"i'm as happy as hell right where i am"

drummer jason sutter talks to trashpit magazine, feb 2008

Anyone who's followed our various interviews over the past few years will know that TrashPit is a BIG fan of the 'hired gun'. Guys who get the chance to rock out with different bands but still have great character and bring a little of that personality to each project they take on. They tend to be the coolest people to speak to as well with loads of great stories.

TrashPit got the chance to speak to drummer Jason Sutter last September at Nottingham Rock City where he was playing drums for former Soundgarden / Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell.

Sutter in the past has a long list of bands he's played with including The Rembrandts, Smash Mouth and the awesome American Hi Fi.

How did the Chris Cornell gig come about?

It was the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me and one for the books. I was busy at the time playing with the band Smash Mouth and fully employed. I was at home for a month or so and got a call from an agent who I know in LA who puts bands together, a guy who'll call on ten or twenty drummers or guitarists, whoever's needed to go out and audition for people. So he calls he, knows I'm busy but would I come down? I was cool 'cause I always like to play and meet new people so went along. They were on like the third call back for bass players and guitarists and I had to learn like five songs - a Soundgarden, two Audioslave and two new songs, and go in and play with them. So I stayed up all night learning the tunes, went in the next day at eleven and played with the guys and it went really well. I guess I just played the songs the right way and no one else had quite done that. Chris came in all smiles and we ran through the tunes again and that night I got the call saying I'd got the gig. I kinda almost turned it down at first, saying I needed to think about it 'cause I had this steady gig paying good money. The guys in Smash Mouth were cool though. They don't gig as often but when they do it's big shows but I was looking at playing more and getting more exposure so they were understanding. We just talked it through, they have a temporary drummer and if I wanna go back they said it would be cool.

Did you know any of the other guys in the band prior to joining?

I'd met Pete the guitarist a few times and we'd played on similar gigs. He's kinda one of the young guns around LA and people know he's killer. I'd also met Yogi a few times and he's a guy who's always working. I knew I needed to start playing with people like this and get in that circle so it was kind of ironic when I walked in and they were the guys trying out for the band. Playing with them has turned out to be one of the easiest things I've done so I guess it was kinda meant to be.

Chris chooses the Set List each gig - do you have any input?

We don't really get any input and Chris has expressed unofficially that this is part of the fun of it because for the first time ever he doesn't really have to worry about anyone or any influence and can do whatever he wants each night so he'll come up with crazy set lists, stuff you wouldn't even think about but it almost always works! We spoke about it today and realised we've learnt upwards of almost fifty songs which has been great so we were joking about how fun it would be to play all the songs we haven't yet played! There's so many that we've only played once or twice but then we realised we're having such a good time anyway so let's just shut up and rock!

Do you have much freedom to put your own musical stamp on the songs?

Yeah, Chris set up this really fantastic environment early on where he made it clear that if there was ever a mistake on stage you could tell he got off on it. Particularly on the Soundgarden or solo stuff, if you miss one of those odd beats things can turn around real fast! It doesn't happen that much now but at the beginning if that happened it was kinda fun, things didn't fall apart, it just put things on edge a little which is kinda exciting at times. He made it clear that there's nothing wrong with mistakes, going out there and getting crazy 'cause live Soundgarden were always reckless so immediately that sets it up so you can be free to do what you wanna do. He's a smart guy, he hired us for our strengths.

How much of a fan were you of Soundgarden and Audioslave?

Soundgarden for sure. By the time Audioslave came along I was older and maybe a little more jaded so wasn't as much into listening to radio and buying records and when I did they were probably pre-1984 you know? But back in the Nineties I was very into Soundgarden and could totally relate to them so it's almost like fun homework to go back and play along to all these songs. I'd never really learnt any of them before so I had A LOT of homework to do. Learning 'Spoonman' for the audition was like 'Whooah', I was really having to get inside of this music.

Being on the road so much do you miss the recording aspect of things?

I prefer to be playing live generally but living in LA we're pretty spoilt 'cause there's fantastic studios everywhere so it's very easy to get a call, drive down the street and you're there at the session so I've had a lot of that happen. There's nothing more satisfying than hearing yourself captured on a record but playing live is the most sexiest part of playing the drums for me. I like to travel, especially to the more exotic places like we've been doing recently but even in the US it's great so I do it whilst I can. Maybe down the road I'll focus more on recording but right know I'd rather be doing this. I did manage to record some of the drums on the new Vertical Horizon record recently and Neil Peart from RUSH also played on a couple of the others which is kinda weird and cool.

You have a degree in Music Education - is there any other part of the business you enjoy other than performing?

Lots of friends of mine who've been playing a while have started to go into managing younger bands which I guess is a logical step but I like playing. I'm always fascinated by being a side guy and standing back I'm seeing how mis-managed some bands are these days. I've experienced a lot of these things so I know the pitfalls so I guess that interests me a little bit so I can help out my friends with the younger kids and it works out well because I guess we've lived it already. A lot of people who are managing bands these days just don't have that experience so at some point I guess I could do that - or sell hats!

How do you approach your drum solo each night? Does this change much?

That's a good question. It always kinda evolves but it's funny to talk about it 'cause I never really take them seriously, I'm not one of those drummers. All the times I've done one has been by mistake, like in American Hi Fi when the guitar amp blew up that spot became a drum solo and we did it every day after that. With Chris we'd just learnt 'Slaves & Bulldozers' so at an encore one night he asked if we wanted to play it and said after the breakdown let's do a drum solo. Now I think it's a very bizarre song to do a drum solo in but Chris kinda likes flying by the seat of his pants because it can be very exciting and creative. I try and keep some kind of musical theme in there, keep it going and return to it at least once but it's never, ever the same twice and I never really remember what I've played. It was weird having people come up me after shows saying how they'd heard about drum solos but never seen one! I guess it was something that was real cool in the Seventies, not quite as cool in the Eighties and in the Nineties definitely not cool! All of a sudden it's back around, despite how grotesque and perverse it still is!

You're incredibly diverse from working with Britney Spears and The Rembrandts through to American Hi-Fi and Chris Cornell. Do you have a specific genre of music you enjoy playing?

I do think the most fun is keeping things varied and going from one different band to another. I've kinda become known as a rock drummer 'cause I hit pretty hard and that's what I mainly get called in to play but at the end of the day it's fun to play all different stuff and that's the beauty of this gig because I get to wear lots of different hats from a whisper to a punk rock jam through almost funky styles too. With all of the music Chris has been involved in it allows me to showcase all these different styles, it's very satisfying.

How was it playing with The Rembrandts - I didn't think they were still together?

That was after American Hi Fi and before I joined Smash Mouth. The whole 'Friends' thing had ended so they figured why not get together and do some stuff. They put out a Greatest Hits compilation and started to play. I was only involved for like three months but it was really a blast. Super poppy but kinda funky too, real backbeat and super fun. I used real small drums which I've never done and it was so different to Hi Fi. But I will say for the record that those dudes are the biggest fuckin' rockstars I've ever played with! As far as partying, limos, chicks - it's amazing! They grew up in the Seventies and didn't really get known till the Nineties but they'd been playing all that time under different names. Back in the day they shared a rehearsal room with Quiet Riot and Phil used to give Randy Rhodes guitar lessons! Those dudes lived the pinnacle of late Seventies, early Eighties rock and roll so it was pretty interesting doing that.

What was your first tour in the UK?

My father has a flat in Middlesex so the first time I came over I was playing jazz on a boat. I got off in Venice and flew in to visit him on my 24th birthday. The first time I toured was with Juliana Hatfield and we came over and played The Word with Faith No More and The Gravediggers! It was 95, I was in grad school at the time and got a call to go audition for her so I went from playing timpani in orchestra to rocking out on TV!

How did you enjoy the Bowling For Soup Tour a few years ago, was you surprised at the reaction American Hi Fi got?

It was rough man! We shared the bus with Army of Freshmen who at the time we didn't know at all. It was pretty gnarly having two full bands and crew on there to keep the costs down - a lot of stinky dudes on a bus! We had a lot of fun though, the shows were great. I was amazed at how we went down, the crowds went ballistic and you would have thought we were headlining. Everybody was really surprised and I wish we'd have come right back, it doesn't get much better than that. Everyone's doing different projects right now but we've talked about coming back at some point.

Are there any session drummers or hired guns you admire and respect?

I love guys like Cozy Powell and Tommy Aldridge, killer rock drummers but they always kept their personality moving from gig to gig. Those dudes were older rock guys who had a career so to me that's exciting to be able to move to different gigs.

Is there any band you would love play with if you got the call?

I'm always amazed by the different things I get the chance to do but weirdly I've been having a recurring dream that I'm playing for Metallica which is bizarre - kind of a dream and nightmare at the same time! I'd obviously love to play in a band like Led Zeppelin but really man I don't wanna see anyone else play in that band so I wouldn't wanna see me in there! It's like Van Halen - as much as I'd love to play with them, if Alex Van Halen ain't there I wouldn't go! I do love The Mars Volta though, they are fucking amazing and they blew my mind. Physically I think it I could probably do it but it would stretch me to the end of my playing ability. If I got that call it would be amazing, but right now I'm happy as hell right where I am.

Jason is currently on tour with Chris Cornell.

Reprinted from TrashPit magazine.

Chris Cornell Fan Page © Clare O'Brien 2007