The Fire Behind the Kit

Lady Kat Chaos Hails & Welcome Charlie, before we get into Dead Heart, I want to establish the history behind this conversation because you and I have known each other since 2010 through the thrash and death-metal scene. Over all these years, I’ve watched your musical journey continue through different bands, different projects, different scenes, and different periods of your life.

Your history in hardcore, punk, and metal reaches back to the late 1980s, which means you’ve witnessed several generations of underground music come and go. When you look back at the musician you were when you started compared with the drummer you are today, what has changed most about your approach to music, and what part of that younger musician is still sitting behind the kit?

Charlie Aggression When I started, I was a bass player that wanted to learn how to play drums. For the last 20 years, I’ve been playing drums and I prefer playing drums over bass. The approach to my music is the same as it ever was. I just wanna create catchy and aggressive music.

As for what part of that younger musician is still sitting behind the kit? I still feel like I’m 17 years old when I sit behind a drum kit, but my knees and my back feel like an old man… hahaha!

Lady Kat Chaos One of the things I’ve always found interesting about your career is that although you’ve moved through different genres, you’ve never really abandoned the aggression and intensity that originally drew you toward hardcore and metal. You’ve played d-beat, crust, punk, thrash, death metal, and now psychobilly. How much of your earlier musical education is still embedded in your playing today?

Charlie Aggression I’m self-taught. Everything I have learned, I learned myself through repetition and patience, and it is in my DNA.

Lady Kat Chaos You began your musical life in an era when being involved in punk, hardcore, thrash, or metal required a different kind of commitment. There wasn’t the instant access to recordings, audiences, promotion, and communication that musicians have now. You had to physically find people, find rehearsal spaces, distribute music, travel, put up flyers, attend shows, and establish relationships.

Do you think the difficulty of that earlier environment forced musicians to develop a deeper relationship with music, or is that simply something people say when they become nostalgic about their younger years?

Charlie Aggression Back before the internet, we had to go out and do things ourselves, like make flyers and establish relationships with other bands and venues. We had to go to shows just to pass out flyers to get people to come see us.

Now with all this technology, you don’t even have to leave the house or put hardly any effort into it. I think bands were hungrier back then.

From Tribute Bands to Dead Heart

Lady Kat Chaos When we met in 2010, your connection to the thrash and death-metal scene was a major part of the environment where our friendship developed. So watching you step into Dead Heart was particularly interesting because psychobilly wasn’t necessarily the direction someone would predict from your background. What made you want to take that challenge?

Charlie Aggression For the past 15 years, I had been playing in nothing but tribute bands. First I did a Death tribute that was officially authorized by Chuck Schuldiner’s family and estate, then I did a Celtic Frost tribute that had a solid three-year run.

For the last five years I’ve played in a Motörhead tribute, and I did not want to be pigeonholed as a tribute drummer. I wanted to play original music, so when I saw the ad for a drummer for a psychobilly band, I figured I would jump at it and accept the challenge.

It turns out that it was aggressive enough for me!

Lady Kat Chaos Dead Heart came together in Columbus in 2025 after you responded to a call looking for a drummer. You already knew John from the Columbus punk scene, but you hadn’t previously played with David. You’ve described that first rehearsal as almost immediate chemistry, where two songs came together that day and the material for the debut record developed after only a handful of practices.

Take me back to that first rehearsal. What happened in that room that made you realize there was something worth pursuing?

Charlie Aggression When I first got there, I introduced myself to David. I sat behind the kit. John showed us this idea for the first song, and within the first 10 minutes, we had the song locked in. We started to learn the second song, and 20 minutes in, we had both songs down.

It was pure magic. Then, over the next five practices, we wrote two songs apiece. Within six weeks, we had the whole album laid out.

Lady Kat Chaos Sometimes musicians spend months trying to manufacture chemistry between people that simply don’t work together. Other times, three people walk into a room with very different histories and something immediately makes sense.

Do you think Dead Heart’s rapid development came from the fact that the three of you brought different musical backgrounds without trying to force those backgrounds into a predetermined formula?

Charlie Aggression Our formula is simple. We get together, John shows us some ideas, and David and I bastardize them and they end up being Dead Heart songs.

Burning From Within

Lady Kat Chaos That brings us directly to Burning From Within. It’s Dead Heart’s debut full-length, recorded, mixed, and mastered at Vaughn Music Studios in Columbus during the summer of 2025. The album runs ten tracks and approximately twenty-nine minutes, which gives it a very concentrated presentation.

Now that you’ve had time to live with the record, what does Burning From Within represent to you personally?

Charlie Aggression To me, it represents the fire inside of me for the underground and how it has kept me going and saved my life more than once. John came up with the title and concept, so I’m just telling you that’s what it means to me.

Lady Kat Chaos The album opens with “Fucking Your Loneliness Away,” followed by “Leave It Alone,” “Choking,” “Lonesome Punk Rock Blues,” “Something Wicked,” “Dead Heart,” “Her Hand,” “Nosferatu,” “Three Heartbreaks Ago,” and “No One Is Laughing Now.”

There’s a lot of emotional and musical territory contained in those ten songs. Was the sequencing deliberate, or did the final running order develop more organically?

Charlie Aggression It was very deliberate. We wanted to punch people in the face with the first song and hook them in, and at the end we wanted to tell people that this is what we do, like it or not.

Lady Kat Chaos “Fucking Your Loneliness Away” is a very direct title for the opening track. It immediately tells the listener that Dead Heart isn’t interested in excessive politeness or vague language. What made that song feel like the right way to introduce the band?

Charlie Aggression Like I said in the previous question, we wanted to punch people in the face and show them that we are not fucking around.

Lady Kat Chaos Then you’ve got “Leave It Alone,” which comes in at less than two minutes. There is something very effective about a short song when every part has a reason to exist. Do you approach shorter songs differently as a drummer, or do you simply play what the song requires and let the length take care of itself?

Charlie Aggression We don’t set out to write short or long songs. I approach each song the same. I just wanna kick ass. If the song ends up short, so be it.

Lady Kat Chaos “Choking” is nearly four minutes and has a heavier character. When you’re behind the kit playing that song, what changes in your physical and rhythmic approach compared with something as concise as “Leave It Alone”?

Charlie Aggression “Choking” means a lot to me. It was the first song we wrote as a band. I don’t think about the approach. Whatever comes out is what I feel.

Lady Kat Chaos “Lonesome Punk Rock Blues” is an interesting title because it sounds almost like a description of a state of mind. Do you hear loneliness as one of the underlying themes connecting Burning From Within?

Charlie Aggression I think there’s a lot of dark concepts on the album. I know there’s a couple of breakup songs. These are all lyrics coming from John’s head and personal stories. I think loneliness is definitely one of the themes on the album.

Lady Kat Chaos “Something Wicked” and “Nosferatu” bring the horror-oriented side of Dead Heart into sharper focus. Horror has obviously been important to punk and psychobilly for decades, but Dead Heart doesn’t seem interested in simply borrowing imagery for decoration.

What does that darker material mean to you within the band’s overall identity?

Charlie Aggression We are all into horror. The darker material that we write is all based on true stuff. I don’t have anything to do with the lyrics, so I can’t tell you about any of them. I just play the songs and have a good time doing it.

Lady Kat Chaos “Dead Heart,” the title track, carries a different kind of responsibility because it shares the band’s name. Did that song take on additional significance once it became clear that it would represent the identity of the group?

Charlie Aggression I think the additional significance would be that it is a crowd favorite and there’s a lot of crowd participation in it.

Lady Kat Chaos “Her Hand” and “Three Heartbreaks Ago” move into more personal territory, while “No One Is Laughing Now” closes the record. When you hear that final song after everything that comes before it, does it feel like a deliberate conclusion to the album?

Charlie Aggression It was totally deliberate. We wanted the first song to punch people in the face and the last song to continue the beating.

Lady Kat Chaos Is there a particular song on Burning From Within that you personally feel best represents Dead Heart?

Charlie Aggression I know my favorite song on the album is “Lonesome Punk Rock Blues,” but as a whole, the entire record represents Dead Heart.

Psycho-Punkathrashabilly

Lady Kat Chaos The record has a punk-soaked psychobilly sound with thrash and rockabilly influences, and you’ve described Dead Heart as “psycho-punkathrashabilly.” I actually think that phrase says something important about the band because it acknowledges the ingredients without allowing any single genre to control the music.

When you are actually playing these songs, what are you hearing from each of those musical traditions?

Charlie Aggression When I play the songs, I don’t hear, I feel.

Lady Kat Chaos There are natural comparisons to bands such as Tiger Army and The Koffin Kats, but your own background brings a substantially heavier history into the music. How do you feel about genre comparisons?

Charlie Aggression I think using other bands to give a general idea to the lay person, or even someone that knows punk and psychobilly, definitely helps paint a picture of what we would be like. But when they hear our music, they forge their own opinion.

Like it or not, this is what we do.

Lady Kat Chaos Dead Heart also deliberately avoids some of the traditional visual conventions associated with psychobilly. You aren’t trying to dress according to a prescribed uniform or recreate somebody else’s idea of what a psychobilly band should look like. Was that intentional from the beginning?

Charlie Aggression We do not want to look like anyone else. We wanna be ourselves.

Lady Kat Chaos Do you think musicians sometimes become more concerned with looking like the genre than developing something that actually belongs to them?

Charlie Aggression Yes. I don’t really care what you look like. I just want you to rock.

The Role of the Drummer

Lady Kat Chaos You’ve played bass and you’ve sung in other projects, but you made a conscious decision years ago that you wanted to concentrate on drums. What made you decide you were finished being the person at the front of the stage?

Charlie Aggression I always wanted to be a drummer, and the older I get, the less my legs cooperate with me as far as standing and jumping around on stage. That’s why I prefer to sit back and rock out on the drums.

Charlie Aggression There’s an interesting contradiction in being a drummer. You’re physically behind the other musicians, yet you’re responsible for an enormous amount of the band’s movement. Tempo, dynamics, transitions, tension, release, and momentum all depend heavily on what happens behind that kit.

Lady Kat Chaos What do you consider your responsibility within Dead Heart?

Charlie Aggression My responsibility is to keep time, keep playing, and keep these two guys in check! Hahahahaha, just playing!

But for real, my job is to keep time and play solid.

Lady Kat Chaos When John brings a riff or song idea into rehearsal, what happens inside your head before you actually play anything? Are you immediately hearing a rhythmic response, or do you experiment until you find the part that feels natural?

Charlie Aggression I usually hear the drum pattern in my head, and I also experiment until I find a part that sounds the way I want it to and fits the song.

Lady Kat Chaos The songwriting process you’ve described is also interesting because John can arrive with a developed idea, and then you and David essentially work on it until it becomes something different from what entered the rehearsal room. How important is it for musicians to surrender ownership of an idea when the collective version is stronger than the original?

Charlie Aggression That’s a question you would have to ask John, but that’s the way we write. He brings us the idea and we shape-shift it to where it sounds like nothing like the original idea, but one million times better.

Lady Kat Chaos Have you ever fought particularly hard for a drum part because you believed it was necessary, only to discover that removing it made the song better?

Charlie Aggression No.

Lady Kat Chaos And have there been moments when somebody else’s suggestion completely changed the way you understood a song?

Charlie Aggression Yes, definitely.

Dynamics, Intent and Aggression

Lady Kat Chaos You’ve been playing aggressive music for decades, so your sense of attack is obviously part of your musical vocabulary. What do you think makes drums sound aggressive without simply turning everything into maximum volume and maximum speed?

Charlie Aggression I think drumming is like witchcraft. It’s all in the intent. Drum rolls, fills, and syncopation are all good and make the drums sound aggressive without just going for heavy hitting and maximum speed.

Lady Kat Chaos Do you think dynamics are sometimes more important than technical difficulty when you’re trying to make a song hit the listener?

Charlie Aggression You’re asking the least technical drummer this question. I’m all about dynamics. I have limited technical ability, but I can hold my own.

Lady Kat Chaos You’ve reached the point where you understand that a fill isn’t automatically useful simply because you can play it. How do you determine when a song actually needs a fill and when leaving space creates a stronger result?

Charlie Aggression I don’t know if I can answer that. I think I just feel when it’s right.

Lady Kat Chaos What makes a simple drum pattern powerful?

Charlie Aggression Intent, as I said earlier.

Lady Kat Chaos Do you think technical ability is sometimes overvalued in heavy music?

Charlie Aggression I think technical ability is fantastic if you have that. I appreciate super technical drummers, especially the awesome lady they have behind the kit in Rush. I will never be one, and I’m OK with that.

Lady Kat Chaos Can a drummer with relatively limited technical vocabulary still make an exceptional recording if they understand the song, the timing, and the emotional purpose of the part?

Charlie Aggression I did it! Hahaha!

Charlie Aggression’s Drum Setup

Lady Kat Chaos Let’s talk about your actual equipment because I know that’s something musicians always want to dig into. What is your current Dead Heart drum setup?

Charlie Aggression Here we go with the drum nerd stuff!

• Black Pearl Export drum kit
• 22-inch bass drum
• 14-inch snare
• 14-inch rack tom
• 16-inch floor tom
• Soultone Explosion Series cymbals
• 15-inch hi-hats
• 19-inch crash ride
• 19-inch crash
• 22-inch ride
• Scorpian Percussion 2B, 17-inch-long sticks
• DW 3000 double kick pedal

Lady Kat Chaos Has your preferred kit changed significantly over the decades, or have you eventually arrived at a setup that feels almost instinctive?

Charlie Aggression I started out on a huge drum set with two bass drums, three rack toms, and two floor toms. Then I went to a five-piece, and now I’m at a four-piece because it’s easier to fit in the fucking car.

I also had to adjust because of arthritis and a broken shoulder.

Lady Kat Chaos Do you tune the kit differently for Dead Heart than you would for thrash, death metal, hardcore, or one of your tribute projects?

Charlie Aggression I just tune it to where I think it sounds good and then I’ll leave it alone.

Lady Kat Chaos How much does the room influence your tuning?

Charlie Aggression When I get into the room, I set up my drums and I tune them until I like them, and then I play.

Lady Kat Chaos What kind of snare sound are you looking for with Dead Heart?

Charlie Aggression The one I have.

Lady Kat Chaos What characteristics do you want from your kick drum when you’re playing alongside an upright bass?

Charlie Aggression I want thunder.

Lady Kat Chaos And cymbals—do you prefer something bright and cutting that immediately separates itself from distorted guitars, or do you prefer a darker sound with more body?

Charlie Aggression I like both.

Lady Kat Chaos After all these years of playing live, how much of your equipment philosophy is about tone and how much is simply about reliability?

Charlie Aggression They have to have both: tone and reliability.

Lady Kat Chaos Do you think expensive equipment can compensate for poor technique?

Charlie Aggression Speaking for myself, I think that a good drummer can make an inexpensive kit sound just as good as an expensive kit.

The Dead Heart Rhythm Section

Lady Kat Chaos Dead Heart is a three-piece, and that creates a different musical responsibility because there aren’t multiple guitars occupying every frequency. Does playing in a three-piece make you more conscious of the space you’re leaving between instruments?

Charlie Aggression Playing in a three-piece is great because you don’t need 8,000 instruments to sound really good. Three people in the band also means fewer mouths to argue and less chance of personality conflict and egos.

Lady Kat Chaos How important is the rhythmic relationship between you and the upright bass?

Charlie Aggression John and I are locked in with each other. Bass and drums are the rhythm section of any band.

Lady Kat Chaos How do you and David communicate during a live performance?

Charlie Aggression David and I usually just look at each other and smile, and that’s how we know we’re on the same page.

Recording Burning From Within

Lady Kat Chaos The record was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Vaughn Music Studios with Matt Hagberg. What did Matt understand about Dead Heart that helped preserve the way the band actually feels in a room?

Charlie Aggression Matt was actually surprised that we had our shit together and our timing was spot on right off the rip. He is a wizard as an engineer and producer.

Lady Kat Chaos Was there anything during the recording process that challenged you?

Charlie Aggression Not really. I just went in and banged it out.

Lady Kat Chaos When you’re recording drums, do you want the studio to document what you can genuinely reproduce live?

Charlie Aggression The whole reason we wrote songs and recorded them is so that we get an accurate representation of what we are like live.

Lady Kat Chaos Modern production allows musicians to correct timing, replace individual performances, edit sections, and build a final drum performance from multiple takes. Where do you personally draw the line?

Charlie Aggression All my drums were done in one shot except for three songs out of the ten that were done on the second take. No editing was done on the drums.

Lady Kat Chaos Do you think musicians can sometimes become too dependent on studio technology and lose sight of whether they can actually reproduce the material in front of an audience?

Charlie Aggression We don’t worry about that. We play like we do when we are live.

Life on the Road

Charlie Aggression Dead Heart’s live reputation is becoming an increasingly important part of the band’s identity. You completed the July 2026 “Fueled by Dr. Pepper and Diarrhea” tour, and the band described it as a success.

Now that you’ve had some distance from it, what did that tour teach you about Dead Heart that you couldn’t have learned from rehearsals?

Charlie Aggression It taught me that the three of us can live in a van for five days and still remain happy. I’m grateful to have these two guys with me. David and John are my brothers and we got along famously.

Lady Kat Chaos You played alongside Balloon Knot, Velocity Stax, Spike Pit, Dredneks, Maniacal Device, Kill Uncle, Bad Dogs, Rusty Things, Full Blown 80’s, Punk Rock Hero, Spike Polite and Sewage, Jones Crusher, and others.

What do you enjoy most about entering another city’s scene and discovering musicians you might never have encountered otherwise?

Charlie Aggression I love making friends with bands and learning about bands and listening to music that we’ve never heard before. The interaction is awesome.

Lady Kat Chaos Touring can be romanticized from the outside, but the reality involves long drives, limited money, food, equipment, exhaustion, sleeping wherever somebody can accommodate you, and trying to make sure everyone gets home. What was the most difficult part of this tour?

Charlie Aggression The whole trip was amazing except for the diarrhea John and I got from Chipotle.

Lady Kat Chaos You publicly thanked the people who bought CDs and shirts and helped the band financially get home. How important is that direct support when you’re an underground band touring without the resources of a larger organization?

Charlie Aggression Without that direct support from fans, bands are absolutely nothing, and we are grateful to have people that like our music.

Lady Kat Chaos You also gave special thanks to Gary Duguay for feeding and housing you while you were in the area and to John’s mother for helping at home while the band was away. Does touring make you appreciate just how many people have to contribute behind the scenes for three musicians to get on stage in another city?

Charlie Aggression Absolutely.

Lady Kat Chaos You had a particularly strong response to the Mr. Beery’s show on Long Island. What made that night stand out to you?

Charlie Aggression I think we enjoyed the whole vibe of the tour, and that particular show was the last night of the tour, so it’s special to us. We’ve made a lot of good friends along the way.

The Next Dead Heart Album

Lady Kat Chaos You have upcoming shows in Newport, Cleveland, Fairborn, and Maple Heights. After what you experienced in July, are you approaching these next dates differently?

Charlie Aggression No. The ultimate goal is the same: go out and have a great time and hopefully turn people on to our music.

Lady Kat Chaos The second Dead Heart record is already taking shape. What are you hearing in the new material that wasn’t present on Burning From Within?

Charlie Aggression More aggression, more dynamics, and more fun!

Lady Kat Chaos Are you consciously trying to make the second record different?

Charlie Aggression We have the same magic as the first record as far as writing goes. We are not worried. It’s going to be an ass kicker.

Lady Kat Chaos A band’s first record establishes an identity, and the second record often creates pressure because listeners expect either more of the same or obvious progression. Which pressure is more dangerous?

Charlie Aggression I’m not really concerned about it. I know that this next record is going to kick ass.

Lady Kat Chaos What would you absolutely refuse to change about Dead Heart even if changing it would make the band considerably more popular?

Charlie Aggression We refuse to change anything just to conform or get more popular. We write the songs that we like to listen to, and if other people enjoy it, I’m very grateful. If they don’t, they don’t have to listen.

Four Decades in the Underground

Lady Kat Chaos Let’s return to your broader history for a moment. You’ve been involved with hardcore, punk, thrash, death metal, and tribute projects, and now Dead Heart. What have all those different musical environments taught you about people?

Charlie Aggression They may be different musical environments, but everyone comes together for the music. It is the universal language.

Lady Kat Chaos You’ve been around underground scenes long enough to know that talent alone doesn’t determine who survives. What separates musicians who remain involved for decades from people who disappear after a few years?

Charlie Aggression I think the musicians that are still musicians after 20 years or more still have the fire. A lot of people lose that fire. I will never lose the fire to play. It is the burning from within, to quote our album title.

Lady Kat Chaos Is commitment more important than talent?

Charlie Aggression There has to be a balance.

Lady Kat Chaos Can talent compensate for a lack of discipline?

Charlie Aggression No. You need both.

Lady Kat Chaos Can somebody with limited technical ability create something memorable if they understand the emotional purpose of the music?

Charlie Aggression I did. I’m living proof.

Scenes, Support and the Underground

Lady Kat Chaos Columbus has changed dramatically since you first moved there. You’ve been candid about feeling that the local scene doesn’t always support Dead Heart in the same way audiences outside Columbus have.

Do you think that’s genuinely a problem with the scene, or does every underground community naturally develop social circles and loyalties?

Charlie Aggression I think every music scene in the country has its own certain groups that stick together, support certain bands, and say to hell with the other bands, even though they’re in the same circle. I try to support local bands.

Lady Kat Chaos At what point does a band have to stop worrying about whether its hometown approves of it and concentrate on the people who actually show up?

Charlie Aggression I’m grateful to whoever supports the band, whether it be in my hometown or not. Usually outside of my hometown, we get a better response.

Lady Kat Chaos What does “support your local scene” actually mean to you?

Charlie Aggression It would mean something if there was actually a local scene and not certain social circles that only support their friends’ bands.

Lady Kat Chaos Is buying a CD more meaningful than clicking “like” on a band’s post?

Charlie Aggression Yes.

Lady Kat Chaos Do you think audiences sometimes forget that musicians are paying for gas, rehearsal space, recording, equipment, merchandise, and transportation out of their own pockets?

Charlie Aggression Totally.

Technology and the Changing Music Scene

Lady Kat Chaos You’ve been involved in underground music since the late 1980s. Younger musicians now have recording technology, social media, streaming platforms, instant communication, and access to music from virtually every generation. What do they have that you wish your generation had?

Charlie Aggression I enjoy social media because it helps get your band out there quicker. I like the evolution of technology, except AI scares me a little bit. That Terminator shit is coming to life.

Lady Kat Chaos And what did your generation have that you think has disappeared?

Charlie Aggression Respect.

Lady Kat Chaos Do you think social media has strengthened underground music, or has it created an environment where musicians are constantly promoting themselves while audiences become increasingly passive?

Charlie Aggression I love discovering different bands through the internet, and yes, audiences have definitely become increasingly passive. The real people will come out and see you.

Lady Kat Chaos Is there a difference between actually being part of a scene and simply being visible within one?

Charlie Aggression I’m gonna quote Lethal Aggression: “If you wanna have a scene, then you gotta make a scene. If you don’t make a scene, no scene.”

There are people out there that just go to shows to be seen and not be part of the scene. I’ve put my time in over the past 40 years, so if I don’t go to a show, then I don’t go to a show. That doesn’t mean I don’t support the bands. I still buy product from the bands directly.

Music, Work and Independence

Lady Kat Chaos You’ve also maintained a regular job while continuing to play. Does having another source of income actually protect your relationship with music because you don’t have to compromise your creative decisions to survive financially?

Charlie Aggression I have to work a day job. If you think you can just play music and make money without sucking corporate dick, then you’re delusional. I love the underground because it comes from the heart.

Lady Kat Chaos If Dead Heart suddenly became financially successful, would that change the band’s creative priorities?

Charlie Aggression I don’t think we care about being successful. We are just having fun playing music that we like. It would be nice to get paid well for doing it, but we really don’t care about any of that.

I think overall we would love to play with some bigger bands and some bands that have legacy, and play places that we’ve never played. Hell, I would love to play in Japan, South America, or Australia, but you gotta have money to do that shit.

Lady Kat Chaos Do you believe financial success and artistic independence can coexist in underground music?

Charlie Aggression I think if you’re successful financially and artistically, sure, you can do whatever you want. I think you can balance anything and coexist in the underground.

Being a new band, we think that the music speaks for itself and the music is the most important thing to us.

Age, Endurance and the Fire to Keep Playing

Lady Kat Chaos You’ve been playing drums for decades. Has getting older changed the way you prepare physically for shows?

Charlie Aggression There’s nothing wrong with my endurance. I can still rock it out as long as it takes. Getting older definitely changes the way that I mentally prepare for shows, and the way I set up my drums is different now.

Lady Kat Chaos What do you know now about warming up, posture, recovery, endurance, and protecting your body that you wish you’d known thirty years ago?

Charlie Aggression I really didn’t give a shit about it back then, and to this day, I still do the same thing. I warm up when it’s time to play. I have bad posture and arthritis, but I don’t give a fuck. Once I start playing, I feel like there’s nothing wrong with me.

I wish I had known these guys 30 years ago. Actually, I would’ve known John 30 years ago, but David wasn’t even thought of 30 years ago! Hahaha. He’s the baby of the band and probably has the most talent. Then John is in the middle, and then I’m the grandpa.

Lady Kat Chaos What is physically harder for you now than it was when you were younger, and what has actually become easier?

Charlie Aggression When I was younger, I could run, jump, and skateboard. Then I fucked my knees up, and now it hurts to go up and downstairs. Walking long distances sucks balls. I cannot crouch or kneel, and I cannot jump.

I don’t think there’s anything that has physically become easier other than being able to come up with cool beats for these Dead Heart songs.

Lady Kat Chaos Has getting older changed what you want from the musicians you work with?

Charlie Aggression Getting older has not changed what I want from musicians I work with. I’ve always wanted the same things with everyone. I want dedication and commitment. I want to be tight and not sloppy as fuck.

I wanna be that band that people go, “Damn! These guys are as good as the record, if not better.” I’ve been blessed to be in bands throughout my life with very talented individuals.

Motörhead, Celtic Frost and Death

Lady Kat Chaos You’ve also played in Fast & Loose, the Motörhead tribute, and you’ve built a catalog of roughly 125 Motörhead songs. What has learning that much Motörhead taught you about Lemmy’s approach to rhythm and songwriting?

Charlie Aggression Let’s say we know a lot of fucking Motörhead songs. Lemmy’s approach to songwriting? He just wrote rock ’n’ roll songs, and Another Perfect Day is one of the best albums of all time.

Lady Kat Chaos Motörhead can sound deceptively simple until you’re responsible for reproducing the songs. What do you discover as a drummer that isn’t obvious when you’re simply listening to the records?

Charlie Aggression I noticed that the drumming is way more complicated than I thought, and I’m just doing what I can to get by in the songs. Their drummers have been amazing, and I wish I could be one eighth of the drummer that they are.

Lady Kat Chaos When you perform Motörhead, are you trying to reproduce the original performances exactly, or are you trying to capture the character and intention behind them?

Charlie Aggression We try to give the audience an accurate representation of a Motörhead show. We learned the songs as they are on the albums.

Lady Kat Chaos You’ve also been involved with tribute projects connected to Celtic Frost and Death. What do you learn about those musicians when you have to physically reproduce their music rather than simply listen to it?

Charlie Aggression I never really thought about it. I was just having fun keeping their music alive in a live setting.

Lady Kat Chaos Some people criticize tribute bands because they believe musicians should only perform original material. You’ve argued that tribute bands can keep the music of artists who no longer perform alive in a live environment. Where do you personally draw the line between paying respect to an artist and exploiting their name?

Charlie Aggression I don’t believe that I have ever exploited anyone from any of the three tributes I’ve been in. I’m just having fun playing the music.

Lady Kat Chaos If Fast & Loose stopped being fun, would you have any difficulty walking away from it despite all the time you’ve invested?

Charlie Aggression If music ever becomes not fun, I will definitely walk away. But that’s not gonna happen because if it was no fun, I would’ve walked away years ago. All I know is music and playing music. I have the fire. That shit just does not go away.

Finding Your Own Voice

Lady Kat Chaos After decades of listening to and playing heavy music, what makes you immediately recognize that a drummer has developed their own voice?

Charlie Aggression I don’t know how to answer that. I think that a drummer develops their own voice, but it takes time and some people never find that voice.

Lady Kat Chaos Can you hear a drummer’s personality even when you don’t know who is playing?

Charlie Aggression I think you can feel it through the drummer’s playing.

Lady Kat Chaos What makes a drummer memorable?

Charlie Aggression or me, what makes a drummer memorable is the energy that he or she puts into the performance with the band.

Lady Kat Chaos What matters more to you now—speed, control, dynamics, tone, consistency, or feel?

Charlie Aggression All of the above.

Lady Kat Chaos If you could go back to the beginning and give yourself one piece of advice about playing drums, what would it be?

Charlie Aggression Practice as much as possible while you’re young because when you get old, the practice days get shorter and shorter.

Preserving the Underground

Lady Kat Chaos You’ve watched entire generations of punk, hardcore, thrash, death metal, and other underground music evolve. Do you think musicians have an obligation to preserve the traditions they inherited, or should every generation be free to reinterpret those traditions however it wants?

Charlie Aggression If somebody doesn’t preserve it, no one will remember it. And yes, people should have the freedom to reinterpret the traditions however they want, as long as they keep true to the original ideals and themselves.

Lady Kat Chaos What is one uncomfortable truth about creating underground music as a band that people outside of music rarely understand?

Charlie Aggression I think the uncomfortable truth for a lot of people about creating underground music as a band is that sometimes you get writer’s block.

Lady Kat Chaos What do you think people misunderstand about musicians who have been doing this for thirty or forty years?

Charlie Aggression I think a lot of people think that because they’ve been doing it for 30 or 40 years that they need to give up. Fuck that shit. I will never give up until I drop. Just because you’re old doesn’t mean you can’t still play aggressive music.

On Stage

Lady Kat Chaos Do you still get nervous before a show?

Charlie Aggression I never had stage fright because I knew that’s where I wanted to be, so the answer is no. I do not get nervous before a show.

Lady Kat Chaos What goes through your mind during those final seconds before Dead Heart begins?

Charlie Aggression I hope I don’t drop a fucking stick! Hahahaha!

Lady Kat Chaos What makes you leave a stage thinking, “That was a great show,” regardless of whether there were twenty people or two hundred?

Charlie Aggression You can tell whether there’s 20 people, 200 people, or 2,000 people. If the energy is there, it will always be a great day.

Lady Kat Chaos And what makes you walk away knowing that you didn’t play as well as you should have?

Charlie Aggression Everybody fucks up on stage. And I mean everybody. I just don’t let it get to me. Move on to the next show!

Looking Forward

Lady Kat Chaos Do you listen critically to your own recordings once they’re released, or do you prefer to leave the finished album behind and focus on what you’re creating next?

Charlie Aggression Well, we are definitely focusing on finishing up the writing for the second album. Sure, we critically listened to the first album a few times before it came out.

I put it down for about six or seven months and just recently went back to it, and I fucking love it. I think it came out great, and I can’t wait to work with Matt again and put out a second ass-kicking Dead Heart record.

Lady Kat Chaos If you could change one thing about your drumming from twenty years ago, what would it be? And what part of your younger playing would you refuse to lose?

Charlie Aggression I would’ve practiced more. From my younger days, I still have the fire and I will never lose that.

The Undying Love for the Underground

Lady Kat Chaos Charlie, we’ve known each other since 2010. We’ve watched musicians come and go, bands form and collapse, scenes change, friendships develop, and entire musical eras disappear. We’ve also watched you continue to put yourself through the work required to remain an active musician.

You’re still recording. You’re still touring. You’re still learning. You’re still sitting behind that kit. So after all these years, what is the thing that still makes you want to pick up the sticks?

Charlie Aggression It’s the undying love for the underground. And if I can make one person smile from listening to my music that I play, then I have accomplished everything.

Booking Dead Heart

Lady Kat Chaos Who is handling the booking of your shows and how can they contact them?

Charlie Aggression I do all the show bookings for Dead Heart. I was doing all the show bookings for Fast & Loose, but I let Victor take over that.

Whoever wants to get in touch with Fast & Loose can go to our Facebook page. Whoever wants to get in touch with Dead Heart about a show, feel free to email me.

Booking Email:
charlieaggression@yahoo.com

Lady Kat Chaos Are you using a contract and rider for the shows you’re booking?

Charlie Aggression No. I’ve never been in a band that has used one. I do shit the old-fashioned way. I talk to people face-to-face or over the phone. We agree and just do shows on faith and a handshake.

Final Words

Lady Kat Chaos Thank you for the interview, Charlie. Before I kick you out of my metal throne, after everything you’ve experienced since you first started in the late 1980s, what was the hardest lesson you’ve learned as a musician?

Charlie Aggression There are a lot of people that are gonna claim to be your friend that will stab you in your back the first chance they get. Fuck them. You just keep playing what you enjoy playing.

As long as you like it, keep doing it.

Thank you for the interview. It’s been amazing.