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Josh Freese (born December 25, 1972[1]) is an American session drummer and songwriter. He is a member of A Perfect Circle, The Vandals, Devo and has been the drummer in Nine Inch Nails since late 2005. Freese has appeared on close to 300 records.
Background
Josh Freese was born in Orlando, Florida and moved to Southern California when he was 6 months old. His father conducted the Disneyland Band and his mother was a classical pianist. Freese began playing the drums when he was 8 years old.[2] He started playing professionally at the age of 12 (in a Top 40 band at Disneyland). There he played electronic drums which led to an endorsement deal with the Simmons electronic drum company. There is an old Simmons commercial (which ran on MTV in 1985), featuring Freese on the additional content section of The Vandals' Live at the House of Blues DVD.
At the age of 15, Freese left high school and started touring and making records, first with Dweezil Zappa and then with The Vandals. Freese has worked with many respected artists in the last 15 years, as a first call session drummer and sometimes as a temporary replacement. Josh has a younger brother Jason Freese who plays keyboards in Green Day, has also recorded and toured with Dr.Dre, Jewel, Lenny Kravitz, Liz Phair, Foxboro Hot Tubs, Joe Walsh, and Weezer. Josh currently lives in Southern California with his girlfriend and their two sons. They are expecting their third child, a daughter, in January, 2009.
Solo
In 1998, Freese went solo by recording a number of songs that he wrote and performed himself (including bass, guitar, keyboards and vocals). The result is the lo-fi, 6-song EP Destroy The Earth As Soon As Possible, released under the name 'Princess' by T.O.N/Stone Lizard Records.
In 2000, the songs "Caffeine and Vaseline" and "Rock N' Roll Chicken" were revived for the 12-song album The Notorious One Man Orgy, this time released under Freese's own name by Kung Fu Records. With guest appearances by the likes of Stone Gossard, Warren Fitzgerald, Michael Ward, Lyle Workman, and his brother Jason, the N.O.M.O. offers a hard driving pop-punk musical insight into what it is like to be Josh Freese on a daily basis.
Work history
Freese started his drumming career in a Top-40 cover band at the Tomorrowland Terrace Stage at Disneyland from 1985-1988. Freese has since been a member of punk rock band The Vandals since 1989, and has played on all the band's albums since then, with the exception of 2000's Look What I Almost Stepped In..., on which current Bad Religion drummer Brooks Wackerman deputised due to Freese's commitments with A Perfect Circle. In 2004, The Vandals released a live DVD as part of Kung Fu Records' The Show Must Go Off! series. The DVD is of particular interest to Josh Freese fans thanks to the inclusion of the Josh Freese-cam, a camera focused on Freese for the entire duration of the show, also including a picture-in-picture of Freese's kick drum pedal. The band starting work on a new album for a release in 2007.
Freese was a member of Guns N' Roses from 1997 to 2000, replacing Matt Sorum and signing a 2-year contract. He recorded the song "Oh My God" for the End of Days soundtrack and pieces for the Chinese Democracy album, supposedly having co-written the music to the title track. He left the band in 2000 to launch A Perfect Circle with Maynard James Keenan and Billy Howerdel.
He has drummed for A Perfect Circle since their first album, and is considered one of the core members. As of 2006, the band is "on hiatus". Since then, founder Billy Howerdel has started up a new band (ASHES dIVIDE) with drums contributed by Freese.
Freese drummed for the recording of MOTH's 2002 album "Provisions, Fiction and Gear".
Freese took over from drummer Ron Welty for the recording of the The Offspring's 2003 album "Splinter" after Welty's departure from the band. Freese is credited for playing drums on the album, but Atom Willard later took on the position as the band's fulltime drummer. In August 2007, Atom left the band. He would eventually be replaced by Pete Parada. In the meantime, Freese was called upon to record the new Offspring album, "Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace".
Freese participated in Sting's "Broken Music Tour" in April 2005 with guitarist Dominic Miller and guitarist Shane Fontayne. The tour kicked off April 1 in San Jose, California and ended on May 14th in New York. Josh also appeared with Sting during the record breaking 'Live 8' concert in London's Hyde Park on July 2, 2005. In fall of 2005 he recorded new material with Sting in Italy at the singer's Tuscany estate but plans for release have yet to be set.
Josh Freese has recently contributed drum tracks for Lostprophets' third album, Liberation Transmission, recording all his parts in two days. Travis Barker was originally earmaked as the session drummer of choice for the album, but producer (Bob Rock), who had worked with Freese before, wanted him instead.
Freese provided the drums on two new Replacements tracks, that appear on their greatest-hits package, "Don't You Know Who I Think I Was".
Freese toured with Nine Inch Nails on their 2005-2006 With Teeth tour after the illness of drummer Jerome Dillon. Freese contributed live drum tracks to the songs "HYPERPOWER!" and "Capital G" on the Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero, which was released in 2007. Freese continued touring with Nine Inch Nails throughout 2007 in support of Year Zero, mainly outside of the U.S. In 2008 he worked with Reznor in the studio on The Slip and signed on for more extensive touring with the band through 2008.
Freese also completed drum tracks for the band Black Light Burns, which consists of Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit, Big Dumb Face, From First to Last), Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails) and Josh Eustis (Telefon Tel Aviv).
Josh also played on "Rebel Hiss" which is the first single from Jubilee headed by ex-bandmate (and ex lead guitarist for Nine Inch Nails) Aaron North on guitar and vocals. Freese was credited for "phantom percussion" on the 1995 album Blackgrass by Dwarves front-man Blag Dahlia's pseudonym Earl Lee Grace.
He has been the drummer in Devo since 1995, with the notable exception of their 2003 shows in Japan.
He is currently on tour with Nine Inch Nails on their North American portion of their 2008-2009 "Lights In The Sky Tour". It has been confirmed on Nine Inch Nails official website that Freese will be leaving the band at the end of the year and will be replaced by Ilan Rubin[1].
Equipment
- Drum Workshop drums, Pedals, and Hardware
- Paiste cymbals
- Remo drumheads
- Vater H220 drumsticks
- Drum Workshop Drums
- 18" x 22" DW Bass Drum
- 6" x 14" Paiste Spirit of 2002 Snare
- 5" x 14" DW Aluminum Shell Snare
- 8" x 10" DW Tom
- 10" x 13" DW Tom
- 14" x 16" DW Tom
- 16" x 18" DW Floor Tom
Live
From a 2007 Guitar Center interview [2]:
GC: What are the differences, if any, between your live setup and your studio setup-
Josh Freese: It depends on the studio situation or the live situation but my set up never gets that crazy or out of the ordinary I don't think. You can pretty much always count on starting off with the basic Ringo 4 piece set up and add from there. With the Vandals that's all I use. With Devo add a second rack tom. With NIN keep only 1 rack but have 2 floors and a 3rd floor off to the left of my hi-hat (with NIN the drums are all about 2 inches bigger than I normally would use.....14 rack. 24 kick, 18 and 20 inch floors.....16 off the side of my hihat. With A Perfect Circle 2 racks and 2 floors, 2nd snare off the left of my hihat....more cymbals with APC too. With Sting there are 3 racks but smaller sizes and only 1 floor. Never too many cymbals (except with APC I guess). In the studio my drums are usually something really basic a 4, 5, or 6 piece kit with lots of snare and cymbal choices.
Discography
References
Hollywood Undead (band) Session Drummer on tracks 1, 6, and 11
External links
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