Josh Fetzek

Keep up with Josh here:

Growing up my dad played drums for a living in various 80’s top 40 cover bands. I was exposed to drumming from birth, and my absolute favorite thing growing up was to see my father play his drums. It was sort of rare that he would play at home, but when he did, I was always moved by his talent and the way he played with deep feeling. I would seldom play his drums as a little kid, and I always associated them with all his other stuff I wasn’t supposed to touch… His guns, his tools… His stash… But one day around age 9 I literally rose from a dream of knowing how to play the drums, and a life long dream was formed. I timidly called him at work and asked if I could play his 1969 American-made Gretsch drumkit. I went down into the basement and tapped out some “Paradise City” and “Sad But true” every day after school all through middle school. I hadn’t been exposed to much metal at that age, but I was hooked on Metallica. For like 5 years. That was all I ever played. Some friends tried getting me into death metal when I was in 7th or 8th grade, but I couldnt get it. It wasn’t Metallica, so I wasn’t going to like it. But then, at the beginning of highschool, They turned pop, and it was all down hill from there. I got into Korn. Then they turned pop and I played in shitty punk bands for a while till I met some metal dudes.

My first real metal band was, and still is Vulnerata. They still make fun of me for having liked Korn. (You should too.) When Vulnerata began, I had heard so little underground metal that my first instinct was to make it sound as much like Metallica as possible. The guitar player and founding member Chad Pederson is singularly the man responsible for getting me into death metal. Well him, and the fat kid from homeroom who liked Cannibal Corpse. Vulnerata has undergone a constant evolution since it’s inception, all the while spiraling deeper into the depths of brutality. But we still tune to E, just like Metallica.

Once we found “our sound” I found a reason to aspire to get better at my instrument. I couldn’t even come close to doing a blast beat 7 years ago. For a while I didn’t even use a double pedal. But I found in death metal a level of skill, dedication, and virtuosity that is unparalelled in modern music. I saw and heard and was inspired by the ability that certain humans have to make themselves into machines. To train mind and muscle to achieve such speed and precision takes lifelong dedication. The amount of practice required to play on the level of The Masters (Roddy, Laureano, Longstreth, Hoglan, Reinert, Christy, Mounier, Etc…) That amount of discipline and constant practice can not be measured in hours, but rather years and decades. I have been drumming a mere 15 years, and I have only been playing this style of music for maybe 8 or so years. In my opinion, I should be far better than I am by now. Such is the nature of this instrument. You can never stop learning and improving, and you can never be too humble… You can never be the best. You could have your ass handed to you by a kid half your age who’s been playing one tenth as long as you. You could have an 80 year old man school you in single stroke rolls. You could be the most mediocre timekeeper and become vastly successful and famous beyond your wildest dreams. Or you could be a complete technical wizard and play in 14 bands and still need to work part time at a record store to pay the bills.

Josh Fetzek Interview:

SD.com: How old were you when you started playing?

Josh: I was about nine when I began playing and taking it seriously. before that I always just played drums on my desk at school, or on buckets and pans and things like that.

SD.com: Did you play in a school band or any drum corps?

Josh: I got grandfathered-in to the 8th grade jazz band cause I was the only kid who could play a drumset at my school. I couldn’t read music and still can’t, but my music teacher/soccer coach taught me some basic chart-reading stuff so I wouldn’t try to “improvise” too much. I had to do a “solo” in front of the whole school playing the crappy “one-e-and-a-two-e-and-a-” shit that was written down… I owned that solo though.

SD.com: Ever take any lessons?

Josh: Not formally. I got showed up by plenty of people and nerded out with them like “How the hell did you do that?” But I never needed lessons in how to play with my favorite toys. Some day soon though, I’m going to need to go back and un-learn all the bad habits I’ve taught myself.

SD.com: Who are your top 5 influences?

Josh: My dad, Lars Ulrich, and more recently (like in the last decade…) Flo Mounier, Derek Roddy, Tony Laureano, Gene Hoglan, John Longstreth. The usual suspects.

SD.com: Assuming that influences doesn’t mean favorites, who are your favorites?

Josh: Thomas Lang is ridiculous to watch, and makes me want to quit. Same with Marco Minneman. Buddy Rich… No one will ever be as good. A dude from Minneapolis named Dave King is also awesome to see. Killer jazz drummer.

SD.com: Let us know 5 CD’s that are in your current rotation

Josh:

Origin: Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas

Angelcorpse: The Inexorable(best. album. ever.)

Psycroptic: Scepter of the Ancients

Death: Individual thought Patterns

Nile: In Their Darkened Shrines.

SD.com: Do you practice any specific rudiments or combo’s regularly?

Josh: I try to do some single strokes, paradiddles, 3 stroke rolls, and I have recently discovered the Pyramid of Pain. For those who are not familiar with the Pyramid, it consists of alternating single stroke 8th notes and double stroke rolls in ascending lengths of time. for instance: one measure of single strokes, one mesure of rolls, two measures of single strokes, four measures of rolls, or however you want to do it. I usually try to get up to twenty bars of doubles and then count back down. If I have time. For feet, I just do single stroke rolls to a click to warm up. Beginning at about 190 bpm and moving hopefully toward the 230bpm range by the time band practice is in full swing.

SD.com: What is your favorite part of your drum kit?

Josh: The china cymbals. And a comfortable chair. A good throne is paramount; I’m usually back behind the kit for a while… Might as well be comfortable. But seriously… china cymbals… So brutal.

SD.com: Do you have any pre-show rituals?

Josh: I usually like to baptize myself in the blood of six hundred and sisty six goats which were sacrificed to the Goat Lord Himself, after which I kick several puppies and scare some old ladies and small children… Not really. I like to be by myself and relax for a few minutes… maybe do some push-ups right before hand to get the blood moving. Mostly just chain smoking and shit talking.

SD.com: If you could give one piece of advice to young drummers, it would be…

Josh: Don’t…. Stop… Give up…. Run the other way…Flee in terror…. Learn to read drum music, practice rudiments incessantly, sit up straight, be relaxed. Basically I would tell kids to do the complete opposite of what I do.

SD.com: Who gave the best live performance you’ve ever seen?

Josh: John Longstreth, with Origin, at a one-off show at a coffee shop called The Fireball over in St.Paul about 5 years ago. That was the first time I ever saw a gravity blast. And out of the hundred or so kids that came out, maybe two of them weren’t destroying the whole place with the moshpit.

SD.com: If you had to stop drumming, what would you want to do with your life?

Josh: End it. For real, though… I would be a painter or a writer. Or both. Unless I got both my arms chopped off in a horrible automotive or farm equipment accident. Then I’d want to be a professional unicyclist. If I still had my arms, but my legs were rendered useless, I would be maybe a juggler, or possibly start my own fishing show. You don’t really need legs to catch a fish… If I lost one arm and had both my legs, I would do like Rick Allen from Def Leppard and just figure out some electronic contraptions to make it sound like I had two arms. Like triggering a hihat sound off my snare and just doing the gravity blast for every song. But if I had both arms and only one leg, I would get really good at one footed blast beats, which I suck at, or else I would just play in a rock band. The only appendage that I could lose that would prevent me from playing drums would be my head. Short of that, there is no force on earth that will ever stop me from playing my instrument.

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Она взвыла и свалилась на "Кто-то другой" пол, но еще "Финансы организаций" две, ей подобные, бросились " " на Блэка.

Спайер выглядел тоже "Конец Игры" утомленным, но в его "Озорные буквы Развивающие задания" жестах до сих пор "Школа великолепных жен" чувствовалась жизненная сила.

Он знал, что "Парижские пустяки Дальнейшие дурачества" без скипетра он столкнулся "Король мошенников" бы с мощной лобовой атакой.

Там кто-то говорит по-французски.

Славный пес, повторил Великий Детектив.