The drummer for Crowded House, he has been active in the music industry as a musician, songwriter, and producer for more than 20 years, having collaborated with artists such as Beck and Macy Gray, among others. He has appeared on shows ranging from “Saturday Night Live,” to “Jay Leno,” “Jimmy Fallon,” “Conan O’Brien,” and “Jimmy Kimmel” and has performed at festivals such as Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Glastonbury. Last year he opened Bone Yard Recordings, a studio in the hills northwest of downtown Nashville. Among other topics, he comments during this interview on the recent passing of David Bowie and Glenn Frey.
“I’d write with people and they’d realize that I may play drums on the record or I play on the demo and they’d go, ‘Hey, you wanna go on tour’ and then that opened up a whole ‘nother thing.”
“We would get budget money and we’d realize we’re paying, like, a ton of money to a studio and it’s like, ‘Hey, we should just have our own studio.’”
“You don’t have to be the best guitar player to write a great song, you don’t have to be, ya’ know, so, it’s just getting that confidence to just know that you can put it out there and stand by it and try to make it work the best you can at least so it moves you in some degree. You don’t have to be a shredder but if you can move people, then that’s the thing, in any facet of it.”
“You just kind of persevere and try to make it work and you just get better. I think the biggest thing, even in this industry, is just don’t be discouraged – just move forward.”
“A lot of my friends from L.A. are moving (to Nashville), which is very interesting. It’s like, seven years ago when I moved here, I was like saying goodbye to everybody in L.A. and then lo & behold they’re all here now. It’s quite interesting. It’s getting more diverse.”
“I’m just kind of getting back into, in an official capacity, writing and producing, because I’ve been in bands for a long time. Like, Beck I did for three-and-a-half years, Crowded House I’ve been in for a while. You get into those kind of things, it’s very myopic, whereas that you’re just in that world, you don’t do much else because you’re so busy doing that: touring, promo – with Crowded House since I’m a member of the band I do promo – ya’ know, you’re just, you’re in it and you’re just really dealing with your own little world right there.”
“Now more than ever, it’s a participation sport, because everybody can do it. So try! And you can put it out there and get response, you know, instantly. You can put your stuff on SoundCloud. You can put your stuff out there and see. I find now, is if you do it and put it out there people seek you out if they find something they like, to do other things. So, I mean, try, and don’t be discouraged.”
“Confidence is a thing. Being comfortable in your skin. That, I think, leads to being a good producer. And then… maybe your knowledge of music, so you can pull from elements, because nowadays there’s not really that much new, everybody’s pulling from somewhere. I think they 90’s, maybe the early 2000’s was that last time we heard anything really new, and now it’s done. Music is gonna be recycled now.”
“I read somewhere that they say people do an average of three hours a day on social media. Well if you think about that, over seven days that’s a day on social media… I had to pull back and say, ‘You know what, that’s fine, it’ll be there when I turn my computer on two days from now.’”
“Recorded music isn’t as valuable as the performance, as the time you’re there at that particular gig, so I feel like when an artist can make that gig special, that’s a once in a lifetime kinda thing. That’s what makes people your fans and that’s what can sustain you, as opposed to a record that you make.”
“I never liked playing drums in front of people. Ever. I was fine in the studio, but I was like, “I could never play a show, what if I mess up. What if this and that and the other. And now I love it. The adventure of it is amazing.”
"Easy Take Down" (Andy Davis)
"Dig Your Mind" (William Crighton)