QUEENSRŸCHE Drummer Talks About His Upcoming Instructional Book

Dave Iozzia of Rock Is Life recently conducted an interview with QUEENSRŸCHE drummer Scott Rockenfield. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Rock Is Life: I prefer the down-and-dirty aspects of a band performing in a club to theatre or arena concerts with on-stage theatrics, which I feel take away from the musical performance. QUEENSRŸCHE has played with and without theatrics, and they've played in clubs, theatres, amphitheatres, arenas and stadiums throughout their illustrious history. What is your preferred format and venue for QUEENSRŸCHE to play?

Scott Rockenfield: From what we've found throughout QUEENSRŸCHE's history, all types of formats and the different-sized venues all have their own merit. Small clubs are cool because we end up in cities and venues that QUEENSRŸCHE has never played in before. The fans go crazy. The flip-side, playing in arenas and the big sheds like we played this summer with JUDAS PRIEST, also have their own merit. If I had to pick one type of venue, for what we're doing now with 'Mindcrime', the theatre is the best setting. As far as format, each has its own thing also. On this tour, QUEENSRŸCHE plays both. We are our own opening act, playing in our street clothes on smaller sets of equipment. We start off rocking out, playing all of the hits. Then we strip all of that away and reveal the 'Mindcrime' set-up, as we play on different equipment, surrounded by all the theatrics, the actors and film."

Rock Is Life: How do you, as a musician, deal with the on-stage distractions and demands of a full-production performance?

Scott Rockenfield: "To be honest, it's so machine-like for us that I don't even pay attention. I have to focus on playing and everything else that I'm doing. I run all of the film. Behind my drumset. I have all of the triggers and all the keyboards for the computers that control all of the sound effects. I have to cue and start every scene. I'm kind of buried in my own world and all of the acting takes place on its own. The production is almost like a football game. You can't watch everybody at the same time. But for it to work, everybody has to be in the right place at the right time. Everybody has to fine tune what they're doing, and not pay attention to everybody else. If they all do that, it works like a charm."

Rock Is Life: In my 30+ years attending concerts, I've seen some amazing looking guitars, but a lot of boring looking drumsets. Please tell us more about your company, and what it does for drumsets, with RockenWraps and RockenHedz.

Scott Rockenfield: "I always wanted to make a statement with a different-looking drumset. In 1982, when we started QUEENSRŸCHE, my cymbal stands were made out of welded chains. Because of my ego, I didn't want to look the same and get buried in the back. Those cymbal stands haunt me today, but in a good way. Somebody asks about them at every show. That was the beginning. In 1994, the late great Eric Carr from KISS complimented me on changing the look of my drumset on every tour. A few years ago, I was getting tired of my drumset's look and nothing good was being offered except expensive paint jobs. Rockenwraps was born in my office, utilizing plastic lamination and heat machines that make plastics you can print on. I started making decals for my kick drums and that evolved over the past three years into creating drum shell material to wrap the entire kit. It's cheap and we can make any design. It's completely removable, and it's held on by the hardware, making it interchangeable with no glue or tape residue. The company has been public for a year and a half, with global distribution. RockenWraps is a mom and pop operation, just me and my brother. And it's working like a charm. It's expanded to include RockenHedz, custom kick head drum heads at a much better price than other competitors. It's a cool product, both fun and affordable. We've done stuff for Rick Brothers, who drums for country artist Gretchen Wilson. We did something for JOURNEY's Deen Castronovo. We're in all the big music stores and we advertise in Modern Drummer. We're starting to make custom drums as well. As for me, other than my Paiste cymbals, I play on all my own gear. I make everything."

Rock Is Life: Your drum parts in QUEENSRŸCHE songs are complex and difficult, with many odd time signatures. What recommendations can you offer to drummers trying to learn those parts?

Scott Rockenfield: "The first thing is that I have a book coming out in January after receiving an offer from book publisher Carl Fischer. Joe Bergamini, a drummer you may know from New Jersey, is helping me put together a history of my drum playing in QUEENSRŸCHE. It's a huge transcribed book, covering my parts from back in the day until now. Hopefully, it will be the first in a series of books because one can't cover all the bases. There might be a book dedicated to 'Operation: Mindcrime' or another covering my solo projects. Reading the book will let people learn my drum parts and see on paper how I physically do certain things. Hopefully, the book with teach the drummer reading it something new, or they can spin in a different direction and learn something on their own from an idea I had. Either way, I hope they have fun and enjoy what they read and hear. I can't teach it, I don't read or write music. I'm self-taught and I never took lessons. I'm glad somebody else is spending all the hours transcribing."

Read the entire interview at Rock-Is-Life.com.