Aaron Rossi of Ministry

Industrial Metal and the SPD-SX

Aaron Rossi (photo)

For over a decade, Aaron Rossi has drummed around the world with a number of heavy acts, including John 5, Ankla, and Strife. In 2007, while playing and recording with Prong, he caught the attention of Ministry leader Al Jourgensen, who invited him to become the touring drummer for the legendary industrial metal group, and he’s been with them ever since. Currently, Aaron and Ministry are on the road in support of Relapse, the band’s latest release.

Live with Ministry, Aaron drums on an acoustic kit and triggers a large variety of samples to recreate the electronic and industrial sounds used as percussion elements in the band’s recordings. To accomplish this, his kit is outfitted with a full set of Roland RT-series Acoustic Drum Triggers, which are all connected to a TMC-6 Trigger to MIDI Converter to generate MIDI notes for playing samples. For the latest tour, the compact SPD-SX Sampling Pad is now command central for Ministry’s large sample library, completely replacing the previously used heavy touring rigs filled with drum machines and rack samplers. Aaron and the group are extremely pleased with the SPD-SX’s small size, great sound, and ease of use.

During a recent tour stop in Los Angeles, Insider sat down with Aaron to talk about gear, touring, his background, and more.

Where are you from, and how did you start playing drums?

I’m originally from Rhode Island. I moved to Southern California when I was seven, and started playing saxophone at 10. I picked up the drums at 15, and started playing drums professionally at 20, touring Europe and the States extensively. It’s what I still do now at 31.

Who are some of your drumming influences?

My first drumming influence was Tommy Lee. My sister got me into Rush when I was just starting out playing drums. I heard “YYZ” and I was blown away by the drum solo. I took my four-piece drum kit and made it into a Neil Peart-wannabe drum kit, and I added Rototoms and gong toms and gongs and all kinds of stuff. When I got into high school, I had a friend introduce me to more heavy metal music, like Pantera, Slayer, and Sepultura, so Igor Cavalera, Vinnie Paul, Vinny Appice, [and] Dave Lombardo [influenced me a lot]. I’d say one of my biggest influences is Gene Hoglan; he played with Strapping Young Lad and now plays with Fear Factory. He’s a big guy, and he plays with such energy and speed and precision. I think a lot of people may stereotype the big dudes, but he definitely influenced me because he’s a big dude and he frickin’ slays. 

Who did you start out touring with?

My first tour was when I was 20, with the hardcore punk band Shelter. They were on Century Media Records at the time. I didn’t know who they were [when I joined]. But when we went to Europe, we were playing shows in front of 30,000 people, so I was really excited about that. And then I came home and joined another hardcore band, Strife, and went back out to Europe again. And that’s just how it’s been going. I joined another band after that, and joined another band after that, just going on to bigger and better things. And now here I am, playing in the best band ever: Ministry.

When did you join Ministry?
Ministry (logo)

I played in the band Prong, and Prong was signed to 13th Planet Records, which is run and owned by [Al and Angie] Jourgensen. They came to one of my shows in Albuquerque and saw me play, then came in the recording studio and saw me play. I was working my job, and I got a phone call from Angie Jourgensen, telling me to put in my two-week’s notice, [which is] probably the coolest thing that’s ever happened. The next phone call that was cool was when they told me [the band] was nominated for a GRAMMY® award. Within a year or two years, I went from touring in a van, slumming it, to touring in a bus and staying in five-star hotels and chillin’ at the GRAMMYs.

Playing with Ministry’s got to be pretty interesting. As a drummer, what are some of the challenges you come across?

My biggest challenge is recreating the drum parts that were recorded on the records. Most of the drums were predominately recorded with drum programming, a drum machine, [or a] Roland V-Drums kit. So, to rehearse and prepare for Ministry, I play on a V-Drums kit, and that’s what gets me tight. I use my double-bass pedal on there, [and] all the drum sounds sound exactly like the record, so by the time I get to rehearsals, I’m pretty on point.

On stage, I play an acoustic drum kit hooked up with Roland triggers and the new SPD-SX pad. Pretty much my whole show is run off that SPD-SX pad. I was able to get rid of some machines that had all the drum sounds in them. I had three or four machines that we were using to recreate the drum sounds from all the Ministry records.

What was Ministry using before to trigger samples live?

Ministry was using Akai samplers, drum samplers: big, heavy-duty machines and rack units that we had to take with us on tour. [We used a] huge box full of these heavy machines, which is not very cost-effective with traveling. So when we got the Roland SPD-SX pad, we were able to eliminate all those Akai units, the drum-sampling units. And I said we need backups, too, [so] we just hooked up another SPD-SX with all the same parameters and settings. It’s now how I go through the set lists. Every song has a different sound that we loaded in the SPD-SX pad. Everything is going off of Roland now: triggers, all the drum samples. All the sounds—clap sounds, screw-gun sounds, anything. Cowbell, 808s…we can make sounds, we can modify sounds, change the pitch.

Are you tapped out on the electronic stuff, or are you looking to incorporate more?

I’d love to incorporate more electronic sounds in my repertoire. I’m just not very familiar with [setting up] electronics, so I’ll just tell somebody to do it for me. [Laughs.] I’ll tell my tech, Aaron Havill, [to set it up for me.] With the new SPD-SX pad, you’re able to modify sounds and change the parameters while you’re still playing. As I’m playing my drums, [Aaron] can change [the sound] for me. It wasn’t like that before. For years and years, I’d have to set everything up and then reconfigure. Now it’s all there. We can do it even as I’m playing the instrument.

Do you have anything going on besides Ministry and touring?

I started my own group called Sizematic. One of my favorite singers, Rich from the band Sloth, had contacted me and said, “We should do a project. I want to do hard rock with dubstep music.” I said, “Okay, cool.” So I hooked up with one of my guitar player buddies, and we got on Pro Tools and started making music, programming beats using my Roland V-Drums kit. And now I’m really excited, because the SPD-SX pad already has music stored in it: it’s got dubstep in it, it's got all kinds of sounds, wobbles—everything I need to play the new dubstep music with my band Sizematic. So when I get home from tour, I have to hook up the SPD-SX pad and really get futuristic with it. What I’m looking forward to is being able to take the sounds and beats that I’ve created and dump them into the SPD-SX. So, once again, my whole show will be on that SPD-SX pad.

What advice do you have for younger drummers that want to land a gig like Ministry?

Do something different. Play something different, that no one else is doing. Be yourself. There are a million Vinnie Pauls out there, and a million Tommy Lees. You’ve got to do something different, you’ve got to bring something new to the table. [And] it’s not as easy as a lot of people think it is. It’s very trying on the body. I say condition yourself and play music that really pushes you to the extreme. ‘Cause now, I’m playing the most extreme music there is, so everything else from here on out is really easy. It’s cake. So just play 120 percent from start to finish, from that first downbeat all the way to the end.

Anything else you want to add?

Ministry’s on tour, [so] come out and check us out. We’re playing a handful of shows in the States. We’re going to Europe, and we’re going to rock out playing a show in front of a million people with my Roland next to me—[it’s] very reliable stuff. And thank you, Roland, for helping me out. I know you’ve always got my back.