How Brad Paisley’s Drummer, Ben Sesar, Balances Spontaneity and Consistency in Live Performances

Cris Cohen: You posted a video clip called “A Buffet of Ballads.” At one point, as you're playing the concert, you're in the middle of “She's Everything” and it gets into this kind of instrumental expanse. What I thought was cool is with your right hand you went on this little faster pattern with the ride cymbal. And it was much faster than what you were playing on the rest of the kit, but it still fit the ballad. And I'm curious, because I don't think that was on the original recording, how often do you go into experiments like that? And is it spontaneous? Is it planned?

Ben Sesar, drummer for Brad Paisley: It depends on the circumstance. Something will evolve in a live show. Because remember, we play these songs over and over. One night I'm in a creative place (play something different) and I'll be like, “Okay, that was cool.” And then it will become the thing I do all the time. I'll allow that to happen. I don't fight that.

And yes, it deviates from the record. Brad loves it when we're not like the record. The minute we start rehearsing a song, we know that it's not going to be like the record. And I like that. Because it gives it room to be spontaneous. It gives it that place where we can have fun with it live. So we're not just miming every night. We all want to play and be spontaneous… within the framework. We don't want to make the song unrecognizable. But it's not that hard to balance that.

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