An interview with drum legend Carmine Appice

Legendary drummer Carmine Appice (older brother to Vinnie Appice) joined forces with multi-instrumentalist and rising studio star Fernando Perdomo to form The Appice Perdomo Project (aka APP), whose debut album ENERGY OVERLOAD was released September 24, 2021 on Cleopatra Records. The first single, Rocket to The Sun, dropped on August 31st. Appice has more than made a name for himself throughout the years as he has toured with some of the biggest names in music including Ozzy Osbourne, Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck. He is also a founding member of the legendary 60's rock band Vanilla Fudge and he's also a founding member of the band Cactus. His playing alone has also been a huge influence on drummers including Joey Kramer (Aerosmith), Neal Peart (Rush), Phil Collins (Genesis), Brian Taylor (Queen), John Bonham (Led Zeppelin) and countless others. He was inducted into the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2014. He remains on Rolling Stone Magazine’s 100 Greatest Drummers of All-Time list.

Interview by Misael Ruiz

MR: You recently released your new album The Appice Perdomo Project. Can you tell me about your newest album? CA: Well, it's an instrumental album. It was done in my studio. It started out as an experiment to see if we could work together by sending tracks to each other and then we realized it was a lot of fun. I liked him as a musician. He played bass guitar and keyboard on the record. I did all the percussions and songwriting. We both produced it and engineered it. It came out and we got great reviews, a lot of great reviews, actually. So that's how it happened. We kept recording and had 18 songs done. I said, "let's take 12 of them, get a record deal and get it released". So, that's what we did and, uh, so far so good. MR: What was the most fun about recording the album? CA: We had no restrictions, basically. We did whatever we wanted to do, you know? We had lots of different kinds of songs. We didn't really limit ourselves to any specific kind of music. So we just played whatever we wanted to do and it was a lot of fun doing that. MR: The most difficult? CA: For me, it was learning how to record. I just put up the studio in my house. This was really the first project that I did engineering myself and everything. So, that's one of the reasons why I did it too. I figured it would teach me and give me experience recording at my studio. MR: Favorite songs on the album? CA: I think Pure Ecstasy, Flower Child...I like Rocket to the Sun. I like all of them, really. I don't have any favorites. If I had a favorite, favorite it might be Pure Ectasy. MR: You've toured with some of the biggest names in music including Ozzy Osbourne, Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart. What was it like touring with those bands? CA: At the time, it was a lot of fun. Good venues, playing all around the world, great responses, records would sell, unlike today. You know, you make records and nobody gets to hear them. So, it was just a whole different ball game back then. Even those guys don't sell records like they used to. MR: Are there any plans to tour for the new album? CA: I don't think on this particular album, but since we have 18 songs, we have six leftover so we'll probably record another six or seven and release another album and then maybe upon the release of that album we'll do some shows and hit major cities. Miami, New York, Chicago, LA, Detroit, that kind of thing. MR: If you have any, what are your hobbies outside of music? CA: Cars. I've always been a car buff. I've collected cars, I've bought cool cars, I've driven them. I'm into cars. MR: What's your favorite car? CA: I don't have a favorite. I mean, I have good cars that are good for certain things, you know. I've had Jaguars, a bunch of Jaguars. A good Maserati. They're all different, you know? It's like if you're going to Baskin Robbins and ask yourself what's your one favorite ice cream. I can't pick one. MR: Any hilarious stories/experiences from being on the road? CA: Here's a quick one. When I was with Ozzy, we played the Nassau Coliseum. The day after the gig, we're in a limo together and Ozzy said he was hungry so...you probably don't know what a White Castle is, do you know what a White Castle is? MR: Yes, it's a burger restaurant. CA: Yeah, so Ozzy said he was hungry and it was late and asked if there was any place we could eat. I said yeah, so I told the limo driver to take us to the White Castle I know of. So we pulled up to White Castle, me and Ozzy got out. People were looking at us. I had black and purple hair and Ozzy is wearing a big coat in the middle of winter in New York. He liked it so much that when we got to Madison Square Garden two nights later, he caters all of us backstage with White Castle. MR: What are some of your favorite memories as a musician? CA: Touring and riding with Rod Stewart. Going to movie awards with him and meeting lots of different movie stars. Pretty good memories. MR: If you could be the drummer for any band, who would it be? CA: Marvista Orchestra. Very progressive, very intricate music and very challenging. I could have said The Beatles [laughs].

Carmine Appice on FB: https://www.facebook.com/CarmineAppiceOfficial

Rocket to the Sun: https://youtu.be/HV6oedEi5pY