Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith has attempted to play along to one of Bring Me The Horizon’s tracks as he heard it for the first time. Check it out below.
The attempt took place as the funk rock drummer appeared on the latest episode of Drumeo’s ongoing For The First Time series – which sees famous faces come into the studio and attempt to immediately play a song as they hear it for the first time.
Smith has already taken part in the series once before, and quickly proved that he has a seemingly limitless comfort zone as he played Thirty Seconds to Mars’ hit single ‘The Kill’ close to perfectly on the first attempt.
Now, just shy of a year later, he has taken on the challenge once again, this time putting his own spin on Bring Me The Horizon’s hit track ‘Can You Feel My Heart?’.
Sitting at the kit as the song begins to play, Smith quickly confirmed that, not only had he not heard the song before, but he didn’t recognise the band responsible for the TikTok-dominating hit either.
“What the fuck is this?” he asks, hearing the opening synth lead and going on to find a tribal-inspired rhythm that matches the song’s tempo.
While an alternate approach to that of what Mat Nicholl put down in the original studio recording, the improvised take by Smith still fits perfectly in the track and saw the drummer push far out of his usual style. Later in the video, the Drumeo team reveal the band behind the song to Smith, who responds “Who the fuck is that?”.
They then show him the original song, which he then plays again perfectly replicating Nicholl’s original take. Check it out in full above.
Upon first taking part in the series last September, Thirty Seconds To Mars were quick to respond to Smith putting his own spin on their hit track and shared a video of both brothers Jared and Shannon Leto describing it as “incredible”.
In other Chad Smith news, Red Hot Chili Peppers recently wrapped up their extensive world tour, celebrating the release of ‘Unlimited Love’ – their first since guitarist John Frusciante rejoined the band – and the follow-up LP ‘Return Of The Dream Canteen’.
He, as well as Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich, are also reportedly set to appear in the upcoming This Is Spinal Tap sequel. They will join an already star-studded line-up for the highly-anticipated film, which is rumoured to feature Paul McCartney and Elton John.
As for Bring Me The Horizon, the Sheffield band are currently touring their latest album, ‘Post Human: Nex Gen’, which was released on May 24. It was the band’s first album since the departure of keyboardist and producer Jordan Fish, who was in the band from 2012 until 2023.
In a four-star review, NME said: “Few modern rock bands have made an album that is such a bombardment of sound and colour. Post-Jordan Fish, they continue to be what they’ve always been: a creative force that transcends the personalities of its individuals. It entirely justifies the four-year wait, which already feels like ancient history. Buckle up – because this is still BMTH’s world, and we’ll be living in it for quite some time yet.”
Speaking to NME earlier this year, frontman Oli Sykes discussed the new album and Fish’s departure, saying: “Obviously Jordan was a massive part of this band. He was my right-hand man and we were a creative force. I know that a lot of the time we were spoken about as a duo. Where we started to break off was the fact that after ‘Survival Horror’, I started to think about and address the way we were being.”
He added: “This whole record is a proper narrative that actually explains the first record. I’ve realised that what I’ve been doing for years is building this world in my head and not telling anyone about it. That narrative is going to feed into the next one and I don’t want to give it all away because the way the record ends for me personally is realising that I’ve got to leave.”
The post Watch Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith drum along to Bring Me The Horizon’s ‘Can You Feel My Heart’ – hearing it for the first time appeared first on NME.
