Bill Rieflin facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Bill Rieflin
Rieflin drumming with Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 in 2009
Background information
Birth name	William Frederick Rieflin
Born	(1960-09-30)September 30, 1960 Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Died	March 24, 2020(2020-03-24) (aged 59)
Genres	Industrial industrial metal industrial rock experimental rock alternative rock heavy metal progressive rock
Occupation(s)	Multi-instrumentalist, producer
Instruments	Drums, keyboards, guitar, bass
Associated acts	Ministry, R.E.M., Sweet 75, Revolting Cocks, KMFDM, Pigface, Nine Inch Nails, King Crimson, Robbie Williams, Swans

William Frederick Rieflin (September 30, 1960 – March 24, 2020) was an American musician. Rieflin came to prominence in the 1990s mainly for his work as a drummer with groups (particularly in the industrial rock and industrial metal scenes) such as Ministry, the Revolting Cocks, Lard, KMFDM, Pigface, Swans, Chris Connelly, and Nine Inch Nails. He worked regularly with R.E.M. following the retirement of Bill Berry in 1997. He was a member of King Crimson from 2013 until his death in 2020.

Career

Rieflin was born on September 30, 1960 (some sources say September 29) and began his professional career in his hometown of Seattle. In 1975, he was in The Telepaths, a band which played backup for a couple of live gigs by the pre-The Screamers band The Tupperwares. He played drums for The Blackouts starting in 1979. His bandmates included Mike Davidson, Paul Barker, Roland Barker and Erich Werner. Eventually that band dissolved and Paul Barker joined the nascent Ministry. His earliest collaboration with Al Jourgensen was on the second single by the Revolting Cocks, "You Often Forget".

Later, he participated in the creation of Ministry's album The Land of *** and Honey, and was noted for his performance in the live video In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up (alongside fellow drummer Martin Atkins). His work with Ministry and its side projects lasted through to the mid-nineties, though he noted that he was never credited as a member of Ministry proper, always as an "other" musician. Therefore, when he parted ways with the band during the Filth Pig sessions, he did not really quit since he was never an official member.

Rieflin helped Atkins kick off Pigface, the industrial collective that would grow to incorporate hundreds of artists, formed a friendship with labelmate Chris Connelly and founded First World Music. Like Connelly, Rieflin's work grew beyond his industrial roots. They collaborated on several recordings; two in particular, The Ultimate Seaside Companion (as "The Bells") and Largo, showcase Rieflin's keyboard skills.

Rieflin's solo debut, Birth of a Giant, featured him singing in something other than a background role, and also featured Robert Fripp. Improvisations from these sessions turned up later on the CD The Repercussions of Angelic Behavior, which was credited to Rieflin, Fripp and Trey Gunn.

Rieflin appeared on all KMFDM records released from 1995 to 2003 as a drummer, programmer, vocalist and keyboardist. He toured with the band as a bassist in 2002 in support of its comeback album, Attak and performed on the 2011 KMFDM album, ***?!. He also drummed for Scott McCaughey's band, The Minus 5, which occasionally included guitarist Peter Buck. Eventually Buck offered Rieflin the opportunity to sit in with R.E.M., who were missing a permanent drummer since the 1997 departure of Bill Berry. The band gave him the live drummer slot in its 2003 tour. They later announced that Rieflin would fill the role indefinitely, though once again as a hired musician rather than as an official member. In recordings, Rieflin also contributed bouzouki, keyboards and guitars to the group, serving as an auxiliary member until R.E.M. disbanded in 2011.

Rieflin was key to forming an experimental ensemble named Slow Music in 2005 with Fred Chalenor, Hector Zazou, Matt Chamberlain, Peter Buck, and Robert Fripp; in this sextet Rieflin played synthesizers rather than drums. The group played a small handful of live dates in 2005 and 2006 and became inactive until 2014, when they played a few shows as a quintet due to Zazou's passing in 2008. He was also involved in a music collaboration project entitled The Humans, which consisted of him, Chris Wong, Fripp and Toyah Willcox. The band performed a series of live dates in Estonia in Autumn 2007 and 2009, and released their debut album We are the Humans in 2009. Hector Zazou's 2010 album Corps Electriques featured Rieflin, as well as KatieJane Garside, Lone Kent and nu-jazz trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær.

Rieflin drumming behind R.E.M. on the band's final tour in 2008

Rieflin was a regular contributor to Swans ever since the 1995 album The Great Annihilator, and played an array of instruments on all their studio recordings since the band reformed in 2010 and released My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky. Rieflin is listed as an "honorary Swan" on the band's 2012 album The Seer.

In 2012, Rieflin performed on drums for Robbie Williams's album Take the Crown. Later that year he produced the single Crush Vaccine for Atomic Bride.

In an online diary entry dated September 6, 2013, Robert Fripp announced a new lineup for King Crimson that included Rieflin as one of the band's three drummers. A few days after the first full-length live release of the band with Rieflin on board (Live in Toronto 2015), Fripp announced Rieflin's decision to take a sabbatical from the band, effective March 6, 2016, "a decision supported by all the Crimson Brothers." In early 2017, Fripp announced that Rieflin would be returning alongside his replacement, Jeremy Stacey. Due to Fripp's desire to stave off complacency after several years of touring, Rieflin "will be focusing on mellotron, keys and fairy dusting, rather than using drums as a main instrument" in the new Double Quartet configuration, thus becoming the band's first full-time keyboardist ever. For the US Autumn 2017 tour dates in October–November, he was replaced on keyboards by the Seattle-based guitarist Chris Gibson. He rejoined in 2018 before taking another indefinite sabbatical in 2019, he was replaced on keyboards by Soft Machine's sax player Theo Travis., who was fired after a few rehearsals. Fripp and the band made the decision to not replace Rieflin, thus reverting King Crimson to a seven-member band.

Personal life and death

Rieflin was married to painter Francesca Sundsten until her death in 2019. Rieflin died on March 24, 2020 from colon cancer at the age of 59.

Discography

Cells with thistle-colored daggers () indicate a live release

Name of release year, artist, release title and Rieflin's contribution

Year	Artist	Title	Contribution	Ref.
1988	Ministry	The Land of *** and Honey	Drums, programming, keyboards, guitar, background vocals
1988	Revolting Cocks	Live! You ***	Drums
1989	Ministry	The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste	Drums, programming, background vocals
1990	Revolting Cocks	Beers, Steers, and Queers	Drums, programming
1990	Ministry	In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up	Drums
1990	Lard	The Last Temptation of Reid	Drums (two tracks)
1990	1000 Homo DJs	"Supernaut"	Drums
1990	KMFDM	Naïve	Drums (one track)
1991	Pigface	Gub	Drums, guitar, bass, synthesizer, sounds
1991	Pigface	Lean Juicy Pork	Interviewee
1992	Ministry	Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to *** Eggs	Drums
1992	Revolting Cocks	Big *** Land	Drums
1992	Pigface	Welcome to Mexico... ***	Drums
1993	Revolting Cocks	Linger Ficken' Good	Drums, organ, programming, production
1995	Swans	The Great Annihilator	Drums, sounds, percussion, 12-string acoustic guitar, sequencing
1995	KMFDM	Nihil	Drums (three tracks)
1995	Michael Gira	Drainland	Rhythm programming, keyboards, electric bass guitar, samples, engineering, production, arrangement, studio provision
1996	Ministry	Filth Pig	Drums (one track)
1996	KMFDM	Xtort	Drums
1996	Swans	Soundtracks for the Blind	Drums
1997	Lard	Pure Chewing Satisfaction	Drums
1997	KMFDM	Symbols	Drums, programming, percussion, photography, sequencing (three tracks)
1997	Sweet 75	Sweet 75	Drums (listed as percussion), piano
1999	Angels of Light	New Mother	Percussion, piano, bass guitar, organ, synthesizers, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
1999	KMFDM	Adios	Programming (one track)
1999	Nine Inch Nails	The Fragile	Drums (one track)
1999	Bill Rieflin	The Repercussions of Angelic Behavior	Drums, mixing
1999	Bill Rieflin	Birth of a Giant	Drums, bass, guitar, production, vocals
2000	Lard	70's Rock Must Die	Drums (one track)
2001	Bill Rieflin & Chris Connelly	Largo	Keyboards, mixing, piano, production, vocals
2001	Land	Road Movies	Drums
2002	KMFDM	Attak	Drums, bass, programming, synthesizers, percussion, guitar
2003	KMFDM	Sturm & Drang Tour 2002	Bass
2003	KMFDM	WWIII	Drums, vocals, loops (three tracks)
2004	R.E.M.	Around the Sun	Drums, percussion
2005	Slow Music	Live At The Croc 19 Oct 2005	synthesizer
2006	Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3	Olé! Tarantula	Choir, drums, percussion
2007	Angels of Light	We Are Him	Drums, bass, guitar, organ, percussion, piano, synthesizers
2007	R.E.M.	R.E.M. Live	Drums
2008	R.E.M.	Accelerate	Drums
2009	Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3	Goodnight Oslo	Drums, vocal harmony, vocals
2009	The Humans	We Are the Humans	Drums, bass, synthesizers, organ, production
2009	R.E.M.	Live at the Olympia	Drums
2010	Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3	Propellor Time	Drums
2010	Swans	My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky	Drums, piano, guitar, synthesizers, organ, vocals
2011	R.E.M.	Collapse into Now	Drums, bouzouki, keyboards, guitar
2011	KMFDM	***?!	Engineering, sounds (one track)
2011	The Humans	Sugar Rush	Percussion, keyboards, bass, production
2012	Swans	The Seer	Drums, piano, organ, guitar, percussion, synthesizers, bass, vocals
2013	Taylor Swift	"The Last Time"	Drums
2014	The Humans	Strange Tales	Drums, keyboards, guitar, bass, sounds, vocals, production
2014	Swans	To Be Kind	Drums, percussion, synthesizers, piano, guitar, bass, keyboards
2015	King Crimson	Live at the Orpheum	Drums, percussion, synthesizers, vocals
2016	King Crimson	Live in Toronto	Drums, percussion, keyboards
2016	Swans	The Glowing Man	Drums, piano, synthesizers, bass, guitar, vocals
2016	King Crimson	Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind	Drums, keyboards
2017	King Crimson	Live in Chicago	Keyboards
2018	Lead into Gold	The Sun Behind the Sun	Drums
2018	King Crimson	Meltdown: Live in Mexico City	Keyboards, production

See also

In Spanish: Bill Rieflin para niños