Blowin’ Wind with King Diamond/Shaolin Death Squad drummer Matt Thompson: “King Diamond was probably some of the first progressive metal I had ever heard. It just blew me away like nothing else. It was such a completely different sound.”

Matt Thompson is hands down one of my favorite heavy metal drummers. After seeing King Diamond on his most recent SOLD OUT North American tour, I was so blown away at Matt’s performance. In addition to playing in King Diamond, Matt also plays drums with one of my favorite progressive metal bands, Texas’ very own Shaolin Death Squad.

Matt is a busy mofo these days so I was super psyched that Matt took some time out of his exhausting schedule to talk to me. I really had a great time talking Matt as we discussed his work with King Diamond, what King Diamond song he would love to see added to the set list, his work with Shaolin Death Squad, and why he really digs Chopin. Matt was a really chill and very funny guy to talk to and I hope you all will enjoy getting to know a little bit more about the amazing Matt Thompson. Enjoy, y’all.

Matt, thanks so much for taking the time to talk today.

Hey man, no problem. Thanks for those kind words in your review.

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Not a problem, Matt. You earned them. So King Diamond wrapped up 2014 with probably the biggest US tour you guys have done in a while.

Yeah, since I’ve been in the band.

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King Diamond really experienced quite a surge in popularity in 2014. What do you think it was that brought this on?

Well, I think it was a number of things. When King was down with his back and his heart attack, things happened like Metallica putting him in the Metallica Guitar Hero video game. When King was feeling just a little bit better he went out and sang with Metallica at Ozzfest doing the Mercyful Fate/Metallica thing. Other than that, I think it was just his absence itself. King has such a huge body of work and a lot of it such a natural progression and as time passes more and more people hear it. The more people get into metal the more they want to go back to the roots of what they’re listening to today. If you go back through the roots of thrash or any kind of modern metal really King is in there.

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Overseas, King Diamond is playing huge festivals to thousands but here in the states you guys were playing smaller yet classic theaters. Do you like one more than the other?

No, not really. I really enjoy both of them for different reasons but a lot of the same reasons too. When it’s a huge crowd, it’s really exciting. The huge crowds, with the fact that there’s so many people watching you is exciting in itself. As far as the rowdiness in itself, you get that a lot more in the smaller venues because you can hear them and they’re in your face. The whole thing just a bit more exciting for me. When you’re playing to this huge crowd at say Wacken for instance, the people in the front row are still like 100 yards from you and my eye sight is not that good[laughs]. There’s the drums in front of me, the band and then all these swirls of color. It’s like this big amorphous blob.

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One of the things I noticed is that you don’t do a drum solo. Are you not a fan of them?

I’m on the fence to be honest [laughs]. I’m kind of neutral about it. I did drum solos with King in 2012 and 2013. We didn’t do it this year because we expanded the show and we wanted to put more music in the set. We had to change it up because we had been doing the same set for a couple of tours.

Can you do me a favor and tell King “thank you” for taking Jess and the Ancient Ones out on that tour? It didn’t seem like it could work but in all honesty I loved it and it totally did.

I’ll tell him. I really think if you watch their whole set and you take it in, as you’re looking at the big picture of what they did then King comes on and I think it was really perfect if you had the attention span to really take in the whole thing.

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And the open mindedness as well. I think a lot of people were shutting themselves off before really taking it all in.

Yeah. There isn’t one person in the band or the crew who weren’t thankful that they were on the tour. In 2005 we toured with Behemoth, Black Dalia Murder, and Nile. I love those bands but three in a row before we go on while I’m trying to concentrate on getting ready to play backstage where the sound wasn’t all that great is a lot. I love all those bands and that was a life changing tour for me as far as musical growth but with Jess and the Ancient Ones it was just so relaxing [laughs]. They have these melodies that we could all really latch on to and we were all singing along with them backstage. It was great. They were also really cool people and really easy to get along with.

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Playing with King Diamond is no small potatoes, dude. So tell me how a kid from Texas landed this dream gig?

Well, I’m originally from New Jersey. It’s important for me to clarify that [laughs].

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Hey I get it. Kind of like when people say, “You’re from Atlanta?” and I say, “No. I’m from New Orleans. I live in Atlanta.”

[laughs] Is that right? You’re from New Orleans? That’s cool. New Orleans is a really special city. Louisiana in general is a really cool, special place.

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Sorry I got sidetracked. Ok, so how did you get the gig?

[laughs] Well, I was playing with a death metal band in Dallas around 1993 or ’94 and through them I met a guitarist named Michael Harris here in Dallas. I played on a bunch of his albums which was such a great experience. Michael did his stuff at the same studio that King Diamond was doing his music in which is Nomad Studios in Dallas. King heard me playing drums and then he just called me up when he needed a new drummer.

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Were you a big fan beforehand?

Oh yeah. The first time I heard King was in 1988 when Them came out. The first song I heard was “Welcome Home” and I was just blown away. I just remember thinking, “What the hell is this?” [laughs] I had never heard anything like it. Then we were listening just the standard full on glam rock from LA and King Diamond was just probably some of the first progressive metal I had ever heard. It just blew me away like nothing else. It was such a completely different sound.

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Of all the years you’ve been playing in King Diamond, is there a song that you have yet to play live that you would love to see added to the setlist?

“7th Day of July 1777.”

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We must launch a campaign to make this reality!

[laughs] Yeah. That song just kicks so much fucking ass. Those vocals are just classic.

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What song do you just say, “Oh fuck yes!” when you see it on the King Diamond setlist?

Honestly, I’m just very uniformly pumped throughout the whole concert but I think that “Cremation” is pretty special. I just love getting into Mickey Dee’s head and how he thinks about music. That song is a great example of how he phrases. It’s kind of sparse with a medium tempo so I can hit the drums as hard as I possibly can. Like wind up and just hit it. I just love that one. It’s really fun.

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In addition to playing in King Diamond, you are also the drummer for an amazing band called Shaolin Death Squad who I am a huge fan of. Matter of fact, a buddy of mine had a podcast years ago called the Heavy Metal Lunch and we used the opening riff from “Escaping the Absinthe” as our theme.

Oh wow. That’s awesome. Thanks, man.

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So what is Shaolin Death Squad up to these days?

We just put out a live CD called Intelligent Design Live. I think we made 200 and I think there’s like 187 left. We worked really hard on this new EP that we’re mixing right now. We’re in the finishing stages of mixing it and we feel like we’re really close to a release.

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Do you do any writing in Shaolin?

Yeah. I’ve written a few songs for Shaolin. Andrew (O’Hearn; vocalist/keyboardist) writes about maybe 99.5% of the material. When he hands us his demos they’re like all the way composed with drums and everything on there. Then we just kind of rehearse them and they change as we run through them.

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Any chance you fuckers will ever come to Atlanta or do I have to come out to Texas to see you guys play?

Well, Atlanta very easily could get us out there for Prog Power and that would be awesome. That’s quite the dream for us but I think what we’re going to do is put out this EP and try to go West and play on the West coast.

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Man, if you’re not going to make it out here I guess I’ll have to head to Texas. Can I crash on your couch?

Sure, man. Come on over [laughs]. I’m really excited for this new Shaolin Death Squad EP. I think there’s some really cool music that all 50 of our fans are going to love [laughs].

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So is it 49 and me makes 50 or is it me makes 51?

[laughs] Yeah, I’m just kidding. I know it’s not true because I have a hunch we have more [laughs]. It’s our own fault though. We don’t really promote. We just make the music and then go back to our lives.

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Are you happy with it being that way or would you like to see Shaolin be more than it is?

I would love to see Shaolin be more. I would love to tour with them. We’ve played so many times on the road and we love it. I would love to see Shaolin to expand its concept because there is so much we can do with it. The stuff just writes itself. I have a good friend I grew up with named Blair Smith who is an artist and he drew a comic book called Shaolin Death Squad with characters based on all of our characters. It was totally amazing. I would love to see a comic book line, a t-shirt line, movies, and see those dollars rolling in [laughs]. Those are my hopes for Shaolin.

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A Shaolin Death Squad comic book? That’s fucking bad ass!

Yeah. It’s tremendous. He drew me having all these crazy muscles and stuff which was awesome [laughs]

In addition to kick ass drummer, you’re also a family man. How hard is it to be out on the road for you?

It’s pretty hard, man. The hardest part is leaving. Once I’m out there and a couple of days go by and I realize that the Earth didn’t cave in I’m good [laughs]. It’s a good home situation. Melissa is completely awesome and she makes me feel confident that while I’m out there everything is fine back at home.

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Matt, what was it that got you into wanting to play music in the first place?

I’m thinking peer pressure [laughs]. For some reason, the neighborhood I grew up in, there were kidn of a lot of drummers. The oldest guy of the group of kids I hung out with played the drums and he had a drumset. We were all just kind of fascinated with it and would challenge each other to learn beats and stuff. That was the summer between 2nd and 3rd grade. I also come from a family where it’s kind of mandatory to study an instrument. We were allowed to choose one so I chose drums. My mom was a violinist so within those parameters, the drums was the most I could rebel [laughs]. My elementary school had drum lessons and it was such a hassle to haul this snare in a big case onto the bus. I actually almost quit because it was such a hassle but then I started getting into Rush pretty heavily. I saw Rush in 1982 and that was it. That’s when I decided I was going to be a drummer.

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If you could play drums for any band of any era for just one night who would it be?

Oh man. It would probably be Frank Zappa. What era? It would probably have to be the Live in New York era. I’d probably want to play in that band with the Brecker brothers. If you’re talking metal, I would have say Judas Priest on the Screaming for Vengeance tour.

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After a killer, high energy set of metal, what do you to come down after the show and wind down?

We finish the show, go into the dressing room, and we ask for like a half hour before anybody comes in. We just talk about the show, have a beer, have a cheers, and just come town. Sometimes some after show food that usually involves ample carbs and cheese so that brings us down pretty quick [laughs].

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Is there any music out there that you listen to that we’d be surprised to hear that you were a fan of?

Maybe Chopin? I make a living as a drummer so it’s a lot of click tracks and a lot of 4/4 and Chopin just breaths. There’s no click track. It just pushes and pulls.

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I’ve never heard that description before. I should check some of his work out.

Please do, Don. Pick a piece; a short piano piece that’s like two minutes and listen to different piano players interpret it. It’s different every time.

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So what’s in store for Matt Thompson in 2015?

Its going to be pretty exciting. I have some pretty cool local gigs coming up. I’m going to do a couple of gigs with the singer/guitarist from the polka band Brave Combo, Carl Finch, and he’s got a project with Mike Dillon who’s currently playing percussion with Primus. We’re going to do some gigs around here and I’m really excited about the new Shaolin Death Squad EP.

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Finish this sentence: If I wasn’t a musician I would be _________________.

I would be a bass player [laughs]

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That was hands down the greatest answer to that question yet!

[laughs] No offense. I love bass players so there’s irony in that humor [laughs].

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Matt, thanks so much for such an awesome talk and I wish you the best this year in 2015! Get your couch ready for me.

Don, I love attention and thank you for giving it to me. Thanks so much.

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