Chris Gaylor Quotes

Well, really I started marching band because that was pretty much the only way I was gonna get lessons. I'd been wanting to play drums for years, and I went to this new school, and in sixth grade they had band as an elective. So I took it and tried out for drums, and started out on snare.

They were from Stillwater, OK, which is about 30-45 minutes north of my hometown of Edmond, where I still live. I wasn't playing in a band at the time, but my friend Mike was playing in a band called Euclid Crash. They were looking a new drummer, so he gave me a call and wanted me to play with them for a couple of shows. So we practiced a couple of times, and did some shows. And the second and last show that I did with them was with the All-American Rejects. I guess their drummer wasn't working out too well, and they liked my playing. They actually asked Mike to join the band first, because they were looking for another guitar player.

Nick (Wheeler, guitar/programming) and Ty (Tyson Ritter, vocals/bass) came up with the initial ideas. Ty would come up with basic melodies or root notes on his bass, or maybe piano, and then Nick would come up with a lot of chord structure and everything like that. And there were lots of demos floating around. And then we all got together in Atlanta for about two and half months, and just hashed all the songs out with the whole band playing.

For this band, nothing needs to be complicated. So I try keep it as simple as possible, but also interesting. If I'm gonna do a fill, I want it to fit well with the rest of the song. Most of the times the part will just come to me... like "Dirty Little Secret." When we were working on that song, I just sat there and listened, and I could hear a beat for it that worked right away.