Bernie Dresel is not a household name. However, you have undoubtly heard his work thousands of times. As a successful working musician, Bernie has not only provided the back beat for legendary talents like Ringo Starr, Chaka Khan, Brian Setzer and Chick Corea, but alsoa provides the studio percussions for the TV shows and Movies that many of us see on a daily basis. The Simpsons, Lost, Family Guy all of Disney's Pixar Films...the list goes on and on. I caught up with Bernie a few weeks ago while he was on a break from working on the recording of the new J.J Abrams/Steven Speilberg hit "Super 8." Having been in the busines for over 20 years, he shared some great stories and even better advice on what it takes to be a working musican in LA, while still keeping your passion alive.
On a sidenote: Bernie mentions Emil Richards quite a few times. For those of you unfamiliar with legandary xylophonis in the industry, Emil's vibes are legendary. He has recorded HUNDREDS of movie scores and worked his magic for the most incredible talent in the business including but not limited to: Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, George Harrison, Judy Garland, Blondie, Frank Zappa, Bing Crosby, Sarah Vaughn, Nat Cole and The Doors.
So without further ado, Ladies and Gentleman the wisdom of Bernie Dresel:
KM: So when you were kid, did you always dream of becoming a musician?
BD: It’s hard to say that I always did because I started hitting things when I was 2. And I started lessons when I was four and half, so what is our memory at the time. It’s kinda like fragmented pictures. But what I remember s are two big moments, that seem unrelated, but they‘re related. The Kennedy assassination when I was 2 years old. And then four months later, The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, it was huge for me just the elation; the crowd roaring. They were good. It looked like fun.
KM: So were you a Ringo fan even at Age two?
BD: Yeah, but it was just the band and their making music, not just Ringo per say. What was the driving thing…it was the beat. So we use to go back then…we used to go on Sunday drives. We’d be in our ’61 Cadillac, I was born in ’61, and I started pounding. And they thought “OH! He’s a genius.” They tried to get me lessons even when I was that young.
KM: Really, at two?
BD: But the music store in town said, “Oh, he’s too young, bring him back later.” So, at three years old, they tried again…”Bring ‘em back later.” Four…“Bring’em back.” Four and half and then it was “Okay!”
KM: So this was in the town where you grew up?
BD: It was music store called Mark’s music. It was in Farrell, Pennsylvania which is right near Sharon right over the border. You know the Quaker Stake and Lube; there is also the world’s largest candy store there, Dafins.
KM: Then they have “The Winner.” Which is the world’s largest off price fashion store…I am down on Sharon, PA.
BD: That’s right! They also had another world’s largest there; do you know what it was?
KM: I know it was some kind of shoe store.
BD: That’s right. It’s Reyer’s, the world’s largest shoe store. But the town when I go back there is getting disseminated by the lack of jobs, people not moving in, just leaving, so homes are getting dilapidated. Anyways, at four and half the music store finally said they would give me a lesson. But I was a really quiet little boy and I listen very well. I was focused. So, the lesson went well and then they joking let, “Oh well, you should have brought him in earlier. That’s when I started drum lessons.
KM: So was it always your dream to be a drummer?
BD: Yeah, I mean, It wasn’t even a dream, it was kind my reality. Like, what else I am going to do.
KM: So there was no other choice for you?
BD: Yeah. Although, along the way, because you are always thinking, what’s the back-up? I think I also thought about being an astronaut because that was huge in the sixties, you know the space program, the space race. Then I realized that you have to have good vision, which I don’t.
KM: But you had a talent for the drums…
BD: Yeah. I was an Altar boy, so I thought, “Maybe a priest would be cool.” But then I realized oh, no girls.
KM: Not so good.
BD: Nah, forget that. All those things were just fleeting possibilities. I was going to be a musician.
KM: So you were a music geek from the start.
BD: Yeah, yeah, music geek, band geek.
KM: So you’re dream of always wanting to be a musician, is that what you brought you out to LA? Did you have a different path? Did you start in New York clubs?
BD: Oh no, when you’re in high school and your king of the sea, tearing it up in high school; you think, “You’re gonna go.” (He motions his hands like a rocket taking off to the sky) Yet, I was always kinda more realistic and thought about what’s out there in the bigger pond. Because you never know what you are going to get when you get there, so I studied music education at Eastman up in Rochester NY. They would always tell us that we needed something to fall back on, like teaching. So I got a degree in Education and Performance, just in case. And I think about this, that when I got to LA I would apply to the CBEST Test for the teaching certification here. Every time, I scheduled that test, I always got a gig and I couldn’t make the test. And that just kinda told me, that I am going to busy playing.
KM: So did you find the transition to LA and getting into the music scene an easy thing for you to do? Or was it something where you kinda were plugging away and you were struggling?
BD: Oh, it’s difficult. For anybody, myself included. You know tears sometimes of frustration because I went to a very good music school. But out here I would go to a club and to hear a band to try and meet people and all I could say was that I went to Eastman. The big established players would go “Oh, that’s cool. Great.” Then they would move on. So I knew it was going to be a long road to break in here.
KM: So did you find it really hard to socially find your niche in LA with a group people that were doing the same things? Where did you land?
BD: Well, the word from a friend had been that the Valley was the place for musicians. Now, it’s probably still the case, although a lot of rock musician think that Hollywood the place, where MIT is and all. So a lot of Rock kinda people, end up moving to Hollywood first, where they think that’s the music scene. It kinda is for a Rock thing, but that whole gig is like a one and million shot kinda thing, praying that your band kinda makes it. My whole thing and the musicians I am talking about were the ones working in the studio or the orchestra players.
KM: You’re talking about a working musician.
BD: Yeah.
KM: Did you find it hard to get into that at first? Was there a lot of auditioning? What was the process?
BD: No auditioning. In fact I’ve never won an audition ever, of any band that I’ve done, be it Kenny Loggins or Cher. I mean I never really took any. When they’re cattle calls they’re not even sure exactly who they should pick when they hear people. Because everyone is good; or they may sound good out of the gate, but then they start to work with them and they can’t learn the songs or whatever. So, usually the thing that happens is that someone that’s in a band or someone you’ve played with recommends you and then you go and do it. If they hate you, you don’t get to do it again. They like you, they keep you.
KM: So what was your first gig?
BD: Well, um, my first gig I got 3 weeks after getting here. It was two weeks at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. There were these three beautiful sisters that used to be Dean Martin’s Gold Diggers. They created an act out of that. But from playing with them, I met three or four other musicians that lead to the next gig. Not the big time yet. I think, we stayed at Airport Inn that I dubbed the cockroach motel, really seedy Las Vegas for two weeks. But then soon after, I put together a band with some of my friends, a top forty band. And then even that didn’t get that much work. We just barely broke into that. But then, I got to go on the road for six months with the Letterman. The head guy, the only original guy, was Tony Butella. A friend of mine I went to Eastman with met them while working a gig on a cruise ship. When they got back to LA they said that they needed a drummer and a bass player. So I went on the road with them for six months before I quit. So, I thought, “Okay, now I credit.” So when I meet someone in a club I would say, “Hi, I’m Bernie and I’ve been working with the Letterman. Now there reaction was, “OH!” But still it was nothing. It wasn’t like Madonna or Chick Corea. Even to this day though it’s not so much who you play with, it’s if they get to hear you play and get to know what you sound like, then they hire you.
So that’s the frustrating thing when you move somewhere and you are trying to break in, people… they need to hear you. It’s not just a CD of you playing, it’s not who you’ve worked with, it’s them getting in the trenches with you. So how do you get that?
KM: Well and that’s the thing for some many people. They say well, I have all this talent and I don’t know anybody in the music industry, how do I do what they’re doing? Where’s the best club to find these people? Where did you find that you need to go to find people in the music scene?
BD: Well, now, and this could change as these clubs could not be around, because they come and they go; Right now Café Cordiale is big one. There’s no cover charge there and my band BERN plays there. It’s a cool musician hang out mostly because number one, it’s free… you don’t have to pay a cover to get in. Musicians just go to hang there and get to know other musicians. The Baked Potato, Vitello’s…but that’s just one scene. But basically, I would say I’ve slebbed my way to the top.
KM: What was your first real gig, where you said “Okay, I’ve made it, I am going to have a career in this?”
BD There are all varying degrees, because like, when you get your first wedding you think “cool,” because you’ve broke through. I tell people it’s kind a like a pyramid, you’ve got to know one person for that person to know the right person and recommend you and then when you go and do the gig now there’s four people that recommend you, then it’s 8 then it’s 16. As long as they like you and like how you play, because otherwise the pyramid shuts down.
KM: Alright, but what was the first one, the big break where you knew you made it? Where you knew you were going to become a working musician?
BD: Well, I kinda think I always knew that, but my first big break was to go play with Maynard Ferguson. I only did that for a few weeks because I got a studio television gig.
KM: Those are rare nowadays.
BD: Yeah they are; there was also a show called “Our House.”
KM: Wilford Brimley, Shannon Dougherty, Deidra Hall and that kid Chad…he went on and was on Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, and I feel sad that I know all that. What was his name?
BD: Yeah, but I don’t remember his name... Anyhow, the Composer Joe McNeely , I went to Eastman with, so he recommended me and that’s how I got in the door there. But some of the music was very light. I would have a couple of timpani notes or a triangle or a single bell note. Then finally one day he had some drums on there. Or percussions in it because I do that too, like I did today for the Spielberg movie (at the Time of the interview Bernie was on Break from a studio session for the movie Super 8). It was finally a time I could shine and show people my stuff, the cue was basically, “boom-boom-bum-a-choo-ahhh” and then some suspended cymbal roles, it wasn’t much but it was a way of saying hey, look what I can do. I did a professional job and I got called back. This was three years after I got here. But different things along the way, whether it’s breaking new ground like playing for Michael Giacchino on his films or Emil [Richards] calling me for his big band. Great music, great people and you’re opening up new doors.
KM:What has been your favorite working experience?
BD: Working?
KM: Other than your funk band BERN which seems like a lot of fun?
BD: It’s a lot of fun, but a lot of work. As a drummer you are rarely a band leader.
KM: Well there was Buddy Guy, Buddy Rich… generally people named Buddy.
BD: Yeah, and for my 50th birthday in November, I am going to do a concert not of BERN but I wanted to do something unique. It’s gonna be a whole night of Buddy Rich big band charts. It’s gonna be really great. I’ve talked to Buddy’s daughter Cathy and she’s given me her blessing on it.
KM: Are you gonna play on a match box?
BD: I dunno know, we’ll see. I have been practicing. I didn’t want to just do a party. I wanted to something special for me. So, it’s interesting that have just fallen in my lap recently since I’ve decided to do it. An arranger called and asked me if I would be interested in playing in his band. He’s probably 65 or something like that. I wasn’t sure who he was at first. But then we started chatting and I realized he knew what he was talking about. I mentioned the Buddy Rich concert, and a song called ‘Love for Sale’. Well then the guy asked me if I knew who the arranger was for the songs. And I actually didn’t and I didn’t mention the arranger on the stuff I’ve looked up. And he says, “It was me.” I said, you’re kidding me!
KM: Love For Sale…Ella Fitzgerald…Love for Sale…Cole Porter?
BD: Yeah, Cole Porter. Peter Meyers is the arranger who arranged it for Buddy in 1966. He called me up and now he’ll probably be there. Then last night we played with Emile [Richards] at Typhoon and right in front and there’s a white haired gentleman that seems to be watching me pretty close…enjoying it. So I went up and talked to him afterwards and I mentioned the Buddy show. And he says, “Oh, I produced Buddy’s last concert. Live at King Street.” So anyway, it’s kinda cool that even along the way you meet people from the past or new artists.
KM: So who’s been your favorite person to work with?
BD: The coolest was probably Ringo.
KM: You played with Ringo?
BD: Well, on a TV show, the Dame Edna Show. He sang. I think they did four different pilots, one with Ringo, one with Barry Manilow, and one with Doc Severinsen and I forgot the other one. So I played one song with Ringo on a TV show. So that was cool.
KM: So who is the biggest guy you’ve played with?
BD: Everyone is big in there different ways, Chick Corea played. I loved playing with Chaka Khan that was cool; riding the bus with her for 7 to 9 weeks something like that. Phillip Bailey from Earth, Wind and Fire was on that tour too, so that was a highlight that sticks out. But I mean, it’s amazing, even playing with Emile [Richards], he’s not a household name and a pop name. But he was friends with George Harrison and played concerts for George.
KM: He played on all of Sinatra’s albums?
BD: Yeah, that’s right. And with him you get to play with the bass player who played the bass line for Barney Miller. All these things are just really cool moments.
KM: What favorite? Studio work, studio for television, for movies, or playing live music.
BD: I just love variety. Sometimes recording guys get so stuck up in a studio that they don’t go out and play live and they lose their drive for what really got them going in the first place. I am just so fortunate to have variety…different styles, different amounts of money, different amounts of how long I’m with someone. Brian Seltzer, I was with him for 15 years. So that was really great and a big thing.
KM: You’ve worked on some pretty cool stuff…
BD: Well, you jump and there gone. I mean Simpsons has been on for a long time and I’ve been subbing on that. It’s been on twenty years. I’ve been subbing for 10 years.
KM: How long does it take to record something that? Is it only an hour for a television show?
BD: Well, we there today for the film from 10am to 5pm, and we’ll do five days or six days of that. But the orchestra is so good, that a lot of times with Michael [Giancchino] we finish a day early. This means that we don’t get that last day of pay, but we’re good. That’s why they come to LA to record the orchestra’s here because they’re good. Because it takes a shorter amount of time, it’s actually a better price.
KM: Music industry can be an exceptionally difficult business. How did you avoid all the pitfalls? How did you get around all that?
BD: I just tried to be a nice guy…meaning that there are some people who can really be ruthless to get to the top or even just to get started working. In order to continue working they might turn into these very political animals and try to control things. I just kept trying to play good and be a nice guy that people want to be around. And again, didn’t put all of my marbles in one basket…so I have something else, when things aren’t really going on.
KM: But there sometimes can be a tremendous pressure to fall into the Hollywood traps, the vice of musicians and people who have obtained some success in Entertainment…
BD: And there’s pressure because you’re looking around and going am I going to make or how long do I wait. Like some people move here like musicians and say “like I thought, I might give it a year. “ I go that’s not long enough. If you are just going to move out here after 8 months or a year you have wasted your trip; unless you get overnight success for some weird reason. It’s about planting the seeds and letting it grow. Meeting new people and having it lead somewhere. Just playing in on even a free rehearsal just so you are heard or felt...being in the trenches. As a singer breaking in it’s tough because a lot of times the singer is the star or not working. There are background singing gigs. But most of them the singer is the lead person. But the drummer or the bass player, you can just come in and out of different gigs. Just be the side man and then you can work in multiple bands and keep the calendar filled. In situations where it’s only you, I feel bad because there’s opportunities aren’t as much, I mean yeah if they hit it the opportunity to be a very successful singing star, where as I will always be in the background guy as the drummer. The other thing is that me as a drummer; it doesn’t matter my age generally, meaning that I don’t feel the pressure that my time is running out like maybe an actress might feel. Although, you know the reality is that if you are a good actress it doesn’t matter how young you look, they need people that aren’t young. But as a musician, pop groups are gonna want a younger looking drummer, they want a young looking drummer behind a Brittney Spears, but those gigs don’t usually pay a lot of money anyway. . I’m pretty fortunate in that I am doing all the work that is pretty cream of the crop stuff.
KM: You’ve been pretty lucky. You’ve had a really good career.
BD: Yeah…Yeah and It’s, you know…I’ve been studying Buddy [Rich] a lot. And you know somebody will tell you’ve been sounding good and the modest thing is “Oh thanks or whatever.” But he [Buddy] was under the impression that it should be “Yeah, yeah I did sound good tonight.” You know, why lie? Why play the humble game, when you can just go, “Oh yeah! I thought I sounded good to night too.” Or,
“It was good.”
KM: Our Egos are so weird.
BD: Like even this Buddy thing, is to push myself to get better and better. I’m chasing Buddy. Everyone says nobody can play like him, so I am putting myself out there and saying, “Here I go. Check it out.”
KM: What is your favorite thing about LA?
BD: I just like meeting people from different cultures and having the whole world come here. Like Brazilians and musician to play with them and learn. Coming from Sharon, PA there wasn’t a lot cultural diversity and now I take it for granted almost just the wide variety of people that move here from all over the world. It’s so cool. It’s also just so many great musicians, just so close, that there is the opportunity to meet them and play with them.
KM: What is your favorite thing to do? If you have some free time, what is your favorite thing to go and do in LA?
BD: Sit on the couch and watch the Lakers. I like to go to the Dodger games. I haven’t been to the beach in a long time. The beach kinda bores me somewhat.
KM: What is the one thing that you promised yourself you would or wouldn’t do when you found some success in LA?
BD: I promised I would buy myself baseball cards that I always wanted when I was a kid and never got. Like Roberto Clemente rookie card. Or a baseball with his signature on it. House with pool….and I did that.
KM: So you did it. With everything that has gone on…being a successful working musician…working on all these incredible projects, and now you’ve got the pool…do you think you have found a life for yourself in LA?
BD: (Laughing) Yeah… Yeah, I have.
Enjoyed seeing Bernie with Johnny Mandel Big Band recently. What is date/location of November Buddy Rich concert?
Posted by: Jim McGarity | 06/21/2011 at 07:09 AM