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From back beat to front man

For some rock drummers, stepping out from behind the kit is how they get their kicks.

By GINA VIVINETTO
Published February 15, 2005

Last weekend's Go-Gos concert at Jannus Landing reminded me of the fun interview I had with lead singer Belinda Carlisle when she called from her home in France two years ago before a stop in the area on her solo tour.

You may not know it, but before she was one of the world's most famous lead singers, Carlisle, 46, played drums for the legendary Los Angeles punk band the Germs. Thank goodness Carlisle traded her drumsticks for a microphone or we may never have heard We Got The Beat, Vacation or Our Lips Are Sealed.

It made me think of this weekend's Motley Crue show at the St. Pete Times Forum and that band's drummer, Tommy Lee. Over the phone during a tour stop in Fargo, N.D., in 1998, the last time the Crue were in town, Lee talked about how excited he was to get out from behind the drum set and front a rap act, Methods of Mayhem.

Lee even played me demo tapes of that short-lived outfit's lone hit, Get Naked, before the tune made it to MTV or radio.

Aren't drummers supposed to remain shy and out of the spotlight? Not that Lee, in his projectile-platform-caged drum kit and leather loincloth, has ever been shy.

Can you imagine Madonna behind a drum set?

Before grabbing everyone's attention in the early 1980s with her signature torn denim skirts, black leggings, headbands and crucifixes - not to mention her early hits Holiday, Borderline and Lucky Star - the former Material Girl kept 4/4 time. She played drums for New York band the Breakfast Club before realizing that her destiny was to conquer the planet.

Locally, too, drummers have come out from behind the kit.

Harry Hayward, who plays drums for Ronny Elliott and the Nationals, causes a stir with his witty, uncompromising solo music when he performs acoustic guitar sets at the State Theater's In The Raw series and other venues.

A drummer who made the switch with remarkable results is Hunter Oswald.

Long regarded as one of the local scene's best drummers, Oswald played throughout the 1990s in the punk band the GoToHells. He also did time with national bands Down By Law and the Queers.

Oswald first picked up the sticks at age 4, and in the 1980s he studied percussion at Gibbs High School with the Pinellas County Center for the Arts program, which had to develop its percussion program because of Oswald's enrollment. It hired musicians from the local jazz community and the Florida Orchestra to teach him.

Today most local music enthusiasts know Oswald, 31, as the flamboyant, soulful lead singer of St. Felons , an R&B-tinged St. Petersburg garage band.

Onstage, Oswald commands the crowd's attention with eye-catching outfits: fluffy hats or skullcaps, a midriff shirt with the words I Like Boys (although he really doesn't - well, not in that way). For last year's Tropical Heatwave gig, Oswald sported specially trimmed abdominal fuzz in the shape of a heart, dyed bright red.

Oswald admits that now that he's at the front, he pays closer attention to gig clothes.

"No one ever saw what I wore behind a tom tom and all the cymbals," Oswald said last week over several cups of coffee. The musician said he had been daydreaming for years about singing for his own band, mostly because he knew exactly what he wanted his band to sound like. Oswald reasoned that if he wrote the songs and sang them, how could he go wrong?

"Another reason," Oswald said, grinning, "is it's so much lighter now at shows. I just have to carry a tambourine. I shake that and my (expletive), and I'm all set."

After writing a batch of tunes in 2003, Oswald presented them to daughters Chase and Caitlin, now 4 and 10. "My daughters were my first audience," said Oswald, who is divorced. "And they were into it." Their enthusiasm gave him the guts to start St. Felons.

The band's first shows, Oswald said, were not easy.

"I wanted to move around like James Brown and drop down on my knees," he said, "but the first few times I tried that, it really hurt. James Brown must have really good knees."

Also, Oswald said, he was pressuring himself harder than most to be a dynamic front person because he knew that those who knew him as a drummer were skeptical.

"I felt I had to come out and come out swinging," Oswald said. Now regarded by local critics and fans as one of the area's most compelling lead singers, Oswald makes a buzz with his flashy moves and his gritty, soulful voice. Think Sam Cooke meets David Johansen of the New York Dolls. Oswald has picked up a campy move or two from the Dolls.

"I like to go out there and sell the sizzle," he said.

Is there a drummer who has made the switch to center stage with pizazz, in Oswald's book?

" " Dave Grohl is the obvious answer," Oswald said, referring to the former Nirvana drummer, considered one of rock 'n' roll's best, who now sings and plays guitar for the megasuccessful Grammy-winning Foo Fighters. "He beat the hell out of those drums with Nirvana, and yet he was always able to sing these pretty harmonies with Kurt (Cobain), " Oswald said. "Now he writes these amazing songs with the Foos, with great harmonies and hooks. The guy's amazing."

But rumor has it that it's not an easy gig playing drums for fussy Grohl. (The Foo Fighters have been through several drummers).

Should drummers be wary of playing in St. Felons?

"I'm a tyrant," Oswald said.

***

RADIO FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T LIKE THE RADIO: If you find the FM radio climate humdrum, stifling, appalling or simply not for you, tune into www.strangeagents.com or go to www.live365.com/stations/317119) to hear some truly "out there" programming courtesy of Tampa Bay area alt-radio veterans Bud Mayhem and Vinnie B .

Both gentlemen, who broadcast everything from the modern sounds of Death Cab For Cutie and Broken Social Scene to vintage Krautrock, old wave and experimental noise, hosted in the 1980s community radio WMNF-FM 88.5 beloved alt-music programs Generic New Wave and Difficult Listening .

Mayhem is the mastermind behind Strange Agents , the art rock "collective" responsible for some of the area's most wonky recorded music and performances over the past two decades.

Gina Vivinetto can be reached at 727 893-8565 or gina@sptimes.com

[Last modified February 15, 2005, 09:17:19]