Photo Credit: Willem Klopper

SbOrg: A couple of questions about the early days: I'm going to assume that people who are reading this haven't seen your web site yet, so I want to cover some background first. I noticed on your site that you started drumming at a really early age. What got you interested in drumming so young?

Jimmy Keegan: I couldn't play guitar for beans. I have a huge family and there was all kinds of music playing in my house constantly. As a kid, when I was like five or six years old, I would do talent shows where I would pretend to be Elton John, and sing Elton John songs. I just enjoy performing and being in front of an audience. I initially loved guitar until my brother brought home "The Song Remains the Same" and I heard "Moby Dick." I was a drummer for that moment on.

When I was 9 years old, I went to a family friend's wedding. They had a live band and I was air drumming; imitating the drummer, on the side, the whole time. One of the band members saw me and asked me if I wanted to sit in with the band. I walked up and played two songs with them. Literally, on the gig, went "Oh, that's what makes that sound", on the bass drum; figured the snare drum out. I could only reach the right cymbal because I was so short. I just closed the high hat and played "Johnny Be Good". A few weeks after that my dad decided, "Let's go get a drum set."

SbOrg: It's really cool that you started playing really young, and then something happened and you landed a spot on the TV show Real Kids. Tell me how that happened.

Jimmy Keegan: It was literally that fast. My dad loves his kids. He should have been a manager. We should have been the Osmonds is what we should have been, that kind of thing. I have five brothers and two sisters. I have a sister that sings really great. We got the drum kit, and I started playing in the house. Drum kit was in October, and my birthday is November. I got a Crash Cymbal. That December my dad saw an ad in the newspaper for an open casting call out at this little facility in Hollywood. He said "Do you want to do this?" "Yeah, I want to do it. Sounds great." So it was just me and my dad, and about 500 other kids. And that was for Real Kids. About six people down in front of me was River and Rain Phoenix. And about five people behind me was a guy named Chris Dawson who was this ridiculous piano player. We met in line and immediately connected because we were musicians. We were the only musicians that came in this whole thing. There were lots of singers and dancers and novelty acts and everything.

From that show I went on to do a play, and until Les Mis hit the stage, it was the longest running stage play in Los Angeles. It was a little kids show called Let's put on a show. I was an actor as well as a musician in it.

SbOrg: And you also played for Merv Griffin.

Jimmy Keegan: The Merv Griffin show was Los Angeles based and he caught wind of Let's put on a show. He did two episodes where he had selected members come on the show and do that.

SbOrg: So you started playing and getting a lot of gigs when you were young. When was your first recording project?

Jimmy Keegan: [I was in a band named] Polo that did a couple of small recording projects.

SbOrg: Anything you pressed or released?

Jimmy Keegan: Sure, sure. Polo had a three song record and the fourth song was like an extended version of one. KROQ picked it up and played it a lot. KROQ's the local alternative rock station for those who don't know.

SbOrg: What's your favorite style of playing?

Jimmy Keegan: I don't really have one. I've done gigs where I've shown up with a kick, a snare, a hat and a riveted Swish cymbal and played nothing but blasticks. The music tended to be very simple, but because of the limited pallet, it was a lot of fun.

SbOrg: What are "blasticks?"

Jimmy Keegan: Like... hard brushes. Odd little plastic sticks. So I always love doing that. But at the same time when you get into the complexities of playing something like Spock's Beard or other bands of that nature. That's fun in a completely different way. Because now you're thinking on a grand scale. The creative process is constantly flowing.

SbOrg: Looking at all of the things on your web site that you've played on, I noticed there's a lot of Latin material. How did that happen?

Jimmy Keegan: I think anyone who's done sessions in L.A. has done a lot of Latin stuff. The Latin scene is the largest music scene in the world. Not only is Mexico directly south of us, but you have regional Mexican music. The Cumbia of the Northern part, the Tex-Mex stuff, the more Caribbean and Afro-Cuban influenced stuff on the gulf side. You have all different regional music, including the pop stuff, that's just straight ahead pop music with Spanish lyrics. So to play in L.A.; the studios are here. It's close for them, so the Latin market comes here to record. It's the kind of industry you get into not for the dollar you make on this gig, but because you're going to do a billion records. On my resume, there's kind of a gag as to why I put one Latin artist, aside from Carlos Santana, and I said "and a million other Latin things that I don't remember"; because I don't! Very often I would get called in to sessions and I'd be in the session for 12 hours and I'd do five different artists.

SbOrg: Do you have a favorite session or studio moment?

Jimmy Keegan: The Santana stuff was fun. A lot of the studio stuff I did that's memorable, very few people have heard it. I've done a lot of TV stuff that was a lot of fun, like soap operas. A lot of times it was band members that I've known for so long, the guitar player I've known since I was a kid, and the bass player I've known since I was kid.

Santana: Primavera from the CD Supernatural featuring Jimmy Keegan on Drums Download: Santana - Primavera (5.9 MB) Thanks to Jimmy Keegan for letting sbOrg present this!

SbOrg: I'm trying to narrow it down. When you think about your session work, was there ever a favorite moment that just happened?

Jimmy Keegan: There was a session I did the weekend after Jeff Pocoro died. There was an artist named Robert Vaughn. Jeff played three songs on the album and I played some songs on it. We tracked a song that was originally supposed to be Jeff; song really lent himself to his playing. In the studio were a lot of record execs. Bobby Columbi was in the studio. He handled Columbia records, which was their label. I knew we'd hit something. We hit a vibe and we kind of found a little moment. Robert came in. We'd literally just live-tracked the album, and he was standing in the studio, but because of where I was located he couldn't see me. And I walked in after tracking the song. He thought they were listening back to another track. This is a friend who'd known Jeff all his career, and he asked when they tracked it. And it's horrible to say that I imitated Jeff, but I did it in spirit, it was kind of more of a tribute because the song really should have been him. So I was trying to [pause ... thinking]

SbOrg: Channel him?

Photo Credit: Tommy Noack

Jimmy Keegan: Yeah. It's silly to say that I went after someone else's style, but the song just called for it and I felt it and for whatever reason weaved it. We were tracking to a pre-recorded vocal, accordion and bass, that's all we were tracking to. And Bobby swore that we were listening back to something Jeff had played. I'm like, "No, I just tracked the tune right now" and he was like "Hell no!" That guy never believed I was good. Every time he walked in the studio, I was working in he'd always go, "So cool man, what's your name?" ... "Jimmy Keegan"... "Have we met before?" ... "Yeah, I'm the drummer" ... "Oh yeah, right, right, right." And he'd sit there on the same session and start talking about a record that I played on. Going, "Man, I want to know who that cat was that record. That m*&^er f#$@er was good, man. He's got some great drum tracks" I'd be like "Bobby, it's me, man" He's like "Oh.... yeah.. Oh cool, man, right on." He'd almost look at me like "Riiiiight".

Jimmy Keegan: [ Here is an example of some session work I did.] The artist's name is Greg Lastrapes Greg Lastrapes 7 O'Clock A.M. featuring Jimmy Keegan on Drums Download: Greg Lanstrapes - 7 O'Clock A.M. (3.7 MB) Thanks to Jimmy Keegan for letting sbOrg present this!

SbOrg: Spock's Beard. Where'd you meet these guys?

Jimmy Keegan: I met Nick. Nick and I are both Orange County cover band drummers. He had started playing with a singer down in Orange County and literally a couple weeks before [Nick and the Singer] were about to do their first gig, he got the first Tears for Fears tour. So he left for that. Through a friend of a friend, I got referenced to that gig and started playing with that same guy, and I worked with him for several years, off and on, various things. When Nick would come back into town, whenever I needed to sub-out, Nick would be my sub. So for the longest time we knew each other over the phone. I had also heard of him because of Spock's Beard. They had just started doing that, and I knew his name from the Tears for Fears gig and I recognized him from magazines. I heard him play on a couple of quick record things, so I knew he was a serious player. And then over time we started actually meeting. "OK enough calling each other. I've got to come see you play, you've got to come see me play." So, we started making some conscious efforts to see each other.

During the recording of Feel Euphoria, he had started working with that guy again, and I had another cover band, and very often we would end up playing on the same street, because a lot of the clubs are all in the same area. The sets were geared in a way where his band would do a set at 8:30 and we would start at 9:00, so I could go over, literally running from one place to the other, and I'd go over and I'd sit in with that band and Nick would go out and sing. Then because our sets were staggered, I'd go back and start my set, and then they'd come over to us, and then Nick would go out and play drums and I'd go out and sing and we'd do all these Led Zeppelin songs all night. And we'd just do this all night long. After a while we started getting to know each other's playing and our talents and we became better friends. And at one point he mentioned that he was almost done with the record and I said "Oh, so, uh, are you going to be a ninny and be Phil Collins and go out and sing, or are you going to do the whole set from behind the drum kit?" And he laughed about that. I meant it as a joke. When they finished the album and started talking about a tour he called me up and asked me if I'd be interested. "Well, YEAH!" And I hadn't even heard Spock's Beard yet. I just knew it was something he was involved in. I had heard of them, I knew a lot about them, but I had yet to actually sit down and listen. So as soon as he called and asked I had to learn a little about these guys and started listening. So I found everything I could on Spock's Beard and "oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I can sink my teeth into this! This'll be great!"

SbOrg: Do you remember the first Beard tune you heard?

Jimmy Keegan: Well, I took some of the MP3's that were on the web site first, and then Nick sent me a copy of Feel Euphoria and a copy of Snow. So that was the first, aside from the little MP3 things.

SbOrg: So, now you've got to play Spock's Beard tunes. How do you approach them?

Jimmy Keegan: Well, it's kind of odd, because if you get a gig playing for a Joe-Blow-Artist, even if there are great drum tracks, there's still a lot more room to breathe and put your own little stamp on them and you don't have to really stick so much to that part. Spock's Beard is the opposite. So the first thing is like, OK I have to learn the songs from a musical sense. I have to know them inside and out. I also realized that a lot of the drum parts are orchestrated. This isn't just an inspirational moment where he did a cool drum fill, there's a lot of that as well, but there's a lot of things about the music that are really key orchestrated part of the song, so I had to learn them verbatim. And when you're dealing with "The Light" or "At the End of the Day" or "Harms Way" or all these songs that are half an hour long; it was quite daunting. Fortunately I grew up listening to Genesis and Yes. I was at least familiar with the idea.

It was easy because they were great parts. I love the material and I love what Nick played, so the hard part was actually going "I've got to learn this" because I'd listen to it and get stuck in it listening as a listener instead of as a musician. So that was pretty much that. And then once I'd learned a tune, I'd add my own little bits. Like, in this section I can be me, and Nick and I would talk about it as well. We'd say, this section has got to be that way. And it was pretty set in stone. I knew when I had to play it as recorded, whereas this section I can have fun with it.

SbOrg: What's your favorite Beard tune to play.

Photo Credit: Tommy Noack

Jimmy Keegan: [No hesitation] At The End of the Day. I think it kind of sums up the band. It's got great vocals. It's got a smooth arrangement. It goes in different directions and has different movements. For me it's the most concise arrangement from top to bottom. Sections flow really well, one to the other. You get into prog rock and very often in an effort to write movements and to keep that whole element that the song doesn't have to stay in this groove the whole time. My biggest criticism is very often that songs change for the sake of "Let's do this!" instead of "Should the song do that?" A lot of music is knowing what not to do ... what not to play. Prog music has the danger, in their efforts to be creative sometimes, it's like you really didn't need to be in seven in this section, you really could have been in four and it'd been a lot smoother. At The End of the Day to me is just a very great example of Spock's Beard.

Second to that, the new album. I think the new album [Octane] is the best album. If you want to talk about the whole prog music thing, Neal took them a lot of different directions, but Octane, from the beginning to the end, is a consistent strong album. All the compositions are good. The performances are great! God, Surfing Down the Avalanche, Nick plays some great stuff. The Ballet of the Impact, Al plays a guitar solo that as far as I'm concerned is one of the best guitar solos to hit tape. So for me, the band, everybody, they really did a good consistent recording.

SbOrg:So whose idea was it to do the live drum off?

Jimmy Keegan: Oh, that's a given. You can't have two drummers in a band and not do something. It just seems so silly to have such a great drummer and not play drums. But it's a given to have us do something. I'd like it to be more of a composition. I don't like soloing for the sake of "look at what I can do". That's what Genesis did too, though. It started as a 30 second break and eventually it became into a 10 minute composition.

SbOrg: King Crimson, when they did the Dual-Trio, they did the dual drum solo more compositionally.

Jimmy Keegan: Right, but that's because they had Bruford and Mastelotto who are both great musicians so they're going to approach it with the same idea.

SbOrg: When you're up there doing that drum thing, do you compete?

Jimmy Keegan: Hell yeah! (laughing). Compete in a very respectful, fun way. There are things that he can do that I can't do. There are things that I can do that he can't do, and not can't in the sense that we couldn't learn it. We could both learn the tricks, but I have my fortes and he has his. So a lot of time what it ends up being is that we have regular bits. We go through a dramatic chain and eventually it gets to the part where now I'm going to do my thing, then he'll follow it up and do his thing. That way it's like, everyone who is listening can go "oooh, ahhhh" and he's got his own little trademark bit that I can't repeat and vice versa. I'm not better than he is, he's not better than me, we're different drummers but we come from similar schools, so it's fun to get up there and kind of go "I can do that. I can do that. Try this. Try this! Check this out!" and do the complicated nonsense.

I don't like show off drum solos. From an artistic thing, the reason I don't like doing the drum duets like we do them. Don't get me wrong it's a blast doing this sort of thing and it's fun and it's showy.

SbOrg: That leads back to what you're saying that you'd rather do something more compositional during your drum break.