Joe Travers: At The Center Of Zappa's Universe
Modern Drummer "Update" (short feature)
by Bryan Beller
Published January, 2002

Joe Travers, a self-confessed "music addict," experienced both his first concert and his first drumset at age five. His unusually advanced tastes led to Frank Zappa by age ten. Looking back today, the path from Erie, Pennsylvania to steady work in Los Angeles seems to have been preordained.

Just months after arriving in LA back in 1992, the obsessively determined Travers landed the gig with Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa's band Z. That eventually opened the door to touring with Duran Duran (through another Zappa alumnus, guitarist Warren Cuccurrullo). Duran's hectic schedule of late-Western Europe, Russia, Japan, America several times-played into Travers' self-confessed need to stroke his "Leo ego." Stagefright? No concept of it.

"Not at all," Joe agrees with a laugh. "If I don't play in front of people for a certain amount of time.it's not good. I start getting really antsy and think there's something wrong in my life, have an anxiety attack, need a shrink.."

Travers' road fix consists of a five-piece DW Collector's series kit, Zildjan cymbals (primarily K-Custom Darks), Vic Firth sticks, and Remo heads. And when off the road, the man has quite the day gig: gatekeeper to Frank Zappa's vault of myriad unreleased recordings stretching back to the 1960s. Job duties include evaluating and cataloging the material for possible future release, a gig Travers calls "beyond anything I would've ever dreamed of."

While Z afforded Joe an opportunity to showcase his hyper-developed technical skills, nowadays he's stretching out. He recently recorded tracks with Lisa Loeb and played select dates with The Motels. He's also summoning earlier influences (John Bonham, Grand Funk Railroad's Don Brewer) for the power trio Ball, led by erstwhile drummer Brian Tichy (Ozzy Osborne, Billy Idol) on guitar.

Ultimately, this owner of a thousand CD's sees his horizons broadening. "I love drumming and I consume music constantly," Joe says. So a dream gig would be any musical outfit that allows me to be myself at all times-base things off of parts, but open them for interpretation, stretch it a little here and there."

Somewhere, Frank is smiling.

By Bryan Beller, copyright 2002 MODERN DRUMMER Publications. Reprinted from the January, 2002 issue of MODERN DRUMMER. Reprinted with permission from MODERN DRUMMER. For subscription information, please call (800) 551-3786 or visit www.moderndrummer.com