Josh Freese

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Josh Freese

Background information
Born	December 25, 1972
Origin	Orlando, Florida
Genre(s)	Pop-punk Rock
Occupation(s)	Session musician
Years active	1988 – present
Associated acts	The Vandals Devo A Perfect Circle Nine Inch Nails
Notable instrument(s)
Drums

Josh Freese (born on December 25, 1972) is an American session drummer and songwriter. He is a permanent member of The Vandals, Devo, and A Perfect Circle, and is currently touring with Nine Inch Nails. Freese has appeared on more than 200 records.^{[citation needed]}

1 Background
2 Solo
3 Work history
4 Equipment
5 Discography
6 External links

[edit] Background

Josh Freese was born in Orlando, Florida but has lived in Southern California since he was 6 months old. Having been brought up in a musical family (his father conducted the Disneyland Band, and his mother was a classical pianist), he was surrounded by music from an early age and began playing the drums around the time he was 7 or 8 years old. He started playing professionally at the age of 12 (in a Top 40 band at Disneyland called Polo). In Polo, he played electronic drums which led to an endorsement deal with the Simmons electronic drum company. There is an old Simmons commercial featuring Freese on the additional content section of The Vandals' Live at the House of Blues DVD.

At the age of 15, Freese started touring and making records, first with Dweezil Zappa and then with The Vandals. Freese has worked with many respected artists in the last 15 years, as a first call session drummer and sometimes as a temporary replacement. Josh has a younger brother Jason Freese who plays keyboards with such artists as Green Day, Jewel, Goo Goo Dolls, Liz Phair and Dr. Dre. Josh currently lives in Southern California with his girlfriend and their two sons.

[edit] Solo

In 1998, Freese went solo by recording a number of songs that he wrote and performed himself (including bass, guitar, keyboards and vocals). The result is the 6-song EP Destroy The Earth As Soon As Possible, released under the name 'Princess' by T.O.N/Stone Lizard Records.

In 2000, the songs "Caffeine and Vaseline" and "Rock N' Roll Chicken" were revived for the 12-song album The Notorious One Man Orgy, this time released under Freese's own name by Kung Fu Records. With guest appearances by the likes of Stone Gossard, Warren Fitzgerald, Michael Ward, Lyle Workman, and his brother Jason, the N.O.M.O. offers a hard driving pop-punk musical insight into what it is like to be Josh Freese on a daily basis.

[edit] Work history

Freese has been a member of punk rock band The Vandals since 1989, and has played on all the band's albums since then, with the exception of 2000's Look What I Almost Stepped In..., on which current Bad Religion drummer Brooks Wackerman deputised due to Freese's commitments with A Perfect Circle. In 2003, The Vandals released a live DVD as part of Kung Fu Records' The Show Must Go Off series. The DVD is of particular interest to Josh Freese fans thanks to the inclusion of the Josh Freese-cam, a camera focused on Freese for the entire duration of the show, also including a picture-in-picture of Freese's kick drum pedal. The band is recently going to start work on a new album for a release in 2007.

Freese was a member of Guns N' Roses from 1997 to 2000, replacing Matt Sorum and signing a 2-year contract. He recorded the song "Oh My God" for the End of Days soundtrack and pieces for the unreleased Chinese Democracy album, supposedly having co-written the music to the title track. He left the band in 2000 to launch A Perfect Circle and was replaced by Bryan Mantia.

He has been a member of the band A Perfect Circle since their first album, and is considered one of the three core members alongside Maynard James Keenan and Billy Howerdel. As of 2006, the band is "on hiatus". Since then, Howerdel has started up a new band with drums contributed by Freese.

Freese participated in Sting's "Broken Music Tour" in April 2005 with guitarist Dominic Miller and guitarist Shane Fontayne. The tour kicked off April 1 in San Jose, California and ended on May 14th in New York. Josh also appeared with Sting during the record breaking 'Live 8' concert. In fall of 2005 he recorded new material with Sting in Italy at the singers Tuscany estate but plans for release have yet to be set.

Josh Freese has recently contributed drum tracks for Lostprophets third album, Liberation Transmission. He recorded all his parts in two days. Travis Barker was originally the session drummer of choice for the 3rd Lostprophets' effort, but the producer (Bob Rock) had worked with Josh Freese before and wanted him as the session drummer for the album instead.

Freese's latest project was announced on April 1st, when it was reported that he had provided the drum tracks on two new Replacements tracks, due to appear on the upcoming greatest-hits package.

He toured with Nine Inch Nails on their 2005-2006 With Teeth tour after the illness of drummer Jerome Dillon, and his the current drummer for the live touring line-up. Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor has also stated that Freese will play drums on two of the songs from the forthcoming NIN album due in April of 2007, titled Year Zero. [1]

Freese also completed drum tracks for the band Black Light Burns, which consists of Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit, Big Dumb Face, From First to Last), Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails) and Josh Eustis (Telefon Tel Aviv).

He has been the drummer in DEVO since 1996, with the notable exception of their 2003 shows in Japan.

He is currently on tour with Nine Inch Nails throughout 2007, mainly outside the US.

[edit] Equipment

Drum Workshop Drums, Pedals, and Hardware
Paiste cymbals
Remo drumheads
Vater H220 drumsticks

Drum Workshop Drums

1. 22" x 18" DW Bass Drum
2. 14" x 6" Paiste Spirit of 2002 Snare
3. 14" x 5" DW Aluminum Shell Snare
4. 10" x 8" DW Tom
5. 13" x 10" DW Tom
6. 16" x 14" DW Tom
7. 18" x 16" DW Floor Tom

Paiste Signature Series Cymbals

A. 14" Dark Crisp Hi-Hats
B. 18" Full Crash
C. 18" Power Crash
D. 21" Dry Heavy Ride
E. 19" Full Crash
F. 20" Dry Crisp Ride
G. 20" Power Crash
H. 18" Sound Formula Thin China 20" (top), inverted Full Ride w/rivets (bottom)

[edit] Discography

12 Stones - 12 Stones
3 Doors Down - Away from the Sun
A Perfect Circle - eMOTIVe
A Perfect Circle - Mer De Noms
A Perfect Circle - aMOTION
A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step
Abandoned Pools - Humanistic
All Day - First EP
Avril Lavigne - Under My Skin, The Best Damn Thing
Bic Runga - Drive
Black Light Burns - Cruel Melody
Bob and Mark Mothersbaugh - "200 Cigarettes" Soundtrack
Boxing Gandhis - Howard
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Once More, with Feeling Soundtrack
Chris Cornell - Euphoria Morning
Cinematic (upcoming record)
Crumb - Romance Is A Slowdance
Crumb - Seconds, Minutes, Hours
Danny Elfman - "Freeway" Soundtrack
Desert Sessions - Vol. 9&10
DEVO - Pioneers Who Got Scalped
DEVO - "Tank Girl" Soundtrack
Dweezil Zappa - Confessions
Emm Gryner - Public
Evanescence - Fallen
F.Y.P. - Toys That Kill
Flying Traps(Various Drummers)
Good Charlotte - The Young & the Hopeless
Gordon
Guns N' Roses "End Of Days" soundtrack
Hayden - The Closer I Get
Hoku - Hoku
Infectious Grooves - Sarsippius' Ark
Institute - Distort Yourself
Jamie Blake
John Doe - Freedom Is
Josh Freese - The Notorious One Man Orgy
Juliana Hatfield - Only Everything
Kelly Clarkson -Thankful
Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway
Lazlo Bane - Short-Style
Lazlo Bane - Transistor
Leona Naess - Comatised
lostprophets - Liberation Transmission
Magnapop - Rubbing Doesn't Help
Mary Lou Lord - Got No Shadow
Mary Lou Lord - Martian Saints EP
Maypole - Product
Meredith Brooks - Blurring the Edges
Mike Ness - Cheating At Solataire
Nash Kato - Debutante
New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
Nine Inch Nails - Beside You in Time
Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
Palo Alto (upcoming record)
Paul Westerberg - 14 Songs
Paul Westerberg - Eventually
Paul Westerberg - Suicaine Gratifaction
Poe - Haunted
Poe - (upcoming record)
Possum Dixon - Star Maps
Princess - Destroy Earth As Soon As Possible
Queens of the Stone Age - Lullabies to Paralyze (In My Head)
Radford - Sleepwalker
Revis - Places for Breathing
Rhett Miller - The Instigator
Rickie Lee Jones - Ghosty Head
Rob Zombie - "Mission Impossible 2" soundtrack
Rob Zombie - "Educated Horses"
School Of Fish - Human Cannonball
Seether- "Disclaimer"
Seether- "Disclaimer II"
Seo Taiji - 6th Album Re-Recording and ETPFEST Live
"Strange Days" Soundtrack
Shawn Mullins - First Ten Years
Static-X - Shadow Zone
Sting - Live 8 Music Relief Concert DVD
Suicidal Tendencies - Art of Rebellion
Taxi Ride
Tender Fury - If Anger Was Soul.....
The Calling - Two
The Daredevils - Hate You
The Dwarves - The Dwarves Must Die
The Format - Interventions and Lullabyes
The Indigo Girls - Shaming Of The Sun
The Lovemakers - Times of Romance
The Martinis - Smitten
The Offspring - Splinter
The Summer Obsession - This Is Where You Belong
The Vandals - Fear of a Punk Planet
The Vandals - "Glory Daze" Soundtrack
The Vandals - Hitler Bad, Vandals Good
The Vandals - Hollywood Potato Chip
The Vandals - Live Fast, Diarrhea
The Vandals - Oi to the World!: Christmas With the Vandals
The Vandals - Sweatin' to the Oldies: The Vandals Live
The Vandals - The Quickening
The Vandals - Internet Dating Superstuds
The Vandals - Hollywood Potato Chip
The Veronicas - The Secret Life Of...
The Wailing Souls - Psychedelic Souls
Ween - Quebec
Thermadore - Monkey On Rico
Tommy Stinson - Village Gorilla Head
Tracy Bonham - Down Here
Tracy Bonham - The Burdens Of Being Upright
Wayne Kramer - The Hard Stuff
Xtra Large - Now I Eat Them

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Josh Freese

The Vandals
Joe Escalante \| Dave Quackenbush \| Warren Fitzgerald \| Josh Freese
Jan Nils Ackerman \| Stevo \| Steve Pfauter \| Chalmer Lumary \| Doug MacKinnon \| Steve Gonzales
Discography
Albums: Peace Thru Vandalism \| When in Rome Do as the Vandals \| Peace Thru Vandalism/When in Rome Do as the Vandals \| Slippery When Ill \| The Vandals Play Really Bad Original Country Tunes \| Fear of a Punk Planet \| Sweatin' to the Oldies: The Vandals Live \| Live Fast, Diarrhea \| The Quickening \| Oi to the World!: Christmas With the Vandals \| Hitler Bad, Vandals Good \| Look What I Almost Stepped In... \| Internet Dating Superstuds \| Live at the House of Blues \| Hollywood Potato Chip

Discography
A Perfect Circle
Maynard James Keenan \| Billy Howerdel \| Josh Freese \| Jeordie White \| James Iha
Danny Lohner \| Paz Lenchantin \| Troy Van Leeuwen \| Tim Alexander
Albums: Mer de Noms \| Thirteenth Step \| eMOTIVe \| aMOTION
Popular songs: Judith \| 3 Libras \| Weak and Powerless \| The Outsider \| Blue \| Let's Have a War \| Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums \| Passive \| Imagine
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