Ethan
Fowler
Written and Interviewed by Larry Crane
I
first met Ethan Fowler during a session at my recording studio,
Jackpot!, in Portland, Oregon. Ethan was playing drums for the
Harlots, and we were tracking songs for a single. When he mentioned
that he was leaving soon for some pro skateboard action I asked
him if he'd heard of Heckler, and of course he had and was into
the mag. So a few years went by and Ethan shows up at another
session, this time drumming for the Weaklings. By this time
John Botch had asked me to capture the elusive Fowler in an
interview, as he was notoriously shy of publicity. I managed
to track Ethan down a few weeks later on the phone. He now lives
in San Diego where he's trying to put a little more time into
skating, but don't worry, I know he's really a drummer at heart.
We mostly chatted about music, and how that intertwines with
the skate world for him, `cause I must admit that I'm the worst
skater on the West Coast...
How's it going?
It's going okay. Sitting here on the porch.
Alright. What have you been doing staying up so late?
Mostly skateboarding at night. Drink a lot in the day.
It's too hot.
Yeah, I got a Portland brewed tan in the freezer now.
That's understandable. What prompted the move to San Diego?
More skateboarding, instead of dicking around in a band, trying
to get gigs. Go for the gig I have.
That's funny. Is it easier, are there more contacts and
stuff going on down there?
Yeah, this is where all the bigwigs live. Closer to home.
Are you playing with any musicians down there?
I tried to get together with some guys yesterday, but like anywhere
in the world, they flaked out of their obligation. Yeah, the
plan's there, but I think I'm still going play with the Weaklings
and do tours, shows, shit like that.
It seemed to be pretty easy for you to just drop into the
groove. I was kinda surprised that you pulled into town and
then started recording an album, after not seeing them for a
month or two. That's pretty good. So hey, the first main question
I wanted to ask you was which came first man, wheels or the
drums?
Uh, skateboards actually.
How old were you when you first started skating?
Ten.
How old were you when you first started playing music?
I got my drum set when I was twelve.
So
not too far between?
Yeah. I'd go skating in the day, come back around five and disturb
the neighbors. Play along to Jane's Addiction as best I could.
Excellent. That's pretty funny. Where did you grow up?
The valley, San Fernando Valley.
So did you start playing in bands when you were in your teens?
Yeah, actually the first band was in San Francisco when I was
eighteen with a skateboard friend of mine and his roommate.
I think we played three shows and made a recording that never
went anywhere.
Was it sort of punky sounding or what was it like?
No it was, real like… we kinda wanted to be Steven Malkmus.
So we modeled all of the lyrics after that, tried our best to
get that kind of guitar sound. It was really indie rock.
Were you into the music or you just wanted to play?
Oh, I was into it. It was the first real style of music besides
jazz that I got into.
So you were listening to jazz when you were a kid?
Yeah, from fifteen to eighteen that's pretty much all I listened
to.
Wow, so you were listening to jazz and skateboarding?
Right.
At what point were you doing more pro oriented skateboarding
and stuff?
I turned pro when I was fifteen.
Jesus Christ. So you're like this fifteen year-old pro skateboarder,
listening to jazz who plays drums on the side.
Right, it was weird for the skateboarders too.
You weren't listening to Agent Orange and shit?
Uh, sometimes yeah.
That's good.
I wasn't like strictly jazz. Ninety-percent of my records were.
What are your favorites, if you had to pull a couple records?
Anything with Max Roach. That was the guy. I like, I just heard
him play the drums. Blown away.
That's funny.
But I think my all time favorite would be "Ascension"
by [John] Coltrane. I'd just sit there and get stoned and listen
to that, like make shapes.
Does it make more sense when you're stoned?
I think so. I had like this total revelation, and it was like
the whole record revolved around diamonds. It was weird, it
just went in this big diamond-shaped head and tie kind of thing.
It was cool.
That might make sense, that's not an easy record to listen
to.
No.
So
the thing that freaks me out, or that I think is the funniest
thing about you is that when I first worked with you with the
Harlots, and later with the Weaklings, is that your bandmates
don't seem to really know much about what you've got going on
skateboards, you know?
Right.
They kinda have an inkling, but Mark from the Weaklings
said he didn't even know you were a skateboarder or anything
until after playing with you for a year or so.
Right. I try and keep it that way.
How come man, what's the deal?
Well, it has nothing to do with music, so I figure you know
it's best left unsaid. Plus, people have the worst image of
skateboarders—‘they have the worst taste in music
and they're just total assholes.’ So I kinda keep that
under wraps.
You wouldn't want to come to town and have a poster that
says 'The Weaklings featuring pro-skateboarder blah blah blah.'
Right.
' Cause I've seen that with some of the other guys.
People have joked about that, you know, doing stuff like that.
Do you get kinda defensive?
Well, in a way. But everyone wants to play the Warp tour, poke
and prod and stuff.
So you've managed to avoid the Warp tour so far?
Yeah, I think I'll do my best to avoid it from now on.
To me it's completely uninteresting musically what's going
on there.
Oh yeah, it really sucks.
Yeah, I'd say. There's no Max Roach happening there man.
No.
That's pretty funny. But I just thought it was funny that
you're like playing down that angle, you know, on the music
side. Like, you don't want that whole scenario like Keanu Reeves
being in a band.
He's stupid. He loses integrity, like credit for that, you know?
Exactly, it's pretty funny.
Which kinda sucks 'cause I mean I've never even heard his band
but I know he's in a band, and it might be good for all I know.
I thought it was funny though that Mark didn't even know,
and then I think Casey or someone said they hadn't even seen
you on a skateboard until right when you were moving out of
town.
Right, I think Jennifer played this video for them. I would
never do that ever. As soon as they saw it they start freaking
out, "I didn't know you did that still!"
Yeah. When you're out of the music scene and you're dealing
with just being a skateboarder and doing that stuff, it seems
like your whole angle is pretty low-key and non-promoting, even
to your friends. How then do you turn around and deal with the
responsibilities of being pro and having endorsement deals,
and having to do all this other shit?
It's hard. I think that's why I moved to Portland because I
didn't want to be in the limelight. I wanted to sit around and
drink beer and play the drums.
Well, there's nothing wrong with that.
No. There's one thing I've learned about skateboarding, it's
called shameless self promotion. If you don't have it, the checks
start dwindling.
Are you trying to work on that a little more then at this
point?
Yeah, I've been going out a lot here, taking pictures and video.
Do you have a manager or an agent or someone that deals
with a lot of the people wanting to do stuff with you, or do
you do a lot of stuff yourself?
Well, I have a team manager at Foundation and he hooks us up
with photographers and magazines.
It's kinda of filtered before it hits you.
Yeah, although I probably should do more, but I just don't know
how.
Come on man, shameless self promotion.
I know, I'm trying, I'm working on it. Being humble--it sucks.
Ah, man. So back to drums man. When you were first starting
to play who were you getting into drummer-wise? Were there rock
drummers you were digging?
Well, it's embarrassing. I actually liked Bob Dollinger. (Van
Morrison)
Oh man. He's not a bad drummer. He has shitty sounding drums
on his records but-
Crappy drumming, with like the most robotic style, but I just
thought it was cool.
That's heavy man. You know when you're young that counts
for something.
Right, but mostly it was like Stephen Perkins and Mitch Mitchell.
(Jimi Hendrix)
Mitch Mitchell?
Yeah I like the rock drummers.
Did listening to people like Mitch kinda throw you over
to the jazz stuff?
Yeah.
He's definitely a jazz drummer playing rock, and Ginger
Baker too. I don't know if you're into Cream at all.
Oh yeah.
That's a similar scenario.
The only thing I didn't like about Ginger Baker was watching
him. I couldn't stand the way he played. The way it sounded
was great.
Yeah, he's a little showy, and he's a weird guy.
He's got that tender wrist, you know. I like it when they hit
it hard on the drop beat and jump. You ever watch the way he
jumps?
Yeah I've seen footage. He's a monster.
If I could hit like that guy that'd be awesome.
That's awesome.
You know all the classic drummers.
Keith Moon? (The Who)
Yeah.
That's awesome.
When I played with TV Eye for the first ten shows there'd be
at least one person that came up and said I reminded them of
Kieth Moon, I'd never heard anybody say that before. If was
anywhere near that good than that would be justified.
Yeah. I've seen very few drummers that make it up to that
rank. I mean he's his own thing.
Yeah, you can't say anybody else is like Kieth Moon.
No. You can pick a couple bits of his style and use it a
bit. The drummer for Oranger, out of San Francisco, kinda plays
like that a little bit, but it's still not the same. It's not
as loose. He's just a funky, flamboyant, weirdass guy.
You know what, watching him play and listening to him play are
like two different things. I never noticed how much the guy
was fucking moving. The records are so sterile. They didn't
have the microphone capacity to pick up everything that was
going on.
No. Their early stuff especially. They only put one or two
mics on the drums. You kinda miss half the kit sometimes. The
early footage in "Kids are Alright" or "Maximal
R&B" he's just all over, but it's weird. Don't you
think that's the funniest technique? Like he hardly ever uses
his hi-hat.
Yeah, that's my favorite part of the drum kit.
Most drummers kinda anchor a lot of stuff around that, and
you're watching this guy and you're like, "what the fuck?
he's not using the hi-hat." He's occasionally tapping it
with his right foot, and it's really strange.
Well if you're going to play with Pete Townsend, he doesn't
really ever settle down.
No. That's true.
He's always out there too.
Yeah, it's crazy. Did you take lessons for drumming when
you were young?
I took three lessons.
Three lessons?
Yeah, I couldn't stand it. It was just really boring.
So you played along with records and everything?
Yeah that was it. That was the bulk of my education. Oh, except
for Mel Brown.
You did some stuff with Mel?
Yeah. One time he sat me down and he goes "OK this is what
Billy Joe Jones showed me," and he showed me that. And
then he goes "OK now I don't want you to come back every
week. You just come back when you think you've got it and you're
ready to do more." That was like four years ago.
That was enough to keep you occupied for awhile.
Yeah, I'm still at it.
You realize once you get past being able to just do it,
the things you have to learn are just over experience.
Yeah, there's certain techniques that go beyond being just traditional
and actually practical and all that. Stuff that Mel showed me,
I knew but I didn't know how to utilize. You know, it's really
basic. Like I spent all this time separating all my moves and
having everything independent, and he goes, "Oh you got
to put that back together now." So he made me play everything
on the floor in like 2/4 and all this shit.
I can hear Mel saying that too. That's funny. As far as
skateboarding did you ever have anyone that was showing you
shit? I mean you don't go to school to learn how to skateboard,
but you usually have people who are older to show you how to
get going, right?
Yeah, there were a bunch of people that I just rolled around
with. We would look at magazines, watch videos, and try weird
shit. Kinda go off of each other.
Push each other a little bit to get better.
Sometimes it got a little too competitive, but it was better
for all of us.
You ever had any bad injuries from skateboarding?
I hurt my toe yesterday.
Did you just jam it or what?
I thought I broke it, but I couldn't walk, so I hopes it's not
broken. I haven't broke anything yet.
That's pretty good.
Yeah, I'm surprised.
What kind of drum kit are you playing these days?
Um, what is that thing? Somewhere in the forties, gold sparkled.
It's a Ludwig, but before they were Ludwig.
Oh interesting. Is that the kit that we used on the CD?
Yeah. A three piece kit. I traded a Premier set, like practically
brand new four piece kit, just for those two pieces--the bass
drum and the floor tom. I thought they were so cool. They were
covered in like this black muck.
Oh that's right. You told me about that.
Yeah, I had no idea what it was. I had to clean it all off.
That's gross. It was just muck, like sticky oily stuff?
It was like this sticky fuzzy goop. It looked like someone had
coated them with something, like on purpose.
You never know. You seem to have a pretty good understanding
of guitar and other instruments too. When did that come in?
Well I got my first electric guitar when I was 18, and mostly
it was just something to accompany me on the drums. So I started
recording stuff on a little four-track. Just making up songs
so I could play the drums along with them. And then I got way
into the guitar. It's almost taken over.
Uh oh. Do you ever want to play guitar in a band?
I think that's what I'm going to do.
Less stuff to carry around.
Yeah, exactly.
But you're a good drummer. Aren't you going to miss that
part?
I don't know. I'll do both.
I've tried. It's hard.
I saw Luther Russell doing that a while back. He
I saw Luther Russell doing that a while back. He was playing,
like kicking hi-hat, and then playing these blues licks.
See, now that's a good practical application.
There you go. Yeah, you can't really get to the snare much.
I think you could rig something.
A foot pedal?
Yeah. I learned a new blues songs The Leadbelly song. The one
about the girl and the pine. Well I picked up this Leadbelly
album and the first track--wow there it is, the original one.
It's hella cool what he does.
Yeah, that's what I've heard.
He plays this rickety old 12-string. It's the coolest thing.
There's something special going on there that's for sure.
You haven't gotten any drum-endorsement deals lately? I'm sure
you get skateboard endorsement crap all the time. So do you
get bummed out, you gotta go buy a bunch of sticks?
That sucks. That goes back to using the skateboard credit. I'm
sure if I worked it enough I'd be able to get something like
Sonor.
Oh fuck those drums. They have the wrong kind of keys on
them--you can't use your tuning key.
It would have to be somewhat pretty low-end like Peavey 700.
Mapex is settin you up man. Yeah, maybe Peavey drums. Maybe
you could get a set of those. Free Peavey sticks for life. We
can't print this I'll bet. They'll be all "You can't diss
on Peavey." Oh shit.
Everybody does!
Everyone does. Do you remember those Pavement shirts that
said "Powered by Pavement," and it had the Pavement
logo look like the Peavey logo with the triangle P? Did you
ever see those?
Oh shit, yeah.
Mark from Pavement told me that they made a bunch of those,
and they got a cease and desist order while on tour.
If anything you'd think it'd be free promotion.
Oh totally. It's not like they're directly making fun of them.
They're just like-
It's not like it says "Peavey sucks shit."
No, and of course the band didn't play any Peavey gear I don't
think. That's funny.
Really? I thought they played those 51-50s.
They might of had them. Somebody has to use them. I think Sonic
Youth used to use Pevy amps a long time ago.
Wow. I could see--it's just arty enough.
Exactly. It's just wrong enough. Shit. Well we probably got--you
think this is a good enough interview?
I
first met Ethan Fowler during a session at my recording studio,
Jackpot!, in Portland, Oregon. Ethan was playing drums for the
Harlots, and we were tracking songs for a single. When he mentioned
that he was leaving soon for some pro skateboard action I asked
him if he'd heard of Heckler, and of course he had and was into
the mag. So a few years went by and Ethan shows up at another
session, this time drumming for the Weaklings. By this time
John Botch had asked me to capture the elusive Fowler in an
interview, as he was notoriously shy of publicity. I managed
to track Ethan down a few weeks later on the phone. He now lives
in San Diego where he's trying to put a little more time into
skating, but don't worry, I know he's really a drummer at heart.
We mostly chatted about music, and how that intertwines with
the skate world for him, `cause I must admit that I'm the worst
skater on the West Coast...
So
not too far between?
So
the thing that freaks me out, or that I think is the funniest
thing about you is that when I first worked with you with the
Harlots, and later with the Weaklings, is that your bandmates
don't seem to really know much about what you've got going on
skateboards, you know?