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Brian Tichy
On Drums and Devil’s
by Kara Uhrlen |
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On Drums
As far as drums go, Brian Tichy says that he’s been playing
since he was a kid because
“They were the coolest sounding and looking thing you could have
around you.” With a little luck and early inspiration from bands
like KISS, Tichy says that after ‘local this and local that,’ he
started touring across the United States with guitar virtuoso
Vinnie Moore in the early nineties (including some gigs opening
up for RUSH). He later went on to perform with the likes of Ozzy
Osbourne, Zakk Wylde, Slash, and currently punk rock icon, Billy
Idol.
Though he has certainly made a name for himself as a hired gun,
Tichy is also a musician in his own rite. His band BALL is a
‘heavy, aggressive, guitar-driven thing.’ Before he began
writing with Billy Idol in 2003, he had been playing guitar and
singing in the band locally in Los Angeles, and even landed his
own record deal, but there were label and distribution problems.
“I hope I can get my band going in one way or another, sooner or
later, but it just came down to how much time you can put into
something that doesn’t have money behind it. It’s pretty much my
thing 100% and if I don’t have the time to do it, it gets hard
to be the guy trying to do the local thing…” said Tichy.
On Devil’s Playground
When they sat down to work on the album, Tichy says that he
wasn’t too nervous about writing an album for Billy Idol, having
performed with him as his drummer for several years. Trying not
to over think it too much, he says that he was patient and kept
in mind that he was writing for Billy Idol and not for himself
(and hoped that Billy wouldn’t write one song with him and move
on).
“I didn’t come in as Mr. Songwriter and try to mold something
for him, I came in like ‘let’s have fun’. We talk about music
for hours sometimes and ideas will just come out of that – like
stuff we both dig,” he explained.
Luckily, his patience paid off and he ended up co-writing
several tracks on Devil’s Playground (Sanctuary), the latest
release from the legendary Billy Idol.
Tichy thinks it’s a good well-rounded album, and that perhaps
Idol is even more talented today. But, he cautions that they are
fighting an up hill battle getting true press about the release,
since most would rather cover Billy’s age or secrets from his
past. Though they are optimistic that once Billy Idol gets over
the hump of this being his first come-back album that people
will remember what a force he is and there will be no stopping
him.
“As far as the record goes, it’s got elements that you would
expect from Billy but there’s also some modern elements to it.
It’s very guitar driven. If you listen back to Billy’s stuff,
Steve Stevens is always there, and he’s very prominent but there
were a lot of other elements going on. But, I think in this
record the guitars are more prominent than ever. There’s
definitely a few things that tip a hat to his Generation X day;
there’s a couple things that tip a hat to the Rebel Yell/White
Wedding days; and there’s a couple more modern things that you
wouldn’t maybe have heard on a Billy Idol record back in the
day,” explains Tichy.
For the latest tourdates and more information about Devil’s
Playground visit
http://www.billyidol.com For more information about
Brian Tichy visit
http://www.briantichy.com
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