Ben Wendel on Composing for Drums, The Evolution of Kneebody, And More
JP Bouvet Returns! Finally Comparing Notes About Our Teaching Philosophies
Camellia "Cami Loops" Kies - Your Limitations Are Fake
Yogev Gabay - Be Brave Enough to Play What You Love
Brandon Olander - Technique Notes With The Drum Corps GOAT
Chris Coleman - It Was Never About Competition
Anika Nilles on Drumming for Jeff Beck, Practice Psychology, and Being a "Late Bloomer"
George Kollias - The Death Metal "Native" Who Loves Jazz
Stan Bicknell on Creating A Life Around The Drums
Chris Turner on Falling in Love With The Drums Every Day
Rob Brown on The Importance of Gigs, Whether Feel Can Be Taught, and The Future of YouTube Drumming
Ofri Nehemya on Flow States, Lessons From The Greats, and Letting It Cook
Joshua Crawford on Pocket, Influences, and Influencer Life
Gordy Knudtson - The Hand Whisperer
When Gordy Knudtson was gigging in the late 70s, he was using almost exclusively traditional grip, and suffered an injury he says caused doctors to doubt he’d be able to continue playing.
Desperate to “work around” his tension, Gordy switched to matched and did one of the great deep-dives on hand technique. You could say he “John Dahaner’ed” drumstick mechanics, but it’s more accurate to say John “Gordy’d” jiujitsu.
One of the points I bring up with Gordy is that just as before and after Danaher, plenty of practitioners embodied solid mechanics, if you watch the hands of any of myriad great drummers, from Joe Morello to Philly Joe, to Tony Williams, to maybe Tony’s most famous fan, Vinnie Colaiuta, to modern technicians like Dana Hawkins, it’s clear there’s no shortage of drummers putting mechanical principles into practice.
But it’s probably also true that Gordy has extended the understanding of what’s actually happening when these greats play more than anyone at least since Murray Spivack, and, just like Danaher, made it more efficient for beginners to learn.
As you’ll see, Gordy also gives me something of a “free lesson”, showing how I could extend on my technique. Video of my thoughts and experiments on this in the pipeline for sure. There’s been much chat around this on calls with my coaching students.
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Benny Greb on Being an Entertainer, Neitzsche, Vinnie, and More
I had a suspicion Benny Greb would be an interesting and thought-provoking conversation partner, and I wasn’t wrong.
I was interested to compare notes with the master-clinician on a number of things that have been top-of-mind, like nature/nurture, the paradox of the subjectivity of - but requirement for skill in - art, gap-click, and overrated drum advice.
Benny surprised me at turns, and confirmed my suspicions at others.
One of his most-interesting insights, in my opinion, was that he wants to be an entertainer/craftsperson, not just an “artist”.
We also managed to touch on Pablo Picaso, Neitzsche, Vinnie’s Attack of The 20lb Pizza (it’s 20 pounds, I know - I misspoke and under-weighted the pizza during the interview), and why Benny maybe disagrees with me on independence as a concept.
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TaRon Lockett (And His "Life Coach") on Humility, Creativity, Erykah Badu, and Hard-Won Lessons
TaRon Lockett, who was Prince’ last drummer, who cut his teeth with Erykah Badu, and who was a key member of a scene that spawned Robert “Sput” Searight, Cleon Edwards and Mike Mitchell among others…
…showed up to our interview in character as his own life coach.
And from that point I knew this wasn’t going to be an “average” podcast episode.
It’s perfectly in-keeping with TaRon’s entire approach to music and creativity, though. There’s the dedication to “the bit”, evidenced by TaRon’s philosophy to dedicate himself 100% to assuming the character necessary to perform at his best for any gig he’s agreed to.
There’s the fearlessness that helped TaRon “not look back” when he left a college degree program to pursue music full-time after getting some high-profile gigs.
There’s the respect for age-old wisdom and the hard-won lessons of playing in church and learning by “respectful hard knocks”, and the dead seriousness of one’s dedication to their art.
Then there’s the duality itself, between irreverence, rebelliousness, and independence on one hand, and respect for the tradition and the aforementioned willingness to conform to perform his best on the gig.
In any case, if you’re patient, there are lessons, both humorous and serious to be gleaned both from TaRon-as-his-life-coach, and Taron-as-himself.
I hope you enjoy this fascinating the surprising conversation with one of the most underrated drummers around.
(And if you want to check out TaRon more, I recommend his instagram, starting with this clip.)
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Ed Soph - "I Don't Teach Jazz Drums, I Teach Improvisation"
Today we have an interview I’m very excited about.
One of the forefathers of jazz drum instruction - though as you’ll hear he doesn’t like the taxonomy, preferring to say he’s an “improvisation teacher”.
The biggest surprise for me upon speaking to Ed is that he’s an iconoclast. His energy is pure punk-rock, and he has no time for the idea of “handedness” on the drums, nor the “walling off” of jazz from other forms of improvisation.
Ed and I chat about hierarchies in music, how Denton, TX became a music powerhouse away from either of the coasts, teaching psychology, the value of honesty in music, and more.
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Quincy Davis - New York Jazz Stories, and Making The Tradition Personal
Quincy Davis might be the best jazz drum educator on YouTube.
And like Stanton Moore, Quincy is not an “online native”. He studied with the great Billy Hart. He’s got many playing credits, among them Tom Harrell and Benny Green. (But that’s just scratching the surface.) He’s on the official faculty of the fabled University of North Texas.
But he also adapted to the online world in a way that makes him unique. His YouTube channel is a mix of straightforward jazz lessons, subtle innovations, and authentic, no-frills teaching.
Quincy and I were contemporaries in New York in the early 2000s. I used to hear him at Cleopatra’s Needle, and watched as his name started popping up on albums and tours.
I was curious to learn what equipped him to “hit the ground running” in New York. But we quickly went down a rabbit-hole about finding one’s own voice while staying true to the tradition, dealing with imposter syndrome, and re-discovering your love for the music. (This conversation was one of the big inspirations for my latest video.)
I know you’ll enjoy this conversation with Quincy, who’s wise-beyond-his years, and who embodies in every aspect of his being the musical maturity he found.
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Raghav Mehrotra - Playing With The Late Night Band, Bonham, School of Rock, and Musical Maturity
Today’s podcast guest first caught my attention with his clean, slamming Instagram clips. Picture closing your eyes and hearing a mix of Clyde Stubblefield, Bonham, and Nate Smith, then opening them and seeing a skinny teenager with a big mop of black hair and an infectious smile, and thinking “this guy is playing this”?
To the degree we use the word “prodigy”, Raghav Mehrotra is that. Someone who exhibits a degree of artistic maturity we usually don’t expect until many years later, even though he’s barely in college. (Studying economics at Harvard, btw.)
Raghav played drums and contributed vocals in the Broadway musical School of Rock at age 15.
He’s sat in with Seth Meyers’ Late Night band several times.
And now he’s behind the drum chair for Jordan Rakei’s latest album, The Loop.
Naturally, I was curious about how he developed such maturity at such a young age. In this conversation we touch early teachers, practice routines, figuring out Instagram, what it’s like to sit in with the Late Night Band, advice he’d give to up-and-coming drummers, and more.
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