Drum Channel Podcast

Hi everyone, Billy Amendola on Drum Channel with my guest Jim Bonfanti who is the drummer from one of my favorite bands and one of the forerunners of the 70s power pop sound, the Raspberries. Jim and I discuss his band experience in 1967, before the Raspberries, in a band initially called The Mods and transformed into The Choir. The band enjoyed success on the radio with a song called “It’s Cold O...

Hello everyone and welcome to Drum Channel. I’m Billy Amendola and my guest today is drummer/teacher/entrepreneur Ralph Rolle.  Ralph’s day job for the past seventeen years has been playing with legendary producer/artist/guitarist Nile Rodgers and Chic. For twelve years in the the mid-nineties, Rolle spent time on TV as the drummer in the house band for “Showtime at the Apollo,” with music directo...

Hello everyone! Billy Amendola here on Drum Channel with my guest Corey Coverstone. Corey shares exclusive, personal news for Dirty Honey fans; he has recently decided to part ways with the popular band. It’s not easy walking away from a situation you’ve dreamed about and then accomplishing it, perhaps a bit too quickly, and having the courage to let it go. We talk about his decision, what he’s lo...

Holly Knight is one of the most successful songwriters of all time. Her top-selling book, ”I AM THE WARRIOR; MY CRAZY LIFE, WRITING THE HITS AND ROCKING THE MTV EIGHTIES,” is a tell-all personal and professional story of her incredible life. She was inducted into the Song Writers Hall of Fame in 2013 and was voted in Rolling Stone’s Readers Poll as one of the five best songwriters and at the time,...

Hi everyone! Join Billy Amendola on this week's Drum Channel podcast with his guest, one of the hardest working drummers of the past few decades, a very in-demand “Hired Gun,“ and good friend Brian Frasier Moore. Billy & Brian travel back to his past years touring with superstars Madonna, and Justin Timberlake, his company BMF, his many TV appearances as part of a killer house band, his words of w...

Hello everyone! Welcome to the Drum Channel Podcast with Billy Amendola and his guest Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats.  Billy and Jim’s conversation tells the origins of the band, who was credited for bringing the Rockabilly vibe back into the mainstream and then taking it to another level, the era of the MTV days, his solo music and non-music projects, how he became known as “the king of the s...

Welcome to Drum Channels' “Billy’s Bubble” show this week. I’m Billy Amendola, and every once in a while, I like to step “out of the box” with music lovers and how they combine their love of music and their work. Most of us here play drums/music, but we also live outside of playing, and we must. We’re all so passionate about music that sometimes we forget to live our lives. I hope you find somethi...

Welcome to Drum Channel. I’m Billy Amendola, and my two guests today are solo artists, session players, songwriters, band members, and hired guns; they’ve been working musicians for a few decades now. Please welcome drummer and recent book author Rich Scannella and a drummers dream bass player/guitarist/singer, Kasim Sultan.  We can’t run down all the credits they both have; but, a few of the main...

Hi everyone, welcome to Drum Channel! This episode features Billy’s guest, drummer, and composer Antonio Sanchez.  Antonio, known for his years of work with guitarist Pat Metheny is also a composer, most notably for the score of the 2014 film  Birdman . (featuring Michael Keaton) The score earned Sanchez a nomination for a Golden Globe and won a Grammy.  No stranger to our DC audience, we catch up...

Hi everyone! For this weeks Drum Channel podcast, Billy Amendola speaks with a few of his friends Denny Seiwell, Josh Roosin, Matt Starr, Todd Sucherman, Wally Ingram, and Alvin Taylor, as well as Raven Drum Foundation founders Rick Allen and Lauren Monroe to talk about “12 Drummers Drumming,” and more.   Rick (Def Leppard) and his wife, singer-songwriter Lauren started the Raven Drum Foundation t...

Hi everyone, Billy A here; welcome to the Drum Channel Podcast. As drummers, time is a powerful word; In playing and especially in life. Our guest today, the drummer/author Sandy Gennaro understands the importance of timing in life and has written an inspiring book combining his music career with life lessons titled ”Beating The Odds: In Business & Life.” Sandy and I chat about the book, our long-...

Welcome to this week’s Drum Channel Podcast. Billy A here with my guest Rikki Rockett, co-founder, drummer, and bonafide rock star of the past three decades with the band Poison. One of the few groups from the 80s era with all original members, Rikki and Poison, sold over 50 million records. They recently wrapped up the most extensive stadium tour of the year, with Motley Crue, Def Leppard, and Jo...

Hi everyone, welcome back to Drum Channel West. Billy Amendola and DC founder Don Lombardi chat at Thomas Lang’s Westlake Studio to talk about what’s going on at DC as well as reminiscing about teacher/guru Freddie Gruber, hand technic (matched, traditional), the late John Blackwell, the Buddy Rich Tribute concert, and much more. Enjoy. Happy 50 to Don & Chris Lombardi, John Good, and everyone at...

Welcome to this week’s Drum Channel Podcast featuring Billy Amendola and Liberty DeVitto. Today Liberty joins Billy in the studio for episode 2 of their “Did You Know?” Series on “Billy’s Bubble” to honor the east coast session legend, Gary Chester. DeVitto, who’s played on over 150,000 selling albums with Billy Joel, listens and talks about all things drums and drumming with Amendola on recording...

Hello everyone! Welcome to the Drum Channel podcast with Billy Amendola.  Today’s episode features filmmaker Justin Kreutzmann (the son of The Grateful Dead’s Bill Kreutzmann - who, along with Mickey Hart, is half of the Dead’s driving rhythm section).  Justin, who grew up on the road, directed the new music documentary  Let There Be Drums!  released today  October 28th, 2022.  The film is an exam...

Hi everyone! Billy Amendola here on Drum Channel with my guest (from the UK) Cherisse Osei, best known for her work with the band Simple Minds.  The 80’s band, who had a massive hit with “Don’t You, Forget About Me,” sold over sixty-million records, (long before Cherisse was born-she joined in 2016).  The legendary band is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a brand-new album “Direction of the H...

Welcome to Drum Channel. I’m Billy Amendola, and my guest today is “The Hermanator” Herman Matthews.   Moving from Houston, Texas to Los Angeles, CA., has put this “groove master” in the drum seat for Kenny Loggins, Richard Marx, Tom Jones, Timothy B. Schmit, Tower of Power, and more. As a band member for four years, touring with TOP, Matthews also recorded their albums “Souled Out” and “Rhythm &...

Hello everyone, Billy A here in the Drum Channel East studio with percussionist Jacquelene Acevedo. If that name sounds familiar and you’re unfamiliar with Jacquelene, her father is famed percussionist/drummer Memo Acevedo. Jacquelene spent the last year on Broadway playing with Talking Heads founder David Byrne in his “American Utopia” Broadway play and concert film directed and produced by Spike...

Hello from Drum Channel! Billy Amendola is with his guest today Jim McCarty, co-founder and original member of the 60’s English band the Yardbirds.  Not many can claim to have drummed for three early bandmates who went on to become the greatest guitarists in the world, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck, who were all in the same band for a short period.  As part of the sixties British Invasio...

Hi everyone! Welcome back to “Billy’s Bubble” here on Drum Channel. My bubble show is a bit different from my regular weekly podcasts, but the lesson and message is always the same; learning words of wisdom with knowledgeable, successful guests. This episode is a business theme with my guests Chairman (and son of Creem magazine’s co-founder Barry Kramer), JJ Kramer along with CEO/Publisher John Ma...

Welcome to the Drum Channel Podcast with Billy Amendola. This week Billy talks with Billie Eilish/Finneas drummer Andrew Marshall.   Andrew, currently on tour in New Zealand, talks about the stage show, gear, playing and programming drums, and more.  Marshall, born in New York, started playing drums at nine and paid his dues performing around the tri-state area by the time he was fourteen, playing...

Hello everyone, this week’s Drum Channel podcast with Billy Amendola is about starting from the beginning. Our topics are geared as a lesson to the young generation. Still, it also reminds our older and established era of that exciting feeling as a kid just starting and dreaming of being a “rock star.” Let’s listen in as Billy introduces Kobi Reese, an up & coming 11-year-old-drummer from New Jers...

Welcome to this week’s Drum Channel Podcast with Billy Amendola and his guest Matt Starr.  Matt, having his own solo career, has been a first-call-road and recording warrior for years, performing with Ace Frehley, Joe Lynn Turner and Mr. Big among others. Starr shares his experiences touring and recording with KISS’ guitarist Ace Frehley and Mr. Big (filling in with and for the late Pat Torpey). ...

Welcome to the Drum Channel west coast broadcast with Billy Amendola and Don Lombardi. This episode features long-time friend and former Paul McCartney and Wings drummer Denny Seiwell.  Denny talks to Billy & Don about his New York audition with Paul & Linda and his recording of McCartney’s classic album RAM. Before he knew it, Seiwell was invited to join McCartney’s new project, Wings, where he t...

Hello, it’s me, Billy Amendola. Welcome to this week’s Drum Channel Podcast. My guest today is Gethin Davies of the UK band The Struts. The Struts are one of the newer breeds of bands, keeping the rock flag flying high since 2012.  Today, Friday, August 19th, ten years later, the bands latest single, “Fallin’ With Me,” is their first release on the label Big Machine. A singalong-anthem-rocker, the...