MD: Dale says Melvins drum parts can come from anywhere. He's always up for a challenge.

Buzz: He's basically an ego-less player, which is certainly odd for a musician. Most of the bands I know, you couldn't tell a drummer, or a guitar player, "I don't like the way you're doing this; could you do that?" You come up against a massive wall.

But that's not how we view it. All we're worrying about is making a really good song. I have lots of wacky ideas for drum fills and those kinds of things. I'm always interested in making it odder than normal, but so that it remains musical-most of which blows by everybody and nobody realizes, [laughs] It's a lot of fine little details that you don't find in most major-chord-progression rock music. Which we are certainly not.

The drummers in our band, Dale and Coady, they have their hands full. There's no way around that. It's constant, and it's very worried over.

The thing with Crover is that he's got a really good ability to shift between styles and feels. I can say something to him like, "I was kinda thinking if you crossed the drummer from the Gang Of Four with John Bonham, and then halfway through it's gonna change to more of the feel of the guy in the Knack." And he'll go, "Okay." [laughs]

He's really good at dealing with me saying, "How would you do this if you couldn't use your cymbals?" "How would you do this if you couldn't use your snare drum?" And he never tells me, That's wrong."

MD: Wrong doesn't seem to be in the Melvins' vocabulary.

Buzz: No. Everything's right. This is right, even though it sounds wrong!

MD: You play complicated music, but Dale manages to transcend that and maintain a flowing feel.

Buzz: Yes. I've never understood how it is that some huge band doesn't want him playing with them. It just shows you how stupid people are. There's no type of music he couldn't do. This is a guy with more ability and who understands what's going on better than anybody I've ever seen.

We've had a long career playing really weird rock music. We've carved out a spot for ourselves, and he's a monstrously huge part of that. I couldn't have done it like this without him. As a songwriter it's a giant weight off my shoulders to have somebody that always delivers, no matter how wacky I can make it. I'm far better for the fact that I've been able to have Crover complement everything I've ever done.

And when we got the second drummer, we didn't do that because we needed another drummer. We did it because we wanted to do something new. We'd played with Big Business, so we knew Coady would be able to do it. And Crover, there once again, it shows you the lack of ego: "Yeah, let's get another drummer."

Coady said that sitting down and playing alongside Crover, it's not a joke. We play challenging music-it's not bright and breezy pop tunes-and the fact that Coady can do it is a testament to how well he plays. Playing with those two guys is a treat. It's like standing in front of a freight train.