New Primus drummer John Hoffman celebrates earning the gig of a lifetime

John Hoffman. // photo credit Agent Ogden

Last year, rock band Primus made headlines when they announced the sudden departure of longtime drummer Tim Alexander, and stated that they’d be holding open auditions for anyone who wanted to try out. The open call attracted 6200 hopefuls for the position, which the band documented in the behind-the-scenes YouTube series Interstellar Drum Derby.

Shreveport, Louisiana’s John Hoffman got the gig, and Primus’ current tour marks his first time as a drummer for a headlining national act, so we were very excited to hop on the phone and chat with Hoffman ahead of Primus’ show at Grinders on Saturday, July 12.

The Pitch: We sourced some questions from fans in Kansas City, and we’re gonna start out with those, because people are very excited for you. The first one is, “What’s it like going from playing locally in Louisiana to touring nationwide with Primus? Have you ever been on tour before?”

John Hoffman: I’ve toured plenty of times. I’ve been a professional musician for a long time. Having said that, I’ve never been on a tour of of the type of scale that Primus is on and the scale of the Sessanta tour that we were just on and the upcoming Onward and Upward tour. This is all very new and a lot larger than I’m used to.

So yeah, coming from a, you know, being basically just a local and regional touring musician to coming up to this big stage has been quite an adjustment. And as I’ve kinda said in the past, a couple people have asked me that question. I said it was “a zero to a thousand miles an hour situation.” So it all happened so fast, it was just so overwhelming, but also, you know, such a blessing and so cool in every way.

That’s awesome. The next question is, “what is Danny Carey like?”

Danny is probably one of the nicest people I’ve met in recent memory. He a big, happy guy. That’s how I’d describe him. I kind of, you know, was saying to Les, at some point that Danny is a hero of mine. I grew up listening to him and loving Tool. Their music has always been so mysterious and their vibe has always been a little bit darker, you know? Just that… that nature, and I always imagined Danny being kind of like a serious and intense person. He was complete opposite. When I had a chance to meet him, he was just like a big like, just a big loving dude, big smile on his face. You know, just a pleasure to be around.

That is so sweet. It’s so funny to hear, like, “Oh, I was just talking to Les.” Did you ever think that you would ever drop a line like that? Did you ever think this would be your world?

I’m getting used to it. Actually, I was just texting with him, and it’s funny when I see his name on my phone I still say that to myself. Like, I can’t believe he even text me. It’s cool.

I love that. So this this one probably is covered in your video series, so I do apologize if so, but what was your audition prep like? What did you go through? What did you do to prepare for this?

Well, whenever I got the audition, I got the call to go out to LA to audition, my mindset was that I needed to focus completely 100% on the task at hand. And, it’s a strange comparison to make, but, I was kind of putting myself in the mindset of the way that, like, a championship boxer or a championship fighter would put themselves going into a a title fight where they usually would spend two months before the fight completely dedicating their life to the training process and training camp getting up to that to the fight tonight. And it it sounds odd, but I was kind of approaching it in that same way where I felt like I needed to have that level of dedication, and this upcoming audition was my big title fight. So I really just turned up the volume a lot on everything I was doing. I was practicing all day. I would practice all night. I I had a buddy of mine let pretty much take over his studio, where I could set up my drums, and it was located in an area of town where I wouldn’t bother anyone. So I could stay there all night and play. So that’s what I was doing: I was just focusing completely on the audition.

Well you’re right, it really was the big event for you. I feel like it was the only way to go in, and it paid off because look at you now!

Yeah. If I changed any single thing about the way that this whole process played out, I’m not sure if I would have ended up on top. It was such a long series of of different things that just kept kind of going my way and, you know, and and choices that I made that turned out to be the right choices over and over and over again to the point where it was kind of overwhelming where, at some point during the process, I’m going, “Man, everything this is going so well for me. Like, it’s kind of amazing that everything has been in my favor.” And so, you know, I was kinda dealing with that. Like, I had never it never felt like I had been so lucky in my life. But, you know, I felt like it was a combination of being prepared whenever that, that luck showed itself.

I love that and can relate. That’s pretty much how I got where I am right now, a series of very fortunate events. So the next question is, so now that Primus is a part of your life now, does it take a heightened type of practice to prepare for individual shows, or were you kind of already used to this process with your previous bandmates?

I would say it’s heightened quite a bit because, you know, the pressure is on a little bit more. You know, obviously, Primus is a world class level band. So, you know, stepping up to the plate has been a priority of mine. Being in local bands and playing with other artists, I mean, I’ve definitely had a lot of intense dedication leading into the preparation. But coming in here and not just learning the material, but also kind of getting on Les and Larry’s page and how they do things and trying to fit in with them without being a speed bump and making it feel comfortable for them. That’s been a big part of the process too.

But as far as practice goes, like I was saying, I was spending so much time in preparation during the audition. Now that I’m in the band, it’s a lot more mental preparation and practice than it was physical or is physical just because of the timing. For example, if we’re on the road, if we’re traveling, I don’t have the time to play on the drums as much as I want just by myself. So it’s a lot of listening to the music and sort of, like, air drumming and internalizing the music.

It sounds so deep. I’m glad they chose you for this because the amount of love that you’re pouring into every note even just to this point is fantastic. So in your preparation, are you beginning to make any creative decisions for any songs new or old, or is it more of a, like, a cog of the machine situation?

I think it’s a little of both. They’re definitely giving me a lot of room to grow and be myself and add my own flavor and element. But, however, there are a lot of songs that we all love from Primus that have been around for a long time, and people are used to hearing them a certain way. That’s important to be able to honor the traditional aspect of the song so that it’s familiar and comfortable to everyone without coming in and just changing everything.

So there’s a lot of elements that are definitely, they need to be pretty accurate to the way that they’re recorded and the way that people are used to hearing them. But there are also a lot of elements where I’m free to do my own thing and kind of just be myself, you know, and shine a little bit outside of the, you know, the core songs, you know, the core part of the songs that people are still hearing.

Primus. // photo credit Danny Miller

When you’re describing this, it kind of reminds me of an interview that John Mayer did about Dead and Company and covering Jerry Garcia’s guitar playing. Like, you can’t sway too much, but it’s absolutely your own to sway when you do. So, all of these questions so far have been by musicians. The next one’s also by a drummer. Is it intimidating to play and hone in on a pocket with Les Claypool? He’s one of the best ever to do it so, what’s that like?

Well, short answer is yes, and it’s because he’s one of the greatest bass players to ever live. You know? And that’s, like, coming from being a fan of the band, you know, pretty recently even. I’ve only been in the band for not even five months at this point. So the learning curve has been pretty sharp. But, I mean, there’s always an intensity and a level of sort of pressure on myself to really sync up and link up with him. It’s not hard to do. He’s so great at the bass. It’s more of me getting on his page as opposed to trying to find a way to group with him. It’s easy to group with him. Making sure that I’m doing what he wants me to do. You know?

The next question is what brand equipment do you like to play?

Well, I’m endorsed now by DW Drums. Favorite drum company. I’ve been a fan of DW since I was a little kid, since I was probably 12 or 13. I saw they put out a VHS cassette or a VHS tape called the American Dream, and it was basically like a documentary about their drums and showed, you know, the inside of the factory, interviewed different VW artists and whatnot. And it was, ever since then, I’ve been fully in love with VW. And, so I’m pretty fortunate to be a part of their family now and represent their company. But I also am playing Sabian Cymbals, which, again, I’ve been a huge fan of and have been playing Sabian pretty much exclusively for, like, twenty years now. But I’m there, and I’m playing Vater drumsticks and Aquarian drum kits as well.

John Hoffman. // photo credit Agent Ogden

I love how far that you’ve come. Like you said, it’s only been five months. How does this all feel to you?

You know, so a lot of times, it feels like a fever dream or something where it’s just so surreal and crazy. And I’ll kind of come back to reality and go, oh, this is right now. But yeah. It’s just been so much when I think about everything that’s happened in five months. I mean, it’s been a daily dose of something cool or some kind of level up experience. And so, a lot of it feels just like a whirlwind. Like, it’s just passed me by, you know? And so, once the dust settles and I kinda have a little time to get back home and clear my head, I’m sure a lot of these experiences will remanifest themselves into my brain. I’ll be able to actually live a little bit, but at this point, some of it’s turning into a blur because everything that’s coming next is so intense and so crazy and cool that, it’s just whizzing by. You know? But it’s been amazing. Every single day has been something cool.

Have you felt at any point that there’s going to be a major challenge moving forward, or does this all seem like pretty even flow from here?

Well, I think at this point, I feel like most of my doubts have pretty much been cleared up. I think that any disasters that I might have been predicting, or at least I’ve been hoping wouldn’t happen or anything, I think any of those probably would have happened already. They would have kind of shown themselves on the last tour, and everything went really smooth. I mean, for the most part, there were no disasters. Everything pretty much went off without a hitch.

At this point, heading into this next tour, there’s a bit of an ease on my mind now that I’ve kind of got one tour under my belt and I’ve gotten a little more used to Larry and Les. I’m still intimidated by them, because I’m still a fan. Like, I still always refer to them as Primus. You know, I’ll say, “yeah, Primus is doing this or that” but I won’t include myself. I’m still getting used to saying it. They’ll be like, “you know you’re in the band now, right?”

Like, “Pinch me!” So your very first show with them was the Sessanta 2.0 right? In the Dominican Republic?

Yeah. The Dominican Republic Live in the Sand show was the first show. That was just a one off. You know? We did it and then the tour was the first tour that I did.

But your very first show was this huge, major, international show with three bands. I feel like that would have been such a huge event to get your feet wet for a debut that it would have kind of wiped any doubts out. Did it get all your nerves out of the way at first, or was that more intimidating?

Well, it was certainly intimidating to get my nerves out of the way. I was saying that the attention that I got from this thing was so, so crazy, at least from my perspective. I mean, there are probably a lot of people in the world that are used to that type of attention, but I wasn’t, and so it was different. Definitely trying to get used to that type of thing. But, whenever it happened and it went off well, it was like, you know, the response from the people was so, so overwhelmingly positive that it really put everything at ease. I’ve been very fortunate that everybody in the fan base, 99.9% of the comments on Reddit I’ve read have been completely supportive. So, you know, it’s been, it’s been much easier.

I was wondering if you read the comments because we all love you. I mean, you were chosen out of 6100 people. Fans feel very entitled to their opinion, which they are, and I understand that, but I feel like if the band has enough respect out of 6100 people to choose you, I feel like we should honestly not knock that. You’re amazing, and we’re very excited for you. Do you feel that you will go on any of his side projects with him maybe Frog Brigade or anything?

I don’t know. Honestly, I mean, that would be cool. And who knows what the future holds? I would love to be a part of that type of thing. Anything that the guys have in mind, I would probably love to be a part of. But, at this point, I’m just very, very thankful to be a part of Primus and have a focus.

That’s beautiful. I love that. Do you think that there is a probability of a new Primus album?

I will say there’s a strong probability that there will be a new Primus album.

Primus plays Grinders with Ty Segall on Saturday, July 12. Details on that show here.