Having been together a whopping thirty four years, Flotsam and Jetsam were recently over in good ol Blighty on the No Place On Tour. With this being one of the first tours with new drummer Jason Bittner, we spoke to Eric A.K. founding member of the band about the band’s brand new album in the pipeline, what we can expect from a Flotsam live show and of course…
How has the year been going so far?
The year has been very interesting, everything we’ve got lined up so far. Really has a bright future look to it. The new record that we’re working on right now is really strange, really amazing, very exciting for me. We’ve got some songs that sound like they should have been on the first two records, we’ve got some songs that sound like they should have been four, five and six area and we’ve got some songs that sound like they should have been on Ugly Noise, which is our last one. It’s really kind of a strange mix and I’m excited to see how our fans feel about it. We don’t have any real B- sides or filler on this one.
After the recent departure of Kelly we saw the new drummer Jason Bittner come from Shadows Fall, how has that been working out?
Yeah Jason was in Shadows Fall and Toxic, he played with Anthrax for a while. Yeah, he’s done a lot of stuff, he’s been around for a while, wrote for a couple of drum magazines for a while. Really a seasoned veteran. He’s giving a whole new feel and vibe to the live Flotsam show. Kelly was melodic drummer, he played rhythm guitar parts, he didn’t play drum part you know? Which gave a lot of groove, a lot of feel to the songs. I think Jason plays drum parts, he’s a little faster than Kelly he’s a little heavier than Kelly as far as playing. He’s really more of a metal drummer, I mean Kelly can play anything. He really shines doing stuff like Sting, you know that really cool vibey.
Yeah Kelly is amazing, he’s always been amazing at Flotsam stuff Jason is a whole different feel. Even though Jason grew up learning how to play from listening to Kelly! He sets up his drums in the same way, they’ve been friends forever. When Kelly decided he wanted to leave before he even told us he called Jason and said hey I want you to step in and take my place so I don’t leave these guys in a bad spot. Jason jumped at the chance, it’s really been interesting, he’s been a perfect fit so far. We’ve done I think only five shows so far. Fitting like a glove so far…
This is just an excerpt of our chat with Flotsam And Jetsam main man Eric A.K. listen to the full interview below on our Soundcloud!
Flotsam And Jetsam are set to release a new album this year.
