Bob The Butcher Buchler

These songs are from my band Miraj - Thank you for your support

Here's a drum solo that I did in Lake Elsinore, California just recently. Thank you Thersea for taking this.

I was born in Covina California and started playing the drums between 3rd and 4th grade (or 8 1/2 years old). I originally became interested in music because of my older brother Corky who was very good on the sax. My parents asked me, when they saw the interest I showed in music, if I wanted to learn how to play an instrument and of course I said yes, that I wanted to learn to play the drums. I was really surprised when they agreed because I thought for sure my Mom would be dead set against the drums because they’re so loud. But, instead my Mom agreed that the drums would probably be a good instrument for me, and then she began telling me a story of when I was a baby. She said that I would crawl over to the washing machine and stand up with one ear and my hands on the machine. I would bounce up and down to the rhythm of it for as long as the machine was running. I would do this day after day after day and this is what made my Mom believe that I would excel on the drums because I was naturally drawn to rhythmic things. So, there my love for the drums began and in 1962 my parents bought me my first set of Ludwig drums that I still play today.

It was not long before my brother started bringing his friends over and would have me play for all of them. This soon became a regular thing and I enjoyed every minute of it. If you have ever seen how very big and badass my brother and his friends were, you would understand the reason why I learned to play drum solos so good and so fast. They wanted to see a show and I had to give them one or else!

I have always loved to do drum solos and as I grew older I got involved in drum contests which led me into local, state and national drum competitions. That was so much fun, being involved with drum contests, because they enabled me to meet and eventually become friends with several very important people like Joe Benson from KLOS radio in Los Angeles California and Ken Hensley of Uriah Heap. I have also been fortunate enough to meet, and in some cases become, acquaintances with drummers from famous groups such as The Beach Boys’ Bobby Figueroa (he played at our wedding reception), Jethro Tull’s Done Perry, Yes’ Alan White, Pat Benetar’s Myron Graumbacher, Richard Marx’s Mark Schulman, David Lee Roth’s Gregg Bissonette, REO Speedwagon and Santana’s Graham Lear, Journey’s Steve Smith, Ozzy’s Vinny Appice, Rod Stewart’s Carmine Appice, Geneses’ Chester Thompson, Cheap Trick’s Buddy Carlos and drummers for The Stray Cats, Eddy Money, Joe Satriani, and many others. All of these guys were judges in the drum contests I was either a part of or competing in.

Throughout my career as a drummer, I played in several local bands at numerous venues, (like the Roxy, Gazzari’s, The Paladium and The Starwood all in Hollywood, California) opening shows for Poision, Great White, Peter Chriss from KISS – his band’s name was “Balls of Fire” - Humble Pie, Girl School, Quiet Riot, and Rock Candy (Vince Neill’s group from Motley Crue). I met a lot of famous groups, and also did numerous recordings. The more experienced I became, the more I wanted to learn about drums and the roots of the various styles of music.

Eventually, I met Tony Codgen and Kiki Valenzuela when they were auditioning drummers for their band. The former bass player before KiKi was Michael Anthony now with Van Halen (then the band’s name was Snake). After Michael’s departure from Snake, Tony hooked up with KiKi and the band's name was changed to Miraj. I auditioned for Miraj when they lost their drummer and became the drummer for Miraj. We immediately clicked as musicians at that audition and we have played together for the better part of 30 years or so, off and on, ever since. For me the combination of just us three was, and still is, an incredible powerhouse of musicians. In the mid 1990’s I had the opportunity to attend the Musician’s Institute in Hollywood, California. When I was going through the process of deciding if I wanted to attend MI, I had the pleasure of meeting drummer and bassist Steve Monreal. Steve played drums for Tower of Power, Art of Sax, and Expose’ just to name a few. Steve was a huge inspiration for me to attend MI. He did a drum clinic there prior to my attending and told me then what a great school MI is and that I would become an even better, more rounded drummer when I came out. He was right. During the time at MI, not only did I learn a lot, I had the pleasure of hanging out with, meeting, learning from, and becoming friends with famous musicians. This experience gave me the tools to be able to teach others and also become a better musician.

Some of my teachers at MI and people I’ve met and became friends with are Bobby Figueroa (as I mentioned earlier is the drummer for The Beach Boys and played with Chicago, America, Elton John, Joan Jet, and was the band leader for the Larry Sanders show on HBO). Bobby not only plays drums, but he also sings and is an actor. Ray Luzier was my instructor at MI and is now another close friend. Ray has to be the nicest guy in the world; he is a great drummer, climbing the ranks of the top 25 drummers in the world. He has played, and recorded with the bands Army of Anyone, Billy Sheehann and now in 2008 is touring with KORN. A funny story I remember about Ray while at MI was when Tim Pedderson, who was Ray’s instructor while he was a student at MI and is now the head of the Percussion Department at MI, said that “Ray is a classic example of student excelling teacher. I believe in killing the competition [on the drums], but Ray is such a nice guy that I just can’t do that to him.” We all cracked up laughing when Tim said this because what he said is true; Ray is a REALLY NICE GUY! He is truly a great drummer and has proven to be a good friend.

Another drummer that I have come to admire and be influenced by is Virgil Donati, an UNBELIEVABLE drummer!!! Virgil and I also met while I was a student at MI. I remember hearing this thunderous roar coming from the room called “P-100” which is show room at MI where on Monday evenings Virgil and two guitar instructors, Brett Garsed and TJ Helmrich would jam in. Of course I had to check it out and see who the mad man was that was tearing up the drums. In there was Virgil just tearing it up with TJ and Brett. This guy was notorious for practicing for hours on end. All that hard work paid off for him though because he has been on the cover of Modern Drummer, has received numerous positive reviews, awards, he has toured the world and now has several instructional DVDs out. Virgil has recorded a couple of CDs with TJ and Brett under the name of Planet X. I suggest to anyone who is interested in hearing phenomenal fusion music to check out their music.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Ralph Johnson, the drummer for Earth, Wind & Fire. I hung out with Ralph for quite some time and learned a lot about the drums from him. He has the skill of not only knowing the drums in general, but also has an unlimited amount of chops and is just a great person and teacher. Then there is, Dennis Chambers, another great guy. I call him Mr. Serious because he doesn’t smile very often. One day he came into one of my classes at MI and sat down on a drum set and played for a GOOD 40 minutes and just made all of us in the class feel like breaking our drumsticks in half and throwing them out the window. He was absolutely amazing and what was really cool was halfway through Dennis’ solo, in walked Smitty Smith, drummer for the Kevin Eubanks Band of the Tonight Show. He stood there watching Dennis just shred that drum set with us. It was great!! After watching Dennis, Smitty just laughed and shook his head saying “Holy cow, man!!”

Russ Miller is another really great drummer, teacher and friend. He put on a master’s class at MI that not only took the students on a journey, but showed the instructors a thing or two. I credit Russ for helping me to understand and learn a lot about hip-hop music. Brian Tishi, another instructor at MI and is a super cool that plays for Billy Idol, Foreigner and too many others too list. He also plays the guitar just as good as he does the drums. While I was a student at MI, I became good friends with Fred Dinkins who is also another great drummer, teacher and good friend. This guy helped me so much while I was there. He is truly a caring instructor. Dinkins, as we all called him, played for The Emotions and has an arm length list of people that he has played with and recorded for through the years. He has, without a doubt, an exceptional teaching method. I could go on an on for a while more till I run out of room to write about this guy, I admire him that much.

There is one person that I must go into detail about and that is a man by the name of Ken Hensley. I had the pleasure of rehearsing, recording and spending an incredible amount of time with him in Denver, Colorado. He played, wrote and recorded with Uriah Heap, a super group. He too played with a list as long as my arm of famous people and still is very active in the music industry. Kenny not only gave me a pile of ideas for writing songs, but he sat down with me and taught me a lot of the dos and don’ts of the music business. This information that he shared with me back then has been invaluable and saved me from getting involved in potentially harmful situations. One thing I have to mention is that Kenny blew my mind one day when he pulled out of his bag of musical tricks some reel-to-reel tapes he had of people who would come to his studio in England and jam with. I can’t tell you who these people were that I heard on those tapes because I don’t think Kenny would appreciate it, but just know that they were musicians that shaped rock-n-roll as we know it today. I remember yelling to him “Hey make me a copy of that!!” He just laughed. I tried to tell him how badly I wanted a copy, but he just laughed even louder . . . oh well, I tried.

There were a lot of people and bands that I did gigs for and recorded with throughout the years. A few of those groups were, “Cheap Day Return” with Dave Macias on guitar, Berry Barringer on rhythm guitar, Steve West and Don McCleary on bass and Tom Costello ..boards. This group was well known in the San Gabriel/Hollywood/LA area. “Hostage” another band that was well known in the San Gabriel area which included Dale Dane on guitar John Fuentes on vocals and a long-time good friend Tom Manion on bass. This was a combo of top notch players from the local area and again was an excellent band. Then I got involved in a project with a heavy metal group called “Tyrant” that was signed with Metal Blade Records. It was a lot of fun doing a couple of shows with them but we never got around to recording. “B.B. Main Man” was another group that consisted of myself (BB), Johnny Main (Main), a truly GREAT blues guitar player, and Tom Manion (Man) a great bass player. Hence the name, BB Main Man. My next project was jamming with “Dan Fastuca” an absolutely astounding guitar player/writer/composer and a high-powered, driven individual, to say the least. Dan and the bass player for “Black Label Society, “J.D.” are one mean combination of musicians. What great jams we had together. “Miraj” is another group that I have always enjoyed jamming and doing gigs with. Kiki, Tony and I have always had a powerful sound that is hard to match. We still get together from time to time and we have talked about putting our stuff out on CD (tunes like If the Queen had balls, She’d be King, Killer, Got You, Tick Tock, You’re my Lady, and Dreams of the Mind) but timing and schedules seems to get in the way of that happening. But who knows . . .

Presently, I am building myself professionally and continue to teach. I am actively looking to become a part of a group that is already signed, or on the way to being signed with a record label. I am also actively seeking a manager and will soon be affiliated with a management company. One project that is in the beginning stages is with my daughter and soon to be son-in-law in Florida. They’ve asked me to lay down drum tracks and help write some ideas that they both have – of course I said yes!! My daughter has a voice that is comparable to . . . (well I’ll let you decide). I am very excited about doing this project with the both of them (I can’t wait).

That’s pretty much all about me musically - from then till now. I have included pictures here of people that I have met along the way and a brief footnote with each speaking of the moment it was taken. Thank you for your interest and I hope to meet you soon.

Special thanks to - My wife, Angela Buchler, for all her love, support, and encouragement throughout the years. My Mother and Father, Mr. & Mrs. Harry D. Buchler, for always being there for me with their help and support in whatever I was involved with, both personally and professionally. My Brother Corky, for helping me to learn to do drum solos so fast , LOL, and for his Love! My children Kai and Cassondra , and her other half Mark (and Baby Kien) for being such loving great people. And of course to all my friends that have always been fun. Thank you all so much !!!!

Rock on,“The Butcher” Bob Buchler