News Archive October 2010

Drummer Allan Schwartzberg Talks About Recording With KISS
From: Bravewords.com
by Mitch Lafon
Posted: October 28, 2010

BraveWords.com: The other major rock artist you worked with is KISS.

Schwartzberg: "Yes, that was through Bob Ezrin."

BraveWords.com: You've played on a lot of KISS tracks. You started off on Gene Simmons' first solo album.

Schwartzberg: "Yes, we went to The Manor in Oxford, England. We lived in the house and he was going out with CHER at the time. So, Cher and Chastity (as a little girl) were with us. We made the album using the entire Manor house. We had cables strung everywhere. We couldn't see each other, but we were all connected by phones. I thought it was a great creative record. The producer was Sean Delaney and he was a super creative guy. He invented the make-up for KISS."

BraveWords.com: He co-wrote a lot of their greatest songs...

Schwartzberg: "Yes, exactly. He was absolutely brilliant."

BraveWords.com: You also worked on drummer Peter Criss' solo album.

Schwartzberg: "Yes, with Peter Criss sitting on the floor next to the drums."

BraveWords.com: Yes, and that's never made sense to me. Why? Because Peter Criss is a drummer, but yet you're the drummer on his album. Please explain.

Schwartzberg: "For some reason, he was out of commission, but the reason I did the KISS stuff in the first place was because Bob Ezrin had a problem with Peter's playing as was the case with many other groups. I did a lot of ghost playing. I did Alice Cooper's Muscle Of Love without credit. Not on every track, but I played on four or five tracks. Jack Richardson and Bob Ezrin did co-production on that."

BraveWords.com: Did you simply do overdubs on that or did you actually play on the original tracks?

Schwartzberg: "They called me in and I did the drums over (without credit). There was a big tall blonde guy playing drums with them at the time and they weren't happy with his tracks. From what I've been told, he never knew and I guess he eventually found out, but he didn't know it wasn't him... That's kind of crazy."

BraveWords.com: That's one album I didn't even know about. I knew that time frame the band was having internal problems and eventually brought in other players, but up until that point I always assumed that The Alice Cooper Group albums were played by the Alice Cooper Group.

Schwartzberg: "Well, that's how they wanted it to be. I understand they didn't want to complicate things and I got paid. Though it would have been nice to get the credit. So, I did that and Bob Ezrin told me that with Peter (Criss) he would say 'Peter watch my hand,' and he would move it up and down. Then, he would say, 'Peter when my hand comes down that's when you hit'. He couldn't get him to do it and he couldn't get him to play with a click track... it was a problem in those days for drummers to play evenly. The shit would sound great and rocking onstage, but when you're making an album if it's not even it just doesn't make it. You can't have the time of the song be uneven. It just doesn't work. It's called 'sloppy' and your foot stops tapping and the listener stops listening. You can tap your foot to all the great records even those from the '50s and '60s."

BraveWords.com: Bob's relationship with KISS dates back to the mid-70s. Did you do any work for Bob on a KISS album before the Gene and Peter solo albums? Did you play on KISS' Destroyer album?

Schwartzberg: "I'm trying to remember. I did... hmmm. I'm fuzzing up on that one. I know I did KISS' Animalize. Did I do something on Destroyer? I don't know. I really don't know."

BraveWords.com: There are a lot of rumors out there as to which KISS albums you actually played on...

Schwartzberg: "I did The Elder."

BraveWords.com: Right, you did the track 'I' on The Elder. Bob wasn't happy with Eric Carr's drumming, so he brought you in.

Schwartzberg: "I did it that out an Ace's house in Connecticut, but it was more than one track."

BraveWords.com: What's been 'released' to the public is that you only played on 'I', but the story of the ghost musician is always much different than the 'official story'. A band will begrudgingly admit to have a ghost musician play on one track when, in reality, they know it's fifteen, right?

Schwartzberg: "Yes, yeah. It wasn't a lot, but it was more than one. It doesn't matter. The crazy part about that album was that Bob wanted me to double my drum part exactly. Play it over. He didn't want to use..."

BraveWords.com: ...studio tricks.

Schwartzberg: "He literally wanted me to double the part and that's like tracing over what you played in a moment in time. It's such a bitch to do. It was very hard. That Elder was supposed to be the start of another industry for KISS. They had the cartoons ready to go. They had the books. There was KISS World. It was going to be gigantic with this amazing marketing thing, but somehow it didn't happen. It just fizzled. It just died."

BraveWords.com: The album wasn't that good unfortunately.

Schwartzberg: "I guess not."

BraveWords.com: I've heard that you played drums on KISS' Animalize and Asylum albums? Any truth to that or did you simply provide overdubs?

Schwartzberg: "Asylum, I did and on Animalize I did overdubs."

BraveWords.com: How did KISS get in touch with you for those projects?

Schwartzberg: "I had already worked with Gene and I go back with the guys to the time when they were called WICKED LESTER."

BraveWords.com: So, you go back to the late '60s/early '70s with them.

Schwartzberg: "Yeah, I was working at Hendrix' studio (Electric Lady Land) and they were in the other studio working with Eddie Kramer. They were walking around in their boots and I was playing on a B.J. THOMAS record."

BraveWords.com: Did they show up to record in full make-up and outfits?

Schwartzberg: "Well, I do remember them showing up in boots. Might not have been the big blocky boots, but they were decked out."

BraveWords.com: Getting back to Animalize - this was 1984 and KISS were almost going for a heavy metal sound. They cranked up the amps and the drumming was a lot faster. How was it working on those overdubs? Do you know why Eric Carr wasn't handling the overdubs?

Schwartzberg: "I don't know the answer to that. I remember playing a lot of drums fills - fills that either weren't there or they didn't like and needed replacing."

BraveWords.com: When you listen back to an album like that can you pick out your parts?

Schwartzberg: "I actually can. It's a weird thing. It's kind of like penguins amongst a million other penguins; they can still find their babies. I do hear myself in there."

BraveWords.com: You ears perk up when you hear yourself...

Schwartzberg: "Yeah, exactly."

BraveWords.com: A lot of people don't know that you played on KISS' Asylum album, but you did. Simply overdubs or full tracks?

Schwartzberg: "To be honest, I don't remember. I really wish I could tell you. Gene would remember though."

BraveWords.com: Are there any other KISS albums that you remember playing on?

Schwartzberg: "No, I think that's it."

BraveWords.com: That's five albums. That's pretty impressive.

Schwartzberg: "It was fun. Gene's a good guy."