Haze Amaze Interview on
The TrevBeats Show 

COLD OPEN TREVOR LAWRENCE JR.: This industry is completely different from even three years ago, let alone 10, 15 or 20 years ago. Because you're such an important person in the drum community as far as content goes, and you have so many numbers, everybody watching this show: go back and write down what he just said and utilize that. It shows you that you don't have to sell yourself out and do buffoonery and all kinds of things to be successful. You can be authentic. You can have integrity. That's big. Real quick, if you're new here, welcome to The TrevBeats Show. Hit subscribe so we can keep building together. And to my regulars who show up every time, I see you, and your viewership means everything. If you ever want to help fuel this channel so we can do even bigger things, you can grab some fresh gear from the merch store below or jump into the Backstage Membership next to the Subscribe button. Now back to the show. INTRODUCTION TREVOR: What's up, everybody? Welcome back to The TrevBeats Show. Today we have another brother in the building who completely embodies the 360 principle. You know what that is — working with people in different capacities, meeting them one way and working with them another way. We talk about it a lot. He didn't just lock down the drum throne for iconic hip-hop artists like Nas or bring an undeniable pocket to people like Leela James, Fantasia and even Tweet. He built a massive global brand from the ground up. That's one thing a lot of us know him from, including myself. It's very inspiring, and he's inspired hundreds of thousands of musicians online. He's a DW, Sabian and Remo artist, an educator, a mentor and one of the most exciting, authentic voices in the game today. Put your hands together for the amazing Mr. Haze Amaze. HAZE AMAZE: How you doing, man? TREVOR: I can't call it, man. HAZE: I'm doing well. Blessed, man. I'm grateful for it all, dude. MOVING WEST TREVOR: You just had a massive milestone happen in your life. Tell us about what just happened. HAZE: I just moved out to the West Coast, man. TREVOR: Wow. HAZE: Yeah. I moved out to the West Coast from the East Coast, from the DMV. I've been there all my life. I'm 29 years old now. I started feeling like the move should happen a few years back, actually. But then I ended up meeting my wife. We got engaged, got married and started a family. So it was best to settle in Virginia for a while during those beginning years of building our family. She's always been open to moving and everything like that, but the timing just felt perfect recently. I've been out here for the past three weeks now, and I've been loving it. I've been back and forth to Vegas over the past few years doing residencies, shows and things like that. It's close to California. I would love to be in California, but— TREVOR: You're smart. Trust me, you're smart, bro. California — I'm born and raised here — but it is off the meat rack right now, man. Being California-adjacent is dope because sometimes it's a 30-minute flight, depending on the time. You're close to the game, and you can get away from it. But for a lot of people who may not know, y'all just had two days of 125 degrees. Even by my California standards, the only other place I hear about getting hotter than that might be Arizona. Then we've got to talk about Dubai and stuff like that. HAZE: I do agree with you, though. You mentioned that the humidity is different. It's a lot more tolerable when you don't have that humidity going. TREVOR: First of all, thanks again for coming. I really appreciate it. I got hip to you online and started checking out your videos. They were so informative. You were breaking stuff down so people could understand it, not being a gatekeeper, showing your setups and being transparent. It was really great content, man. I was like, "Yo, I've got to meet this brother." So I'm glad you were able to pull up. FOOTBALL OR MUSIC? TREVOR: What I found in my research makes sense now. Back in 2012, you kind of had a fork in the road, right? You had to decide whether you were one day going to play for the Rams or something, or take the musical path. Here's the funny thing. A good friend of mine, a bass player, went to Suitland. His name was Artem "Oogie" Belton. This was 30-something years ago. I never forget that because I didn't really know too many people from that area, but he went to Suitland High School. Obviously you made the decision to go the musical route. What made you say, "I'm going to do music"? HAZE: To be honest, the main thing that made me choose the music route was that I wouldn't have been able to go to Suitland otherwise because I didn't live in the zone. The only way I could go was if I was in the CVPA program, which was the Center for Visual and Performing Arts program. I lived in Upper Marlboro, and Suitland is in Forestville, Maryland, so it could be 25 or 30 minutes away. I didn't live in the district. In order for me to actually go to the school, I had to be in the program, and I couldn't be in that program and do football at the same time. Years later they started making exceptions, and I was like, "Wow, why couldn't y'all do that when I went there?" TREVOR: So you basically were going there to play football, but you had to use music to get into the school, and your focus was still football? HAZE: No. What I wanted to do was play football, but I didn't go there for football. I went there for the music program because that was the only way I was going to be able to go. TREVOR: I see. I've got you now. Obviously you made a great choice, and it's working for you. You definitely have a proclivity for music. I'm sure you were probably just as good at football, but drums were a great choice, bro. GOSPEL ROOTS AND THE BEGINNING OF DRUMS TREVOR: Give me some of the background. Did you come up playing jazz, playing in church? How did the drum bug start for you? HAZE: I come from a family of music. Everybody in my family sings. My dad is a guitarist. He plays bass as well, and he swears he can kick a pocket on drums. My older cousin is an all-around instrumentalist. He plays pretty much everything. My brother also plays guitar. So I come from a line of musicians. When I was younger, music was the hobby. Playing drums was something I did pretty much every day, but I wasn't really thinking, "I want to do this for real one day," because I still wanted to be in the NFL or be a police officer. When I was younger, I was actually singing in the choir. I sang in the choir for the majority of my childhood until I was probably 14 or 15, and that's when I really started playing drums in church more. I started playing at my uncle's church. They had a New Year's Eve service, and he asked if I could play. I played there, and after that they needed a drummer at the church. Thankfully, my cousin and her husband were kind enough to come pick me up from my parents' house each Sunday and drop me back off because I didn't drive at 15 years old. I played there until I was probably 18 or 19. So I really started in church. When I listen to a lot of gospel songs that I know, I don't know them from a drummer's perspective. I know them from singing because I was in the choir. When I had to start actually playing them on drums, I was like, "Wow, I've got to focus on the drum parts now." So I have gospel roots, and then from there I started going to jam sessions and open mics. That's really where I feel like my musicality and getting deeper rooted into music came from. I have gospel roots, but playing-wise, my roots really came from being around open mics. THE FIRST PROFESSIONAL GIG TREVOR: What was the first real gig where you were like, "This is a name artist. I finally got my first professional shot"? HAZE: Raheem DeVaughn. TREVOR: Of course! I've got Raheem's headshot somewhere around here from when he first started. He was discovered by a good friend of mine who passed away by the name of OG Pierce. I remember when he first discovered Raheem. That's crazy, dude. HAZE: Yes, sir. I was still really young when I started playing with him. I think that was around 2018 or so. I always remember being the baby. I was younger than everybody. At that time, I don't think I could even get into clubs without them saying, "Let me see your ID," because I still had a baby face. That was my first gig, and the first one was in the Dominican Republic. TREVOR: So what happened after Raheem? HAZE: Shortly after I started playing with him, the next one was Tweet. Then from there it was Leela James. Around when the pandemic lifted, that's when I started playing with her. Then came Nas, and most recently Little Simz. Since last November I've been touring with her. Those artists — other than Raheem, who I don't play for anymore — are gigs I've consistently been on year after year, thankfully. MAKING THE NAS GIG HIS OWN TREVOR: We can't think lightly of Nas. Nas is one of the icons of hip-hop, bro. And it's vastly different from R&B. That requires a different sound, a different approach, different use of fills and all of that. How did you separate the styles and be authentic to Nas? How did you say, "I've got to pull from a different bag"? Sonically, what did you change for the Nas gig compared to the gigs that were pretty much living in the R&B space? HAZE: It started with listening. Listening to the records. He's heavily inspired by jazz. You've heard a lot of his stuff. There are a lot of jazz samples and even R&B samples. There are a lot of different worlds mixed into his music. What really helped me was listening to Carlos McSwain — Los. I never got a chance to meet him in person, but I knew he was in the hip-hop world playing with Snoop and other people. I really watched him. I'm an energetic person, and I didn't want to just sit back playing boom, boom, boom. Watching videos of him helped me understand how he was approaching fills and things like that. That's where I drew inspiration. But when I first got the gig, I was coming behind somebody else. At first I was filling the gap and playing off what the drummer before me was doing. Then we did a European tour, and that's when I really got comfortable with the music and started adding my own flavor. I remember after one of the shows the tour manager told me, "What you're doing on 'Hate Me Now' — we want that on every song." "Hate Me Now" is a big, energetic song, and at first that was really the only song where I would open up. From that point on, I flipped the switch from, "I'm coming in after somebody and filling the gaps," to, "Nope, this is my thing now, and they want me to make it my thing." I think that's important when you're asked to fill in a position. Normally, I'll go in and play what they're used to until they're asking me, "All right, open up. Be you. Do your thing." It's about serving the gig and serving the music. The difference also comes in my attack and the choices I make with drum fills. When I'm playing hip-hop grooves, the fills aren't necessarily ghost-note heavy. I like dynamics going through fills or playing fills into choruses and verses. With hip-hop, I feel like it becomes a little more precise. That's my mindset when it comes to separating the gigs. THE INFLUENCE OF CARLOS McSWAIN TREVOR: It's funny you say Los. RIP. Los came into Snoop's band after I left with the original band. I found out much later that he had recorded some important gospel stuff when he was very young. I want to say it was either John P. Kee or Fred Hammond. He was maybe 15 years old. I didn't know that until much later. He was a very musically rich person, and he influenced a lot of people on a lot of fronts. So it's super dope that you studied him. And your approach makes sense because that's the professional thing to do: the music is saying this, so I need to adjust my approach to the music. One thing I notice about you is your visual, nonverbal communication. Your smiling and energy are through the roof. It comes across so much in your content. I don't think I've ever seen you playing drums and not smiling. That's something artists pick up on. The audience picks up on it. A lot of us are too serious. We don't even control our faces sometimes. We're living in a visual society. Even if I have you on mute and I see you playing, the energy is coming through. I think that's an incredible trait, and I believe it's something that follows you. I'm sure people are picking up on that energy. Don't ever stop that because that's huge, bro. And it speaks to the success you've been having. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN TREVOR: Speaking of success, correct me if I'm wrong, but did you play Madison Square Garden? HAZE: Oh yeah. We did. That was a few years back with Nas — King's Disease III. The trilogy — one, two and three. And the beautiful part is we weren't on the stage. We played behind it, in the loading dock. I'd always wanted to do that. I had seen people playing live shows from the dressing room, loading dock or behind the curtain, and I thought, "I want to experience that and see what it's like." It was energetic. They had screens back there. And the best part is we'll be playing there again — not with Nas, but with Little Simz. She's opening up for Gorillaz, and Madison Square Garden is one of the places we're performing. TREVOR: That's crazy. Q does that with Hamilton. They build him a whole room basically to himself, completely away from everybody. I got to do that at the Hollywood Bowl a couple years back when we did a Lion King anniversary thing. We were all behind the stage with screens. It's a different vibe. It's still a party, but it's almost like a session with live energy. HAZE'S DRUM SETUP TREVOR: Let's talk a little bit about gear. I know you're a DW guy. Tell us everything you're playing right now. HAZE: Right now I have a custom kit. It's cherry-mahogany. Cherry-mahogany is my favorite hybrid shell. I have a 22-inch bass drum, three 14-inch snares — one of them is the Pi snare — and 8, 10, 12, 16 and 18-inch toms. Pretty standard sizes. TREVOR: What cymbals and heads? HAZE: Sabian cymbals, Remo drumheads, of course, and Vader sticks. From gig to gig, the actual models I use are different. When I'm playing some of the R&B stuff, like Leela James, I use a brighter sound. When I'm with Little Simz, I try to go for something a little darker. With Nas, I think I use O-Zone 15-inch hats and some natural-finish stuff. At one point I was using a 16-inch cymbal with him. For a while it's been frowned upon: "You're playing bigger venues, use bigger cymbals." But I was using smaller cymbals because that's what fit the music. Between brilliant-finish stuff, darker finishes and trashier sounds, I mix it all depending on the gig. TREVOR: I actually kind of have the opposite opinion of "bigger venue, bigger cymbals" sometimes because the smaller the cymbal, the more it can cut through. I use big cymbals in general, but once upon a time, in my generation, 16 and 18 was it, bro. Seventeens weren't really cracking until maybe the '90s or 2000s. It was a 16, an 18, a 20-inch ride and 14-inch hi-hats. The craziness of cymbals didn't really start until the mid-to-late '90s. Then when you saw Weckl and Vinnie, splashes started becoming popular. Peter Erskine on the first Patitucci record was right around the time when "dry ride" became an actual named thing. That super-extra-dry ride with no finish — the cymbal revolution isn't really that old as far as everybody going crazy with sounds. Then Weckl brought the holes. I brought the Clap Stack. The cymbal thing is still kind of new. RESONANCE, DAMPENING AND CHOOSING THE RIGHT DRUMHEAD TREVOR: As far as drums go, do you do a lot of dampening or do you like the shells to speak for themselves? HAZE: Most times, I like the shells to speak for themselves. I love resonance. I like to hit the drum and just let it go. But that's another difference between gigs. When I'm doing R&B gigs, I'll let the drum sing. When I do Nas or Little Simz, it's different. For example, Coated Emperors are pretty much the standard and my favorite to use for live shows. But I went to Powerstrokes with Little Simz because I like the depth you get out of the sound. On the last tour we did, I was using Powerstroke 3 Black Dots on my toms. When we're doing normal festival runs or we're backlining the kit, I'll use regular Powerstroke 3s or Pinstripes on the toms to give me a deeper sound. It's not that Emperors can't capture that sound. But I found myself using more dampening to cover the sound I was trying to get instead of simply using the drumhead that fits what I'm trying to hear. That's huge. I like resonance with R&B, but if I'm playing hip-hop or even some rock, I'll go for a thuddier tom sound. On my snare, sometimes I'll use tape to shorten the resonance. It really depends on the gig and what the records sound like. TREVOR: You said something I think we need to touch on. I don't think a lot of people know all the options they have with drumheads. We see Ambassador, Emperor and Pinstripe so much, but Remo makes hundreds of things. Evans makes all kinds of things. It speaks to the interaction we used to have with drum stores. You used to go into a drum store. Here in L.A. we still have Pro Drum — shout out to Stan and Jerry, one of the Meccas — and you can still go in there, see what's going on and check things out. But in the corporate and big-box-store world, that relationship has gone away. A lot of people look to the internet and social media to find out what drumheads they should be using instead of investigating for themselves. The fact that you experiment and say, "This is what I'm trying to achieve," is important. Of course, you're endorsed, so it's a little different, but the mindset isn't different. You decided it was important enough to investigate. I think that's another thing that speaks to why you're successful. BUILDING AN ONLINE COMMUNITY TREVOR: Let's move on to another kind of success, which is almost one of the most important ones these days: online. You've built a crazy online community with millions and millions of views across platforms. A lot of great drummers struggle to find their voice behind the kit and the camera. They can be a great player, but it doesn't connect. What's the secret to pulling back the curtain and making content that feels authentic and true? It doesn't feel like you're just playing for the algorithm. You've headlined drum events globally and connected with people all over the world — Brazil, Japan. How did you build that borderless online presence? HAZE: Blessings, blessings. You said it in your question: authenticity. I thrive on that. My uncle, who's also my pastor, told me one time, "What's from the heart reaches the heart." That stuck with me. It helped put into perspective why a lot of things work or why they don't work. "What's from the heart reaches the heart" is a big part of who I am and a big part of my brand. It's not just, "I'm a brand, so I'm always going to do the things people want to see. I'm always going to follow the trends." I'm the type of person who doesn't really give in to trends. For those watching, that can help you a lot, and it can hurt as well. We know numbers speak, and a lot of times the numbers people seek come from trendy things — doing whatever the hottest thing is. Then you boost all these numbers. But if that's not authentically who you are, or if it doesn't resonate with you morally, I think that's something to stay away from. That's how I do my stuff. A lot of trends don't resonate with me, so I don't take part. A lot of how the world goes about things doesn't resonate with me, so I don't take part in it. I don't go with what the crowd is doing most times. I've had to learn that you can make things you like, look back at them and say, "I'm glad I did that." And you can make things where you look back and say, "Why did I do that?" I'm sure you've posted a video, cut a record or played a show and looked back thinking, "Why would I even do that?" TREVOR: For sure. Absolutely. HAZE: For me, it has become: I want to make stuff I'm proud of. Of course I want it to resonate with people, but I want to look back and not be ashamed of what I see from myself on camera. I've been around cameras for so long, and I'm an extrovert. Being in front of cameras, lights or people and expressing who I am — I'm not ashamed of that. I think a lot of it comes from self-esteem. When your self-esteem isn't as high, you can put yourself in a shell when you're around people or in front of people. For me it's, "I'm just going to be me." Who's going to like it is going to like it. Whoever isn't, isn't. I make this comparison a lot: Snarky Puppy and Beyoncé. Beyoncé can sell out a crowd. Snarky Puppy can sell out a crowd. Their crowds may not be the same, but they can both sell out crowds of the people who like them. Snarky Puppy isn't asking, "How can I get Beyoncé's crowd?" And Beyoncé isn't saying, "How can I get Snarky Puppy's musician crowd? Let me only make music that caters to them so they'll like me." It doesn't become that. So when you ask what the secret is, I don't necessarily have a secret. For me, it's authenticity, consistency and quality. And quality isn't just audio quality or visual quality. It's the quality of the content you're putting out. Are people gaining something from your content? Are you making them laugh? Are they learning? Are you making them feel loved? Is your content making them do a self-check? What is the quality of your content? Then it's about finding your niche. All of those things help build what you do. "YOU DON'T HAVE TO SELL YOURSELF OUT" TREVOR: Those are bars right there. These are the types of conversations that are why I'm doing this show. I like people to hear directly from people: What is your journey? What's your secret sauce? What are the ways you've been able to be successful? That's how we keep it going and push the next group of people. If you gatekeep and you're always trying to cover everything and hold it in, nobody's going to know. It might be good for you, but we need to impart knowledge because everything is changing. This industry is completely different from even three years ago, let alone 10, 15 or 20 years ago. Because you're such an important person in the drum community as far as content goes, and you have so many numbers, everybody watching this show should go back, write down what he just said and utilize it. It shows you that you don't have to sell yourself out and do buffoonery or all kinds of things to be successful. You can be authentic. You can have integrity. That's big. HAZE AMAZE LLC AND KNOWING WHAT NOT TO DO TREVOR: So, Haze Amaze LLC — the business guy. You're not just a sideman. You don't just play drums. You've got a whole business going. You do tracking, consulting, education and creative direction. When it comes to tracking, I know you do sessions, but do you make backing tracks for people's shows too? HAZE: No, I don't actually. Over the past few years, I kept telling myself, "I want to get into production. I want to get into making beats or tracks." But like I said, it's not something that resonates with me right now. I would love to do it or learn how to do it, but it's not a priority. I haven't forced myself to sit down and actually learn that side of things. So no, I don't. TREVOR: It's good that you're honest about it because that also plays into authenticity. What you just said is literally the same thing as being a jazz guy and trying to bring your 18-inch kit to an R&B gig where that's not what's called for. Knowing your limitations is important. It's better to say, "That's not my thing," than to do something because of the money and do a horrible job at it. HAZE: Exactly. TREVOR: You just told the same story through that decision. A lot of people will say, "Yeah, I want to produce. I'm producing," when they might not really be doing it. What are you doing it for? When you break it down, you may be doing it for the wrong reasons. That's why they have the phrase "jack of all trades, master of none." Everybody wants to do everything at a low level rather than doing at least one thing at a high level. That speaks to your character and validates everything I thought about you before we got to know each other. HOW THE MODERN DRUM CHAIR HAS CHANGED TREVOR: You said something earlier about Nas. You put a little sauce in, and they came back and said, "We want that energy for the whole thing." That brings to mind a trend I've noticed over the years. I actually wrote a book about this. Artistry has changed a little. When we used to go see Michael, we went to see Michael. The band was great, but we didn't care about the band. Michael captivated us. Prince captivated us. James Brown captivated us. Now when you go to a show, can you imagine a recent major show with no video wall and no dancers? It almost doesn't exist. As that's happened, they've looked at us to provide more of the energy, excitement and emotional connection. The drum chair has grown. You used to hear that style of playing in R&B. Then it moved into pop. Then it started creeping into hip-hop. A lot of stuff we're asked to play now, Brian Frasier-Moore and I would have been fired for playing in the '90s. We've seen a whole shift. My book is called The Show Got Bigger, The Song Got Smaller, and the Chops Got Louder. It's literally an analysis of why drums and drummers have been asked to take on some of the emotional responsibility that used to belong more to the artist. It's real. But you do it with grace, man. You do it tastefully. You're playing for the records. That's the main job we have as drummers. AARON SPEARS TREVOR: Aaron Spears. We lost one of the greats, man. We all loved him. What a phenomenal human and drummer. I know he was from your area. Did you know him personally coming up? Obviously he was an influence of yours, but did you get a chance to spend time with him? HAZE: Yes, sir. Aaron was like a big brother to me. I first met him when I was probably somewhere between 14 and 16. I went to a shed at a local studio, and he came through. I actually got to shed with him. And he didn't take it light. That's one of the things I appreciated. He wasn't like, "Oh, this is some young kid from around the area, so I'm just going to pity-patter." He was playing. Afterward, I met him, shook his hand and got to talk to him for a little bit. As the years went on, he was always there for me. He was one of those guys who said, "Here's my number. Hit me if you need anything." And when I actually called or texted him, he responded. A lot of times there's what people call convention talk: "Oh, hit me up, man. I've got you." Some people don't follow through. He did. Over the years we built a deeper connection. He was probably one of the only guys I saw who had both worlds — family and music. I talked to him about that quite a bit. I was always asking, "How do you find that balance? How do you do this? How do you do that?" He really helped me because he was what I wanted to be: a professional musician traveling and touring while still having success on the family side and the spiritual side. That was rare. He became a big influence and a big brother to me. The studio we started seeing him work out of shortly before his passing — I was one of the people who helped build the walls. We went over there with Mitch from AutoMute. It was me, Mitch and one of my good friends, Brendan, from back home. We spent time, sat down, ate, laughed, joked and built the wall. It was a really, really good time. THE PASSPORT THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING HAZE: Right before I got Raheem's gig — and the first gig with Raheem was in the Dominican Republic — Aaron had helped me prepare. Of course, you need a passport to get over there. When I wanted to take music more seriously, Aaron was the person I talked to. I told him, "I want to take things to the next level. What are some things I should do?" For anybody watching this: always ask questions. Ask questions. Don't be ashamed. Don't be afraid of how stupid you think your question might sound. Don't feel like you've got it all together. Don't try to make it seem like you've got it all together. If you have OGs in the game, ask them questions. I don't understand why people are so scared to ask questions. So I asked Aaron, "I want to go to that next level. What should I do?" He gave me a list. "Do you have a drum rider? Do you have your passport? Do you have this? Do you have that?" I didn't have any of it. As soon as I finished talking to him, I got to it. My mom had been trying to encourage me to get my passport, but it took Aaron saying it for me to actually go do it. And it's crazy because a short time after getting my passport, I got the call to do Raheem, and the gig was out of the country. If I didn't have my passport, I wouldn't have been able to do the gig. I probably wouldn't have gotten the gig. So Aaron was super influential. TREVOR: He was one of a kind, man. It's amazing hearing that because Aaron had such a positive influence on so many people. And the way you're carrying yourself — it's connecting. WHY PEOPLE DON'T ASK QUESTIONS TREVOR: You brought up asking questions. I can tell you exactly why people don't ask questions. It's a three-letter word that's one of the most dangerous words in our life: Ego. That's why people don't ask questions. It's humbling to ask a question because you're simultaneously admitting, "I don't know this. What can I do to be better?" If your ego is blocking you, you don't want to put out into the world that you don't know something. That's exactly why people aren't asking questions. FAMILY, CAREER AND DEFINING SUCCESS TREVOR: Let's go back to the bigger thing because it leads into my next question. Your goal wasn't, "I want to be the fastest drummer. I want to have the most money." You said, "I want to have a successful family offstage and be a successful musician." I can tell you it's absolutely possible. I just had 26 years with my wife a couple weeks ago. And it's very positive. For you to be your age and already have made that decision, I think that's going to go great for you. One of the best things you can have while moving through this crazy music business is the right person on your side. If you don't, it can make you want to get out of it. You're already halfway toward winning the battle because you have a partner there with you. And again, I see a pattern. There are millions of drummers trying to do stuff online and it doesn't pop off. Just like you said about the passport: if you wouldn't have had it, you couldn't have done the gig. Maybe you got the gig because you had it. We don't know. People call it laws of attraction. People call it manifesting. There are all these terms that point to the same idea: you put something out there and something comes back to you. BEYOND THE STAGE TREVOR: That leads me to your whole beyond-the-stage mission. You talk about your faith and family and letting God's light shine through your brand, which you do. When the sticks are down, you're offstage and the bus parks — when you're at the end of your career and you've done the Haze Amaze thing, you've hit all your bucket-list items — what is the ultimate impact you want your legacy to leave for the next generation? HAZE: I'm trying to bottle it into one word, but I can't. The ultimate legacy would be exactly what you mentioned: letting God's light shine. For me, that's huge. Family. Taking care of family. Showing people that it's possible to be the good guy and have success. You don't have to be the bad guy to have success. But it comes down to: What do you define success to be? What is success to you? For me, success is having a beautiful family, having that bond with my family and being able to inspire other musicians. That's success. For somebody else, success might be having the most money in the world or being the fastest drummer in the world. That may be somebody else's definition of success. For me, success is having an amazing relationship with my family. My son loving me. My wife loving me. My daughters loving me. Being there for me. Respecting me. You can be the greatest drummer in the world. You can have all these goals. But what does it come down to for you? What do you want to succeed in? My success is in my family. And with branding, like I said, you can be the good guy. You can have a kind heart and succeed. Ultimately, sharing the love of Jesus Christ is probably the biggest thing for me. And just loving life. I'm not a very high-maintenance person. I'm very low maintenance. I'm cool with having the bare minimum and being able to make things work. That's where I find my joy. That's what legacy comes down to for me. TREVOR: That's awesome, bro. I love hearing that. HAZE'S FAMILY TREVOR: Shout out the family. How many kids? What are the ages? HAZE: My youngest, Hasmon Abraham III — we call him H3 — is two and a half now. He turns three in October. Then we have my middle daughter, Zoe, and my oldest daughter, Mariah. Mariah is doing some good things. She loves sports. I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing a lot out of her when it comes to sports. My daughter Zoe is the extra extrovert. She loves acting, singing and just being herself. She inspires me so much because at her age — she's in middle school now and just turned 12 — she's comfortable with who she is and being herself, no matter who might call it quirky, weird or whatever. She's just like, "I'm me." That energy is very close to how I was when I was younger. I never really cared what people thought about me. Of course I've had thoughts like, "It might not be cool if I do this. Will people think I'm cool?" Who hasn't? But I never cared about fitting into the crowd. She's just like that. She doesn't care about fitting into the crowd. H3 loves to play. He loves cars. He loves airplanes. He's enjoying life. And my wife — we got married in 2022. We've been together since 2018, so we're going on nine years together. She's seen each stage. She saw before I got the big gig — when I was watching videos saying, "That's what I want to do." And she's seen when I got the big call and started playing these large shows. It makes everything greater because she's been there throughout my journey. She's supported me throughout my journey. She's never been one of those people saying, "You're going to have to choose between me and this." She's like, "What do you want to do? I'm here to support you." I always tell her she has such an anointing on her life. I've watched her share her testimony with other women, and seeing the effect it had on them inspires and encourages me. She was a special education teacher for a long time and recently moved into school counseling. Whether she's in the classroom or in counseling, she's helping the younger generation. She's also helped me, especially with lessons and teaching online. It has become one of those things where she can help me in my career in ways I didn't expect. Like you said, having somebody by your side who isn't just there for you but supports you, encourages you and provides that spiritual drive is important. THE SEASONS WITH NO GIGS HAZE: There have been times when my faith was low. I don't know if you've ever been at a point in your career where you didn't have a gig on the schedule for another two or three months, but I was there. I didn't have one single gig on the schedule. You have to believe something is going to come through even when you don't think it is. HIS SON'S HEART CONDITION AND FAITH HAZE: When my son was born, he had a heart condition. My wife's faith was so strong that I feel like it served as enough faith for both of us because my faith got low. Hearing what the doctors were saying, I was thinking, "I don't know what's going to happen." And she was just like, "God's got us. We're going to be good." We prayed. She's much more knowledgeable about caring and those kinds of things than I am. I'll share a quick testimony. When the doctors were telling us to do certain X-rays and things, she was paying attention to details I didn't know about. I'm thankful for my mom and my aunt, who were prayer warriors during that time as well. They were praying over our son and keeping the faith, asking God, "What's supposed to be, let it be. Let Your will be done." We had faith that my son was going to be good. And now he's growing, he's eating, he's healthy and everything like that. Those kinds of things really help when it comes to this whole thing we call life. It gives you a different perspective. TREVOR: Congratulations on that. And congratulations on having what sounds like an incredible wife. Everybody watching: this is part of it. We can't only focus on what a chop is or what somebody is playing. We spend far more time offstage than we do onstage. We're going to encounter these types of situations. This is part of life. What you just said was very moving. I could feel the energy and emotion. Sometimes our wives pick up the slack and look at things we're not looking at because we're out trying to be the breadwinners and do this and do that. They're looking at details and things we overlook. I completely hear you on that one, man. TREVOR'S CLOSING THOUGHTS TREVOR: Haze, this has been a wonderful conversation. It's been inspiring to me. I love hearing stories. You're a young man, but you're very wise. Stay on that path — your thought process and the discernment you've been using — and you're going to have a long and prosperous career, no matter what you want to do. There's no pressure to do anything. You're doing what you're doing, and that's what you're supposed to be doing. Sometimes when it comes to production, people feel pressure. I'm a proponent of: if you're going to do it, learn how to do it right and do it. But if it's not your thing, don't do it. Otherwise, you're going to end up in a rabbit hole buying gear, wasting money and wasting time without getting results. HAZE: Yes, sir. And I wanted to get back around to something from when we were talking about all the drumhead selections. LEARN YOUR GEAR HAZE: As a tip for everybody, because I'm sure you've seen it before: on the back of your drumhead packet, there's a list of the different drumheads that are offered. I know Remo does it. They'll show you the Black Suede. They'll show you the Ambassador, the Emperor, Coated heads and the different options. It also describes what that drumhead is supposed to sound like. If you've never taken the time to actually read those descriptions, please read them. These days we have Google. Search what an S-Hoop is. Search what a bearing edge is. Search these things to help gain your knowledge about drums. Please, y'all. I found myself in that position before when the Clear Powerstroke 77 came out. Back in my area, we had Jamal and Aaron. They were the Remo and DW guys around the area. They were putting out videos and playing it, and we were all like, "Oh my gosh, we need this drumhead!" I got the drumhead and thought, "This isn't the sound I'm going for." At that moment I realized I got it because of the hype around who I saw playing it, without understanding that it wasn't necessarily the sound I wanted to hear. The drumhead is great for what it's great for. It just wasn't great for me. I wanted to hear that Coated Emperor on my snare, cranked up and sounding good. Those experiences helped me understand the sounds I'm actually going for and how to choose what I need. It gets into things like the difference between an eight-lug snare and a 10-lug snare. Then you get into drum sizes, drum woods, hoops and all this other stuff that I didn't take enough time to learn when I was younger. For younger people watching this: take the time now to learn it so you don't make all the mistakes and spend all the money I spent trying to get sounds out of gear that can't even create the sound you want. SNARE LAB TREVOR: You just reminded me of one of my things. You may or may not know, but I also develop software. One of my apps is called Snare Lab, and it's actually a great tool for what you just described. You can type in a song, and it tells you who played it and what drum was used. Then it tells you how to get your own drum to sound like that drum. You could type in "Billie Jean," and it'll tell you what drum was used, the head and other information. Then you can say, "Well, I have a Pearl Export snare," and it'll tell you what you can do with the drum you have — change the head, use dampening, things like that. It also has a tuning feature where you go to each lug and it gives you the tuning specs. When you reach the right tuning, it lights up and tells you the lug is correct. It can literally help you tune your snare drum and your drums. You can also take a picture of a drum and it'll classify it and tell you what it is. That's one way to help with exactly what you just described. And I'm going to post the back of a Remo box showing the heads because Haze said to do it. I'll admit: I forgot about that. I've been with Remo since I was 15 years old, so that's almost 40 years. I forgot about it because I'm looking online and always looking to see what's new. Thankfully, I live about 25 minutes from DW. Unless I'm out of town or rehearsing somewhere else, I don't even usually let them send me drums. I love the whole experience of going up there and putting them in the truck. We've been doing that literally since 2005. Same with Remo. They could send them, but I'll drive up to Valencia. I'm old friends with all those guys. The drum family is beautiful, man. CLOSING TREVOR: Your energy is beautiful too, my brother. I really, really appreciate you coming and giving these incredible words of wisdom. I'm glad people are going to be able to go back to them and reflect. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Haze Amaze. What an incredible time. It's been an incredible conversation with you, bro. I really appreciate it. Bless you. HAZE: I appreciate you for having me. TREVOR: Absolutely, man. All right, y'all. Another great episode with the great Haze Amaze. This was a great conversation. Once again, I'm Trevor Lawrence Jr. This is The TrevBeats Show, and we out.