Bobby Jarzombek. His name is synonomous with powerful drumming. It was by listening to Riot that I first heard his playing and was totally blown away. Yet my attention was really put on alarm when he joined Rob Halford’s band and recorded and toured with them. From there, he joined Iced Earth filling in quickly for the departed member Richard Christy and is now working on PainMuseum, a release from Demons and Wizards as well as a new Halford CD. When you add to this his drumming DVD you will not believe that he actually had time to answer these interview questions. Yet, he proves how ambidexterous he can be for his supporters. Enjoy these words from his mind directly.
PiercingMetal – Hey Bobby, thanks for taking the time to do this, as I know you are a very busy guy these days. For starters let me congratulate you on the position in Iced Earth as well as the new release you have with “Metal” Mike Chlasiak, and Painmuseum entitled “Metal For Life”. Let’s get started.
Bobby Jarzombek – Cool, let’s do it.
Iced Earth Stuff:
PiercingMetal – I have to say how impressed I was with how quickly you jumped into the Iced Earth drum throne. Please tell us about how you handled the learning of the tunes and the quick need to perform in a live setting.
Bobby Jarzombek – After Richard recommended me for the gig, I had a couple conversations with Jon (Schaffer) about the songs, click tracks, etc.. They sent me 2 sets/versions of CDs. The first set of CDs were the songs as they appeared on the IE CDs. The 2nd set of CDs were rough mixes of what we’re listening to in our in-ear monitors while we’re playing the songs on stage, including the click track, orchestration, cannons, marching percussion, etc.. Pretty much what the audience hears also – except for the click track. These CDs were very important because after I learned the songs I needed to practice with the click track CDs to listen for the cues, count offs, etc.. After talking with the rest of the guys, I found it surprising that everyone had the click pretty loud in their ears, including Tim. He loved it. During certain sections (of the songs) without drums, he found it much easier to sing in perfect time with the click going.
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