Craig Reynolds is the current drummer of British hardcore band Dead Swans and experimental/progressive metal band HAARP. His former band Viatrophy have announced an exclusive appearance at Ghostfest in June and I decided to drop in with him to hear the full story as well as to find out how music, drumming and touring has shaped his life.
So what does your general day consist of at the moment?
I get up around 10am, eat some breakfast, lately I'm into porridge with loads of different stuff in it... I like to surprise myself. Then I'll do some 'work' work, usually planning lessons, editing some drums, mixing, or learning some session stuff. Then I'll either practice or go to the gym, have lunch and finish off that work before teaching from the afternoon into the evening. Then I'll carry on the work if I didn’t finish it, and if I did I'll just play more drums. I like to keep busy. That sounds super boring... I like to party too.
So basically at the minute your life is pretty much drums and producing/mixing etc?
Pretty much. I'd say teaching more than producing- as the studios just started up, but I'm working on it.
So let’s start from the start. How did you first get into music?
I got into punk music when I was in year 8 so like 12 or 13, Dead Kennedys and NOFX and stuff like that. Then me and some mates started a band called The Suck Ups and sort of started gigging straight away. Then I got into thrash bands like Metallica and Sepultura and that's when I started to really fall in love with metal, although it wasn't until I got 'Lateralus' by Tool that I noticed how complex drumming could actually be. Before that I thought it was always just 'be the fastest'. Which most people still think…
When did you first feel that being a drummer was your calling?
In primary school we had an option to go over once a week to the high school and learn drums or guitar and I picked drums. No idea why really. I think I knew it was cooler even back then. Then it got to the time to pick a college time and I didn’t really like anything else so I went and properly 'studied' it.
So who would you say were your biggest influences growing up and who do you think are great modern day drummers?
Growing up there was definitely Lars Ulrich obviously from Metallica, Dave Grohl (particularly on Songs for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age), Danny Carey (Tool) and Tomas Haake (Meshuggah).
Nowadays my tastes have broadened; I'm a firm believer that Benny Greb is the best drummer in the world. As for metal guys, Derek Roddy sets the bar above everyone else, George Kollias (Nile), and slightly less metal but still in the realm, Steve Judd (Karnivool). That guy has INSANE groove.
Why do you think Viatrophy made such an impression on the UK metal scene?
Without sounding cliché, it was really down to hard work. When Chronicles was released we were a party band, we didn't really care how we sounded live and the emphasis was on having fun. It was great for a while but we writing anything new or really getting anywhere, so we stepped our game up and put our heads down. Once we'd written the album we all quit our jobs and said yes to every gig we got offered.
The band split up quite abruptly, why was the reason for this?
Gurneet wanted to pursue a different path at that moment in time, and as he and I did the bulk of the writing we saw it unfit to carry on.
So how are things with Viatrophy at the minute and is Ghostfest your only plans for the future?
We just played in India and it was the first time we'd all been in the same place for a year or so, so that was cool. It was my birthday and we partied. Ghostfest is the only thing we have booked at the moment.
Would you like things to pick up again or are you happy just to make this a one off?
I'm so busy with other stuff that sadly convenience means I can take it or leave it. I miss the music and I miss the shows, but I'm not gonna play the pub down the road for a tenner. If we had the support a band needs these days to succeed then I guess we'd do it again, but it's kind of hard to get that without being a fad band. People are very quick to slate you if you don't fit in. The internet is now full of people who hate more bands than they like, and it pisses me off. They actively talk about it with a passion. If you don't like a band, don't listen to it...its music, not fashion.
If I genuinely believed that if we came back all the kids that 'like' us on facebook would come to the shows, then I'd do it in a heartbeat. But from what I see these days about a quarter of them would come, a quarter of them would 'attend' on the internet and then not come, and half of them would slate us on the internet, saying we aren't as good as we used to be.
And this is in no way a dig at our fans, our real fans are the best and I fully believe they'd come, show their support, and party with us...it's just a dig at what the internet has done to music. Not even in a downloading sense, in fact it’s what the internet has done to people these days. Everyone now has a platform to say what they really think, and all they can use it for is slating bands or talking about the latest cool thing. I fucking hate it. In 2050 we're all just gonna be born, plugged into the internet, moan for 200 years, then die.
You also drum for Dead Swans and HAARP, what’s going on with those bands right now?
Dead Swans is writing so that's pretty quiet gig wise but HAARP is taking up a great deal of my time, we've finished preliminary writing for the album, have a deal and management ready, and we're just finalizing members. It's been so hard to find the right people for such a progressive project. We needed to find great players of course, but also people with the same vision who are easy to get along with and most of those people are already in bands!
Are HAARP’s intentions to become a gigging outfit or a purely musical output?
Oh definitely gigging. My number one passion is touring. It's literally the most fun a human being can possibly have. It's different from Viatrophy though, I'm sure the other guys in the band won't mind me saying but they're kinda naive to all this, which is refreshing. They haven't met the rubbish promoters, rubbish clothing labels, rubbish other bands doing better because they have 'the x factor', rubbish scene girls etc. In fact I'm pretty sure we've all seen the rubbish scene girls, Front magazine's got that one covered.
Every time I do an interview I end up sounding super cynical. I don't mean to be. I'm actually a very happy person and I do very much enjoy music, just not the completely irrelevant rubbish that goes with it.
Do you feel that music has been far too diluted with things such as clothing lines and tours sponsored by energy drinks?
No no no! Although I can see how that looks, it's not at all a reference to Drop Dead clothing or energy drink tours. They are at the top of the line in terms of music sponsorship really. Real companies like that actually support bands. Sponsors of tours will often supply backline, merch or even transport in return for some advertising. All of these things are the biggest holes in a bands pocket, and to have some of that taken care of really helps the band stay on the road. Drop Dead has done incredibly well, and fair play. They are also at a level where they can actually support bands.
My gripe is that now everyone thinks they can do it, and THAT'S the problem. 50 billion clothing labels with one shitty design on fruit of the loom shirts that look like they're drawn on in pen, followed by thousands of facebook updates 'like this a million times and you might win our one shitty design on fruit of the loom shirts that look like they're drawn on in pen'. Everyone's just trying to make a quick buck. It's not cool enough to wear the clothes anymore, it's only cool if you own the clothing line.
AND they have it as their 'employer' on facebook oh just fuck off and get a real job.
In fact while we're on the subject of Drop Dead, Olly and Bring Me The Horizon worked their arse off and in my opinion deserves everything they get. I don't particularly dig the music, but you can't deny they've made it and are riding it so fair play.
So, as you have said, one of your main passions is touring, what has been the best tour that you’ve been on?
Best tour was definitely the Dominatour we did with Annotations of an Autopsy and Trigger the Bloodshed. It was thirty days on a bus. Just full on partying. Because the bus had beds we could play the show, party til around 7am then sleep til load in at 5pm the next day. The downfall of that was when the last date was Ieperfest and we were on at 7am and my body clock was destroyed, so I tried to stay up all night to reverse it. It didn’t work.
As for worst experience, the 'final' Viatrophy tour we did we all got some insane resident evil style virus. Somebody started puking and then within an hour all 11 of the touring party were puking and the-opposite-of-puking simultaneously. It was so bad 2 of us had to go to hospital and we had to pull the tour!
Top 3 bands right now, best 3 films you’ve seen in the past few years and 3 things you are looking forward to?
Bands
1) Xerath - amazing progressive/symphonic metal band from the UK. Awesome guys, don't take themselves seriously but their music is stunning. Their new album is out pretty soon too. 2) Decapitated - Always a massive fan and recently getting excited about their new album, it was a tragedy that Vitek died, and no one could take his place but the new guy they have is incredible in his own way.
3) Radiohead - Been spinning the new album and pretty much their entire back catalogue gets a spin weekly.
1) Inception - it's a masterpiece and I think the soundtrack and its relation to the film is truly a piece of art.
2) Inglourious Basterds - Tarantino at his finest. It's funny, it's violent, it's completely mental AND it has quite possibly the tensest opening scene of any film, ever.
3) Drag Me To Hell - I loved this movie. I think loads of people didn't get it. It's not supposed to be believable or creepy. It's Sam Raimi, it's supposed to be over the top, jumpy and ridiculous. I love it, or just anything with over the top occult references and comedy gross-outs 80s style.
Events
1) Ghostfest 2011
2) The HAARP album's release
3) December 21st 2012
Many thanks to Craig for the interview.
You can check out his bands at the links below.
Viatrophy
Dead Swans
HAARP
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