Phil Tolfree

Keep up with Phil here

www.flayeddisciple.com

I started playing the drums when a friend of mine at school started getting lessons and tapping on the tables and before long I decided to have a go! I did lessons for about a year and then had my exams and left school. Once I’d left school, there was no kit to play so I only got to jam every now and then until the age of 17 when a friend had a guitar and a drum kit and we wanted to play some metal so we hooked up and it just went on from there!

I was in a few bands that didn’t even get to gig but the experience of playing with other people for the first time was awesome. Then myself and a couple of like minded metalheads started ‘Obtaining Confusion’, a spazzy grind band. I had an awesome time playing with those guys, we gigged pretty hard for a couple of years but then split in 2005 and I joined a Bristol Deathcore band called Burning Skies and a Taunton Hardcore band called Anything That Moves. My playing improved a million times when I joined Skies as I had to work stupidly hard to play fast AND tight ready to record the Desolation album. I was practicing for 3 hours a day to a click for 3 months leading up to the recording. Burning Skies took me all over the place. We toured in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and all over Scandinavia. We then recorded 'Greed, Filth, Abuse, Corruption' and toured hard for the next year.

After a lot of tough decision making, I decided to leave Burning Skies to play with some guys from my hometown who were playing thrash and death metal which was exactly what I wanted to do. It was hard because I loved playing with Skies and I had been all over the world with them, but it was definitely the right choice. We named the band Flayed Disciple after a painting I found of Saint Bartholomew being skinned alive and recorded our first EP 'Drawn Viscera' which received awesome reviews all round. We gigged all over the Uk and got a good following on the go. We then started writing more intense, faster and more thrash sounding songs and recorded a self titled demo in advance of writing a debut full length album.

We recorded our debut album 'DEATH HAMMER' at Foel studio in Wales with producer Chris Fielding in February 2012 and released it in May. It has received amazing reviews and had us playing Bloodstock Open Air Festival in the same year on the Sophie Lancaster stage! We have recorded two music videos for the songs 'The Shrine Of Dahmer' and 'The Westboro Massacre', both of which were received excellently (the Dahmer video made a few people feel quite ill too! haha). Playing with Flayed Disciple has been the biggest learning experience of my drumming career so far, being faster, more technical and songs lasting up to eight minutes! We are now writing for our second album and already it's looking to be far more brutal and a lot faster than DEATH HAMMER! We are touring India later in 2012 with the last show being the India Metal Fest with Gojira. I'm looking forward to a crazy future with Flayed Disciple and hopefully delivering some more twisted thrashing death metal to our fans in 2013 with the next album! See you all along the way!

Phil Tolfree Interview:

SDM.com: When did you start playing drums?

Phil: I started playing when I was about 14 but I only had basic lessons and came out knowing 4/4 and not a lot else! I've been playing and learning seriously since I was about 18.

SDM.com: Do you play in a school band or any drum corps?

Phil: I was never in any corps or marching bands or anything but I did play Whiter Shade Of Pale once in my school band when I was 15…. It was terrible! I might have enjoyed it more if it was Reign in Blood or something.

SDM.com: Have you ever taken any lessons?

Phil: Just the lessons at school, I taught myself from age 18 by listening to all the great death metal drummers from bands that inspired/inspire me. I think it’s the best way to learn- listen and experiment.

SDM.com: Who are your top 5 influences?

Phil: I guess, if I had to shortlist them it would be all the drummers that started me off or changed my playing completely in some way so……. Vinnie Paul, Paul Mazurkiewics (first blast beat I ever heard!!), John Longstreth, Danny Herrera and Dave Lombardo.

SDM.com: Assuming that influences doesn't mean favourites, who are your favourites?

Phil: Easy….. 1. John Longstreth 2. Vinnie Paul 3.Thomas Lang 4. Marco Minneman and 5. Derek Roddy

SDM.com: Let us know 3 CD's that are in your current rotation

Phil: And Then You'll Beg by Cryptopsy (It's a vinyl but I don't mind cheating), Discordia by Misery index (Adam Jarvis is the fucking boy!) and Suspended Animation by Fantomas (check these guys out doing this live at the Montreal Jazz Festival on Youtube. Terry Bozzio on the drums…..crazy shit.).

SDM.com: Do you practice any specific rudiments or combo's regularly?

Phil: I never set myself specific routines to follow as I don’t like it to feel clinical when I practice. I generally start off slowly and get faster and more intense over the practice ending up with death metal and fast Jungle or fusion. I try to implement everything while I’m in a groove or beat, so if I wanted to practice doubles I'd keep a straight back beat going and then put all the different combos of doubles around the kit as fills or ride/hi hat grooves. I find this way more fun and it lets you put things like doubles and paradiddles and stuff into live playing rather than just practicing them as rudiments. This helps for interdependence a lot as well when you start doing doubles on your left foot and soloing over the top and stuff like that!

SDM.com: What is your favourite part of your drum kit?

Phil: My bass drum will hate me for saying this but it’s probably my 20" Istanbul ride cymbal. Its fookin' lovely.

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

Phil: Blast faster!! No, probably just never to think something is unplayable, JUST KEEP TRYING!!!!

SDM.com: Who gave the best live performance you've ever seen?

Phil: Max Kolesne from Krisiun at The Underworld in London a few years back. The stick height that guy gets when he blasts is just sick. Plus the drum solo was totally fucking ripping!

SDM.com: Aside from drumming, what else do you do with your life:

Phil: I listen to A LOT of music, my stereo is pretty much on 24/7 in the car and at home. I also love films especially comedy and horror with ‘Braindead’ by Peter Jackson being my favourite. I like going to watch Stand up comedy and Metal shows but generally I love hanging out with the people that matter to me and having a good laugh!

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