by “Pistol” Pete Kaufmann

68 MODERN DRUMMER • JANUARY 2010 Reprinted with permission from Modern Drummer Publications, Inc. Copyright 2010

After a yearlong break, the multiplatinum rock group Incubusrecently released Monuments And Melodies, a greatest-hits dou-ble CD (replete with B-sides), and supported it with a summer

tour. But don’t think for a minute that drummer Jose Pasillas and bandhad been relaxing while being away from the road. Pasillas had ababy, guitarist Mike Einziger studied music at Harvard, singer BrandonBoyd focused on his art (he designed the cover for Monuments), andbassist Ben Kenney worked on his own musical project.

At a tour stop at Radio City Music Hall, Pasillas fueled the band’s firewith his creative playing, ferociously attacking the drums with confi-dence, originality, and fluidity. He owned the music like it was a partof him. It seems that when you’ve played with the same band sincehigh school, it’s hard to lose the connection or get too rusty, evenafter twelve months off.

While the group was in town, MD took advantage of the opportuni-ty to pick the brain of this young veteran of the road. In opposition tohis aggressive drumming style, in person Pasillas is humble and soft-spoken, and he gladly talked at length about the unique demands oflife on tour with Incubus.

MD: After touring on and off for almost sev-enteen years, Incubus recently took a year-long break. Why?Jose: The break was much needed. Wetoured for a year and a half before thatbreak, and we were ready for it. We hadplanned to do other things in our personallives: Mike went back to school, I had achild…. Everyone was pursuing differentthings. It was a good time for us to do that.MD: Did you take a break from the drumswhile you were off tour, or did you keepplaying?Jose: No, I played every day. I ended uptaking jazz drumming lessons for almost ayear. I’d been meaning to take lessons andlearn jazz for years; I finally had the oppor-tunity, so I did it.MD: Did you notice a difference in yourplaying after you took lessons?Jose: It made me a better, more roundedplayer. I didn’t play anything but jazz for along time. I went into it not knowing whatto expect, just hoping that it would help meas a musician. And when I came back torehearsals, I did feel a difference: Playingfelt more effortless, and I was more at easewith my instrument.MD: When I saw Incubus play the othernight, I noticed your drumset was set upsideways. What made you shift your kit tothe side?Jose: One of my favorite drummers, JonFishman from Phish, always sets up stageleft and sideways, and I thought it was a

cool perspective. I got that idea when I wasin high school, and I’ve pretty much donethat since the beginning. I want people tosee what I’m doing.MD: The song “Monuments And Melodies”off the new album sounds like you’re play-ing with brushes and a cymbal with rivetsin it.Jose: Yeah, that’s right.MD: Is that your jazz influence comingthrough? It’s not very often you hear a rockdrummer exploring that kind of sonic territory.It would be cool to see you play that live.Jose: We never mess with that song live; itdidn’t get that much attention. But thenagain, we’ve been playing stuff we haven’tplayed in years, so there’s always the possi-bility that we’ll play it sometime.MD: Bassist Ben Kenney has been in theband for a while now. He’s a much different

Pasillas plays DW drums, including 4x13 and 8x14 snares(Rockit shells); 5x8, 51/2x10, and 6x12 rack toms; 14x16 and14x18 floor toms; an 18x20 bass drum; and an 18x6 tube tom.He uses Sabian cymbals, including a 4" bell, an 8" AAXsplash, a 10" HH China Kang, a 10" AAX splash, a 12"Evolution splash, 13" Evolution hi-hats, an 18" Paragon China,a 20" Vault ride, a 21" HH Vintage ride, a 21" HH Raw Bell dryride, and a 22" prototype; DW hardware, including two lowsnare stands, two low tom stands, a three-leg 9500 series hi-hat stand, a 9000 series bass drum pedal, a low drum chair,and a cage with ten cymbal arms; Remo heads, including clearControlled Sound Black Dots on the tops of the toms, clearAmbassadors on the bottoms of the toms, a coated Powersonicor clear Powerstroke 3 on the bass drum, coated ControlledSound Black Dots on the tops of the snares, and Diplomats onthe bottoms of the snares.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

bass player from Dirk Lance. They’reboth incredible, but Ben comes in from amore polished, funkier perspective, hav-ing played with the Roots and all. Hasplaying with him changed or helpedyour drumming?Jose: It’s a natural progression for us.It’s been so much fun playing with him,and he’s made me a better musician. Ifeel it every night; he’s a well-rounded,accomplished player and plays everyinstrument very well.MD: You guys have been playing “PunchDrunk,” one of the B-sides from Monu-ments And Melodies. On that song your

playing is very loose, and the bandtends to stretch on it.Jose: It’s turned into a cool live jam. Allof us love playing that. And yeah, it’sreally loosey goosey. We just slow itdown or speed it up…it kind of undu-lates as it goes. It’s a cool song to play.MD: You and DJ Chris Kilmore have tolock in live with the sequences. You usea click live, right?Jose: I use a click during half the set.MD: Did you use a click on “Love Hurts”?That’s a heavy groove.Jose: Yeah. That’s a fun song to play. Alot of pocket in that one!

MD: “Pistola” is another great liveIncubus jam. You guys do a nice versionon the DVD Look Alive.Jose: We kind of keep the middle open.We could play that song for five minutesor for ten minutes.MD: Because playing drums for Incubusis physically demanding, do you warmup before you play?Jose: I’ve tried warming up, but itdoesn’t really do anything for me. It’smore about my psyche. All that practic-ing won’t help me; I’ll just feel awk-ward. I look at every song as a personalchallenge. I don’t really prepare for it, Ijust try to get in the right frame of mind.MD: Incubus tours a lot. It must be achallenge to be consistent night afternight. Have you had any bad nightswhen you just weren’t feeling it?Jose: We played the Hollywood Bowl,which was a big night for us, and…I didn’t play badly, but I wasn’t feelingwell. It was kind of a low point for me; I wanted to have a good time, but Istruggled through it. You try hard to getout of it, but sometimes you can’t. Thatnight I couldn’t—it happens.MD: On Late Night With Jimmy Fallonyou covered “Let’s Go Crazy” by Prince,with Incubus and the Roots playing atthe same time. What was that like? DidQuestlove and those dudes just jump in?Did you rehearse?Jose: We only went over it once ortwice. They’re such good musicians. Itcame out really cool; it was pretty rad.MD: I noticed you took the lead andQuestlove followed. It’s always great towatch two drummers work together inmusical ways.Jose: It was cool getting up there andrunning with it. He’s a great musician.MD: When I bumped into Ben Kenneythe other night he was saying thatsometimes you two play drum solostogether for live shows.Jose: Yeah, we’ve done that. We’repretty eye-to-eye. We’re not battlingeach other, we’re battling with eachother. [laughs] We have a good time.

Turn to page 73 for drumming highlights from Incubus’s Monuments And Melodies.

JOSE PASILLAS

JOSE PASILLAS

5 Drumming Highlights From Monuments And Melodies

Incubus took the opportunity to include rarities, live cuts, and a handful of new songs on the recent best-of release Monuments And Melodies. Leadoff track “Black Heart Inertia” utilizes some clever mixed meters that don’t sound angular and never detract from the

lyrics. Jose Pasillas sets up a tom-intensive backbeat in the intro that he returns to in later choruses, with changing textures.

On the bridge to “Black Heart Inertia,” Jose sneaks in a half-time groove in 7/4 and then doubles it up, creating a bit more urgency going into the next transition.

Here’s Pasillas’s blazing double-time breakbeat during the verse for “Pardon Me.”

The drums and bass lock up to create slight tension going into the last chorus in the backbeat-oriented ballad “Dig,” and Jose brings it all back together with a tasteful sextuplet fill.

Pasillas and Co. dig into a dense Mars Volta–style groove during the opening and choruses of “Megalomaniac.”

Transcribed by Stephen Bidwell