"Weird Al" Yankovic, Diamond Records, and Snare Drums with Bermuda Schwartz
Love Music More · hosted by Luke F. Walton (Scoobert Doobert)
Guest: Bermuda Schwartz
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Topics discussed
Host note
Bermuda Schwartz ("Jon Bermuda") is the drum platform under four decades of Weird Al parodies, a diamond-selling comedy catalog that still requires serious production detective work. His job is to decode whatever the source hit did (Michael Jackson to Imagine Dragons) and build a pocket Al's accordion can sit on top of.
We trace how he met Al at a Dr. Demento live show in LA (pure luck, unrepeatable), why accordion lessons preceded drum lessons, and the obsessive habit of writing down exact snare samples so years-later revisits stay faithful. Tour stories go deep too: ~40 songs in rotation, 16–18 per night, zero repeats on consecutive nights in the same city, plus orchestral runs and unplugged pivots to keep a lifelong show from going stale.
Selected moments
- Diamond record parody artist 0:21 Decode drums across every genre so Al can play accordion on top; 40 years of it.
- Accordion lessons before drums 4:27 Palmer-Hughes method at eight or nine; inherited brother's kit in Phoenix.
- Meeting Weird Al: Dr. Demento live 6:32 Right place, right time in LA; couldn't have engineered the introduction.
- Drum sounds from anything but drums 30:31 Reverse-engineering producers when the source isn't a machine you recognize.
- Snare samples written down 42:11 Word Crimes / inactive parody, document samples because memory won't hold.
- Different set every night 50:56 ~40 songs in rotation; back-to-back nights in one city = no repeats.
- 1985 Dare to Be Stupid tour 24:02 Video era, Showtime special funding, companion book The Authorized Al.
- Orchestral tour, conductor in every city 51:29 2019/2022 pivots, local orchestra, dedicated conductor, fresh arrangements.
Selected excerpts
As a parody artist over 40 years they've done everything in popular music — Imagine Dragons to Michael Jackson — and I've had to decode and figure out the drums to create a platform for Weird Al to sit on top of and play accordion.
Meeting Weird Al was completely right place, right time. You can't create that — I didn't know he was going to be where I met him.
They're making drum sounds with anything but drums. I got to a point where I couldn't determine what they had done — my goal was to listen until I could recreate it.
I've got all of this written down — exactly the samples I used. I don't remember it, but I wrote it all down so I could go back.
Every night was a different set — about 40 songs in rotation, 16 to 18 a night. Two nights in the same city? We made sure the next night had no repeats.
FAQ
How long has Bermuda Schwartz played with Weird Al?
Since 1980, drums, producing, and touring across Weird Al's full career. On Love Music More he discusses decoding source-track drum language for decades of genre-spanning parodies.
What does Bermuda Schwartz say about snare drums on this episode?
He describes obsessively reverse-engineering snare and drum sounds from parody targets, including documenting exact samples used on tracks like Word Crimes, because parody production requires faithful recreation of wildly different source records.
Curated notes only — no public transcript. Listen on the links above.