MUSIC INTERVIEW: RICKY FICARELLI

YouTube Drumming Sensation Co-Headlines DigiTour 2012, Launches New Band

By: Team Buzzine

January 13, 2012

Ricky Ficarelli has been on quite the physical and a mental journey over the past couple of years. The drumming star left his Wellington, FL home and moved to Hollywood, CA as his YouTube clips racked up first thousands and then millions of fans watching his ‘drum covers’ of hits of Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and Blink 182 alongside original music and more. Building on a successful coast-to-coast run as a performer on the original DigiTour last year, Ricky is about to co-headline this year's edition of what has been called the 'YouTube Lollapalooza', but that represents only the start of his big 2012. Ricky talked recently to Buzzine's Stefan Goldby at the headquarters of Greenhouse Entertainment, and looked back over his fast rise to fame and forward to his plans for the next few months, including the launch of a new band named after that Florida hometown from which it all began…

Stefan Goldby: We're sitting rather a long way from Wellington High in Florida on many levels, but let’s begin by going back there for a second. When and why did you first decide to start posting videos on YouTube?

Ricky Ficarelli: I've been playing drums my whole life, and growing up, I've always had local bands, and I'd have a band with these guys and a band with these guys, and I played this local venue, I played this bar, I played this birthday party, I played this sweet 16 with this band, I played this sweet 16 with this band -- stuff like that. And I was like, “There's this website called YouTube where musicians put up…” … I didn't know much about YouTube, and I don’t remember who showed it to me, but I saw Travis Barker. Travis Barker did videos on YouTube where he played drums over rap tracks and stuff, and he was getting a lot of views, and I was like, “Hey, I could do that.”

I put little earphones in my ears all the time and played drums to songs, so I was like, “Might as well just film it and put it on the Internet and see what happens.” And pretty much after my second video…my second video was a cover of Justin Bieber – the Biebs… Shout out, bro! Anyway, so I covered a Justin Bieber song, and that's when my first video blew up and Greenhouse found me from that. I got my first big chunk of subscribers out of that, and that's when YouTube madness began.

SG: And that madness continued -- you’re at over 17 million views now. At what point did you first feel successful?

RF: The first moment I felt successful, the first moment when I was like, “Wow, YouTube is cool and I have fans...” Honestly, I would have to go with the DigiTour last year, because up until the DigiTour last year, it was kind of like…being a YouTuber is great, and having all the tweets and the messages and the comments – and I'm very interactive with my fans. I'm always on Twitter. I'll tweet you back; you write on my Facebook wall…I can’t, obviously, do everybody, but I try to make as many people feel special as possible… But being on tour last year, that was the first time where it was like, “Oh wow, this ‘kittycat123’ is a real person. And ‘bubblegumflower24’ – she's a real girl! And she’s really gonna come to the show and she wants to take a picture with me and buy my shirt and stuff…” So just the whole experience of the tour last year was when you start to realize that it's not just people on the computer. When they're actually physically there instead of just leaving a comment, when they’re actually screaming it at your face…yeah!

SG: When you first brought up the idea of the DigiTour and mentioned the idea of six weeks on the road and 27 dates to your family, how did that conversation go, in terms of “this is what’s gonna happen next for me”?

RF: My mom and dad are super supportive of everything I do in my music career. My dad is not like my manager, but he is who I go to for advice, and he's all about helping me out and helping me achieve whatever I want to do, and music happens to be what that is. Once I met Greenhouse and they started talking about how they're putting together this YouTube tour and me being a YouTube drummer and playing for all these different YouTube artists and going on the road, my parents were like, “Heck yeah, bro. Go on online school and leave. Bye!”

So yeah…I remember that. That was actually a funny day. Chris and Meridith (Valiando) were like, “All right, just fly out to LA…” I was 17, middle of junior year, switched to online school, got on a plane, and left. My mom was not happy. And then I couch-surfed around California for a good month or two, went on the road, went back home, and then moved out here. I’m still in high school! I’m a senior, so I’m still doing everything online.

I live on a computer. I post videos on YouTube, I go to school online… The YouTube and the DigiTour and being a musician…my life just did a complete 180, and everything that was happening…being a normal high school student just turned into being a touring musician all of a sudden.

SG: Thinking back to those six weeks on the first DigiTour, is there a single moment that stands out most in your mind?

RF: Every show, every night, every day was a new experience. You wake up on a tour bus, you go outside to the kitchen and there’s a piece of paper that says what’s going on today – sometimes we have to wake up and go to a radio interview or whatever it might have been that day. But waking up and not knowing where you are, and like, “Oh! I’m in South Carolina today…” and setting up and playing a show every night, just the whole… I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just the best.

Just waking up, playing a show, playing music, meeting fans, and going to sleep – that’s all I could really ever ask for. But I guess my favorite moment that stuck out the most: the tour was going on, we started out in Los Angeles -- that was a really big venue; that was fun. But when we got to New York, we did the Gramercy Theatre, and…I remember walking into the venue and there was a really big floor, and then there was a bunch of seats up top too, and I was expecting, at the show tonight, there will probably be people on the bottom, maybe a few people up in the seats, but then I walked out on the stage that night, and the whole room was packed, and I was like, “Oh, whoa. There are thousands of people here -- s***!” So it just blew my mind. That was one of the bigger shows. Lawrence, Kansas was one of the bigger shows too. Not that any show is better than another, but the ones with more people, and there were just literally these huge, roaring crowds. It was just overwhelming and awesome.

SG: Now you're getting ready to go out again on DigiTour, this time as the returning veteran. What are you most looking forward to about the 2012 tour?

RF: Last year, I was the YouTube drummer, and for most of the artists on the tour. I played with Dave Days last year; I played with DeStorm last year; MysteryGuitarMan came on and did some things and I played with him a little bit. Nice Peter and Carmen – all these different people – I was on and off stage all night long playing for all different people, so I was mad tired. I’m doing that again this year!

I'm playing for Dave Days for his full set; I'm playing for DeStorm his full set this year; I'm playing Nice Peter – his full set this year; Asher Monroe, I'm playing for his full set this year…so right there, that’s four sets that I'm going to be doing. And at the end of every night, there’s some kind of big thing, so that's maybe four-and-a-half sets. But what I've been working on, for this whole past year between DigiTour last year and this upcoming year, is putting together my own band and my own project. So on top of being everyone's drummer again, I'm gonna have my own band, and this tour this year is going to be the premiere of my band and what I've been working on. That's what I'm most excited for, and on top of that, I'm going to pretty much just wake up, play drums, and just probably faint every night from tiredness!

SG: On YouTube and in person over the last 18 months, you have often talked about your desire to have that band – to have that solid group of guys with you all the time. How did you finally figure that out? How did this final lineup come together?

RF: There's four guys in this band, and we found each one in a different way, but all being YouTubers, I guess. One way we went about it was we had open auditions here in California, and anybody that came out could come audition in person. I also had multiple videos go up on my main channel saying, “I'm looking for a band,” so people sent in videos online. So pretty much between online auditions and in-person auditions, and tons of different stuff from different areas, we all gathered the band together.

Going about finding the members, obviously it's not just me. I have a team. I'm signed with Greenhouse and part of de Passe Jones Entertainment, so it's not just me. I had a team of very intelligent, experienced people who helped pick the guys and find the perfect group. But for me, I wanted good musicians, obviously – people who are just really tight players, and on top of that, people in my age range that I could really vibe with, and people that suit my personality, because I feel like when people meet a band and do interviews with them, when we start progressing as a band, you want a group of people that really vibe together and you could actually see being friends and having a good time...until after 10 years or 20 we all hate each other [laughs], but for the next however many years, I see this to be some very fun times ahead.

SG: What's been the biggest change in the way that you approach making videos now, compared to when you first started?

RF: All my early videos, for the first year, were at my studio in Florida, and it was just my drum set set up, pick a song that I like that's on the radio at the time, play drums to it, and have a few cameras in the room, and have a couple friends that were video guys help me edit it and put it up. But now, not living in Florida and not being in that studio, I always try to find a new location… Having the band, I'm working on tons of stuff with that, but on my own, I still post my own personal videos and I still do drum covers and drumming-related videos and my own stuff. I have a second channel where I vlog often, a couple times a week…

On the DigiTour last year, I had my second channel and I uploaded a blog for every day of tour. I'm gonna do that again this year. But on my main channel, I try to do more collabs, make the videos more interesting, have more unique locations instead of just in the studio, have the drum set set up outside on a hill or something with cool stuff in the background... I've done a video with a couple different artists that are a little bit more mainstream. I did a video with the singer from Allstar Weekend. I covered an Allstar Weekend song and I actually had the lead singer from that band come in. And I'm working on a few more collabs kind of in that area…instead of just covering whoever's song, actually get the guy in the video, which is always really fun. I feel like, as time progresses, I'm just making the videos more professional and the ideas always changing and growing.

SG: Beyond DigiTour, tell us about 2012 in the world of Ricky Ficarelli.

RF: DigiTour 2012 is going to be the big beginning, but I'm gonna have my band, Wellington. We're gonna go on the road with an EP, and that's when the band is first gonna come out, and I’m gonna start introducing them to all my fans, and hopefully grow and get more fans. And then after the tour, we plan on writing an album, and together with Greenhouse and de Passe Jones, we have a lot of awesome, interesting things in store, and I'm really excited for the year to unfold and be able to share all these exciting plans I have with my fans, and to grow. It's just going to be really an exciting year.

SG: Finally, people seem to always see you as super nice and perhaps even squeaky clean, so tell us: What's your addiction?

RF: Two addictions I have aren't necessarily YouTube related or anything -- just two addictions I have that are kind of quirky about me: one would be the clothing company Ralph Lauren Polo. Often, if you see me, I would say five times out of the week, I'm wearing a Ralph Lauren Polo shirt. I'm wearing Ralph Lauren underwear right now…yes, I like Ralph Lauren a lot. That would be one addiction that I have. That clothing company, for whatever reason, I'm into it.

My second addiction would have to be Chipotle, the Mexican grill. [Laughs] For example, I had Chipotle for lunch yesterday and for dinner the night before, and there’s about a good 75% chance that I'm gonna go to Chipotle after this interview...

Ricky Ficarelli is one of the headlining artists on the 2012 DigiTour, playing 18 US and Canadian cities from March 7th through April 4th. Head to Ricky's YouTube Channel and the official DigiTour Website for tickets and more info.