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Let’s start at the beginning with how you got together with Trouble - how did that happen and what were the early days of Trouble like in terms of defining that classic sound that single handedly brought back doom metal (even while Sabbath were still around!)?
Ok, here we go. I got together with Trouble because their drummer, at the time, was not committed to playing gigs. I came in and never really left. Trouble's sound was unique with Bruce, Rick and Ian Brown. Our practice room was carpeted and gave us what we called, 'the basement sound.' We liked tuning low and grooving slow.

I heard that in the early days you had 5 bass drums so is that true and how did you manage that with only 2 legs!
Actually I had 6 bass drums! Two for my legs and the other 4 played and tuned like timpani or kettle drums, that I play behind me with my sticks.

When you left Trouble (I think that was after ‘Run To The Light’) it was stated that that was cos you wanted to become a lay preacher so was that also true and was that the main reason why Trouble were labelled or seen as a white / christian metal band?
I left Trouble soon after the 'The Skull Tour' (before Run To The Light) to attend college and study many subjects. Kerrang Magazine claimed that I went from 'pounding the drums' to 'pounding the pulpit.' That was simply not true. Theology was (and still is) a very interesting subject for me amongst other areas of the liberal arts. My studies eventually led to a BM degree at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1992 while writing and recording my music on my own label, Upland. I have published music for children called, 'Children's Stories From Around The World' and another album called 'Music to Cook By,' which was my leftover music from the theatre company that I was also involved in as well. I was also busy teaching music privately and writing musical scores while Trouble continued on touring, but I still contributed to all Trouble albums (playing keys and such) with the exception of 'Manic Frustration' (RIP Barry Stern). Eventually I took back the drum chair in 1995. As far as being a 'white-Christian band'... well, in the early days, Eric used biblical references to explain life and death. We were never a Christian band. We were and still are, a rock and roll band.

Trouble seemed to have a hiatus after that, but when they returned on Def American why did you not join them?
My choice was to continue to study and finish my degree.

I believe you played on the Supershine album (which I personally thought was a great collaboration with Doug Pinnick) so how did that come about and did that herald your return in a kind of way back to the music business?
Well, I never left the music business. I helped Bruce and Doug in pre-production for about 1 year and later flew to Texas and ended up on two songs on the project. I enjoyed that project. Bruce and Doug are great guys and talented musicians, so I'm always eager and willing to collaborate with them.

Now that you’re back in new Trouble (which is pretty much the original crew except for Ron) what would you say is the difference between the two? The old band seems a lot more darker compared to the trippy songs of ‘Plastic Green Head’...
The 'new' Trouble is like mixtures of all of our experiences, dark and light, metal and rock & roll... it's fun and I love doing it! The older days had standard lower tunings and more of a Judas Priest or Alice Cooper/Black Sabbath thing going.

Having seen both of you play, from a musician’s standpoint, what would you say is the difference between your style of drumming and that of Barry (Stern’s - not withstanding his vocal capabilities of course)?
I am more of a classically trained, progressive rock drummer while Barry is a talented, straight ahead rock & roll drummer. I'm more like Carl Palmer and Barry is more like Don Brewer of Grand Funk. Also, I enjoyed your observation of the Les Claypool style. My lyric collaborater (Paull Goodchild) and myself are highly influenced by Bill Laswell, Bucket Head, Brain and Bootsey Colins as well as the weird vocal sounds of Marc Bolan (T-Rex) and art stuff like that of John Zorn. My voice is still being discovered... it sort of sounds like Willy Nelson singing Pink Floyd, or Marc Bolan with a cold.

So how did Retro Grave come about and what was the reason for starting it.
I wanted to experiment with my own version of metal. During the beginning stages of Retro Grave that terrible and tragic tsunami hit and it really triggered my writing and desire to record. The name Retro Grave means, to me, that death can easily creep up behind you. There are other meaning as well…

Having listened to the album, I gotta say I was a little confused with whether it was a serious project which on the one hand was to be commended for being a sorta one man Trouble but on the other hand left me perplexed by its off the wall weirdness (not to mention that album cover!) so please tell us what you were trying to achieve and will there be more Retro Grave?
Trouble influenced my guitar sound, but I wanted more humor in my perspective of death and entropy. The CD cover was a pictorial attempt of food sprouting out of my head in the grave. I wanted photography because everybody seems to be using those 'tattoo looking' covers these days. It was low budget so it was even weirder to me than what I would have had. However, I wanted to express my metal and doom with a little levity. Retro Grave is finishing two full lenth recordings and will have a live performing band. The albums are entitled 'Again' and 'Skullduggary'.