drums
Modern Drummer is the world’s most widely read drum magazine, is dedicated entirely to the art of drumming and caters to the needs of amateur, semi-pro, and professional drummers.
Ian Matthews
When Ian Matthews got his first drumkit at age four, he was lucky that his babysitter was also a professional drummer. “He’d teach me a few rudiments and how to read a bit,” Ian remembers. “That got me into jazz…
Elton John's Nigel Olsson: That Classic Feel
by Robyn Flans No one plays a pop song like Nigel Olsson, and his triumphant return to Elton John’s band has allowed the veteran musician to inspire drummers all over again. When news hit in the mid-’80s that Nigel Olsson…
Tony Royster Jr.
Tony Royster Jr. has been busy. We caught up with him while he was home for a couple of days from globetrotting with En Vogue. “En Vogue needs someone to hold down the pocket while they’re singing,” the former child…
Ignacio Berroa - Havana Hot Head
by Ken Micallef Imagine growing up in a country where playing music is illegal, where practicing religion can get you yanked out of your home in the middle of the night, and where the only available drum instructor is some…
Ric Menck
In-demand drummer Ric Menck (Matthew Sweet, Velvet Crush, Liz Phair, Marianne Faithful) faced a quandary during sessions for Sweet and Susannna Hoffs’ recently released duets album of ’60s covers, Under The Covers, Vol. 1: Mimic classic performances like the ragged…
Def Leppard’s Rick Allen
Rick Allen says the great thing about Def Leppard’s new album, Yeah!, is that the band didn’t have to spend time writing new material. Instead, they decided to record a selection of ’70s cover songs. “We were a ’70s band,”…
David Garibaldi
Back Home With Tower Of Power Tower Of Power made David Garibaldi a household name among drummers back in the '70s. But David insists he had no intentions of going back to his old band - until fate intervened. "I…
Stan Frazier of Sugar Ray Interview
The SoCal band Sugar Ray, with poster-pinup lead singer Mark McGrath, guitarist Rodney Sheppard, bassist Murphy Karges, DJ Craig "Homicide" Bullock, and drummer Stan Frazier, have definitely proved to all the critics who once labeled them "one-hit wonders" that they…
Steve Gadd: Opens Up
There's a whole lot of drumming going on. Hundreds of thousands of people currently play the drums. Through the years, perhaps millions have played. But in spite of all that drumming, just a couple of dozen amazing innovators have shown…
Dennis Chambers, Raul Rekow, Karl Perazzo on Santana Now
Dennis Chambers, Raul Rekow, Karl Perazzo Santana Now: A Force Of Nature A rhythmic force of nature since its inception in San Francisco's Mission District in 1966, the Santana band has always set the bar high. And now, with superstar…
Jim Chapin
It's a steamy tropical night in South Florida. I'm sitting out on Jim Chapin's lanai, watching the eighty-one-year-old drummer rip off amazing licks on his ever-present practice pad while the tree frogs and locusts in the backyard provide a symphonic…
Matthew Cross: Orange 9MM's Stickman Is No Pretender
Recording Pretend I'm Human proved to be a radical departure for Orange 9MM drummer Matthew Cross, an old hand at laying out well-rehearsed rhythm tracks while sitting behind the glass. "We demoed like seventy songs in the past year and…
Nick D'Virgilio
Phil Collins began his successful musical career as the exciting young drummer for an obscure prog band from England called Genesis. He eventually worked his way out from behind the drumkit to center stage as the lead vocalist. As lead…
Tony Fagenson of Eve 6
Ask Tony Fagenson to define his role as drummer of the trio called Eve 6 - which includes vocalist/bassist Max Collins and guitarist Jon Siebels - and he'll give you a response straight out of American Bandstand: "The beat, man."…
