SKF NOTE: I’ve posted a couple of excerpts from my 1984 Modern Drummer feature interview with Matt Frenette. Recently I was asked by a visitor to my YouTube channel if the entire interview was available.

Well, as a matter of fact, it is. Or it soon will be. Here’s Part 1 of 4 interview segments. The actual interview took place September 1983 at the height of ‘Loverboy’s’ hit song, “Working for the Weekend.” It appeared as the cover story for the March 1984 Modern Drummer magazine.

In Part 2 of this interview, Frenette discusses the following topics:

• Things Matt had to give up to be in the successful band, Loverboy.
• Musical background of each Loverboy member
• To become successful is to communicate
• You have to play as a team
• Playing heavy metal-style music and suffering physically.
• Jeff Porcaro talking about physical impact of playing Simmons electronic drum pads.
• Talks in detail about Ludwig drumsets played with Loverboy.
• Bought a set of Sonor drums. Need more time to work with them. Had to stop using the * Sonor drums on tour.
• Different sounds from un-mic’d and mic’d drums.
• Stan Lynch’s drumset.
• Role among drummer, producer, and engineer in making an album.
• Working with a click track

Here is my 1984 MD introduction to Frenette’s interview.

“Things happen fast in the world of rock ‘n’ roll. The first time Matt Frenette was interviewed for MD, people were raving about ‘Loverboy’ on the West Coast, but the group’s popularity did not yet extend to the East Coast.

“The interview was therefore intended to be a portrait of an up-and-coming new artist.

“However, before we had the chance to publish that interview, ‘Loverboy’s’ success had spread across the country. Since Matt Frenette’s position in the drumming world had skyrocketed along the group’s popularity, we are now presenting an expanded feature interview with ‘Loverboy’s’ drummer.”

I will post Frenette Parts 3 and 4 as soon as possible.