But anyways, I’m VERY pleased with the responses and questions posed, and I hope you all enjoy this little treat straight from Pat…
Questions from Jeff Duke, Krimson News webmaster, (AKA: Mr. Crimson)
1.) Being a professional musician can cause a stressful family life, how have you and your family coped?
Primal scream?
2) Does your little girl have any musical aspirations? 
Yes.
3.) Drumming is a very physical activity, how do you manage to stay in shape on the road?
Do I stay ‘in shape’?
4.) Where do you see Mastica going in the near future?
Empenada Room in Austin and Poor David’s in Dallas.
5.) Who are Cenk Eroglu and Aloke Dutta, and how did you meet them?
After Crimson finished in 1996 and I returned home I went in search of education to address several of my many musical weaknesses. I took night classes (classes in voice, piano, middle eastern music, and they even offered a night classes on kangier (sort of an Indian tambourine). That kangier teacher, Oliver Rajmani invited me to a show with a small percussion ensemble lead by tabla soloist Aloke Dutta. Aloke was outstanding and I immediately started to take tabla lessons from Aloke (note: I had no illusion of becoming a tabla player but I did think it could help my counting and drumming). On one of our first lessons Aloke started asking me about session work in LA and I helped him meet a few key students and his talents lead him to more and soon he moved to LA. Aloke’s ensemble also included Jason McKenzie on trap kit, young Jason had great hands and so I also began grabbing Jason for early morning reading and rudimentary drum lessons. Jason had just left NTS and studied under Ed Soph and this lead to me having a few lessons with Ed and later attending the summer drum camp at NTS where I met Gary Chafee (a turning point in my drumming). Jason continued to study tabla in India after
Aloke left Austin and has become very very good tabla player and when in town he often plays with MasticA live.
CENK-In the summer of 1998 I received an email from a young Turkish Mr. Mister fanatic named Cenk Eroglu. Cenk -(pronounced like Jacob) offered me custom samples of Turkish instruments and loops, when they arrived (on my birthday!) I was stunned with the quality, the package also included some gifts and Cenk’s solo CD. . As we continued to email Cenk investagated XTC, Cock Robin and King Crimson and in one of our many emails Cenk asked why all the Crims had solo records except Pat? I explained I prefer collaborating and Cenk quickly said ‘I’ll help! let me produce you!”. So we began passing ADATs in the mail and quickly had several songs underway, I had learned besides playing guitar & keys that Cenk had written/produced and/or arranged several number one records in Turkey as that progressed we realized it would be better to meet face to face and work so. . . of I went to Istanbul. . .and later Cenk come to Austin . . . and later me going to Antalaya in the south of Turkey. Cenk dubbed our project “Mastel@Ottoman” and we have about 10 or 15 songs under development (at one point Cenk even had me singing!). We want a synthesis with the right blend so this may take a while.
6.) Why did you go to Turkey?
I went to meet Cenk and understand the culture better.
7.) What’s your favorite “goof off” activity whilst touring?
Goofing with sounds.
8.) How did you meet Bill Munyon?
After I moved to Austin in 1994 I needed to rewire my patch bay and asked my buddy, Jason Altman, to recommend an inexpensive engineer to help . . . that was Bill.
9.) What do you use to take audio samples for use in your drum kits?
I record on dat/adat/Pentec pocket sampler/Kurzweil/protools/Sp202/S760, plus I have a large library of old sounds made in the 80’s on my Akai, Casio and Sound Chest samplers and thousands of new sounds from Cenk’s collection .
10.) What’s your favorite new piece of electronic gear, and what does it do?
The Roland hand sonic- it has wonderful internal sounds, effects and a sequencer and I also use it as a midi controller, replacing several pads to play my D drum 3. Often for little MasticA gigs that’s about all I take.
Questions From Joe Darone (Drummer for The Rosenbergs)
1.) When you have free time to do so, what is your favorite band to listen to?
Can I only pick one?? That’s too hard. I enjoy lots and lots of brands, I mean bands.
2.) Besides the current line-up, (of course), what is your favorite Crimson
line-up?
Impossible to answer- When I first heard ‘Cat food’ I was blown away and fell head over heels for Mike Giles & Co. Later when I first saw Crim it was the Larks/Red period and I was disturbed in a whole new way. When the band reformed in the 80’s the buzz was still there, so what can I tell you. . . . ‘I Love them all”.
Questions From Stuart Allison, Webmaster @ Pat Mastelotto Off. Site, (AKA: Hindufizz)
1.) What other stuff have you been listening to lately? Why/What’s it like/Why do you like it (sorta thing)?
Lately lots of California guitar trio and Tony Levin (love that cave record).
2.) What direction do you see Krimson taking in the future (on the next record)? When could we expect to see a new record?
One I could never imagine.
QPT2=Sometime next year.
3.) When can we expect a release from Mastel@Ottoman and what should we expect from it?
With the busy schedules and lack of budget to do Mastel@Ottoman I doubt we will complete things to our satisfaction for at least another year. . . .”Expectation is a prison”, and you know about those Turkish prisons so be careful.
4.) How do you view the latest tour in relation to past tours and tours you may do in the future (i.e. what was better/worse, what would you like to change on future outings)?
As much as I miss Bill & Tony I must admit this last American tour was a bit more pleasant because Robert was in a wonderful mood, but. . . as dangerous as it sounds I still look forward to another double trio experience.
Questions From Kathy Ottersten, (AKA: Crimm-fatale)
1.) Was percussion your first love in music? (alternately – if you had to play another instrument, which one would you choose and why?).
Not really, drums found me, I just liked music, all kinds of music. I first tried to play Piano, Guitar and Horn before a grade school summer camp music instructor sent me to the drum section. Another instrument?– I might choose bass, as if I could.
2.) What music move your soul (besides making you want to play drums)?
Almost everything- its everywhere.
3.) Aren’t you really just “Animal” from the Muppets made flesh?
mmmm No.
4.) Who is the bigger groupie magnet in KC2K – you or Trey?
Neither, we have been demagnetized for your protection.
5.) Why Austin Tx.????
I had been thinking of leaving Los Angles as my daughter was nearing school age I had made a list of my 10 fav places in North America and then suggested my wife and daughter come check them all out with me. We started at the top of my list and my wife was so happy just looking out the plane window at the green country around Austin, we got off the plane, found a realtor and never looked any further. If we had started at the bottom of the list we might be shoveling snow in Woodstock or Wyoming.
Questions From Daniel Kirkdorffer, (AKA: ET-Dan)
1.) What are King Crimson’s plans for this year and beyond, as you know them.
Write/play in/ record. Then write/play in/ record again. Then break. Review. Redo or mix.
2.) Trey Gunn recently indicated a possible tour with Tool later in the year. Have you heard anything about that?
Yes. Danny Carey came to a Crimson show in 1996 or 7 and we became chatty and later Crim even tried to get TOOL as the opening act on the Greek shows in Los Angeles (we didn’t realize just how big their audience was and in fact must have insulted them with our messily offer), later when TOOL played in Austin I hooked up with Danny again and introduced him to Aloke Dutta, with whom Danny has been studying and thats Aloke on the TOOL records.. Danny and I have run into each other a few more times and occasionally email and last November upon hearing they would be touring to support a new record in 2001, I emailed Danny and suggested again that we might co-bill, but with Crimson as the opener. Danny sounded very excited and so then we turned things over to our respective managers to sort out. I was surprised Trey let this info out since nothing is for sure yet, but yes the managements are now trying to put TOOL/KC together for next September.
3.) Ok, so you’ve had a chance to touch base with your buddy Tony on this short CGT tour. Did you get a chance to talk about how Tony might become involved with King Crimson in the future?
No, not really. That decision is not mine to make. I love to play with Tony and Bill anytime, anywhere. We did talk about trying to do more CGT dates and possibly go into a studio to record with CGT. We also talked about more P4, doing something with just Trey, Mastel@Ottoman, or maybe something like BPM&M live. . . but thats all just talk. . .talk talk. . baulderdash? If anything comes of it we’ll let you know.
4.) King Crimson has had some pretty amazing drummers in the past, but you seem to have taken the role to a new level with your involvement in mixing tracks for King Crimson releases. How did this evolve?
Despite the fact that we record all our Crimson shows to multitrack Robert opts to use the 2 track board mix because its easier. Live mixing is hard enough and as the guy with 1,000 drumsounds I find it highly unlikley things will be balanced on the fly (Some nights half my kit is missing!). After I helped on P4 mixing and saw how things were being done I offered to take care of Project 3, and on it went from there. Plus I’m way cheap. Whatever value I have as a mixer/producer comes from years in the studio with some truly gifted engineers and producers.
5.) What is the status of the battle between acoustic drums and electronic drums in King Crimson? It would seem that during the US leg of the 2000 KC
tour you gravitated toward acoustic drums more. How much of this is your decision?
I’ve always enjoyed noodling with electronic drum music and sound. Ditto real drums. So I’m happy to go wherever the music wants to take me.
Robert has no trouble expressing his opinions and he was very opinionated on the electro drum subject a few years ago. Later as we toured Europe I think that penny dropped. -So yes, during the short break before Japan/USA I added a Kick, Snare and 3 cymbals..
6.) Ever wish you had more arms? How can anyone drum while programming a V-Drum at the same time on stage? And it isn’t like you’re drumming in 4/4!
Most programming is NOT done during the show, the drag about using electronic kits and loops is that I get locked into a tempo or set of sounds and may not be able to react quick enough when we improvise, or follow the dynamics quick enough so I still do some one armed drum mixing.
7.) Few multi-instrumentalists seem to be drummers first. Do you play any other instruments?
I’m still trying to learn how to drum.
8.) How does Tony differ from Trey as a rhythm section partner?
Tony reflects more light.
9.) You’ve played with a lot of different musicians. Can you think of a
common trait that ties them altogether and draws you to them as musicians and their music?
Passion and compassion.
10.) Tell us about the upcoming release of material on the Papa Bear label.
Long story, you mean BPM&M-the name stands for Bill& Pat (BP), Munyon & Mastelotto (MM). So that the first thing to explain: its not, as some have said, Crimson remixes, it is Bill and I chopping and bopping. Who is Bill Munyon you may ask (well you did)- Bill is a young engineer I met in Austin. For a long time I have noticed I have an attraction to engineers, I even buy records because of who engineered them and how the sound. These BPM&M tracks are built around Robert, although he did not participate or knowing play on the recordings, instead we extracted bits of Robert’s playing from P2, P3, P4 and a few live 80’s Crim tapes I found at DGM, (and one quick bottleneck solo overdub Robert did for RadDance), plus we extracted dialog from a cassette I owned called ‘How I became a professional musician” by Robert Fripp. On about 2/3rds of the material we added bass from Tony Levin taken off the P4 ADATs. On one track, built from a P4 rehearsal, Trey Gunn is included. And then a few teeny tiny snippets from other folks appear, like ‘The League of Crafty Guitarists”, a few words from Adrian, a few moans from David Byrne (taken form ‘Network”). And finally my Turkish buddy, Cenk Eroglu. Cenk gave me wonderful overdubs just as I was leaving one of our writing session in Antalaya that we could later rake thru and find what BPM&M liked and rearrange it in Pro Tools.
Questions From Kade Graves (AKA: kaveman)
1.) Pat, you being one of the later members of King Crimson, did you feel a sense of pressure to “measure up” to past Crimson incarnations because of the their great Crimson legacy?
Yep.
2.) Has your feelings changed now that you have been in the band for awhile and also have been given the total playing responsibility of the percussion parts with this Crimson incarnation?
Nope, I am a lucky boy.
3.) What one piece of advice would you give to an aspiring percussionist and/or electronic percussionist?
Learn a second language/carry a ground lift.
Questions From Geoff Balasoglou, (AKA: G-The-Kiwi)
1.) What genre of music did you listen to as a child and a teenager – did your music pertain to one genre, Rock or did you like other music like Blues, Jazz, Rock, etc?
I like almost everything, even country twang, disco, blue grass and accordions.
2.) I have heard from other interviews online that you liked King Crimson before you joined them even going to a 1973 concert, is being a member ‘A Dream Come True’ for you?
Yes.
3.) Who (if any people did) inspired yourself to be a Musician?
Many, including my mom.
4.) Why did you start the band, Mastica?
I got impatient waiting for Crim to get going, I like making records and started looking for local collaborators to make one with.
5.) Other from Music do you have any other things that you have a passion for?
Life!
