Drummers on Drumming

This week’s guest is Kyle Crane…a drummer I’ve been following and looking up to for years. He’s a highly-sought after independent drummer based in LA who’s worked with Daniel Lanois (look him up), Neko Case, Kurt Vile, Brad Mehldau, Bill Frisell, and Conor Oberst (plus many more), but is currently out with Maddison Cunningham. He was also a drum double for the movie ‘Whiplash’ and is the principal...

This week’s guest is the incomparable Josh Dion (of Paris Monster and a million other rad things). He’s a busy New York cat and I’ve wanted to get him on for a long time. If you don’t know of Josh, he’s an independent drummer for than one reason (and yes there’s a dad joke coming); he’s played with sooo many including John Scofield, Jim Campilongo, Wayne Krantz, Bill Evans, Chuck Loeb, Ulu, and Es...

We are back to our regularly-scheduled programing with this week’s guest, Aksel Coe. I first learned of Aksel via Instagram thanks to a shoutout by our good buddies at Nelson Drum Shop (Nashville). I was hooked right away. Seriously, check him out before listening to this episode. Aksel is the epitome of a modern drummer and has collaborated with Homes at Night, The Sisterhood Band, Cody Jinks, K....

This week’s guest is Anthony Fung…an incredible talent drummer based in Los Angeles. I brought him on to discuss the 5 records (and subsequent drummers) to FINALLY get you into jazz. He definitely did not disappoint. Cheers! --- Get Your Copy of the Drummers on Drumming Book Today! 🎯 Click here to order now! Drummers on Drumming (the book) takes you inside the stories, records, and moments that s...

This week’s episode is going to be a little different. I’m starting a new, perhaps self-indulgent series where I pose a question on the Big Fat Snare Drum Instagram and make an episode out of your responses. Maybe it’ll stick. Who knows?…but these are the conversations I have with my musician friends anyways, so now I’m just pushing record. The first question posed was “which records helped define...

This week’s guest is Blair Sinta. Blair’s drumming resume includes touring and/or recording with Alanis Morrisette, Ringo Starr, Annie Lennox, Gwen Stefani, Stevie Nicks, Chris Cornell, John Fogerty, Dave Stewart, Glen Ballard, Lisa Loeb, Better Than Ezra, Josh Groban, Damien Rice…I mean that’s basically everyone right? He’s based out of Los Angeles and runs his own studio where he records himself...

This week’s amazing guest is Mr. Donnie Marple. Donnie was (still is) the 2007 Guitar Center Drum Off Champion and has been the new guy in Lee Brice’s band for over 10 years. He is a monster soloist who can really hold it down. Donnie is the exact drummer you want in your band and his career is gonna keep going and going. He’s played on numerous #1 hits and is a gentlemen through and through. I ki...

This week’s guest is Mr. David Raouf aka rdavidr. I’ve been a fan of his YouTube Channel for years and, with his seemingly-endless offering of videos featuring drum tips, tricks, hacks and DIY projects, David has combined a love of craftsmanship and drums into a beautifully-hilarious melting pot of education and entertainment. The dude knows his way around a garage and his beard gives mine a run f...

This week’s guest is THE William Goldsmith. William has been a member of two incredibly influential bands with Sunny Day Real Estate and Foo Fighters in addition to The Fire Theft, his current project Assertion, and many others. William’s emotional and bombastic-yet-dynamic grooves have been in many previous guests top 5. If you listen to the show, especially recently…you’ve heard his name quite a...

This week’s guest is Stella Mozgawa…drummer for the band Warpaint. In addition to her band, she’s also collaborated with Courtney Barnett, Kurt Vile, Flea, Adam Green, Regina Spektor, The xx, Sharon Von Eaten and many, many more. It’s basically a list of all the cool kids…but like that actual cool kids. I’m truly a fan of Stella, so having watched and read many of her interviews before this chat,...

This week’s guest is Martina Barakoska….a Macedonian drummer / educator / composer and clinician. I heard about Martina via Instagram and was hooked immediately. She’s just starting her career and I’m really excited to see how it unfolds. All in all, she’s a badass drummer and I wanted to chat. Go give her a follow at @iamthe_m on Instagram and Tik Tok and go to school. Today, we discuss the 5(ish...

This week’s guest is Erin Tate, founding member of the Seattle-based indie-rock, Minus the Bear, but he’s played with many great bands throughout his career including Kill Sadie (from Minneapolis), Ghost Work, Time Pieces (etc.) in addition to running Indie Drummer Collective…which we get to right off the bat. Erin has an incredible ability to weave his way through odd time and syncopated phrases...

This week’s guest is Joe Bagale, a San Francisco-based producer, artist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and educator. Now, I know that might seem like he’s a jack of all trades and a master of none, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. As Joe’s bio states on his website, his sound is “fresh, but tangibly rooted in nostalgia” and I think that’s the perfect way to describe it. Joe is also...

This week’s guest is Connor Denis…drummer for the rock band Beartooth. Connor has been touring since he was 15…making sure that live rock n roll music still rocks. Seriously, he’s a basher, but has all the technical prowess in the world to back it up. He’s got an insanely long career ahead of him and has already accomplished so much at such a relatively young age. I rarely get young, hard hitting...

This week’s guest is Dave Elitch and this chat is long overdue because he’s one of the most-mentioned drummers on this podcast…behind Levon Helm, of course. Dave has played with The Mars Volta, The 1975, Miley Cyrus, Justin Timberlake…and countless others, but a lot of drummers know him as a “teacher’s teacher”. He’s helped many of the best drummers (and instructors) fine tune their own playing su...

This week’s guest is Matt Johnson...one of the most-respected drummers to a handful of the guests I’ve had on this podcast. He is probably most-known in the drumming community for playing on ‘Grace’ by Jeff Buckley. He was also the touring drummer with St. Vincent for a handful of years and played with many, many other artists (you can look them all up), but the two I just mentioned are enough to...

This week’s guest is Mr. Joe Plummer. Joe has played drums for Modest Mouse, Cold War Kids, The Shins, The Black Heart Procession and so many more in addition to releasing his own album, Hew Time, with Dale Crover and Coady Willis. Basically, he’s a really cool dude. He’s the epitome of a working drummer and I love the personality he brings to any band he signs on with. He’s also the host of his o...

This is part 2 of my conversation with Guy Licata. While we kept to the traditional format in the first half of our chat, I think the topic of today’s episode deserved its own place in the sun. Guy prepared Emmy Award-winning actor Riz Ahmed for his role as a drummer in Amazon Studios’ film ‘Sound of Metal’. He was tasked with all aspects of the drum set instruction and preparation for the role ov...

This week’s guest is Guy Licata. Guy is most recently known as the founder of Reflexx Practice Pads (now the Zildjian Reflexx Conditioning Pad), but Guy is more than just a business owner; he’s a master player himself. While he’s a very-sought after teacher himself, Guy has studied with the greats including Jim Chapin and Jojo Mayer, which we get into during the episode. He’s played with countless...

This weeks guest is Mr. Jason McGerr. What can you say about Jason?...wellllllll, he’s the drummer for Death Cab For Cutie and one hell of a drum educator. It seems like everything he says is carefully thought out and this conversation is no exception. Yes, we get into the top 5 influences that shaped the player he is today, but it’s the little pockets of wisdom throughout that made this one of th...

This week’s guest is Darshan Doshi. Darshan is a prolific Indian drummer and composer based in Mumbai. He’s recorded a million Bollywood movie soundtracks and is one of the busiest drummers in India for the studio / tv / live stage...basically anywhere you’d need a drummer, Darshan is your guy. I’ve known him for a few years now and his passion for both bringing Indian rhythms to the international...

This week’s guest is Jonny Scott. Jonny is a badass session drummer for both the studio and stage who’s played with two of my favorite artists The Kills and CHVRCHES (among many others). He’s one of the go-to drummers when a band is looking to start adding the live drummer element after years without. You can trust him to do the job and bring the song to life in the most musical way. I look up to...

This week’s guest is Michael Benjamin Lerner…drummer, singer, and primary songwriter for the band Telekinesis. I love having songwriters on the show because, as we discuss in this episode, they usually have more of a birds-eye-view-approach to writing drum parts. I was made aware of Michael’s drumming in a really fun way (which we discuss) and, while I never got to meet him when we were both livin...

This week’s guest is Ira Elliot, drummer for the alternative rock band Nada Surf. Formed in the 90’s, Nada Surf has been going strong for multiple decades with no signs of stopping and Ira has been the backbone behind it all. Ira could be on a Mount Rushmore of drummers who know how to instill their own vibe while not taking anything away from a songwriter’s (in this case, Matthew Caws’) impactful...

This week’s guest is Patrick Hallahan, drummer for the rock band My Morning Jacket. Formed in 1998, My Morning Jacket leans heavily into rock and country, but they pride themselves in have no limitations. Patrick, while certainly not tame on MMJ’s records by any means, is a monster drummer live and provides the perfect foundation for a lot of the band’s experimentation. I loved this conversation a...