Quick Devo update

posted by josh on 07.03.10

I've been getting a lot of emails via twitter/facebook/my website from folks asking if I'll be in their town with DEVO in July and I'm sorry to say that I won't. We played one of the best shows we've done in a while on July 1st here in Los Angeles at Hollywood Park but I unfortunately will not be performing with DEVO until August 1st in Montreal. The reason for this is I had prior obligations with Weezer and I wasn't going to ditch out on them after confirming these shows a while back.

The DEVO situation is as such....I've worked with them for 15 years and love playing with them and being a part of what they do....and I will continue to. It means a lot to me. The tricky part is some years DEVO is very inactive and others they play out a bit more. In order to say busy and make a consistent living I've always been involved with other bands that I've toured with and been a part of (NIN, A Perfect Circle, The Vandals) WHILE still remaining DEVO's drummer and juggling it all as things get hectic. Most of the time it works out. I might work myself half to death but I usually somehow manage to pull it off. Once in a while though it doesn't quite work out and there are things I have to miss out on. If I'm in the middle of a 3 month tour with NIN and Devo gets an offer to play a show somewhere I can't bail on the 3 month tour I'm committed to in order to do the one gig. In my 15 years with DEVO I've only missed a handful of shows and I hate having to miss any of them at all. I'll be back with them starting August 1st and playing that whole week up through Lollapalooza in Chicago on August 6th. Things are still be worked out in the fall as far as gigs go (for both DEVO and Weezer) and I'll do my best to make it all work and keep you informed.

I know I hardly update anything on this website but doing this made me realize I need to do it a bit more frequently. There have been a lot of cool sessions (and some uncool ones too) that I've been involved in this year and I'd like to fill you in with a little more detail on some of that stuff and about the DEVO, Weezer, Vandals and Sting gigs that have been happening so far this year...and of course the stuff that is coming up soon. Thanks for checking in.

2010 update

posted by josh on 02.15.10

I don't really want to do this but here it goes. OK, I'll rephrase that...I actually DO want to do this but it's like pulling teeth to get me to sit down at the computer and type about all this....it drives me crazy! (like Krazee Eyez Killa!)

Well, if I made a point of staying home more the first half of 2009 I think I made up for it by having a particularly hectic and busy last half of the year. At one point in October I tried to keep a daily journal of what I was doing and what my schedule entailed and I literally couldn't because when I started to really think about it I would begin to panic and freak myself out. Like, for real freak myself out. Like, pull the car over on the side of the freeway because you think you're going to pass out and wake up in the emergency room from having a nervous breakdown. I know I sound like a big baby but it's true! That exact scenario actually happened on La Cienega Blvd (not on the freeway) on my way from the DEVO studio back to LAX for the 3rd time in 36 hrs during rush hour to go BACK to NY a 2nd time that week, etc.....long story. I need to eventually just write a long blog about October/November 2009 but not now.

Things started to get extra hectic with the unfolding of all my wacky responsibilities I had with making good on the stuff I'd sold on my web-site. You know all those nutty "packages" that tied into my record SINCE 1972? Yeah...all that stuff. I was having lunches, floating in sensory deprivation tanks, giving drum lessons, giving tours of Disneyland, writing songs/making videos about people, letting strangers take clothes out of my closet, giving haircuts, etc...

It really consumed me for a long time and got to be a bit much but just when I started to think "this is getting out of hand and why the hell am I doing this" I'd quickly remind myself that it was ME that got ME into this damn mess and that it's actually a pretty cool job and worth all the hype and free publicity that I got while releasing my record (which was the whole point of it!) I'm still getting around to posting some of that stuff on youtube...probably this summer in conjunction with the release of my next record (with songs about Tom Mrzyglocki, Ferris Al-Sayed, Chuck Thomas and Eddie Torres on it.)

In the spring and summer I did scattered live shows with DEVO, Sting and Weezer and back at home lots of miscellaneous sessions ranging from Faith Hill to punkers the Dwarves with continued recording for the Weezer record and the upcoming DEVO record. I also got to do one of the only things that I seem to get any real pleasure out of anymore which was making a commercial with my FLIP camera and using my primitive iMovie skills to try and sell my Volvo station wagon which SURPRISINGLY hadn't been snatched up right away (unlike a lot of the other things I'd put up for sale on www.joshfreese.com) It was fun conceiving, making and posting the commercial up on my youtube site. Luckily George Thorogood hasn't seen it (doubt he ever will) and made me take "Bad To The Bone" off of it. That song is SO low (yet so fine) and perfect for the video...truly one of my proudest moments. I think the shot of me leaning up against it trying to look all cool, smoking a cigarette with a leather jacket (thanks Matt Skiba) and shades out front of P.F. Changs really sums the ridiculousness of it all right up!

Towards the back half of summer I headed out with Weezer on what would be my first real TOUR of the year and even still THAT was only 3 weeks long (ahhh....the perfect length tour...) Got back home in the middle of September, did some more sessions and start juggling between Weezer, Sting and DEVO duties (with more tours of Disneyland and lunches with fans snuck in at every possible crack in the schedule.) That's the time when things got kicked into over-drive. Working a lot and juggling being a father to 3 kids and a husband (oh yeah...I got married in the middle of all this...haven't been able to get away for a honeymoon yet) I honestly don't know how some of it was pulled off. Sometimes it was a big drag but it's fun now to look back and go "man....that was hectic and ridiculous and maybe not the smartest and I got sick a few times and was constantly armed with packs of "Emergen-C" and bottles of Zicam but it's done now and you did it!" I got to the point where I was able to legally obtain a 2nd working U.S. passport! I had to pay some money and jump through a few hoops but I was now the proud owner of 2 of them suckers! I was going in and out of Canada (on both Weezer and DEVO tours) while I had to have another passport sent off to get work Visa's put in for upcoming trips to Uzbekistan (with Sting the day after my wedding) and a 2 week Japanese trip to work with Kazuya Yoshii (a Japanese artist I've recorded and played with on and off for a while now.)

In November I did a 3 week tour (yep, another 3 weeker) with DEVO in the US and Canada where we played 2 nights in 7 different cities. The first night we played the first DEVO record (Are We Not Men) in sequence and in it's entirety and the 2nd night we did the same thing with the 3rd record (Freedom Of Choice.) This was cool for both DEVO and the fans. It was great being in each city for 3 days as well and getting to hang out a bit instead of rushing every day to the next place and sometimes being in a city for less than 24 hrs. While in NY I booked my pal James Iha's studio for a few afternoons and went in and continued to work on songs for Chuck Thomas and Tom Mrzyglocki (both buyers of special packages from my website that get songs written about them.) I'm hoping to have that record out by late spring/early summer and am looking forward to it. It's coming out great and I love the concept of an E.P. entirely about 4 people and what we did together on their trips to L.A. Anyhow, DEVO tour ended a few days before Thanksgiving and then the day after rehearsals started for what would end up being the SHORTEST tour I've ever done.

Weezer was originally only going to be doing 6 shows over the course of the first 10 days of December but after the first 3 we had the misfortune of one of the tour busses hitting a patch of black-ice and sliding of the freeway in upstate NY injuring both Rivers and his assistant Sara. Total bummer and it shook everyone up pretty good but to make a long story short they've both recovered and are ok now. So we only did 3 gigs on that December run (Chicago, Milwaukee and Toronto) and then came back home, canceling the last 3 shows. The coming home early allowed me to hang out at home with my family a little more than had been expected before leaving to Tokyo for 2 weeks. After the shows I did over the holidays in Japan with Kazuya Yoshii (my family got to come over with me) we went to Maui and got back a few days after New Year.

It was good getting home and knowing that I am not on tour for a while but have plenty to do here. So far this year I worked with a bizarre range of people: Avril Lavigne, Slash, Joe Cocker, Megadeath, Devo, Cher and Weezer. One day in January I was texting with a friend of mine and told him that I was in the studio that day with Joe Cocker and Ray Parker Jr. was playing guitar with us...and then the next day I was going to record a song with Cher.. My buddy texts back "you're just reading names of a Trivial Pursuit card!" Funny guy....

I'm currently working on wrapping up the E.P. about "My 4 New Friends" (I think that's going to be the title) and trying to get that out in a few months. Devo's heading off to play a televised show on NBC for the Olympics on February 22nd and then I go up to San Francisco to speak at some music industry conference thing on Feb. 27th (you know it's bad when they're flying drummers in to tell people what's going on with the direction of the music biz!) Looking forward to a quick trip to Hawaii with the Vandals in March (the 12th on Maui and the 13th in Honolulu) and then the juggling of live gigs in the spring. There will be Weezer stuff, Devo stuff and even a few one-offs with Mr. Sting as well. Stay tuned and oh yeah....just got some new tires on the Volvo 940. Somebody buy that sucker already!

Josh F

hi everybody

posted by josh on 08.05.09

Hi everybody. Here's my new site that my pal Phillip got together. I'll try to get ya up to speed on what I've been up to this year. I've been pretty busy lately playing gigs here and there (mostly "there") and recording in LA and Vancouver. Trying to take a breathe too and hang at home a bit. I've toured very little this year which has been nice seeing that I've been pretty non-stop for a while now. After spending most of the first half of 2009 "in town" I've just recently been traveling and playing out more often. Earlier in the year I was concentrating on sticking real close to home after welcoming our 3rd (and final in an installment of 3) child to our family. I've been building a studio, The Vandals went out and did a few "one-offs" (a couple in Vegas, Red Rocks in Colorado and a festival in Belgium). DEVO went out and played some shows which always proves to be an adventure and a good time. DEVO played a show in Dallas, one at South By Southwest in Austin, a gig in San Fran and did 2 shows over in the UK. DEVO's also been recording here in LA for their first record in 20 years which should be out in 2010. We've been working on it for a long while now but there's finally a light at the end of the tunnel and things are looking pretty good. Making it has been cool, difficult, bizarre, interesting and even a little fun throughout the (ongoing) process. All in all it's an honor being involved seeing that I'm a life long fan of theirs and (most importantly) share a very deep, dark sense of humor with them.

So, around this same time (spring) I put out my 2nd Solo record (Since 1972) and started partaking in all the odd-ball stuff I was offering up in conjunction with the albums release. That proved to be a success in the way of getting lots of people at least TALKING about my record and I got some good press out of it. I even sold a few copies a long the way (not to mention 25 trips to PF Changs and the Cheesecake Factory....more on all that later). One day I'll start getting my act together and post some of the craziness on the ol' youtube. Believe it or not, I'm still not done with all of that (sensory deprivation tank visits, foot massages, trips to Disneyland, etc..) And YES....The Volvo Wagon (part of the $10,000 package is STILL for sale! Can you believe that shit? Someone just buy it so I can not feel guilty about having 2 cars right now...please? You know the old school "boxy" Volvo's are sexy and it's only got like 73K miles on it...not bad for a 16 year old "classic!"

Then in late spring I got a call from Weezer about playing some shows. Seems that Rivers doesn't want to sing AND play guitar anymore. So instead of them adding a guitarist, Pat (who shreds on the guitar) decided to step out from behind the drums and channel his inner Jimmy Page. So, no one got booted out of the band and the Weezers are all fine and good. I'm just helping out as "the drummer" for a bit. We did the KROQ Weenie Roast show here in So Cal and just got home from doing 2 big festivals (one in Korea and one in Japan). During this time I also recorded 4 songs with them for their upcoming record and we're getting ready to leave on a month long North American tour in late August and will take us up through mid September.

Oh yeah..in the middle of Weezer rehearsals I flew out to Quebec to meet up with my old pal Sting and do 2 shows with him out there. Well, one in Quebec and one in Connecticut. This was in the middle of July. It was good to see him and cool playing all those songs again (I hadn't seen him or played with him for 3 years). He put enough trust in me to only have 1, couple hour rehearsal the day before the show in Quebec for 120,000 people which was filmed, recorded and televised! We kicked ass too! The gigs went great and playing songs like "Message In A Bottle" and "Roxanne" are like riding a bike. I'm hoping to do some more stuff with him if scheduling works out in the future.

Other than all that craziness I've also started in on my next record which I think will be called "Dirty Mature." Like my last few records I've been recording it in pieces and fragments with whatever "extra" time I have lying around. This one will probably be much weirder record than anything I've ever done (with the exception of a few "rock n' roll numbers") and will include all of the instrumental tracks that you may have already heard playing as the soundtracks to my youtube shorts that I have up and some new ones. There will also be songs about Tom Mrzyglocki, Ferris Al-Sayed and a few other folks. I'm excited about it because it won't be so "normal sounding" like my 2 other records and much more left of center.

Thanks for listening and I'll try to write more often here and keep you posted on what I'm up to.

Cool man cool,

Josh F