Veteran drummer Mark Schulman (photo), who has been on tour drumming for Velvet Revolver on their appearances at Ozzfest, has reveiled why Sorum recommend him as his temporary replacement, his preparation and his song-learning techniques, and his experiences with Velvet Revolver on stage so far.\"Brian was Slash\'s first choice because he had played with him in Snakepit. When Matt heard the doctor had to re-break his hand, he was tripping out because he couldn\'t reach the band and they didn\'t know he couldn\'t go back out on the road with them for the remaining three weeks. After Matt and I spoke, it was just a matter of communicating with the band. Even though Brian Tichy was lined up for three shows, Matt wanted to see if I could go in and do the whole thing. But Brian had already rehearsed with the band, and his gear was on a truck and headed to the gig. My audition was pretty funny, with Slash, Duff and Dave Kushner sitting on road cases in Scott Weiland\'s studio. They didn\'t have any gear, so I couldn\'t jam with them. All they could do was listen as I drummed along to the CD. Scott didn\'t show up until later. It was awkward, but we laughed about it later. Then Scott came in, and I had to do the same thing all over again! They saw and heard that I could play. Up until then, it was just Matt\'s recommendation. They were probably thinking, \'The guy that played with Cher, I don\'t know about this.\' It turned out that I had no rehearsals with them. They didn\'t want to re-schedule their off-days, choosing to spend the time with their families instead. So I flew to Las Vegas to watch Brian drum at two shows. I got to do two soundchecks with them, playing each song with the band once. Before the first gig, we set up Brian\'s kit and a few guitar amps in a dressing room. We rehearsed about 20 minutes of the set. Then I had to play the show without a soundcheck. Plus, my drum kit was a new custom kit sent out by Gretsch that I hadn\'t played on, except for one day rehearsing by myself. I was literally thrown into the fire. My first show was last night, and with all things considered, it went marvelously well.\"
Asked to talk about his preparation and song-learning techniques when Velvet Revolver phones with such short notice, Mark Schulman answers:
\"The challenge with Velvet Revolver isn\'t learning the songs. The challenge is they don\'t use any click tracks and all the tempos are different from the record. The songs ebb and flow and move. They were so used to the flow with Matt. Then they got used to the flow when Brian played his gigs. What I did was stand on the side of the stage and learn. Brian was so helpful and so cool. He was videotaping, so I watch his tapes for two days. I literally sat on the side of the stage with a metronome, clocking all the beginning, middle and ending tempos. I tried to emulate the flow they were used to. I had been doing gigs with click tracks and this is a whole other thing. Not to mention that Velvet Revolver plays about 10 times louder on stage than Cher. I\'m playing like a banshee, hitting so hard and playing so heavy because that\'s what the music calls for. (...) Plus, I have to sing backing vocals and I\'ve never sang with Scott. I\'m singing them for the first time and he\'s phrasing them different from the record! It\'s a wild experience, but I\'ve been thrown into the fire before. You just do what you\'ve got to do.\"
You an read the entire educational and entertaining interview at Davesontour.com.
