Sting’s Drummer Zach Jones: Landing the Dream Gig and My Life in Music

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What an Amazing interview this was with Sting’s drummer Zach Jones!
This was not an interview actually, it was a truly engaging and mesmerizing conversation.

Sting’s drummer Zach Jones is a world-class drummer and multi-instrumentalist who has toured with Sting’s band for 3 years 🎵 and has worked with Sting on sessions for over a decade.

I had the pleasure to interview Zach and we had an amazing conversation, ranging from how he met Sting and landed his dream gig, to his greatest musical influences, to his own power pop band Zach Jones and the Tricky Bits

Listen to this entire conversation, I loved how open and engaged it was, and there are some great takeaways!

Musical Introduction 0:00
Introduction 0:48
A Funny Narrative by Sting 2:21
Why Zach’s hair is So Blonde 3:24
When Zach first started playing music 4:03
Zach’s early biggest musical influences 4:51
Zach’s musical family and roots 6:16
When Zach started playing drums 7:35
When Zach started taking drum lessons 8:12
How Zach learned to play songs on drums 8:45
Where Zach is from and how he started gigging 11:02
Zach’s first performance with a band on television 12:12
The Year Zach moved to Brooklyn and why 14:46
When Zach started gigging in NYC 16:32
Does Zach play jazz? 18:27
Was Zach into fusion? 19:03
How Brooklyn music scene has contributed to Zach’s career 20:35
When the Brooklyn scene become a “big thing” for musicians 21:44
What’s the essence of what “the Brooklyn songwriter’s scene” is? 25:12
Why did Zach meet first meet his production partner? 26:58
How Zach became the drummer for Secret Someones 29:57
What is a “House Concert Tour”? 31:52
How effective is being an opening act (for Jukebox the Ghost)? 37:18

How being in Secret Someones led to Zach’s relationship with Sting 39:35
What was the first song you played with Sting? 42:17
Early sessions playing with Sting 42:37
Zach’s work on Sting’s recordings 44:29
Zach with Sting on The Howard Stern Show 45:04
On first being Sting’s NewYork drummer 46:14
Zach’s favorite Sting (or Police) song to play 46:28
The Greatness of Stewart Copeland 47:00
How Stewart got pissed going from Top 5 to Top 10 48:19
The Dynamic between Sting and Copeland 48:28
Copeland and Summers contributions to The Police 49:41

Why Ringo was the perfect drummer for the Beatles 51:32
When Quincy Jones insulted Ringo and The Beatles 52:52
Zach’s commentary on the “Get Back” Beatles documentary 54:16
Zach: How all bands have an expiration date 55:42
Bands don’t need to get along to be successful (The Who) 56:58
Mick and Keith, and Keith’s crazy comments 57:30
What made The Police so special 58:12
Stewart Copeland’s favorite drummer 59:14

When Zach found out his Sting tour was over 59:38
How does Zach deal with losing the Dream Gig 1:02:16
What’s Sting’s recording process like? 1:05:16

What inspired Zach Jones and the Tricky Bits “Rendezvous with a Comet” 1:05:58
What inspired Zach to write “Mushroom Suit” 1:06:48
Zach’s fascination with death or near dying in his songwriting 1:08:42
Zach’s brave announcement before performing “Great Again” 1:12:50
Argument why artists should make a full album instead of releasing singles 1:13:43
Why Zach is so proud of his “Plastic Soul” full album recording 1:17:53
Zach’s best advice for any young musician breaking into music now 1:20:13
How Zach developed the perfect singing tonality for pop music 1:22:12
How does playing guitar or drums affect Zach’s song selection for a show 1:23:14
Zach’s plans for Zach Jones and the Tricky Bits for the rest of 2024 1:25:16
Why Zach loves playing the duo bill with Salcedo Latin Soul (SLS) 1:25:54
What gave Zach the idea to sing The Beatles “You Can’t Do That” with SLS? 1:28:11

Final Zach comments and how to follow Zach Jones and the Tricky Bits 1:29:34
My closing comments and final pun 1:30:35

Don’t miss my Village View article about Sting’s drummer Zach Jones coming out in the beginning of September. I will post the link here.

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