An original member of punk band The Vandals and alternative rock supergroup A Perfect Circle, drummer Josh Freese has also performed on the biggest stages during high profile tours with Guns N’ Roses, Nine Inch Nails, Sting and – most recently – Foo Fighters.
In addition, Freese’s session discography is dizzying. He has appeared on more than 400 albums by a diverse array of artists including Lana Del Rey, Bruce Springsteen, Katy Perry and Michael Bublé.
But when you’re doing so many sessions, it’s not easy keeping track of it all. Which explains why Freese’s new solo album has a song entitled I Didn’t Know I Recorded With Avril.
“That’s a true story,” Freese tells MusicRadar. “When I worked on Avril Lavigne’s first record, I’d never heard her name before, because no one had heard her name.
“I think I was more worried about just knowing the contact name I was gonna bill on Monday at the record label, because I was like, ‘I don’t know what this music is, or who this artist is. And chances are, no one’s going to.’
“Maybe the producer told me her name. He said the artist’s name, and it went in one ear and out the other. We were in the studio with a Pro Tools rig one evening. No-one else was there.
“They already had these tracks done, either with a drum machine or guide drums they didn't like. And I knocked out four or five songs in an evening."
Freese was credited for playing on five tracks from Lavigne’s debut album Let Go, including the opening number Losing Grip.
Freese wasn’t involved in the album’s two huge hit singles – Complicated and Sk8er Boi. But when the album took off, he was pleasantly surprised when friends told him that he’d played on it.
“That was eight months later,” he laughs. “People were going, ‘Hey man, I saw you’re on that Avril Lavigne record.’ And at this point, I knew who she was, because everyone at this point knew who she was.
“I went, ‘Nah, I didn’t play on that record.’ They go, ‘Your name's on it!’ So I went and looked online and I’m like, ‘Holy shit! My name is on it!’”
He shrugs: “This has happened multiple times with different artists. I need to click around and see a trigger word that’s going to let me know what my connection was.”
He says that the song I Didn’t Know I Recorded With Avril was inspired by the avant-garde art rock of one of America’s most mysterious groups.
“It's me trying to sound like The Residents,” Freese says. “It’s a weird drum loop thing.”
I Didn’t Know I Recorded With Avril is a highlight of Reese’s album Just A Minute Vol.2 – the sequel to his Quickies album, and likewise comprised entirely of 60-second tracks.
He explains of this bizarre concept: “What I decided to do just for the fun of it – as an exercise – I started writing some one-minute songs, because it was so much less daunting than saying, ‘I have to write a song that’s going to have an intro and a verse, and a pre-chorus, and a chorus, and an outro.’
“Plus, The Residents made a record called The Commercial Album [in 1980]. It’s all one-minute songs. It just goes: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, done, right?
“It's almost like they're poking fun at the formula of commercial music. The changes literally just went A, B, A, B. Anyways, I started doing that.”
Just A Minute Vol.2 is also a testament to Reese’s multi-instrumentalist skills.
“95% of it is all me,” he says. “There are a few guitar players on it, but nothing was planned out ahead of time.
“I wasn't like, ‘Well, I need to get a hold of so-and-so because they are a famous guitarist, and maybe I’ll see if Adrian Belew will play on it.’ I know Adrian, but I didn't even have time enough to reach out to him. I just had friends of mine that were nearby.”
These friends include Robin Finck (Nine Inch Nails), Warren Fitzgerald (The Vandals) and Pete Thorn (Don Henley, Melissa Etheridge).
Freese adds: “My brother Jason plays sax on a couple songs, and my friend Petra Haden, daughter of the late great jazz bassist Charlie Haden, plays strings and sings backups on two tracks.”
The album is out now on Loosegroove Records, the label run by Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard.
“Stone is my friend,” Freese says, “and this record is a labour of love. We printed up 1,000 or 1500 pieces, and it’s just really fun for me and Stone.”
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