You carry a beginner’s mind when learning something new. Did this mindset help when starting to develop your tennis game?
As musicians, we’re always trying to find a reminder of why we started doing it. Starting something new reminds you that you’re not good at everything. If I get excited about something, I go all in. I love photography but for a long time would never call myself a photographer. Ten years ago, while I was in New Zealand, a dear friend of mine said, “What makes you think you’re not a photographer?” He encouraged me to buy a bunch of disposables and to just not think about it. Just go shoot a ton of stuff. And I did. I continued to grow from there. I jumped in headfirst with tennis, too. I’m going to watch my friend Troy play tonight. He’s also a musician and drummer. He played in high school, just has this natural talent for tennis. It’s almost intimidating to be like, “I’ll never get to that place.” Tennis has brought me so much joy and peace. Parallel to my personal life and my inner dialogue of how frustrated I get with myself and learning to combat negative self-talk.

Tennis is such a good outlet if people haven’t found something yet. Not only does it add years to your life, but the mental health benefits are huge. I actually drove over to my local tennis court to do this interview, we live really close. I play most mornings. Unless I’m on a bike ride or purposely meditating or being quiet, tennis is my only time to think for myself. If it’s an empty concrete court and it’s open, you’re just looking at the sky and trees. It’s really meditative.

When I’m out there in the morning, it’s the only two hours of the day where I’m not thinking like, “Should I turn that snare up in that mix? Should I have responded to that email?” I completely turn my brain off from that world and fully focus on, like, “Okay, I’m going to move my feet. How am I going to serve today?” Like just trying to like, don’t beat yourself up so much. You’re doing great. Look how much you’ve grown. I’ve been grinding every week with my coach Scott, who is this amazing, beautiful person. He has an astrology podcast; everything for him is connected. Tennis has a lot of parallels and metaphors hidden inside of it. 

What is the connection between drumming and tennis from a physical standpoint?
The thing that I noticed early on is my endurance. I can be hitting for like two hours and feel like I’m just getting going. For a Paramore headlining show, it’s like 90 minutes. It’s a long, long set. You have to save your energy for the very end because that’s when you play the hits. I’m literally an hour and a half into this and now we have to play the heaviest three songs back-to-back. With tennis, I feel like I start waking up in the second set. I attribute that to playing live. Then there is timing. With drumming, you’re stationary. It’s sort of like footwork and running around. Having the timing of a drummer helped my serve develop quickly. I was better at serving but had no backhand, no volley, had no other part of my game besides a little bit of a forehand, and I could serve. It’s funny how it clicked right away.

Do you have a favorite type of environment to play in?
I prefer to go to a public court. Yeah. There’s a group of guys at the one by my house, these dudes that are so cool in their 70s. They all used to play basketball, but they got too old for it. There’s a huge crew of them. They’re so sassy, too. I just don’t think you find something like that at a club. We have a club that just opened here, six Italian clay courts. It’s super nice, but I prefer pickup games.

Where does photographing tennis come into play?
I always thought tennis courts were cool and aesthetically pleasing. Two summers ago we went on a four-month Taylor Swift tour. She only plays shows on the weekends, or she did on that tour. We would be in Paris or Zurich for a week. In Europe they primarily have clay courts. I was booking courts every day on our off day. You can only go to so many pubs or museums. I decided to make a trip out of it and see how many courts we could find. I made a tennis zine about it. I brought my camera to every court and documented everywhere we played.

Is this your photo book?
The zine I did is called Souvenir. It’s what I took away from those four months. It’s easier on tour because you stay at hotels that have gyms, but I don’t love going to the gym. Tennis tricks me into getting two and a half hours of cardio every morning. It’s given me a lot of balance mentally and physically. I can’t promote it more. It’s a frustrating sport that’s given me a lot of life.

Drumming, photography, and tennis all require being as present as possible. It feels like they’ve all helped keep you in balance.
Totally. It makes me love music more because I’m not putting all of my eggs in one basket. If you only do one thing, you can lose sight of how special it is. Healthwise I have something to look forward to forever. Knock on wood I’ll be playing till I’m in my 70s like these guys. I’m not really a network-y, go-meet-other-musicians kind of person, but I’ve met more musicians through playing tennis than I have through playing music.