Your Iconic Image : When Women Rock : Dreadlocks and Drumsticks

Tosha Jones, Musician

From playing small, smokey bars in southern Indiana, to touring world wide with national music acts, Los Angeles based heavy hitting drummer, Tosha Jones, quickly made a name for herself throughout the world’s music scene. At just the ripe age of three, Tosha began expressing herself through music, song, and dance. In 1991 as a true drummer at heart, Tosha joined her jr. high school band and eventually begged her parents for a real drum kit instead of playing on various pots and pans and her mother’s Tupperware.

Stemming from numerous garage bands and many Battle of the Band competitions throughout the Midwest, Jones finally jumped ship from working multiple factory jobs in Indiana and saved up enough money to move to Los Angeles, California as she immediately landed the Vans Warped Tour in 2008 with then, all-female punk rockers, The Randies. 

Respectfully, after years of rejected auditions and trudging the streets of the Sunset Strip along Hollywood, Jones found herself in various bands on the road opening for national rock acts such as Stone Sour, Halestorm, Seether, & Skid Row, while eventually landing a long tour stint playing drums for Grammy nominated rock band, Saliva in March of 2018. As one of her personal career favorites, Tosha was contacted by American Idol (2015) to play in an all-female drum line for contestant Tyanna Jones, performing the song “Run The World” by Beyoncé. 

Fast forward to Covid-19’s protocols and cancellations in 2019/2020, and unfortunately like many other musicians finding themselves away from touring, Jones was part of numerous collaboration videos online which includes Sheltering Sky’s Chuck Wright (Quiet Riot) in their 2021 Björk’s cover “Army of Me”, and most recently “Throwin’ Stones”, which hit on the recent attack of Ukraine. Jones was also featured in artist/singer, Chloe Trujillo’s videos, “Mana” and “The Heaviest Sound is Silence”. You can also find Tosha playing drums online in the star-studded cast for the David Z Foundation covering “Zombie”, by Bad Wolves. 

In December 2021, Jones was asked to play drums on a few tour dates for alt rockers Carolina Liar, best known for their hit songs “Show Me What I’m Looking For” and “I’m Not Over”.

In January of 2022, Jones received a last-minute call to bash the skins for the fresh hard rockers, Black Satellite, as they were direct support for Nita Strauss’s  (Alice Cooper, The Iron Maidens) 2022 Winter Wonderland Tour.

In Spring of ‘22, Jones was invited to be a camp counselor for the famous Rock n Roll Fantasy Camp where iconic musicians such as Melissa Etheridge, Nancy Wilson (Heart), and Kathy Valentine from The Go-Go’s were the special guests.

Tosha is currently  preparing for a summer long tour in the making playing drums for original singers of Josey Scott (Saliva) and Brett Scallions (Fuel) doubling down on the kit for both powerhouses on the Original Madness Tour!

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www. marlanasemenza.com

Audio : Ariza Music Productions

Transcript : Vision In Word

Marlana  

From playing on various pots and pans on her mother's Tupperware to small smoky bars in southern Indiana to touring worldwide with national music acts Los Angeles based heavy hitting drummer Tasha Jones quickly made a name for herself throughout the world's music scene, opening for acts such as  Stone Sour, Halestorm, Seether and Skid Row and eventually landing along tour stint playing drums for the Grammy nominated Rock Band Saliva. Welcome, Tasha.

Tosha  

Thank you. It's good to be here. 

Marlana  

Did you always want to be a musician? 

Tosha  

Yeah, I always bordered on an athlete and musician, drummer, for sure. It was always something that would pull at my heartstrings. Like I always make time for everything growing up. But I knew that I was gonna have to make a choice. Soon once I got into high school. And when I got into high school, and then went into college, I played basketball in college, and also tried out for the band in college, but I made it, but I decided that I was too busy with basketball. And so, I actually didn't go down the music route until a year later. So, it was interesting that that was how it worked out. But yeah, that's kind of what happened with that situation. And then after basketball, I joined my first like, real GarageBand with three other guys on college campus. And then that was once I got a taste of that.

Marlana  

So, why drums? Because I know not a lot of girls play drums.

Tosha  

Correct! Yeah. And growing up in the 80s, actually didn't see it hardly ever. I was born and raised in a super small town in southern Indiana, and I got made fun of, told that I was never going to be any good. Bla , bla, bla ! And that finally happened. Even like older people too. I even remember, one of my basketball teammates in college said something like, you're never gonna make it do that. So just a lot of different people have told me that through the years. And I'm sitting here now proving them all wrong, which feels great.

Marlana  

  and I always believe that you should really never take the advice or opinions of people you wouldn't trade places with.

Tosha  

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's good. That's true. And I never did really, I was just like, silent bird and walked away.

Marlana  

So, tell me then, what does it feel like to sit behind those drums and play for you?

Tosha  

Oh, my gosh! Powerful! Humbling as well, but very powerful. Growing up knowing it was a man's world. And now I'm right up there with some of the best of them. So that's empowering.

Marlana  

Yeah. Do you think more girls should play drums? 

Tosha  

Well, it's definitely risen so much since  I started. But yeah. Not based on fear.   as long as there's no fear involved. If there is fear involved, I guess I should say don't let that stop any girl from doing anything. Whether it's basketball, doctor, drummer,   yeah. Don't allow fear to dictate your future.

Marlana  

Do you ever get nervous when you play?

Tosha  

No, I don't get nervous. I would rather play in front of 10,000 people 20,000 people instead of 10. The only time I remember ever getting nervous was if my parents would ever walk into my room and I was playing. And then in seventh grade, we had a show and tell, and I brought my entire drum kit to the classroom and played that thing, and I was nervous then I remember being nervous then. And then I also played for like at the end of the school year, we could bring in, you know what our talent was like a talent show. And I believe that was in eighth grade. I played in front of the whole school. And I was nervous because I played by myself when I was just up there. I don't even remember, I think I played like In a Gadda DaVita, or something. Not very well, but that I remember being nervous about, but fast forward, my senior year, I played In a Gadda DaVita at my graduation, because I was in tough bands,   jazz band, the school band. And I wasn't nervous for that. And that was in front of a whole auditorium arrives the whole gym of community and local, local parents and all my peers,   and that was amazing. Like, I remember doing that, but I wasn't nervous. 

I get weird, to where my brain doesn't function. Like you can ask me the simplest of questions like, what's your favorite color? And I'll go, I have no idea. That's right before I play, that's like an hour or two, before I hit the stage. And I don't know what's going on, or how that happens into my body. It's something I can't control. And I just almost blackout kind of, it's like, my brain shuts down. And I'm just on,   airplane mode, basically. But once those lights go down, or once our walkout music starts playing Oh, yeah. I'm psyched, ready to go. So, like, who's not watching me? Because you should do? I'd like more eyes on me. I love it. So, yeah, no, I don't get nervous.

Marlana  

It's interesting that you say it like that too, because that's something that happens with athletes,   before they go out and play, they get in the zone, so to speak. And so, it's interesting that you were an athlete, and also had that experience with music.

Tosha  

Yeah, that's interesting you say that, because I actually do pull a lot of musicians like as inspirations and influences. But I look a lot more to athletes that I pull from for inspiration. So, I can go out and run,   every morning, or get through that strength training in the mornings and stuff like that. So yeah, I kind of pull from athletic side to inspire me and motivate me and stuff like that. 

Marlana  

So, has this always been an easy journey for you?

Tosha  

The opposite. Oh my gosh! It's been the toughest journey ever. Well, maybe not ever, but it's just always full of surprises. And every day, you never know what's gonna happen.   a lot of times, people take what they want to do, and you have a routine, and they do the same thing every day, like Groundhog Day, the movie,   which is fine. Sometimes that's awesome.   sometimes I would like a little bit more stability in life and not having to guess, where my next gig is gonna come from, or how I'm gonna get it or anything like that. But yeah, it definitely hasn't been easy. And being a woman on top of all of that, I think it's way easier now to enter into this field as a as a female woman. And not that it is still easy, but it's way easier than it's ever been. People want to see it. They're kind of sick of seeing men all the time. They want to see chicks rocking out and letting themselves go and being free. And even men like they love it. They love it. Most of them,   but yeah, it was tough growing up for sure.

Marlana  

And I got the sense to that. Because we met about a month or so ago, at Rock and Roll fantasy camp, and that was the first women's only and I got the distinct sense that the voice of women in rock especially has been underserved and under heard for a really long time. How would you like to see that change?

Tosha  

I mean, just more opportunity and do the same. The same across the board. Like, if the men get certain gear, the women should get the same gear, stuff like that just equal opportunity all the time. No one has any excuses with anything and so. But yeah, more opportunity, more airtime more TV time, more rock camps that were only women base. And it's unfortunately still slowly headed in that direction I feel

Marlana  

Actually, let me ask you this incident, would you get out of Rock Camp once you get out of that experience?

Tosha  

Oh, man! Well, I needed that. More than ever, at that time, as far as not even a musician based feeling it was more of something I was going through in my life at the time. And it was based on trusting women again and having that camaraderie and feeling safe. Then, on top of it, being able to play with all these other amazing women that were there, whether it were or the campers, the counselors, or   the headliners. And each of my experience in those three fields was amazing. I was just talking to one of my campers an hour ago, she had wished me a happy birthday. And it's like, gosh! See, that's what I was able to pull out of it was friends,   and I needed that more than anything. So, it came at the perfect time for me. And it was the expectations exceeded all of that. From my experienced in those four days that we were all there.

Marlana  

Yeah,   unfortunately, I don't think the space exists often enough for women to just support other women. But when we have that space, and when it happens, it is an unbelievably powerful thing.

Tosha  

Yeah, I have no idea. It would impact me as much as I think I cried a couple times. I cried, excuse me with my tampers in our room. together one day, we all did. And it was lovely. It wasn't a bad cry, you know? So, it was good.

Marlana  

So, as you've gone through this journey, how much of it do you think is talent? And how much of that do you think is connections?

Tosha  

In my opinion, you need the talent to get connections, but then you need the connections to get,   where whatever path you're wanting to go towards. I mean, I don't want to say 5050 Because that's like cliche, but kind of right down the middle, honestly,   because you can always build your talent,   you can have a little bit of talent. And if you have a huge work ethic, then your talent can expand to a huge degree. So,   that's that, but definitely knowing the right people, but keeping it to where it's not fake or phony. That's kind of the trick, honestly. 

Marlana  

  there's a right way to network and there's a wrong way to network. And I don't think people are taught the right way often enough. We'll just leave it at that.

Tosha  

Oh, I've done some really stupid things in the past, in my opinion,   not even thinking that oh, this might not be the best idea.   you get into this like, Oh my God! I want that gig so much. I'll do anything to get it. And you're just thinking that you're not thinking of how this is going to offend whoever or them think that you only want to contact them because of who they know. I'm guilty of those numerous times. I've learned, luckily, a couple people said,   don't do that. So, I learned from that.

Marlana  

So, how do you make your connections? Or how do you handle your networking?

Tosha  

for example, I am best friends with one of the best drummers on television at the moment, and we have an 11- or 12-year relationship. And I started off by sending him an email, just a cold call email, and told him that I really appreciated his drumming, and I thought he was a great talent. And if he ever had time for drum lessons, or any knowledge, he wanted to drop me with that I would be more than grateful. And he responded and was amazing in his response, and now we're best friends who take me to the Lakers games. And if he doesn't take me to the Lakers games, we go watch the Lakers down the street at a bar, or I babysit his kids for him and his wife sometimes,   and it's a give and take equally. 

So,   he gives me knowledge. And I'm like, Dude, do you know and oh, I remember taking his kid to a computer class one summer, but I wanted to because I couldn't repay him financially. And I definitely couldn't repay him drumming because he's a beast, right? So, I tried to find where I could be of service into him and other ways to where he would know that. I'm not just trying to get something out of him. Right.   and so we talk almost multiple times a week, during basketball season, almost every day.

Marlana  

Do you think appreciation isn't shown enough?

Tosha  

Oh, man. Absolutely! That's an interesting question. Because we're all so different. That if I message someone like, happy birthday,   they don't respond or anything, like sometimes I'm like, Man, I said Happy birthday, but there wasn't much of a reaction. And maybe their reaction was enough for them,   so things get misconstrued. We're humans are wired. So, strangely, and I find it hard not to take offense to some of that, because I'm very sensitive and emotional. And   so, I don't know.

Marlana  

At the end of the day, one of the things that I've found is that people really just want to be seen and heard. And it doesn't take a whole lot on anybody's part to say, “hey, listen, thank you, “or “I see you” or “I appreciate you” or any of those kinds of things. So, speaking of appreciation, who's been your biggest influence?

Tosha  

Well, definitely any member of No Doubt, from when I was, I had just turned 15 When I got turned on to them. So that was in like, 95 or 96, something like that. Let's see, anyway. And they got me through life, basically. Because during that time, there wasn't easy for me, in the household. And at school, so all I had was music and a dream to be like them,   and so they were definitely my biggest influence. But as I got older, I mean, I'm a huge Tommy Lee fan. I always loved him, you know. 

But as far as non-celebrities, my mom, my auntie, my aunt Vicki, my sister. My family is amazing. They've been my biggest support through all of this and definitely would not be here if it weren't for them. So, I wouldn't say my family just because they're ultimately, nine times out of 10. Everyone has that situation where their family wants the worst for them. But yeah, I would say my biggest influence my mom and my auntie, my sister.

Marlana  

I asked this for a reason. Do you think that initially letting...