Working Drummer

The last year has affected our lives, careers, relationships, and lives behind the kit in ways we never could have imagined. We’ve all lost work, but this time has also provided opportunities to learn, improve, and grow, musically and otherwise. So for our 300th episode, we want to highlight some of our most memorable interviews of the last 100 episodes. We’re going to hear from a handful of forme...

Dave Elitch first gained notoriety touring with the American progressive rock band The Mars Volta in 2009-2010. Since then he has lent his talents to Miley Cyrus, Justin Timberlake, M83, The 1975, Juliette Lewis, Big Black Delta, and many others. An established LA session player, Dave has performed on various records, syncs, and film scores for major motion pictures, including “Trolls” and “Logan....

Influenced by his drummer father, Cooke picked up the drums as a child, learning and playing as part of a local drum corps in Toronto before starting his own bands as a teenager.[1] After high school, he took his talents to the recording studio and the national stage, recording and/or touring with the likes of FM, Lee Aaron, Strange Advance, Marc Jordan, Rik Emmett, Amy Sky, Sass Jordan, Kim Mitch...

Mike Zimmerman is a drummer and producer in Nashville Tennessee. Mike started playing drums at age 14 after playing the guitar for a year. Drums appealed more to Mike probably due to his mother being a rhythm player in the traditional Serbo-Croatian folk scene in the Cleveland area. This atmosphere rubbed off on Mike to seek out the uncommon, yet traditional sounds in the music around him. After y...

Peter Erskine is a drumming legend and a friend of WDP. He has appeared on WDP more than any other drummer, and for good reason. As we near the end of 2020, Peter shares how the year has affected him as a performer and educator. On November 21 and 22, he’ll be performing a livestream concert as part of Drumhead Live https://live.champion.biz/. In this episode, Peter talks about * How he adapted hi...

Miles McPherson moved to Nashville in 1986, when his father, Jerry, relocated the family there so he could work in the studios as a session guitarist. When he was still touring, Miles played with Kelly Clarkson, Paramore, Tonic, and Better Than Ezra. In 2013, he came off the road to pursue being a session drummer full time. In the studio Miles has worked notable artists such as Reba McEntire, Rasc...

Tony Coleman has played with Blues and Soul legends such as B.B. King, Bobby Blue Bland, Buddy Guy, Albert Collins, and many, MANY others. Over his long career, Tony has lived in Chicago, Memphis, and Texas, and the succession of artists and regions he’s gone through have made him a unique authority on many sub-styles of blues and soul drumming. In recent years, he has also toured with country art...

As an entertainment journalist for more than 40 years, Robyn Flans has worked for such diverse publications as People Magazine, In Touch, Mix, Modern Drummer, Country Weekly and a daily newspaper. She has authored four music books, written numerous bios, electronic press kits, including cut by cuts for artists, and album liner notes. She has a new book about Jeff Porcaro that only someone as close...

Andrew Atkinson’s drumming draws on the seductive beats of his native Jamaica, the percolating rhythms of his childhood home Miami, and the world of jazz that has beckoned and captivated him in all his travels. Highlights of his resume include guitarist Oz Noy, vocalist Gregory Porter, and steel pan player Othello Molineux. After graduating high school, Atkinson would find himself becoming one of...

Michael Dawson is a New Jersey–based drummer, educator, and clinician and is currently managing editor for Modern Drummer, the world’s most widely read magazine exclusively for drummers. Dawson produced and co-hosted the industry-leading weekly podcast, The Modern Drummer Podcast With Mike and Mike, along with renowned online educator/clinician Mike Johnston. 2020 is bringing a new, interview base...

Billy Brimblecom’s career has taken him from drumming to philanthropy, and from his hometown of Kansas City to Nashville, and back to Kansas City. Over his 25 year career, Billy has manned the drum chair for Blackpool Lights, The Start, The Creature Comforts, and Summer Breeze. In early 2005 Brimblecom learned he a form of cancer in his leg called Ewing’s sarcoma.[2] This resulted in his left leg...

Jason Cooper is a native of Memphis TN and played his first professional gig at 11 years old. Since then, he has gone on to play in many local bands and has travelled the country playing for numerous acts. He has also played in almost 40 professional theater productions including Dream Girls, Footloose, The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins and Into the Woods. He has also done numerous recording sessio...

Drummer Adam Alesi is in high demand for session and live work in Los Angeles and around the greater Southern California region. As a student of drum legend Gregg Bissonette (and later as Gregg’s drum tech), Adam learned how to connect with music and musicians on a personal and emotional level. Like his mentor, he has made taste and versatility his hallmarks.  One of Adam’s longest musical relatio...

Neil LaFortune has covered many styles throughout the years from Classic Rock, Funk, R&B, Country, Latin, Pop, Jazz, and Blues based cover bands, to original acts. Studies at Ontario College of Percussion in Toronto and later studies with Jim Blackley helped prepare Neil for professional settings that required reading and versatility. The last several years Neil has been busy with Tribute acts suc...

Marcus Finnie and Zack Albetta both have a deep and abiding passion for food and cooking. So since a lot of us are probably doing more cooking these days, we wanted to talk what we’ve been up to in the kitchen, share some resources, recipes, tips, tricks, and hacks, in hopes that it will inspire some others to push their kitchen game a little higher. In this episode, Marcus and Zack talk about * W...

Originally from Chicago and spending over 35 years and in the Los Angeles music scene, Mike Hansen had the opportunity to work with many great artists such as the band Hurricane, Steve Vai, George Lynch, Doug Pinnick of kings X fame, The Pointer Sisters, Albert Lea, the band tribe after tribe and many others. He’s been spending this last year living in Chicago taking care of his parents and tendin...

Christopher Allis has been active on the LA scene for over a decade doing session, touring, commercial and jingle work. He has lent his talents for TV spots for Coca-Cola, Discovery Channel, and others. His playing can also be heard a variety of commercial music for shows including “Smash”, “The Voice”, “True Blood”, “Sons of Anarchy”, “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, and a variety of children and youn...

Danny Gottlieb is one of the most popular drummers in jazz and contemporary music. While best known as the drummer in the original Pat Metheny Group, of which he was a member for six years, Danny, during the past 30 years, has performed and recorded with some of the world’s greatest musicians including Airto and Flora Purim Group, Al DiMeola Project, Blues Brothers Band, Bobby McFerrin Trio, Eleme...

Jack Jones has been performing and teaching music for 25 years. Jack has has toured the U.S. and Japan extensively with jam band luminary Col. Bruce Hampton, Texas Blues artist Chris Duarte, and Blair Crimmins and the Hookers. In 2019, Jack was featured in YouTube music channel host, Rick Beato’s videos, Top 20 Drum Intros of All Time and Top 20 Drum Fills of All Time, which have collectively rece...

Stephen Taylor is the founder and owner of StephensDrumShed.com as well as the creator of the Drum Better Daily system. The website is membership based and offers a way to learn the drums online in an organized and goal oriented fashion. Stephen has written three drum method books and also offers downloadable video drum lesson packs and individual lessons on his site. Stephen began playing profess...

Beth Goodfellow is an LA-based drummer, percussionist, and vocalist. She studied classical percussion at San Jose State while playing gigs around the San Francisco Bay Area, simultaneously serving as a drummer in the California Air National Guard Band of the West Coast. While residing in San Francisco Elizabeth appeared on two episodes of America’s Got Talent as a drummer in The Emily Anne Band an...

For over 30 years Eric Darken has worked as a studio and touring percussionist for some of the biggest bands and artists in the world. Just a few of his recording credits includes Taylor Swift, BonJovi, Jewel, James Bay, Maren Morris, Bob Seger, Carrie Underwood, The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir and new artists Carly Pearce and Moon Taxi. Eric has traveled around the world and throughout the United S...

First-call New York drummer Rudy Royston has honed a thoroughly engaging voice as a composer and bandleader, and has also performed as a sideman with Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell, and many other jazz greats. His releases include his compelling debut ‘303’ (2014), the raw and bracing trio follow-up ‘Rise of Orion’ (2016) and the chamber quintet release ‘Flatbed Buggy’ (2018). His latest release, “PaN...

Growing up in southern Mississippi, Allen Jones spend his formative years creating his own music career through “DIY touring” and discovering his love of music and drumming. Since his move to Nashville, Tennessee he has played and/or recorded with Americana singer/songwriter Will Hoge and Lilly Hiatt, among others. In this episode, Allen talks about: * Tapping into the underground music scene even...

Otis Brown III is a Grammy-nominated jazz drummer, composer, and recording artist who is a go-to session and touring sideman. He is best-known for his work with Joe Lovano in Us Five, and Esperanza Spalding, though he has been on dozens of sessions and is as noteworthy for backing singers as he is instrumentalists. Brown III was born in Hackensack, New Jersey. His mother was a vocal music teacher...