able to do anything that comes your way.
SDM: When you are in the writing process of a new record, do you write your drum parts first? Or is it in collaboration with another musician?
Joe: It really depends on the band. Some of the bands I've played with or still play with I have a part in writing the guitar parts to, so in that case I know exactly in my mind what I plan on doing on the drums. Sometimes I write to what is already written on guitars, and a lot of the time I have in my head what I think the guitars are doing or what I think they should be doing and write to that. Then when it comes to fine tuning the song, we change the guitar parts accordingly, its a give and take process.
SDM: Any favorite hobbies?
Joe: Ugh, I don't really have time for hobbies. I work 3 jobs, currently play in 4 active bands and do the business for most of them. It doesn't leave me much time for myself, but free time is a mind killer so I can't complain.
SDM: If you had to stop drumming, what else would you do with your life?
Joe: Lose my mind
SDM: Any last words you would like to say to drummers out there?
Joe: Play guitar, it's cheaper 😉
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