Drummers on Drumming

This week’s guest is Tim Very…drummer for the rock band Manchester Orchestra. Tim is a highly-imaginative crafter of parts who knows exactly where to sit in a song. He’s powerful, playful and perfectly in tune to what the vibe needs to be. I first saw Tim live at The Fillmore in Philadelphia in 2018, but not because I bought a ticket. I was on tour with my band and we were playing the smaller, upstairs room of that same venue called The Foundry. The thing is, to get to our dressing room, we had to walk along a path at the top of The Fillmore…clearly seeing the sold out Manchester Orchestra show. It’s either a good motivation booster and / or humiliation depending on how one's tour is been going. 

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Anywayssssss, I hope ya’ll enjoy this chat about what makes Tim Tim! And go check him out on tour with Manchester Orchestra now! Head over to manchesterorchestra.com for all the deets. Cheers!

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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 shaped some of the world’s greatest drummers. Built on the Big Fat Five format of digging into top influences, it’s packed with candid interviews and personal insights. Whether you’re just starting out or have been playing for years, this book is here to inspire you to sharpen your skills and find your own voice behind the kit.

For more information on Big Fat Snare Drum, check out www.bigfatsnaredrum.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok.

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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) records that helped shape Martina into the drummer she is today. Cheers! 

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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 shaped some of the world’s greatest drummers. Built on the Big Fat Five format of digging into top influences, it’s packed with candid interviews and personal insights. Whether you’re just starting out or have been playing for years, this book is here to inspire you to sharpen your skills and find your own voice behind the kit.

For more information on Big Fat Snare Drum, check out www.bigfatsnaredrum.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week’s guest is Billy Martin aka Illy B, a world-renown drummer, educator, visual artist, filmmaker, record label owner, non-profit organizer, and author…but above all else…he’s a Creative through and through. If you enjoy this episode, please go check out Billy’s interview with Mike Dawson on the Drum Candy podcast titled “Improvising and Cultivating a Creative Mindset”. Verrrryy fruitful. Billy has collaborated with some of the best out there including but not limited to John Scofield, John Zorn, Iggy Pop, Natalie Merchant, Flea, Bill Laswell, and Mickey Hart, but many people know him from his work with Medeski, Martin, and Wood featuring himself, John Medeski and Chris Wood. 

I recently checked out his “Anti-Instructional” movie filmed alongside fellow teacher and friend Allen Herman titled “Life on Drums” and I can’t recommend it enough. We discuss the unique structure of the movie towards the end of our conversation, but we start off talking about soloing…something which Billy encourages all drummers to do fist thing when sitting behind the kit, “even if just for five minutes”. We also get into a bunch of my insecurities surrounding creativity before jumping into the records that shaped billy into the amazing musician he is today. Lots of good stuff in this one ya’ll. Cheers!Podcast

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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 shaped some of the world’s greatest drummers. Built on the Big Fat Five format of digging into top influences, it’s packed with candid interviews and personal insights. Whether you’re just starting out or have been playing for years, this book is here to inspire you to sharpen your skills and find your own voice behind the kit.

For more information on Big Fat Snare Drum, check out www.bigfatsnaredrum.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok.

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 with seaming-ease and confidence. He’s a legend and a big inspiration to a lot of my peers (especially having grown up in the northwest). I’ve know Erin for a few years now, but this was the first time we’ve had the chance to chat like this and I was grateful to say the least. Please please PLEASE go check out Erin’s discography. He truly is a drummer with a uniquely unique creative voice. You’re amazing Erin. So here are the top 5 records that shaped Erin’s approach to the drumset. Alright cheers!

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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 shaped some of the world’s greatest drummers. Built on the Big Fat Five format of digging into top influences, it’s packed with candid interviews and personal insights. Whether you’re just starting out or have been playing for years, this book is here to inspire you to sharpen your skills and find your own voice behind the kit.

For more information on Big Fat Snare Drum, check out www.bigfatsnaredrum.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 a self-proclaimed “Groover Not A Prover” and this conversation perfectly showcases that vibe. Originally from Rochester, NY, Joe has produced and released a number of albums under his name, followed by a project he calls Otis McDonald, writing audio library music for YouTube. As I said, he basically does everything and on top of produced / recording … he’s shared the stage with (and I might add not always on drums) with Stevie Wonder, Mickey Hart of Grateful Dead, Fred Wesley and PeeWee Ellis (members of James Brown’s band) Dave Schools (of Widespread Panic), Mike Gordon (of Phish), Martin Luther (of The Roots), Gift2Gab, Lyrics Born and many more. At the end of the day, Joe just wants you to dance. Enjoy the top 5 records the built Joe Bagale into the musician he is today. Cheers! 

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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 shaped some of the world’s greatest drummers. Built on the Big Fat Five format of digging into top influences, it’s packed with candid interviews and personal insights. Whether you’re just starting out or have been playing for years, this book is here to inspire you to sharpen your skills and find your own voice behind the kit.

For more information on Big Fat Snare Drum, check out www.bigfatsnaredrum.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 rock n rollers on this show, so this was a fun one. Please enjoy the top 5 records (in order) that shaped Connor’s playing.

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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 shaped some of the world’s greatest drummers. Built on the Big Fat Five format of digging into top influences, it’s packed with candid interviews and personal insights. Whether you’re just starting out or have been playing for years, this book is here to inspire you to sharpen your skills and find your own voice behind the kit.

For more information on Big Fat Snare Drum, check out www.bigfatsnaredrum.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 such as Jason McGerr, Benny Greb, Tomas Haake, Chris McHugh and even Bill Burr...who I would love to get on this podcast. His zen-like approach to viewing drummers as athletes and listening to the body and how it relates to one’s goals makes him one of the most sough-after teachers today. His online instructional course, aptly named “Getting Out Of Your Own Way” was just updated (and we do talk about all of that in this episode), but I wanted to get to know the drummer behind the instructor. I hope you enjoy my chat with Dave about the 5 records that helped shaped the way he approaches the instrument. Cheers!

As promised: https://drinklmnt.com🤘🏻🥁🔥

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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 shaped some of the world’s greatest drummers. Built on the Big Fat Five format of digging into top influences, it’s packed with candid interviews and personal insights. Whether you’re just starting out or have been playing for years, this book is here to inspire you to sharpen your skills and find your own voice behind the kit.

For more information on Big Fat Snare Drum, check out www.bigfatsnaredrum.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 make him a legend. He’s an incredible teacher and a very philosophical thinker. This episode is chalk full of fun tangents that showcase his deep thinking and very passionate approach to music. We actually recorded this episode earlier in 2021, so I apologize for the wait, but it’s finally here!

So…the audio isn’t the best in this one, which is partly why I hadn’t released it, but I think the content is all worth it. The first words you’ll hear from Matt is him responding to a story that I’ve told a few times on this podcast about when we shared practice spaces across the hall from each other at a facility in Los Angeles. I took a lesson with him (it was obviously great) and at the end he wanted to see what kit I was working with him my room. At the time, it was a shared kit; it wasn’t even mine. I wanna say it was an old beat up Ludwig standard? with pitted heads and it was just falling apart. It did not sound good when I played it at all. But when he sat behind the kit, it transformed into the most vibey, musical kit I’d heard in-person in a long time. He proved it really is all in the hands and mind of the player. I think about that moment all time…anyways…enjoy my lighthearted, but simulatanously heavy conversation with one of my favorite drummers matt Johnson.

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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 shaped some of the world’s greatest drummers. Built on the Big Fat Five format of digging into top influences, it’s packed with candid interviews and personal insights. Whether you’re just starting out or have been playing for years, this book is here to inspire you to sharpen your skills and find your own voice behind the kit.

For more information on Big Fat Snare Drum, check out www.bigfatsnaredrum.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

**GET YOUR NOTEPAD OUT FOR THIS ONE!**

This week’s guest is Terry Keating of the Bonzoleum YouTube Page. Soooo when I first started this podcast, I had no idea what I was doing (and sometimes I feel like I still don’t) so it was just called ‘The Big Fat Snare Drum Podcast’. There wasn’t really any sort of format besides it somehow focusing on drums. In the summer of 2020, however, I started to hone in on a format that excited me, which is what you’re used to now, but I wanted to separate the original episodes from the current state of the show to avoid confusion. The good news is you can still hear all of the conversations at bigfatsnaredrum.com under the Archived Episodes tab, but they no longer exist on this feed. That being said, one of my favorite episodes EVER features Terry Keating, a massive John Bonham historian and enthusiast. While it was one of the most-listened-to episodes, it was released under the ‘Big Fat Snare Drum Podcast’ era so TO THE ARCHIVE IT WENT! For many reasons, I wanted to bring this episode back to life, therefore, I am re-airing it so people can enjoy the energy that is Terry Keating. I initially wanted to get him on the show to discuss 5 hidden gems in John Bonham's catalogue that drummers might not necessarily know unless he or she is a huge Led Zeppelin fan. I’m not NOT a fan, but I’d fall in the category that a lot of my peers fall into of, “yeah, I know Fool in the Rain, Good Times Bad Times, Rock 'n Roll and When the Levee Breaks, but I know I SHOULD know more.” I don’t think we’re a small group, so that's why I wanted to have Terry on. Anyways, we immediately started talking like old friends so I put all my notes away and just pushed record. It ended being an almost-2 hr conversation about what makes Bonzo Bonzo, why people are obsessed with his gear as much as his playing (sometimes more), and just tons of anecdotes/fun pieces of trivia that only a Bonzo aficionado would know. I was gonna try to edit it down, but Terry is super fun to listen to so I basically kept the whole thing running. This might take a few listens, but this ended up being one of my favorite drumming conversations in the past few years. Thank you Terry for being so generous with your time and enthusiasm for all that is Bonzo. Alright, shutting up….cheers! 

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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 shaped some of the world’s greatest drummers. Built on the Big Fat Five format of digging into top influences, it’s packed with candid interviews and personal insights. Whether you’re just starting out or have been playing for years, this book is here to inspire you to sharpen your skills and find your own voice behind the kit.

For more information on Big Fat Snare Drum, check out www.bigfatsnaredrum.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 own podcast called Tour Stories, which we discuss towards the end of the episode. Please enjoy my conversation with Joe about the main influences that shaped him into the very-sought-after drummer he is today. Cheers! And Happy Holidays! Relax for a damn second.

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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 shaped some of the world’s greatest drummers. Built on the Big Fat Five format of digging into top influences, it’s packed with candid interviews and personal insights. Whether you’re just starting out or have been playing for years, this book is here to inspire you to sharpen your skills and find your own voice behind the kit.

For more information on Big Fat Snare Drum, check out www.bigfatsnaredrum.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices