KXM, the super-group consisting of drummer Ray Luzier (KoRn), guitarist George Lynch (Lynch Mob/Dokken) and King’s X front man dUg Pinnick are set to release their sophomore effort Scatterbrain via Rat Pak Records on March 17th. Engineered by Chris “The Wizard” Collier Scatterbrain features 13 new tracks of musical diversity with a prog, punk, metal mix. As Luzier put it when asked how to categorize the band he said it can only be labeled as KXM. RockRevolt’s Brett Tully had an opportunity to chat with the drummer about the recording process for Scatterbrain, how the band came to be and who would be the ideal touring mates for KXM.
With KXM it’s a unique pairing of artist with yourself, dUg Pinnick and George Lynch, how did you guys come together?
We’ve know each other through the years. We’ve had mutual respect for each other’s music. When I lived in Pittsburgh I waited in line to see Dokken when I was 15. I waited for concert tickets for almost 24 hours. My guitar player back then turned me on to them, I’ve been a George fan forever. King’s X I discovered in the 90’s and just become a huge fan of them. Through the years, I taught at a music school (Musicians Institute in Hollywood, CA), I got a call request from George Lynch to play an ESP clinic. That’s the first time we met. I put a band together, a rhythm section to play his clinic and he liked my playing. We stayed in touch. He had me play on a DVD and a couple of other clinic things. And dUg I would just wait in line after the show just to say hi to him and get to know him. He was a big David Lee Roth fan; I was in David Lee Roth at the time and we got to be friends just through that. Fast forward to my son’s first birthday party in Los Angeles, when I lived out there a few years back. I invited George and dUg, Billy Sheehan, Dean DeLeo brothers, you know all these cool rock star friends (laughing) thinking you invite 100 people 15 show up. It’s weird because all these big-name guys showed up which I didn’t think we’re going to show for my son’s first birthday party. At the end of the party, I had a studio in my house, it was just me, George and dUg sitting there talking, it was quite late, and George goes this would be a great line-up for a band. I’m like yeah like that will happen. You’re so busy, KoRn is insanely busy and King’s X is all over the place. Low and behold we kept looking at each other’s schedules and figured out a way to record, that’s how we made that first record in 2014. The success was so great from it, we didn’t do any shows or anything, I’m so busy with my band and when I am home I want to spend it with my kids. It’s hard because we can’t tour. We want to and will in the future it’s just finding that right time. So now Rat Pak Records was so cool and said let’s do another record and that’s what we did. We went in last February and did the same thing we did on the first one. One song a day and no one comes in with any ideas. Just come into the studio and we wrote right on the spot. Nobody came in with hey I’ve got this idea or this riff. We did 13 songs in twelve days for the new album Scatterbrain and I’m quite proud of it. The first video is out for “Scatterbrain” you can watch it on YouTube and I think we are releasing the second one today, “Breakout”(see video at interview conclusion below). I’m excited.
You jumped ahead of me a bit as I was going to ask about the recording process.
Yeah the first album was the same we went up into this place in Santa Clarita, CA that was in the middle of nowhere. It was awesome because there was nothing around but cows and horses.
Just like when you were a kid growing up in PA.
Absolutely like being back on the 118-acre farm. There’s a beauty about not opening the door and hearing sirens, cars going 90 mph and people. It was so casual on that first one. The whole rule was I couldn’t tell dUg what to do, dUg couldn’t tell George what to do. That was the basis of everything, just play, see what comes out. There were times it seemed like a good idea, like I said we always respected each other’s talent but sometimes you don’t know once you get in there is it going to work chemistry wise. It turned out that it worked better than we thought. What a weird blend, George comes from this, he’s one of the top shedders of all time. And dUg is such a unique musician the way he’s ambidextrous, he can sing completely different rhythms and melodies while playing on his bass which is the hardest thing to do. I use to sing with David Lee Roth and try to hold notes and bash my brains out at the same time. It’s a whole other level. To do it once is one thing, but to do it again and be proud of it and go wow I can’t wait to tour off this. Now we’ve got two records.
You hit the nail on the head, it is a unique pairing on musicians. For those not familiar with KXM but are with all your primary bands, this is obviously a very different style. How would you describe the musical style of KXM?
It’s weird, I told somebody just the other day that asked me the same question, you know what it sounds like, it sounds like all our years, all our experiences and the miles we have on us all just meshed into one. There’s some kind of a prog background, David Lee Roth always hires prog musicians. You open up with Hot For Teacher every day, you have to have chops. All the other bands I played in I was always lead into, not the technical side, the more interesting side of the musicality part, not so straight forward. George, everyone knows Dokken and Lynch Mob, he can write great rhythms but he’s also a very unique lead player. I don’t know some people say it’s straight ahead rock. With the “Breakout” song, just being released, it’s funny George made a comment and said “wow when we get together it sounds like KXM”, it doesn’t sound like a Lynch Mob riff or a King’s X and I’m playing way different groves then I’m playing with KoRn. I think it sounds like us.
Earlier you kind of answered my next question in regards to tour plans, there’s nothing solid yet but you do plan to tour at some point?
We definitely want to do it. It’s my fault mainly because KoRn is not one of those typical ok it’s touring season bands. We usually tour all year, every year. There’s no real breaks, we just got done with the U.K. tour December 20th, we went right up until Christmas. We just made a new video for our next single, we have a giant thing coming up in March with Direct TV. Then we have two warm-up shows at the House of Blues in Anaheim, then we hit Europe running for five weeks. Then we hit South America, then back to the states. We’ve got Japan and Australia, it’s non-stop. It’s good to be working this much, especially now that I’m not 22 anymore. But it’s really my fault. I love the band so much that I actually recommended them getting a drummer because they don’t tour as much as me. I said why don’t you guys, I can get you a smoking drummer to go out with and they were like no it won’t sound like us. I’m like yeah but I want the band to succeed more and they’re just like no it’s got to be you. It’s cool. The ultimate goal would be to do two or three weeks before the year us up and then film an ultra-high quality DVD to give the fans that can’t see it at least something to grasp onto and watch.
If you were to do a tour can you think of two bands that would fit the bill with KXM? Something that would make for a good tour package?
It’s funny Billy Sheehan and I were talking, we always do stuff together and he brought it up to me probably two years ago when we were in L.A., man the Winery Dogs and KXM. You know stuff like that could happen. And Joe Satriani is a big fan, I just discovered that a few months back. George was telling me that he loves the first record and how much he’d love to tour with us. So, who knows that could be a triple bill right there. Something like that would be cool.
When it comes to your different projects how do you go about selecting your equipment, drum kit and accessories? Do you change up your style of drumming?
It varies, it’s not vastly different but I do change my style. In KXM there’s no rules. The first KXM record I use very slow playing, more punchy sound. It’s cool when no one is telling you what to do. Although I love a lot of producers we’ve had in KoRn, Nick Raskulinecz on the new KoRn record was one of the best producers I’ve ever worked with. He really has great opinions about what I do, he would tame me on certain things and let me loose on others. With KXM you’re basically producing it yourself with Chris Collier the engineer. It’s kind of a strange thing as there’s no ropes on you at all, you just cut loose. It does affect your playing a little bit. I use different types of cymbals and different types of heads just to get a different tone. If you listen to the new KXM then the Serenity of Suffering from KoRn, there’s quite a big drum difference there. My set-up is still my set-up but there are different things to vary it slightly.
You have an impressive resume having worked with David Lee Roth, the DeLeo brothers from Stone Temple Pilots, are then any other artists out there that would be a dream collaboration for you? Is there anything else in the works?
I was asked to do the Classic Rock Awards in Tokyo and that was a pretty surreal week in my life because I got to play with Phil Collen from Def Leppard and of course the DeLeo brothers again, we played a Stone Temple Pilots song. Got to play with Joe Perry, we did “Sweet Emotions”. Johnny Depp came and we did a bunch of classic tunes. Dave Mustaine from Megadeth. All these people at one show, it was the weirdest thing ever. I had to learn 27 songs, most I knew because they are a part of me, I grew up with them. But the highlight was playing with Jeff Beck, we did three songs at the end of the night. I just always looked up to him, loved all his drummers and really appreciate his talent. To sit there and play in front of a sold-out arena with Jeff Beck was definitely a highlight in the last few years. People like that, that was a complete surprise to me that I would even meet the guy let alone be on stage with him. It’s crazy man. I recorded in Dave Grohl’s studio 606 last year, I did a song on Phil X’s solo record, he’s now the guitar player for Bon Jovi, he kind of took Richie Sambora’s place. I would love to play with him. He actually came into the KoRn sessions on the last record. I would love to get together with him just to see what would come out. I love Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails, I would love to just get in the studio with him and see what would happen. He does electronic mostly but he does a lot of acoustic drummers and always have them live. People like that.
Who’s the most underrated drummer out there today?
With my job, touring the planet with KoRn, I get to see some really amazing players. We’ll get into town early and want something to do we’ll go out and see some local bands. There’s some virtuoso amazing musicians out there that are working at coffee shops. It’s kind of sad in one way because I want them all to do great but I don’t have that kind of power. But as far as bands out there, Darren King from Mute Math he doesn’t get a lot of love. He’s very creative, he’s just not on the radar for drummers’ top guys. I think he’s insanely talented. I love Jay Weinberg but he’s getting a ton of press so he’s not under the radar anymore. He didn’t get much love in his past couple bands but he blew up with Slipknot. There’s a lot of guys out there, some are escaping me right now with the band names. There’s just the people we’ll see on the road where I’m just like who is that?
With all the projects you have going on how do you find time for anything else such as family or hobbies? And what other hobbies do you have that take the edge off from the road?
That’s the thing when I’m home I glue myself to my family. I feel so guilty being gone so much. It’s hard with families. Before when I was with Jake E. Lee, The Nixons and David Lee Roth I was single and I didn’t care. I didn’t want to go home. I could stay out for three or four months and that was great by me living out of hotels and seeing new places, discovering new things. Now it’s like be careful what you wish for. At a very young age I wanted to tour and keep making records my entire life I honestly didn’t think when I hit 40 that I’d still be doing this. Now that I’m 46 I feel really lucky to still be doing this and I work very hard at it. I thought I’d be teaching at some music school or it would have slowed way down. It’s a double edge sword because I love what I do and blessed to still be doing it but I have a 2 and a 6 year old that I miss a lot. I go on Skype a lot when I’m on the road. I don’t have many hobbies, when I’m home I have three kits in my studio I still record. I want to become better of an engineer in the studio because I have a passion for mixes and stuff like that. I’ve got pretty good ears for stuff like that. But I’m pretty boring outside of that.
You a football fan?
You know I use to be a big Steelers fan but I’m just not connected anymore. My buddies will talk about it but I just don’t have time to follow it. I watch more soccer than anything, when we are overseas, it’s weird.
Last question, what was the last song you listened to?
I was just blasting the new Nine Inch Nails EP, those five songs that Trent just put out. I just bought it, I bought it kids, buy records dammit. And like I mentioned that band Mute Math I was just playing their new one.
I appreciate your time Ray and I’ll see you at Rock on the Range with Korn, looking forward to it. Thanks!
Alright cheers brother, see you later.
KXM’s latest single “Breakout”
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