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Chris Frazier: Burnin’ With Steve Vai. From: Drums and Drumming Meet Chris Frazier, who just two weeks after moving to Los Angeles found himself in the above scenario. His bio reads like a movie script – complete with a modern day “home-town boy makes good” story line. Born in Bethesda, Maryland, Frazier spent much of his childhood travelling up and down the East Coast with his mother, a folk singer. The constant exposure to music provided Frazier with a healthy dose of inspiration. And a 4-piece, red-sparkle Kent drum set under the Xmas tree at age seven didn’t hurt either. Forget baseball cards and shooting marbles, drumming was now a full-time obsession for Chris Frazier. With Ginger Baker as his role-model, he set out to learn rock drumming. Frazier took a few lessons as a youngster. But because of his unorthodox technique, he had difficulty working with teachers. He explains, “I’m left-handed, but I set up and play my drums like a right-handed player does. As a kid, I just did it that way because I thought that’s how everyone was supposed to play. So whenever I went to a drum lesson, the teacher would usually make me play the opposite of the way I was used to. It was just too late by then. I had already developed my right hand and was starting to do some cool syncopations and ghost notes with my left hand on the snare. I didn’t want to change.” When Frazier turned 14, his mother decided to move the family to Cheyenne, Wyoming after growing tired of the East Coast. It was there that he worked his way through junior high and high school jazz bands, developing his reading skills along the way. After graduation, Chris moved to Denver, Colorado and landed a gig with a touring rock band. He recounts, “We were playing all kinds of cover tunes, like Rush and Bad Company, on the Midwest bar circuit. I made all the mistakes and did all the stupid things that people do when they go out on the road for the first time. Getting sick, losing sleep, you know the rest. It was a real learning experience,” he says, laughing. Growing impatient with the Midwestern music scene, he decided to make the move westward in 1982 at the tender age of 20. As most musicians discover upon landing in Los Angeles, the grass isn’t always greener… “When I first got to L.A.,” he says, “I managed to get a horrible job cleaning semi-trucks at this nasty truck yard. I mean, this was the most unglamorous side of Los Angeles that there could possibly be and I was doing the most menial, filthy job imaginable. It was a nightmare.” His luck turned when he picked up a copy of the “Recycler” tabloid. He recalls. “I spotted an ad that said, ‘Drummer, familiar with odd meters wanted for rock band – Call Marty.’ So I called him up, and drove to his house. The first thing he asked me to play was this speed riff that alternated between 5/16 and 7/16. My first instinct was to play a Bill Bruford kind of thing. But when I did it sounded spastic. So I just turned it around and laid this big Bonham rock groove under it. I subdivided everything into four and caught the skip every time it came around.” Unbeknownst to Frazier, the real audition was yet to come. “After jamming with Marty for a half hour or so, he left the room and a couple of minutes later, in walks Steve Vai! I couldn’t believe it – I mean, this was Steve Vai from Frank Zappa’s band! He plugs in and starts playing this phenomenal stuff, just blowing chops and in my mind I’m thinking, ‘My God, this is Steve Vai, an incredible, incredible musician.’ And the other side of my head is going, ‘Chris, you suck!’ After about 20 minutes of playing through all kinds of different changes, Steve turns to me and asks, ‘Well, do you want to do some recording?’ So we moved my drums into the other room where he had an eight-track and started recording that same day. We recorded the tune ‘Details At Ten’ which came out on the Flex-Able Leftovers EP (Urantia Records). (Note: the original article had this incorrect title, ‘Flexible Left-Overs’, printed.) By the time my tracks were down it was getting late, so Steve asked me to come back the following weekend. And that’s how our relationship started.” Years after their first encounter, Frazier is still pounding out the groove for Vai. He explains, “The recording sessions for the new record ‘Passion and Warfare’ (Relativity) were spread out over several years. Steve was always out touring with David Lee Roth and all that, so we just cut tracks whenever we could. Everything was done track-by-track with me playing to a click. Most of the time, Steve’s guitar parts were already recorded by the time I came in. Probably the most challenging tune for me was ‘The Audience Is Listening.’ It’s so fast, with so many wild double-bass things going on, that it took some real concentration to get it right.” Frazier performs on the majority of the ‘Passion and Warfare’ tracks, with the exception of two songs featuring Tris Imboden. Chris explains, “Steve called Tris in to play on a couple of the tunes during the time I was in the studio with my other band, Private Life. When I was auditioning for them about a year ago, an interesting thing happened. During the audition, I kept noticing the bass player – he looked real familiar to me.” Imagine Frazier’s surprise when he learned it was Eddie Van Halen sitting in on bass that day. Private Life’s album was co-produced by Eddie and Ted Templeman; their first time back together since Van Halen’s 1984 sessions. Private Life’s self titled album on Warner Bros. features Frazier in a straight ahead, powerful rock context; a definite change of pace from his frenzied tracks with Vai. With ‘Passion and Warfare’ hitting number 18 on the ‘Billboard’ Top 100 at press time, and an upcoming U.S. tour with Private Life, Chris Frazier’s hard work and determination is paying off. It makes one wonder how other young drummers might emulate his success. Chris offers, “I recommend that drummers experiment with another instrument at some point. I’ve been playing the Chapman Stick for several years and it’s given me insight. Practice hard, play as many styles as possible, and always believe that great things can happen.” |
