TFN Talks with Tony Austin
TFN Talks caught up with Tony Austin, a prolific drummer, composer and producer to talk about the hustle and grind of being one of the most sought after artists in the game. Austin has played alongside artists like Carlos Santana, Erykah Badu, Gwen Stefani and Kamasi Washington. His work with Washington on the score to Michelle Obama’s Netflix documentary ‘Becoming’ has been nominated for Best Score for Visual Media at this year’s Grammy Awards.
Tony, where did you grow up, what was your upbringing like and what fueled your dreams of becoming a professional musician?
I’m born and raised in Los Angeles California. I grew up mostly in North Hollywood. When I was born, my dad was a professional drummer. As a toddler, I used to go to his gigs around town. By the age of 5, I knew I wanted to be a professional musician. My dad left my mom when I was around 6. My Mom had to raise my younger brother, sister and I all by herself. Even though it was rough and financially strapping for my Mom to raise 3 kids on her own, she always found cheap or free music programs around town for me to attend. She eventually found someone to teach me private drum lessons at age 7. At age 13 I attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. LACHSA was pretty much modeled after the movie Fame. It was a very magical experience to attend a school devoted to the Arts. Everyone there was like me, an Artist. My passions and dreams of becoming a professional musician really took off while I was there. I learned a lot about my creativity and really honed in my musical abilities tremendously.
You have performed with the likes of Gwen Stefani, Charles Lloyd, Billy Childs, Willow Smith, Jon Brion, Kamasi Washington, Miles Mosley, Daniel Bedingfield, Salvador Santana, Solomon Burke, John Avila (Oingo Boingo), and Meyer Hawthorne and the list goes on, what does it take to play game at you level? How much do you practice?
I think to be truly successful as a performer in music it takes only about 50% talent and skill. The other 50% is personality, business sense, exposure and maintaining excellent relationships with people in the field. When I was a kid I used to practice 6-8 hours a day. I took lessons weekly and had a lot of bands that I performed with. The combination of practicing and playing in bands at a young age definitely facilitated me with great technical ability as well as the ability to negotiate and get along with other creatives to make music. Most of the opportunities I’ve gotten throughout my career have been because of maintaining great relationships. You never know who can lead you to a great opportunity. Once I got a great opportunity, my talent and skill helped me keep it.
When did you start performing and recording with Kamasi Washington? How has your relationship with the band defined your musical career?
All of us in Kamasi’s band have known each other since we were kids. We all grew up together in Los Angeles California. I’m a few years older than the rest of the guys, so I started playing professionally first. I originally met Kamasi’s dad on a jazz gig when I was around 16 years old. He told me about his son and how we should connect. Months later I met and heard Kamasi. Kamasi must have been around 14 years old. He sounded horrible. LOL! But, I heard where he was going and I saw something special about his playing and knew that he would be great in a few years. A few years later Kamasi, the rest of the guys and I started playing in bands together. That’s when things really took off. We would record little demo projects in Kamasi’s garage, which we named “The Shack”. In 2014 I convinced Kamasi, and the rest of the guys, to pool all our money together and lock-out a professional studio for a month. I engineered all of the sessions. We recorded about 15 different records and about 170 songs total in that month. One of those records was Kamasi’s internationally acclaimed debut album, “The Epic”. Everyone in Kamasi’s band in a dynamo talent by themselves. Kamasi’s band is really like a Los Angeles All-Star band. Maintaining great relationships with the other band members has led to all kinds of other opportunities for me.
How do musicians end up with brand endorsements? You are sponsored by Tama, Zildjian, Vic Firth and Remo. Do the companies reach out to you or do you reach out to them?
Again, my endorsements are really about the great relationships I’ve maintained at these companies throughout my career. An endorsement isn’t just about getting free gear for me, Lord knows I have enough gear. I truly believe in the products of every company I endorse. I held out and waited until I had something to offer before I even though about endorsements. Some of the companies I approached and some approached me. But, getting endorsed was really about what I had to offer their brand and what they had to offer me. Once I started getting bigger gigs and touring the world on a consistent basis, I had more to offer these companies as far a brand exposure. Couple that with the music videos, TV shows and movies I was playing drums in, I have become very attractive to the companies that I endorse. In turn the companies I endorse made great effort to ensure their brand were being represented in my professional endeavors.
You worked with Kamasi Washington on the score to Michele Obama’s Netflix biopic Becoming which was nominated for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media at the upcoming, 2021 Grammy Awards. How does that make you feel, to be a part of something so big and getting that recognition for you skills and contribution to the process?
I’m not gonna lie, It feels great to have worked on a project that’s finally getting some acclaim and recognition from the Grammys. I also was the studio engineer on that project. I worked very closely with Kamasi to help him bring his musical ideas to fruition. That being said, this particular project was even more special to me regardless of the Grammys. I really look up to Michele Obama. She has always felt like an Aunt to me somehow. I think a lot of Americans can related to her as an Aunt or a Mother. She has such a large amount of caring inside of her that easily translates for most people. It was a true pleasure to be apart of the team that helped Michele Obama tell her story on screen.
Can you share an entertaining story from the road?
A road story? Wow, there’s so many that I wouldn’t dare share publicly. But here’s a good one.
We just finished our set with Kamasi Washington at the Hollywood Bowl. The Hollywood Bowl is one of the biggest and most prestigious and historic venues in Los Angeles. All of us in Kamasi’s band used to dream of playing there when we were kids. I’ve played there many times as a professional, but every time I play there my inner child is like “WOW!”. Anyways, We opened up for Florence And The Machine, so the venue was packed. We killed our set and were feeling great. Were hanging in the dressing room talking smack and unwinding. All of the sudden Kamasi and I get a text from someone that used to work for his management team. She told us that Quincy Jones was having a private party at a club up the street and had asked if anyone from Kamasi’s band wanted to come. I was like “Hell Yeah, Me please!”. Quincy Jones is one of my heroes. I look up to him tremendously and covet any opportunity to hang with him. So, a few of the guys and I get on “the list” and head out to the private club. When we get there, it’s kind of early. Quincy wasn’t there yet and it was pretty empty inside. Security at the door told us that we couldn’t use our cell phones for pictures or videos. I thought that was a bit odd, but I was like “Whatever, lemme in!”. I enter the club and immediately recognized a few musician friends on the stage setting up for a jam session. They approached me and said they didn’t have a drummer and asked if I could sit in. I was like “Hell No!”. I just finished playing in front of 10,000 people at the Hollywood, I’m good! I wanted to relax, unwind and get to drankin’. So I gracefully declined to sit in and headed for the bar. While at the bar, and after a few drinks, I learned that Quincy had been filming a birthday show for BET earlier and this was the after party for it. The place was still empty, but I was told that Quincy and the entourage would be arriving shortly. Soon after my third drink, the front door swings open and a ton of people start getting out of limos and entering the club. All the sudden, Tiffany Haddish walks in, Herbie Hancock walks in, Stevie Wonder Walks in, Usher walks in. The place was getting packed full with A list celebrities and musicians. Then Quincy makes his grand entrance. The party just got turned up to 100 and I’m at the bar pinching myself. But the vibe was not pretentious. Everyone was friendly, chilling and unwinding like me. So I decided mingle. I’m in the center of the room mingling and Dave Chapelle walks in. I’ve never met Dave before. He walks through the crowd, comes up to me first, shakes my hand and says “What’s up brutha”. I’m like “Ok… Ok… I guess I am now friends with Dave Chapelle”. He then goes to the stage were the other musicians are still trying to get a jam session started. A few minutes later he walks up to me again and says, in my ear, “I hear you’re one hell of a drummer, would you come sit in with me and the band for a few numbers?”. I know I had previously said no, and by now I’m a little tipsy, but guess what you do when Dave Chapelle asks you to sit in with him? You get your ass up there and sit in! So I get up there and get on drums. There’s two crappy drum sticks up there, one of which eventually broke in half. We start playing a blues and Dave starts doing some comedy over it. Then Herbie gets on stage and sits in. After Herbie sat in, a whole bunch of other A-list musicians got on stage to sit in. It was like a Hollywood A-list all-star band, and I’m right up there with them, rocking it with one and a half drum sticks. Then Usher gets on stage. Dave was doing some more comedy while Usher was talking to us in the band. Usher asks if we know any Michael Jackson. We’re like “Hell Yeah”. He then says “lets jam PYT!”. Dave then finishes his comedy bit and gives Usher the signal to start playing music. Usher looks around at all the musicians, then looks directly at me and says “Drummer… Give me a beat!”. And give him a mutha fuckin’ beat I did! We lit that stage on fire and brought the whole house down. Afterwards, when the party was dying out, Dave asked me if I wanted to do something like this with him again. Two month later Dave brought me out to South Africa to perform with him at his pop-up “Juke Joint Jam”. It was there that I had the most touching memorable experience on stage, in my entire life. But, that’s a story for another time.
What is it like to be on an international touring schedule? What are the best and worst parts of being on tour as a musician?
Touring on a year round international schedule can be very grueling and exhausting. Sometimes every day it’s a new airport, a new check in attendant that wants to up charge you for everything, a new security line, a new security agent taking shit out of your bag and telling you “you cant fly with this” when you just flew half around the world with it, a new 2 hours long passport control line, a new passport control agent that doesn’t want you in their country and a new flight attendant telling you that your bag wont fit in the overhead compartment when you just flew the same exact plane yesterday and it fit fine before. It can get very frustrating and monotonous. The hardest part about touring is getting there. Most of the time, I’ll be in some beautiful foreign country and all I’ll get to see is the backstage area of the venue, or whatever view I can sneak from the tour bus window. But, there are rare chances that I’ll have a day off somewhere and get to explore and hang with the locals. That’s when the real cultural exchange and discovery happens. That’s by far the best part about touring for a living.
What are some of the biggest challenges you have had to overcome in your personal life and career?
A lot of people, outside of the entertainment business, don’t really understand what it takes to be a successful professional musician. Most people see me on stage and assume that I’m just up there having fun and doing my passion. They don’t see all the work, sacrifice and perseverance it takes to finally get on stage. Sometimes dealing with that weight, all by myself, without validation can be rough and lonely. I’m human just like everyone else. I could have all kinds of stressful things going on at home. Heck, my mom could have died right before I go on stage. But, when I go on stage, I have to bury all of that personal stuff. People aren’t paying $60+ per ticket to see me up there crying about my personal life. They want to be entertained. When I get on stage I play my “entertaining character” and give the audience their monies worth. After, usually when the tour is done and I’m home for a couple days, I have to unpack all those bottled emotions and deal with them in a constructive and halfway functional way. It’s taken a lot to realize and acknowledge the process I have to go thru to keep my sanity. I understand why so many entertainers resort to heavy drug use.
How has the pandemic affected your career and ability to work and collaborate with other musicians and how do you tackle those challenges?
The pandemic has completely halted my touring career. I haven’t played in front of a live audience in a year. It really sucks. I miss playing live, but in the interim I’ve had to find other ways to stay musically creative. I have a small studio at my house, so I’ve been doing a lot of remote sessions where I’ll record drums here and send them to my clients. I’ve also been doing a lot of mixing here. I’ve had to adjust what I can do musically during the lockdown. It’s not ideal, I rather be on stage, I’d rather be in a studio playing live with other musicians, I’d rather be doing anything else than being stuck in my home alone every damn day for an entire year! But this has been just another hurdle, of many, to conquer. No one said being a professional musician was going to be easy, and “no one” has always been brutally absolutely fucking right! I’ve always rolled with the punches. Somewhere in this pandemic mess is a real life lesson, an opportunity to grow.
What have been your top three favorite records to work on with others?
I just finished producing and playing on a record for Miles Mosley that’s soon to be released. I put everything and the kitchen sink on that record. Miles wanted it to sound big and full of live instruments. We have a live rhythm section, 7 piece horn section, full string section, percussion, vintage synthesizers, B3 organ and heck we even have a lady playing bowed saw on a tune. It was definitely challenging to record that many real instruments. My engineering and producing abilities were thoroughly tested making this record.
I also had a great experience recording and playing on Kamasi’s “Heaven and Earth” record. Kamasi had a bigger budget for this record and we were able to really bring the quality of sound up a few notches. I also got to record a 50 piece orchestra and a 20 piece choir on a 96 channel SSL at Henson studios in the room “We Are The World” was recorded. And yes, the choir sang, “We Are the World” when I told them that historic fact.
Lastly, I had a really great time making a record this year with an artist named Osatogone (Andrew Edamame) . He locked out a studio in the middle of nowhere Northern California for 10 days. The studio was on a ranch with nothing around for miles. Everyone in the band got Covid tests before arriving and we created a quarantine bubble on the ranch. I’d never met or played music with Andrew before. His producer, whom I met and jammed once with a couple years ago, recommended me to him. We ended up having a blast stretching each other’s creative abilities and have become great friends since.
What do you love doing outside of practice and being on stage? How do you spend your downtime?
Well, besides walks on the beach and hiking, I enjoy practicing marksmanship. This might sound controversial, but practicing marksmanship is incredibly relaxing for me. Before going further, let me disclaim that I am not a gun nut. Firearm ownership in the United States is an incredibly complex debate that takes true nuance to understand. I do believe my country needs to sensibly reform its laws on firearms or get rid of them completely for everyone, including most police officers. That being said, I own a few riffles and pistols. I have been highly trained on how to operate and use firearms safely. I like to go to a local outdoor gun range every so often to keep my skills up. Hitting a target with a rifle 600 yards away is extremely challenging. Sometimes at the range there can be 20 or so other people shooting around you. You can hear, and sometimes feel, all those guns loudly going off around you. It can be sensory overload. But to hit the target that I’m aiming at, I have to tune out what’s happening around me. I have to focus on my breathing and my heart rate. I have to make my body motionless, except for the slightest movement of my trigger finger. It’s almost like meditation. After a day at the range, I always feel oddly relaxed.
What’’s next for Tony Austin musically?
What’s next for me is a Tony Austin record. I’ve been recording, playing and producing everyone else’s records, it’s high time I do the same for myself. However, it’s been a process to creatively search for what a Tony Austin record would sound like. I write songs all the time, but I don’t hear drums on most of the songs I write. Still, I want my first record to debut my drumming as well as my writing. I’m still searching for my own sound and voice and trying to find ways to bridge my drumming with my style of writing music. I can almost hear it in my head, so there has to be a horizon coming soon.
Header photo of Tony Austin by Visual Thought
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