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"High of the Glass"
This is my eighth KMK drumtrike and the number eight represents infinity...
The concept for my ninth Kottonmouth Kings drumtrike," As I was researching,"gangsta party" by Tupac and Snoop came up on my Ipod and the vision and goal became clearer. I wanted to create something that was"classy with an edge" and to "keep it gangsta".
As always,Orange County Drum and Percussion hooked up the drums and Fonzy got down on the airbrushing. Inspired by this classic illustration of Biggie Smalls,
With burl-wood laminate I simulated the stylish woodgrain dashboard,running board,steering wheel and acccents.
It is my goal to outdo myself with each project and to collaborate with
people to build amazing designs. If you are interested in collaborating with me on your very
own Lourider custom drum-trike, or if you are interested in a custom drum kit without a trike contact me at loudog@lourider.net.
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High,
I'm Lou Dog your host and welcome to Lourider.net.
I play drums exclusively for the Kottonmouth Kings. I've been playing
and building drum sets for a long time, and I've been building and
designing bikes even longer: 
lowriders,
beach cruisers, BMX and now "drum-trikes." In 1997, as the legend
goes, the concept of building a hybrid of a drum kit with a lowrider
trike came to me naturally one hazy day when I was cruising on the
beach tapping along to Bob Marley rhythms in my head. I stopped to
exhale and in the puff of smoke I saw for the first time the concept
of attaching drums and percussion to the handlebars of my 1964 Schwinn
trike. 
This
vision became the protoype and eventually the original drum-trike.
It made it's video debut on the "Suburban Life" video which was being
broadcast daily on MTV during it's promotion of the "Scream 2" soundtrack.
So now I'm touring with KMK and ridin' high around the country with
my drum-trike. Drummers and fans like Tommy Lee, Travis Barker and
Gwen Stefani are coming to shows to check it out and requesting their
very own custom drum-trike.
O.C.D.P
took me to the highest levels of quality in drum building. Adolf Jimenez
from the STYLE car club in Pomona, CA hooked me up with H & R Classics
for paint and bodywork. He also introduced me to the world famous
airbrush and tattoo artist "Fonzy." His talented artwork can be seen
on all future creations. The airbrush allows me to tell a story and
really personalize and customize each creation and achieve "concept
art pieces" as well as fully functioning drum kits.
In
January 2004, I began to work on "Heaven is a Third Wheel." With this
project, I wanted to spend more time on the bodywork of this 1970
Schwinn Stingray and "tattoo" every inch of of space on both the frame
of the bike and shells of all the drums. I designed and layed out
all of the artwork, and Fonzy took my pencil sketches to the next
level. The paint job is truly custom. The effect was achieved by multiple
layers of gold and green paint tones and sprinkled lightly with a
gold micro-flake. The photos don't do it justice, so come to a show
and see it up close in person. This time with the drums, I was personally
hands on at the O.C.D.P. factory and helped design, drill, sand, and
assemble the drum kit. 
Two drumkits on one
trike. This idea was born in 2001 when Tommy Lee was coming
to our shows and test driving the drumtrike live on
stage. I would get off the kit and let him jam his favorite
song, "bump", with the band. Necessity was the mother of
this invention. I picked up the frame, a 1970 Schwinn
super deluxe tandem, in Chicago. Serpico showed me the
bike shop and Pickles helped me pull it down from the
rafters of this dusty old warehouse, with the spiderwebs
included. With the help of Adolf and Bob, I chopped it,
slammed it and got it prepped at H&R classics in Chino for
body and paint.
I wanted this one to be the big sister to
"heaven is a third wheel". We gave her the same skin color
but, with more accesories. 2004's "heaven is a third
wheel" is all about the drums and the massive amount of
artwork, so this one had to be all about the trike. I
mounted clear acryllic acoustic drums in the front so you
can see the trike behind it from the audience angle. The
secondary drumkit is a combination of Roland V-drums and
PD-7's. The digital electronic kit in the rear is for the
hip-hop flavors and the acoustic kit in the front is for
the punk and rock stuff. 
The hemp fabric upholstery of the
two seats and the custom shaped love seat came from Island
Hemp Wear.com. The 15 inch KMK "spinner" medallions inside
the spokes of all three wheels are truly original,
three-of-a-kind, custom works. 
Yes it rides, and yes the
KMK logo medallion inside the see- through acryllic kick
drum spins and blings like a disco ball, and YES, I did win the first 
The origin of the vibe is the upholstery of the banana
seat. I picked up the long-"sleaved" shirt while exploring
the streets of Shibuya. The pattern on the fabric is
traditional tribal tattoo art with blue balls or 'pearls"
on fire. Each pearl has a different character or symbol
inside it with a spiritual meaning like prosperity, long
life, tranquility, peace, etc. In Japanese mythology, the
blue pearls are weapons that are hurled by dragons. I
designed the wheels to mimmick the pearls on fire with
black chrome KMK logo spinners as the symbols, and
laminated blue rice paper for the blue pearl background.
The flames coming of the fenders are actually slices of
the fender itself painted with Chevy red-orange spray
paint I picked up at PepBoys. 
Once again Fonzy took my
drawings and sketches to the "highest" level and
masterfully airbrushed the artwork.
Steve at OCDP inlayed
three diamonds into the kick drum shells as earings for a
nice finishing touch. The photo shoot took place in a
Japanese garden in L.A. before I had the kit shipped
one-way to Japan where it will live forever among the
people and culture that inspired the creation. I look
forward to reuniting with her when I go back. I named this
one "high as a kite, deep as the ocean" because that is
the translation of the characters that are ingraved on the
bamboo of the seat post..... 
With a pair of training
wheels, a lunchbox for a trunk, and some custom grafix of X-treme Sponge Bob
skateboarding, surfing and snowboarding, the finishing touch was the
interactive clock installed in the front kick-drumhead. Every hour the panels
rotate flashing a different scene from the Sponge Bob movie. The license
plate is a miniature of the dad's. I laminated it and installed on the rear
of the trunk. Like father,like son. Or, like son, like father? 
Look out for
future interactive 'mini-drumtrikes' for the kids like the Simpson's, the
Batman, the Spiderman and the Hello Kitty.
The legend of "Underwater Sunset". One day,Chris from Headworks and I went on a deep-sea fishing trip and we reeled in the big one. A 1966 Schwinn Stingray "girl-cut" frame from the depths of Lake Tick in the Valley.
At first she didn't look like much but, I know a classic with potential when I see one.
"Underwater
Sunset" was completed in Fall 2005 just in time for 2005
Lowrider Magazine national carshow finals in Las Vegas. I
wanted to build a "futuristic" concept piece that also
combined "classic" features. I've always loved the shapes of
Corvette Stingrays and Jet Skis and the style of teal on
white Chevy Bel Airs and Cadillacs. 
The
airbrushed art concept is about the Hollywood Sunset
"strip" in the future. The "strip" is underwater after the
big tsunami and big earthquake. It is a world where
mermaids and dolphins swim and dance together in
peace. 
They collect THC crystals
which grow wild and abundantly from the sea"weed" and
party all night long at all my favorite clubs. The ghost
mural effect was achieved by spraying teal candy paint
over the artwork.
Fonzy's art is more
subdued and lower in the mix than past projects. By
futuristic I also mean "high" tech. Five flat screen
monitors, three video cameras and, a DVD
player, PlaystationII, CD stereo, and Vapor8-tor in the
trunk. 
Custom blown glass pieces blown by
Byron, my pipe and bong artisan, accent the handle bar
grips, pedals, sprocket, bumpers and mirrors. Again the drums are Orange County Drum and
Percussion 
and California Sound in San
Bernardino did a great job with the audio/visual and
electronics.Mark and Marlon at CalSound made the vision
for the trunk design a reality 
