Modern Drummer
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.
Bigger Lights's Ryan Seaman
My name is Ryan Seaman, and I am the drummer for the band the Bigger Lights. I started playing drums at the age of eight, when my father introduced me to the Beatles. I knew immediately after hearing them that…
Tobias Gebb - Free At Last
Hello from New York City. I am a drummer/composer/arranger and producer. I have played with a wide range of musicians from Lenny Kravitz to Cab Calloway and I have worked in many different genres (rock, jazz, Latin, Afrobeat, reggae, country).…
The Greats: Jeff Porcaro
Jeff Porcaro was born on April 1, 1954, in Hartford, Connecticut. After moving to California with his family, he took an interest in drumming at an early age and began studying with his dad, Joe, who remains a well-known studio…
Al Jackson Jr.: The Impeccable Groover
As a member of the house band at famed Memphis recording studio Stax, Al Jackson Jr. played on all of the classic hits that the label released during the heyday of southern R&B in the 1960s. Jackson and the powerful…
Chad McKinsey of The Suicide Denial
Modern Drummer…here we are at last. You, and me…. My name is Chad McKinsey, and I’m the drummer for the band the Suicide Denial. This makes me go back and think of the very first time I received any sort…
Cliff Leeman: The Embodiment Of Tasteful Drumming
“I try to play behind the soloist. I’d rather play a four-bar chase chorus with a horn, something with different tones and sounds, than get into a rudimental solo,” said Cliff Leeman, one of jazz drumming’s most tasteful artists. Never…
Eric Singer: Just Being Himself
by Billy Amendola For eighteen years, Kiss’s drummer has helped his world-famous band stay in our hearts and on the radio by doing what he does best—being himself. In this special online extra from his May 2010 MD cover story,…
The Greats: Carl Palmer
Carl Palmer started out as a jazz drummer in his early youth, gravitated to rock in his teens, and burst onto the international scene in the late ’60s as a member of English proto-progressive rock bands Atomic Rooster and the…
Honor Society's Alexander Noyes
Hello, MD readers. I’m on the road again! I love to tour—and I have thirty-two more dates to fall deeper! My band Honor Society is headed back out for the Here Comes Trouble tour, which starts March 19 in Tampa,…
Spock's Beard's Jimmy Keegan
Hey, kids, Jimmy Keegan here. So it was a little over ten years ago that I received a call for a session. The writer/producers were frustrated because they were trying to track some songs for a legendary artist and so…
Chris Johnson — Touring With Rihanna
Yo, what up, MD? This is ya boy Chris Johnson from Los Angeles, California. Like many others in this field, I started playing in church—my dad’s church, to be exact. So I was always there to play, practice, and everything.…
The Greats: Hal Blaine
Musicians love to argue about things like, What drummer played on the most records in history? Some figure it’s got to be R&B great Earl Palmer. Other folks say, What about Steve Gadd; he’s been a first-call studio cat for…
Seven Antonopoulos of Leaves’ Eyes
Hello, all. I would like to start by thanking everyone at MD for the invite to blog a bit about what I’ve been up to. So after recovering from the NAMM show (that’s a long story in and of itself),…
The Greats: Ginger Baker
Peter Edward “Ginger” Baker was born on August 19, 1939, in Lewisham, South London and was one of classic rock’s first influential drumming superstars of the 1960s. Ginger—a nickname inspired by his red hair—gained fame as a member of the…
