Tico's 10 most influential albums

 

1. Jon Bon Jovi – "Destination Anywhere"

"Let me start from the beginning; my parents have always been die-hard Bon Jovi fans. That’s why they named me after the drummer (Tico Torres). So it seems that I was always meant to play drums. The first time I bought an album was when I was shopping with my parents in Naaldwijk (NL). There was a CD Shop named Free Record Shop, and they were selling the solo album Destination Anywhere by Bon Jovi. My parents already owned a copy, but I really wanted to own a copy for myself, so they bought it for me. It wasn’t until we got home that I realised they had actually bought a special double disc edition. One that my parents, as die-hard Bon Jovi fans, didn’t own yet. After finding out, I showed my parents and without hesitation my father rushed to the car to drive back to the shop to buy another copy for them."

 

2. Nirvana – "Nevermind"

"As I grew into a teenager and started going to high school, it didn’t take long for me to find myself as the victim of bullying. Thing is, I’ve always dressed myself to how I feel. We all know that dressing differently makes you a target in the jungle we call high school. As I started avoiding people in school, I befriended my music teacher who would give me the key to the music classroom. There I would spend all my breaks and time between classes to listen to Nirvana’s Nevermind album and play along to it on the drums that were in the classroom. One day I played through the entire album 3 times in a row, only to get send home by one of the teachers because it was late and they were closing the school."

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3. Vengeance – "Soul Collector"

"My father ran his own Bookings and Management bureau for (inter)national bands, cover bands and tribute bands. One of the bands that he managed for several years was the Dutch Hardrock band Vengeance. I had been joining my father on the road since the age of 11 and started out carrying a few guitars from a van to a stage. As I grew older I learned how to become a great backliner. So when my father started managing the band Vengeance, it didn’t take long for me to be added to their main roadcrew as a drum technician. I had been working with the band for a few years when they released the album Soul Collector in 2009. With this album being released, the band went on a European Tour. As I was still in school back then, I wasn’t able to support them with all of the shows. However, I did join them on the road to countries such as Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Apart from that I’ve seen every professional stage in the Netherlands with the band."

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4. Bruce Springsteen –" The River"

"After several years of collaboration my father and Vengeance decided to go their separate ways, and so did I. I moved on to work for the Bruce Springsteen tribute band the Bruceband. I worked 6 years as 1 of their 3 main crew members and have seen nearly every small pub, large venue, community centre and festival there is to find in the Netherlands. Now I don’t know if you’re familiar with the likes of Bruce Springsteen and the E-street band, but they fill the stage with quite a large and variated backline. By working with so many different instruments and professional musicians I’ve been able to improve my musical knowledge a lot. And reading through/listening to Bruce’s lyrics, especially the ones from The River album, has made me a life long fan. It’s also made me appreciate singer/songwriter music, blues music, jazz music and country music (yes, The Boss uses influences from many different genres) a lot more.

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5. Green Day – "American Idiot"

"As a teenager I watched a lot of MTV (this was back when MTV was actually still showing music videos) to discover new artists. One day when I was watching, the band Green Day came on with their then brand new single Boulevard of Broken Dreams. I was sold instantly, and I knew that my older brother would really like it as well. So I ran upstairs and urged him to come down quickly. We watched the video and listened to the song together, and after that he started looking up more of their music. They had been around since the 90’s, so there was plenty of their music music to easily fill a day. And that’s exactly what my brother did. He became a loyal Green Day fan after that. As he liked to play guitar in the comfort of our parents home with the window open, and I had been playing the drums since the age of 7, we started jamming out Green Day songs together. The song we played most was Holiday, and that’s one of the songs that I ended up playing with the first (cover) band that I played with; Noise@tack."

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6. Vains of Jenna – "The Art of Telling Lies"

"After high school I started a study for Event Technician in Rotterdam (NL). It was in that time that I met a few musicians of the same age from Zoetermeer (NL) who were into Sleaze and Glam music. Now growing up with Bon Jovi, I’ve always been into bands from the 80s such as Motley Crue, Poison, Skid Row etc. But these guys introduced me to a whole scene of bands from Scandinavia who look and play like bands from the 80s. One of these bands was Vains of Jenna, and they had just released their album The Art of Telling Lies. We started a band called Face It, and we only ever played 2 shows with this band. These have been the only 2 shows where I’ve ever done lead vocals from behind the drums. This was an important change in the way that I play and perform."

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7. Pearl Jam – "Ten"

"I used to host my own local radio show on Tuesdays, together with my father, at W.O.S. Media in s’Gravenzande (NL). The show was called Live Alive, and it existed for over 15 years before being shut down in late 2015. We were receiving live bands/artists at the studio up to twice a month, and we’ve had some great musicians come and play over the years. A few honourable mentions are Tony Spinner (Toto), Jake Clemons (the E-street band) and Marco Mendoza (Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy). In 2012 we had a multi instrumentalist named Jonny Smokes visiting from Seattle, USA. He played original songs and covers as a one-man-band using Loop pedals while playing all the instruments live. After his performance in our show he mentioned how he wanted to do a ‘tribute’ show to all the great bands/artists from Seattle. When I asked him if he wanted to do that with a full band, he replied that that might be a good idea. So I called my best friend to play the guitar on this project and my father reached out to a bass player who had lend his bass guitar for Jonny’s European tour a few times and we got together at an open jam session the next day. We then came up with a set list and we did our first 2 week tour as the Jonny Smokes Band in November 2013. After the first tour we changed our name to Sounds of Seattle (Tribute NL) and we played all the hit songs that originated from Seattle for 5 years and then decided to put the project on hold until further notice. Now obviously one of the biggest bands from Seattle is Pearl Jam, and I think many will agree with me when I say that Ten is their best album. So I had to add it to my list as one of my biggest influences. During my 5 years with Sounds of Seattle (Tribute NL) we played at least 6 songs from the Ten album live, and covering Matt Cameron’s playing I have upskilled myself a lot as a drummer."

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8. Sixx A.M. – "This Is Gonna Hurt"

"As a fan of Motley Crue, I was surprised to find out that bass player Nikki Sixx had another band called Sixx A.M. This band was formed for the soundtrack of the Nikki Sixx biography The Heroin Diaries. The band was a bigger success than expected and so they decided to release another album named This Is Gonna Hurt. The songs on this album go from a piano balled named Skin to more rocking songs such as Lies of The Beautiful People. Because of the variety on this album, the strong lyrics and the really well written music this is a wonderful add to my list of most influential albums for me. The relationship between the drums and the bass guitar are inspirational to me, and I take an example out of this when playing with Imaginary Dreamers."

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9. Hinder – "When The Smoke Clears"

"After my parents got divorced I felt lost and confused. Then one of my favourite bands released a new album with a new frontman and literally named it ‘When The Smoke Clears’. This album reminded me that change is not the end, but instead opens new doors to other opportunities and other people. This is an album that helped me maintain my sanity, and instead of having emotions bringing me down it helped me turn these emotions into energy and effort that I can use within music. I started focusing more on my work as a backliner and my band Sounds of Seattle (Tribute NL). By doing so I managed to heal while staying busy doing something I love."

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10. Shinedown – "Threat To Survival"

"I got this album for Christmas in 2017 from my mum. I’m surprised that it hasn’t worn out yet because I’ve played it many times. My favourite song of the album is How Did You Love, literally because it’s a rock ballad. You should know that even though I am a drummer who likes to perform with a high level of energy, my favourite songs are all rock ballads. I’ve got my mum to thank for this, as she has always been a ballad person and we spent a lot of time standing in the kitchen with a drink and listening to ballads on my phone. It’s funny how music can contain so many memories, and I could make a list of at least a couple hundred albums. And they would all have a story attached to them that has had an impact on the person I am today, on the drummer I am today."

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Tico's Musical Equipment

•  Sticks: Pellwood

• Hardware: Tama, Mapex Snare

• Cymbals: Zildjian Hi-hats and Planet Z Ride (20" and 14"), Paiste Pst5 Crash (18")