Tico in Drummer Magazine

Drummer Magazine (a British mag) has a feature on Tico in this month's issue.

Bon Jovi has racked up 120 million record sales and still counting. Owen Hopkin dials up Tico Torres for an insight into his drumming journey.

Would love to see the article/pictures if anyone out there ends up with it!

In the meantime, my poking around re-discovered this websclusive interview Tico did for Modern Drummer magazine back when Bounce was released and the guys were gearing up for tour.  Click on the MD link to read the whole article, but here's an excerpt:

MD: The new record sounds heavier than Crush, and it seems to have more of a live feeling.

Tico: I think it's just the way our studio [the Sanctuary] is set up. There are quite a few overdubs. But I track with all the instruments, even though for the most part they'll be scratch tracks, except for the bass. So maybe that's where the live feel comes from. From there it's a layer cake. Everyone gets to use the "big" room, which is made for drums. It's fantastic.

MD: Were any of these songs left over from Crush?

Tico: No. We never use anything from the last records. We did about thirty new songs on demo.

MD: When you hear the songs for the first time, what state do you get them in?

Tico: Usually it will be Richie and Jon on acoustic guitars on a little tape player. There's usually no lyrics or melody on there yet.

MD: Is there a drum machine or beat idea on it?

Tico: No, nothing. It's a canvas, and I've got to start adding the colors. We do that through the demo process. From there it's a process of elimination for which ones will stay on the record. We do a batch of maybe ten songs at a time. Richie and Jon bring them in, and in a week or two we take them one at a time and get them to where they're as good as we can get them. Then they go back and write some more. We'll go through that process two or three times.

Now, out of that batch of thirty songs, the best ones always shine through. So then we'll record seventeen or eighteen of them. The work has mostly been done in pre-production, so from there we really just have to attack it and fix whatever we need to.

MD: Does the beat ever dominate the way the song is going to go?

Tico: Well, it's like anything: All the components need to work together. We try songs fast, slow, and kind of exhaust every idea. The word "no" never enters the coversation in the studio.

We'll just try a million things until the song is feeling the way it should be, which is good because it gives us all a full chance. I mean, there might be one or two songs where, rhythmically, it's undeniable what it's supposed to be.

Some other great stuff in there about some of the different kits he used, and how he gears up for touring.

~ Hath