The Pulver-Story
My older brother Bob had a Leedy blue sparkle drum kit in his bedroom.
When I was barely old enough to walk, he told me to stay away from his
drums. Thus my innate thrill-seeking attitude and tenacious preoccupation
with playing the drums has never ceased.
Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and having big brother Bob the drummer
as a mentor, by the time I was 8 years old I became the youngest camper
at Hummingbird Music Camp. Hummingbird was founded by K.L. Higgins, one
of the original members of John Phillips Sousa's band; K.L. was an
inspirational human being on many levels. Most of all K.L. instilled the
sense of joy that performing music brings to everyone it touches.
My family relocated to Phoenix Arizona, while I spent every summer in
the mountains of New Mexico through my teens playing the drums and
working at the music camp following in the footsteps of my brother. I
took private lessons from an incredible drummer Preston Repenning to
helped refine my basic technique. My high school playing experiences
led me to the drumming throne in "Schoolboys" in 1978 which evolved
into Capitol Recording artists ICON.
While in Phoenix I had the pleasure to work for Jim Zupancic founder
of the Creative Drum Shop in Scottsdale where I learned the skills of
fine tuning and hot rodding drums for tons of touring pro's, Including
Steve Smith (Journey) who convinced me that I needed to be in LA if I
wanted to make it playing drums.
So I moved to LA in 1984 and immediately hooked up with LA Guitar Hero
Greg Leon (Suite16 with Tommy Lee, Rough Cutt, Dokken, DuBrow) to
support his solo project "Invasion" , where for 2 years I was introduced
to all the Hollywood and Orange County rock clubs in pursuit of a record
deal. In true Spinal Tap fashion, our bass player, Jeroen Bos "Gerionimo"
got deported back to Holland which completely knocked the wind out of
the Invasion.
I met Ross Garfield who at the time was just starting Drum Doctors, and
worked for Ross for about a year doing Studio Drum Set-ups for the likes
of Carlos Vega. html, Jim Keltner and Vinne Colaiuta.
Around '86 I hooked up again with guitarist and longtime friend from
the Schoolboys days in Phoenix, David Henzerling, aka David Michael
Phillips (King Kobra featuring Carmine Appice, and Lizzy Borden) to
do a series of recordings at Pasha Studios that ended up in the "B"
horror movie Black Roses. The DMP Project featured Bryson Jones on
vocals, who has currently become instrumental in putting the country
back in LA rock with his band the Snake Handlers and Sweethearts of
the Rodeo phenomenon.
I liked the idea of being a band member so I spent most of the next 5
years in another promising 80's Sunset Strip band called "Doctor,
Please!". We did a series of demos for MCA just as our A&R crew moved
to start up Geffen Records and we were left in the wake.
During this period I met my wife Deborah who worked A&R at Duraline
Industries, makers of the ultra-obnoxious SynDrum and the bulletproof
Kevlar Duraline Drum Heads. I was interested in free drum stuff and
ended up finding the love of my life. We've been married for over 18
years now.
As I turned 30 - grunge, the LA riots, and reality set in, along with a
wife and step-kids - so I eventually loaded up the truck and moved back
to my roots in Arizona to pursue one of my other passions; designing
and building custom motorcycles.
The motorcycle business was very good to me. I made my mark building my
bike business from a little 2 man shop North of Burbank to a nationally
recognized world class builder of custom American Motorcycles,
Surgical-Steeds Classic American Motorcycles, which became Steed
Musclebike in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The drums stayed in boxes in the garage for the better part of the 90's
while I was immersed in the bike business. Some old friends in Phoenix
convinced me to do some casual gigs with them. Through an old friend I
made the acquaintance of one of my early guitar hero's, Ronnie Montrose
who offered to record the Steed Theme with me for my emerging motorcycle
website.
I started to sell all my old drums on eBay at the turn of the century
and collected a ton of dusty big old Leedy drums from the '40's and 50's
on the 'Bay. Between the paint booth at the shop, connections with
chrome platers and my past experience building custom drums I believe I
have assembled one of the largest collections of Leedy Drums in North
America. These are simply the best sounding drums I've ever played.
Mad Soundman's Note:
(There is just something special about a bit of
wood that has been sitting for a time, and allowed to "settle in".
This is as true of old acoustic guitars, as it is for drum shells.
The older construction techniques are just part of the story, "time"
is an un-duplicatable magician in the creation of the tone these and
other vintage acoustic instruments have.)
In 2003 I was invited by Fred Gretsch to help reintroduce the Leedy
drum brand at the California NAMM show. I built a custom Steed bike
for the show and painted it to match my restored Leedy's. I met many
of the drummers that influenced my style, and both Steed and Leedy
all received a ton of attention for both the brands.
As fate would have it, in 2004 Dave Henzerling and I decided to record
the album we always wanted to make, but never had the opportunity. We
used the warehouse of my motorcycle shop, his laptop and ProTools rig
to record the first of two Big Cock CD's. We were blessed to find the
BMF Robert Mason (Lynch Mob, Cry of Love) available to sing for us.
With the proliferation of the internet and especially MySpace we've
built quite a following for Big Cock in the last couple of years.
I've recently licensed my motorcycle brands and let go of the day to day
operations of Steed Musclebike to pursue my first love of Pulverizing
drums full time. I'm in the process of establishing a base of operations
in Hollywood and Phoenix to make my drum performance skills readily
accessible.
Thanks for taking the time to read all this...now LET'S ROCK!
John Covington- the Pulverizer
