There is something special about drummers in Heavy Metal. Watching someone pound the skins up close with groove, rhythm, and sweat is so exciting. A top example would be Tank at the Cart & Horses last year, where I was about two meters away from the awesome Karl Wilcox in action.
Karl Wilcox looks well, wearing his MetalTalk t-shirt that we gave him at the Cart & Horses show. With the weather as it is, we have moved up to hoodies, so I promise to put one in the post for him.
As someone who has played massive stages in the past, the compact settings of places like the Cart & Horses still get Karl buzzing.
“Several drummers and musicians have commented on the preference for a smaller venue,” Karl smiles, “because it’s a lot more intimate. People giving you the horns and screaming the lyrics back at you whilst you’re playing is really, really noticeable as opposed to being 25 yards from the front of the stage, and then there’s like 15 feet of security and then you can see the crowd.
“For me, especially on my first show with Tank, yeah, I really, really enjoyed that show.”
This was a really great show and a cool evening. I love Leader Of Down as well. MetalTalk spoke to Cliff Evans and Mick van Tuckerberg from Tank after the gig, and they were buzzing. Cliff said that with that lineup, it feels like a brand new band to him.
“There was definitely some electricity during the rehearsals that we had,” Karl says. “Obviously, Mick and Cliff sorted the set out, and we all had to do our own woodshedding. We had more or less one and a half days really to go through the set. There was a lot of individual woodshedding.
“It came together really, really quickly, which sort of shows that everybody was on the same page. Everybody had done their homework, and the cohesiveness of everybody proved that, yeah, this is a killer lineup.”
After the gig, Cliff said that his right ear was ringing because of how hard Karl Wilcox hit the snare. Marcus Von Boisman was excellent on the night. When Karl is busy hurting Cliff’s ears, he says he is very aware of what Marcus does when facing the crowd.
“Even though I went to study drums at the Drummers Collective in New York City, I’ve always been the kind of drummer that plays for the song, he says. “I like listening to vocalists and lyrics. I try, quote-unquote, not to overplay because then it allows them to if they want, change their phrasing. If they want to do something different, then they’re allowed to do that.
“I listen a lot to the vocals and Marcus is top drawer. He really is a quality, quality vocalist. A really nice guy, and a talented guy within the studio and a great band member.”
Gav Gray on bass was cool, too, at the Cart & Horses. As a rhythm section, is it important that Karl has a good connection with the bass player? “No disrespect to the bass players here, but I’m a little bit more of a Bonham-esque kind of drummer,” Karl says. “If you listen to my right foot, I’m playing a little bit more with the rhythm guitar. I always find that allows the bass player to go and do other things.”
It’s an interesting take that had me thinking of the differences between bass in one and two guitar bands. Karl explains that if the song needs the bang-crash groove, then he will lock in with the bass player. “The bass player may be just playing something like simple straight eight notes or straight quarter notes. If the guitar player may be playing something a little bit more busy or syncopated on top of that, then, no, I don’t need to get in the way of that. The bang crash groove underneath the syncopated rhythm works really, really well. Period.”
Following the Cart & Horses show, Tank were on a plane the following day to Texas to play at Hell’s Heroes Festival. There was a great photo on social media where the band were together having a beer, and Karl Wilcox had his MetalTalk t-shirt on, looking particularly resplendent. That must have been good as a bonding session.
“We chose to go fly in on Thursday,” Karl says, “even though our show was on a Friday, so we could basically just get a feel for the festival, see where the merchandise had to go and just get a vibe for everybody that was working the festival. Say hello to the stage hands and meet the promoter.
“For us, because it was a little bit rushed… We had some quote-unquote socializing, like during the one and a half days rehearsal, but it was a little rushed. The focus was on the set and making sure things were right because even though we had all done our woodshedding, I might have done something. I was finding my place. So the Friday afternoon after we had got settled…
“When we arrived in Houston, there was a major storm, and everybody was really tired. It took forever to get through customs and immigration. We didn’t really get a chance to bond on a Thursday night, so on Friday, we went down to the festival and met everybody. Then we found this place where everybody was walking to, sat down, and had a drink. A very close friend of Cliff’s also joined us for the show, Hans. We just sat down, and I thought, what a great time to wear my MetalTalk t-shirt.”
As time ran towards the back end of 2024, this would not be the best of times for Karl Wilcox. He looks great. The French climate must suit him, but this is an energetic man recovering from a quadruple bypass.
“We’ve actually got the sun out today, and there is some blue sky,” Karl says. “But it’s been absolutely horrible [weather] since I left the recovery centre.
“I had my surgery on November 16th, and then on November the 21st or 22nd, I was transported to the William Harvey Recovery Center, where I basically spent three weeks. They put you through your paces. It’s very, very regimented.
“Walking at 9 o’clock for 30 minutes, then you have an hour and a half, and then you’re doing some cycling for 30 minutes, and you have lunch at 12:30. 45 minutes rest, and then another walk for 30 minutes and then physical therapy, and then that’s it. You can relax and enjoy the rest of the day until dinner, which is served at 6:30.
“Then they pushed the cycling up to 45 minutes. It’s very regimented. It’s very much monitoring you, basically going over your die. I had a couple of stress tests. They knew I was a musician as I said I was a drummer.”
At the recovery centre, the staff had come up with a plan to get Karl back drumming, but that soon had to change. “They went and checked some videos,” Karl laughs, “and they came back and said, OK, I think the schedule that we gave you for your drumming, you should push back a few more weeks. That whole arm waving about and all that energy, we need to just slow down on that.
“The heart is fine, but obviously, they’re more concerned about the sternum.”
A quadruple bypass is a type of open-heart surgery that can involve cutting the breastbone, or sternum, to bypass blocked arteries in the heart. The standard recovery is 6–8 weeks if a person is not doing a physical job, but with the drumming style of Karl Wilcox, you have to consider the recovery of the breastbone.
Monday was the first time that Karl had started his practice routine since the operation as he begins to work himself back to form.
“But it was a wonderful, wonderful experience. Everybody from the catering staff, the cleaners, the physiotherapists, my cardiologist, everybody went above and beyond. The folks who did my surgery up at the Saint Martin Hospital, again, everybody went above and beyond.
“There were a couple of folks in there who recognized me. You don’t expect some cardiologist to come out and be a Metalhead. He’s like, are you the drummer in Diamond Head? I’m like, yeah, yeah.
“There was one gentleman, Frank. The day I went in for my surgery on November 16th, I was down in the operating room at 7:30. He came over and introduced himself and said, I’m Frank. I’m going to be the guy who’s basically controlling the machine that is regulating your blood and your oxygen coming out of your body and then going back into it.
“He explained he was a drummer. I thought, oh, OK, well, great. Well, you’re in charge of the smoke machine. We’ve become really, really good friends. I’m helping him develop a few things that he wants to advance himself with drumming.
“He also videotaped my heart whilst I was being operated on. I actually have that. I’ve only clicked on the video and looked at the frame. I haven’t actually played it yet. But you can see my heart. My heart was stopped for two hours, and it all went well.”
That would make a good t-shirt photo, then? “Frank said, ‘I thought you might be able to use it in a video.’ I’m like, I think it’s a bit too graphic [laughs].”
There is a target to be playing properly in April. Tank have the Heavy Sound Festival in Belgium in June. Is it now all about building up his stamina and strength around his chest? “Yeah, that’s it,” Karl says.
“I think this interim period will give me a chance to go over some things really that I’ve probably not focused on for a while. The one good thing was I was able to finish the drums for the new Tank album before all this happened. So, I was pleased that I got that done.
“Obviously, when I do record, I record as if I am playing live. So, I put a lot of energy into the actual playing on the recording. It’s full on. How am I going to play this live? That’s how I’m gonna record it. I might as well be able to play it with the same kind of venom and gusto, and showmanship. I am putting a show on at the end of the day for everybody.
“I’ve got an interim period. Tank did have a US scheduled tour in March, and I did say to Mick, Cliff, Ace Management, Marcus and Gav that look, if you need to get a dep, then please do. Or if you need to replace me, I would totally understand because you don’t know how this is gonna go at the end of the day.
“They were like, no, no, it’s OK, we’ll wait. Thankfully, the tour has been pushed back to the middle of September now, running into late October. We have the show in June, and we’re hoping now to start filling some warm-up dates. Then, if all goes well with the album when it comes out, to do a UK tour.”
Karl Wilcox says Mick has been to Marcus’s studio in Sweden, where they did some pre-mixing. “It’s coming along very, very well,” he says. “We’re hoping to have it completed by the end of this month.”
