Interview with Joey de Boer

Who is Joey de Boer? If you are anything like me you may have asked yourself this question when you heard he would be touring South America with Delain. It turns out he is the drummer from the band Purest of Pain, among other things. Purest of Pain is a melodic death metal band founded in 2008. They recently did a crowdfunding campaign which reached a resounding 189% funding. But aside from his band, I was curious to learn more about Joey himself. Luckily, it turns out he is a very kind person, and agreed to answer some questions for us.

“ Congratulations for reaching your crowdfunding goal so quickly for Purest of Pain's Solipsis. Were you surprised at all the enthusiasm and support?”

“No not at all. I was totally surprised by the support from everyone. The fact that people want to support such a small band, itʼs great! We worked our asses off to finish this one for you guys.”

“Was there any part of the crowdfunding fulfillment you were especially excited about?”

“The fulfillment on its own got me excited haha. There wasnʼt one thing about it that stood out. I think we really chose the good things to sell, because almost everything sold. Merel did a great job on this one. Iʼm really proud of her and Frank!”

“Can you share what was some of the inspiration behind this album?”

“To be honest, I cannot haha.. I joined Purest of Pain when the album was already written. Merel and Jesper wrote everything. For me personally the drums was inspired by my own metal-heroes: Tommy Aldridge, Matt Greiner, Kai Hahto, Dirk Verbeuren and Chris Adler.”

“More and more people are turning to crowdfunding instead of relying on a record label. Metal, in general, has been slow to embrace this way of funding their music. Do you think crowdfunding has a future in metal?”

“I do! I think that keeping control and rights of your own music is important. We decide where we want to go with our music, and when. With a label that’s different. This way we really bring albums to you guys that we want you to hear. And you see a slight movement in the scene this way. So thatʼs interesting.”

“You are a busy guy! You are involved with a lot of other bands and projects. Anything specific we should look forward to besides Solipsis?”

“Yeah, well at the moment weʼre writing new stuff with my other band MAYÍN. If you havenʼt checked our album ‘Maria Johannaʼ, I suggest you do, lol ;p. Itʼs a totally different style. The album really is an emotional story. It goes really deep. I want to know what you guys think! And there might be another metal-project but I canʼt say too much about it, other than that weʼre busy writing and almost ready to kick your ass in the near future ;-).”

“How long have you played the drums and have you had any formal training?”

“I started when I was 1,5 years old. My father is a professional drummer and my mother a professional singer, so I guess it runs in the family! My sister is a singer as well. I was kind of a free-wheeler when I was young. I didnʼt practice too much. I just wanted to play along with the songs that I liked. So I stopped with drum lessons after a year (started when I was 6). When I was 12, I was ready in my head for drum-lessons, so I took drum lessons from Stef Broks (Textures). Then, when I was 16 I went to a pre-school for the conservatory of Rotterdam. And now Iʼm in my last year of the conservatory and soon I can call myself a schooled musician haha.”

“Did you always know you wanted to be a musician or did you kind of fall into it?”

''Yeah I always knew what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to study at the conservatory of Rotterdam, and then conquer the world with my drums haha.''

“Who are your musical inspirations?”

''Tommy Aldridge from Whitesnake, phenomenal drummer. My all time favorite! Just his sound and musical ideas are the best imo. Doug Aldrich (ex- guitar-player from Whitesnake), Daniel Adair from Nickelback. Cobus Potgieter (youtube), Michael Jackson, David Coverdale, the guys from Dirty Loops, Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet for my Valentine, Killswitch Engage, Marcus Miller, Hans Zimmer, Wintersun, and the list goes on...''

“Do you have any other instruments you play and are drums your favorite? Any clean or unclean vocals?”

“I play the guitar. Mostly metal-stuff, and a bit of piano. Itʼs not that drums are my favorite instrument. It just suits me best. But every instrument is as important in a band as the other in my opinion. I do a bit of backing vocals, but nothing majorly important there.. Not even worth mentioning, I think..”

“What was the first gig you ever played?”

“When I was 5 years old I played a gig at a music convention in Ahoy. I think there were around 100 people or something. Was pretty cool! From that moment I knew that this was what I was born to do.”

“What kind of job would you like to have had if you had decided not to be a drummer.”

“Iʼm really into archeology, so I think that that would be my passion if I wasnʼt a drummer. But I also live with the idea that Iʼm very happy to be a drummer, because I donʼt have any clue what I would be doing if I wasnʼt...... I really canʼt sit through classes for hours and read books and do homework, itʼs not for me, and itʼs never gonna be.. so how am I going to do another study and find another job, I just canʼt!! I havenʼt figured out yet if Iʼm too lazy or if I donʼt fit the school system. I hope itʼs that last one ;p.”

“So you recently did a few shows in South America with Delain. That sounds like a great experience. Did you enjoy it?”

“Oh I was living the dream! It felt like I was living in a movie or something, all the fans, the great musicians around me, the great venues. Everyone was so nice! And I got to do what I love most in this world; playing live everyday for an audience. It was unreal. Iʼve never toured like this. My only tour experience was in the Netherlands. So everything was different for me. Iʼve never had a crew with me on tour. Iʼm a really big fan of Amaranthe, I went to a concert when they visited our country a while back and fangirled like hell, and suddenly Iʼm sharing a drum kit with their drummer and hanging out with them on tour in Argentina. Just imagine how unreal that sounds. IT WAS!! Touring is also really hard, you donʼt have that much sleep and you have to deliver everyday. I love that pressure, because Iʼm really taking care of myself when I have to play. I only drink water and eat healthy. When Iʼm doing this, Iʼm doing it good. I make sure I get enough sleep and there is no alcohol before and after the show, because I know I will feel bad in the morning. My muscles canʼt handle it, so I have to rule it out completely. The show is sacred for me. How boring as it sounds, that is how Iʼm living on tour! But thatʼs okay, I love what I do. And I hope I can return soon! I fell in love with those places!”

“If you could pick a favorite moment in South America what would you pick?”

“The moment I entered the stage at Luna Park was unreal; thousands of people screaming, and I was the only one there (the Delain show starts with a drum- intro). That was amazing. Also the dinners with the band were really nice; everyone is so nice and fun to hang out with. I had a great time, and I enjoyed every second of it. Maybe this is also a fun story to tell you guys: My favorite story of this tour is with Timo Somers. We were meeting at the airport in Argentina with the band Amaranthe because we shared the tour-bus together. The bus was supposed to leave in ten minutes (which was already very late), but we didnʼt have any breakfast yet, so we decided to order a sandwich. Everyone from the band got their sandwich within five minutes and they returned to the bus, but our sandwiches werenʼt ready yet.. Long story short: It turns out we (Timo and myself) ordered different sandwiches with chicken breast and fries (we didnʼt know that). It took almost one hour for them to be ready. But I already paid 40 dollars, and there was no way I was going to get my money back.. So we had to wait. Eventually our tour manager discovered the problem, we ordered from a different menu. The bus took off an hour late because of us, but the upside was that we had fries for both of the bands + crew! haha. We were an hour late at the venue because of our stupid chicken-sandwiches.......”

“Since Delain is doing a new tour in the next couple months, have they asked you to drum for that too?”

“Canʼt say anything about that unfortunately..”