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Jeff Fowlkes
(September 2005 Issue)
Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise Detroit resident Jeff
Fowlkes couldn't be happier with his gig, Robert Bradley's Blackwater
Surprise.
He's been touring with some of the biggest names in rock with
RBBS (Dave Matthews Band, Allman Brothers,
H.O.R.D.E.), he has plenty
of calls to work with local artists, and probably most importantly,
he's got Kid Rock featured
on the new RBBS album on RCA Records, Time
To Discover.
"Kid Rock is an old buddy of ours," Fowlkes says of
his famous
acquaintance. "He recorded at Mike and Andrew Nehra's studio (bassist
and guitarist of RBBS), and Robert
did some singing on his record too."
As for tracking Time To Discover, Fowlkes says the pace was
easygoing,
especially since the album was produced by his own
bandmates. "I had four different drumkits all mixed up to choose
from,"
Fowlkes says. "I was like, 'Well, I like this snare for this lower
stuff and that bass drum for that other stuff.'
We'd just put on the
headphones and start messing around with drum sounds."
The result is a brilliant
collection of funky, modern
blues-rock fusion that has Fowlkes putting his own unique push-pull on
each track. In fact,
it's tough to tell that some of the songs were cut
almost in their entirety without Fowlkes. "Sometimes they'd track to
a
tambourine," he explains, "and I'd go back and lay the drums on after
everything was recorded."
But
it's apparent that Fowlkes would rather be on stage with
RBBS's big road show than in the studio. "There's
nothing like the
sound of your bass drum in a stadium full of 35,000 people. When you
can actually see the rhythm in the
crowd, it's pretty happening. I
wouldn't trade that for anything."
Waleed
Rashidi
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