Any Drummers out there

[tombackus]

Longtime drummer/sound engineer here. Been playing since I was 4 yrs old. Marched in drum corps and aged out in the Bridgemen line back in '82. Went to Berklee for drums, also played in a punk band back in the early 80's that toured as the opener for The Ramones, The Go-Go's, Johnny Thunders, Joan Jett, and opened for U2 when they first went on tour here. Good times for sure. I still play and produce when I get the call for it, still follow drum corps too.

  Since I grew up in Rochester, NY, I had the pleasure of working with Steve Gadd a number of times when I was engineering in the studio. Just standing next to the kit while he is playing is unbelievable. He taught me some things, and we still keep in touch.

Seems that most drummers I know are technically savvy, have perfect pitch, can write great music, and play many different instruments.

Tom Backus

[Brad Harper]

Drummer here. All the school bands, Madison Scouts Snare Line, toured with Asleep At The Wheel, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Tommy Alverson, lots of Texas boys, China Blue (metal), Played jazz with James Clay, Redd Garland, Clint Strong, Bla bla bla.

[Jimmy Tuffrey]

If anyone is wondering who was buying up all the old Slingerland and K custom stuff in California via ebay a couple of years ago whilst the pound was strong... it was me....!

Funnily enough I worked on a show last year where 4 of the sound team including me where playing drums too.

Having said that I am primarily a guitarist who also plays fretless bass.

Oh played guitar with some amazing drummers in my time too including Billy Cobham, I was not in his main band though, that was a university thing.

[old school]

Jimmy, you need to post some pictures for all us drummers to drool over. There are way more drummers from jwsound than I would of guessed when I started this thread. Today I wrapped before lunch, (like the old days), and I am now working on a drum loop I cut together last night from a riff I was playing. It's fun, but I would rather be jamming.

CrewC

[Jimmy Tuffrey]

OK seeing as you asked.

This is the only shot I have which shows the kit fully. I may not look as good as Joanna whilst playing but looks aren't everything.

Always was borrowing kits and then after buying my son a cymble I got carried away and ended up putting this together. Done a fair few jazz gigs on it too.

Drumming is less brain work and more feel than bass or guitar. No melody or harmony to have to think about. Just rhythm, dynamics and form to focus on. The lack of the intellectual aspects is refreshing after playing jazz guitar and bass I think.

[old school]

Sweet Jimmy. thanks.

CrewC

[Peter Deutscher]

Dug this thread up as I was going to post a new one asking anyone here on the board played any instruments. Been playing drums for over 10 years now and still going strong! I was in a couple of bands but the one I really focused on for a while and took sometime off from sound gigs for was Cloakwheel. We had distribution and a record deal in Europe and all things were looking good. Then the main songwriter decided he didn't want to play music anymore. From there, I bounced around a few projects but then decided to get back into sound. Now I'm back playing drums for fun in a Megadeth cover band called 5magics. Below is the link to my old band Cloakwheel and a Youtube clip to 5magics playing our first show back in November (we were a bit rough that night and our buddy filled in on vocals.)

http://www.myspace.com/cloakwheel

[Bondelev]

I was a jazz composition major at Berklee. Trumpet was my instrument then, but it’s impossible to play if you don’t play every day, so I quit about 15 years ago. Now I sing and play percussion. I wouldn’t call myself a drummer, but I definitely understand why people enjoy it. I think both singing and playing percussion are instinctive to people and are very therapeutic.

[dfisk]

Fellow drummer here.

I started in 6th grade. Did the marching band, jazz band, concert band thing in high school. Got into DePaul University in Chicago on a percussion scholarship. Majored in Audio. Did the whole band thing. I played in a funk band that was a cross between the Chili Peppers and George Clinton. Did a bunch of session drumming for a while. I was lucky enough to be friends with Rob D'addario...you know..of the D'addario guitar strings/evans drum head family. He was a drummer too, so I would go over to his apartment all the time and get all the free drum heads I could carry. He would get me experimental stuff that wasn't even on the market yet. Saved me a ton of money.

I haven't played in about 10 years. Once I moved to L.A., I had no space for my kit. I picked up a cheap electronic kit a few years back, but it just wasn't the same. I miss it terribly. Having 4 small kids doesn't lend itself to having a big acoustic kit.

Quick story...

After high school, I went to the Zildjian factory and hand picked out new cymbals. If you ever have the chance to do this, you HAVE to do it. We got the full tour, and the people were great. They treated me like I was important even though I was just some 18 year old kid on his way to college. I'll never forget walking into the vault....cymbals stacked as far as you could see. I still have those cymbals. I'll never sell them. If I'm homeless, I'll be carrying around that cymbal back on my shoulder.

[Peter Deutscher]

...Did the whole band thing. I played in a funk band that was a cross between the Chili Peppers and George Clinton. Did a bunch of session drumming for a while...

Got any recordings laying around?

[Wyatt Tuzo]

Not a drummer, but I play guitar, lap steel, Wurlitzer and organ in my current band. (lap and guit, primarily).

We still tour quite a bit. It helps that my wife is in the band too.

Were called bel air. Here's some of our stuff:

Www.belairtheband.com

Www.facebook.com/belairband

-Wyatt.

[dfisk]

Got any recordings laying around?

oh yeah. they are just on my computer. is there a way for me to upload a song here as an attachment?

[Peter Deutscher]

oh yeah. they are just on my computer. is there a way for me to upload a song here as an attachment?

You could always use Sound Cloud:

http://soundcloud.com/

[dfisk]

Nice. That site is cool. Here is one of the last songs we recorded. It's called Brownies and Milk. I'm on drums (of course)

http://soundcloud.com/dfisk79/01-brownies-and-milk

The name of the band was Dr. Morg and the 12 Legged Funk Machine

[Peter Deutscher]

Nice. That site is cool. Here is one of the last songs we recorded. It's called Brownies and Milk. I'm on drums (of course)

http://soundcloud.com/dfisk79/01-brownies-and-milk

The name of the band was Dr. Morg and the 12 Legged Funk Machine

Right on dude...Sounds great and you can groove pretty hard. I'm impressed and glad to see the level of musicianship on this board

[Mick]

As Crew mentioned I'm a keys/guitar guy but I've bashed out a few jams on skins as I'm sure most non-drummers have. These days I download midi files from some selected sites and then customize them on my Roland VS2480 with background vocals and additional instruments and create really good sounding solid backing tracks for my venture into live playing this summer. Malls and stuff probably. It's been too many years since I played out and I'm looking forward to gigging again when the show is on hiatus. Even if it never happens the preparation has been so much fun.

[Sean McCormick]

I've been playing professionally for decades and still have a chair in a busy variety band these days. Thankfully I have a good sub (but not too good) that can fill in when I'm on shoots.

Here's a clip from NYE recently at a stuffy Houston area country club. Note the GoPro on my head:

The Grooves - New Year's Eve - "Shout"

[Richard Walters]

Wow...nice to see other drummer/mixers in here!  I've been playing for 17 years myself.  Unfortunately the last year drums have taken a back seat to work.  But when I first moved to San Diego 4 years ago I fed myself playing in cover bands. 

I'm lucky enough to have found a '68 slingerland kit with the original silver sparkle wrap about 10 years ago which sounds unbelievable!....Boy I do miss playing live shows!

[Peter Deutscher]

So I think I'm going to sell all my drums and cymbals. REALLY pains me to do so, but I need the cash to buy a few things sound-wise. Plus, I'll be moving to NYC next year and won't have any space for them there anyway. Will have to hope I find people to jam with out there who have access to a kit.

Anywho, I have drum gear available if anyone's interested. Tama Starclassic Maple kit (various sizes), Zildjian cymbals (A custom, K's, etc.) Email or PM me if anyone's interested. Would love to see these babies go to a nice home and not just some kit on craigslist.

[Christian Spaeth]

I've got an old set of drums sitting in my basement that I will play once in a while when I can sneak away from my wife and kids (which is not too often). I played the drums in two bands until about three years ago, which was great fun, even though I'm not a learned drummer and play off beat a lot

Actually I can't wait to play with some cool folks but it's hard to find them when you have a job and family...

here's one

http://www.myspace.com/thenyquistduo

all improvised material recorded on a stereo set of two Oktava MK012 omnis (A-

[soundslikejustin]

Chalk another one up to the list of drummers. I've got a custom Mapex kit (was a Jupiter Pro at one stage - back when they were made out of REAL wood...12 ply Canadian Maple) but sadly it mostly stays packed up in its bags these days...

[Doug Osborn]

I used to also play for decades until I got into video production. My last kit was primarily a Yamaha Recording Custom, with an additional 20-inch TAMA gong bass drum and two snares: a Noble & Cooley snare and a SOTA African Padauk snare. I painted the extra pieces to match the Yamaha paint. Too many cymbals to count; I collected them since the 60's: Zildjian, Paiste, Sabian. I also got ahold of two Wuhan Chinese cymbals before they were officially sold in the USA.

I was talking with one of the house drummers for the Blue Man Group in their original New York venue after a performance a few years ago. We were talking drums and I mentioned that I could have turned pro if it weren't for two things: rhythm and talent. My only claim to fame as a drummer is that a set of 13-inch Paiste 602 hi-hats I owned were used in a Stevie Nicks session in the 80's at Goodnight Audio in Dallas, Texas.

My next and final set of drums will be a Noble Cooley kit with Sabian cymbals.

[samsound]

I'm not a drummer,but I remembered seeing this thread when I came across this radio programme amongst a load of mp3's on my PC

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18808477/Beat%20It%20The%20World%20of%20the%20Modern%20drummer.mp3

Mutt n' Jeff

[taylormadeaudio]

Hey Crew,

I've been playing drums for about 25 years... self-taught initially, then really got into it in college, taking classes and lessons from a guy who I still think might be an alien. I was going after a degree in composition and performance, had already started the registration process at Cal Arts and then landed an opportunity to boom op an indie feature (coincidentally, the mixer on that gig was a drummer as well). I worked with him for several years until he moved back to the UK.

common denominators between drummers and soundies?....

[Peter Deutscher]

Hey Crew,

I've been playing drums for about 25 years... self-taught initially, then really got into it in college, taking classes and lessons from a guy who I still think might be an alien. I was going after a degree in composition and performance, had already started the registration process at Cal Arts and then landed an opportunity to boom op an indie feature (coincidentally, the mixer on that gig was a drummer as well). I worked with him for several years until he moved back to the UK.

common denominators between drummers and soundies?....

+1