The 180 Drums Podcast

Mike Dawson is managing editor for Modern Drummer, the world's most widely read magazine for drummers, and he serves as book editor for Modern Drummer Publications, with most recent releases including FUNdamentals of Drumming for Kids by modern country great Rich Redmond and co-author Michael Aubrecht, Stick Technique by rudimental drumming specialist Bill Bachman, and Exercises in African-American Funk by University of Miami professor Steve Rucker and top touring drummer Jonathan Joseph (Jeff Beck, Joss Stone, Richard Bona). In the pages of MD, Dawson has authored dozens of artist features, educational columns, event reports, and product reviews.

An active performer, teacher, and session drummer in the New York City area, Dawson has a bachelor's degree in music education from West Virginia University and a master's degree in music from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He's Senior Lecturer in music journalism at the University of the Arts. Mike also produces drum tracks for artists all around the world out of his home studio in New Jersey.

Sarah Hagan is the director of Artist Relations worldwide with Zildjian. This means Sarah is in touch with many of your favorite drummers. It also means she has years of experience under her belt. Working with people around the world, understanding commonalities between drummers and, almost without fail, wearing a black shirt and blue jeans every day of the week are skills Sarah has adopted. Just kidding on the last point... but in all serious-ness Sarah has an amazing ability to develop, build and maintain relationships on the daily with more people than most talk to within an entire month. Get ready for a podcast that is going to provide you some serious insight on what it means to be a drummer in this day and age.

Mike Sleath is one of Canada's most in-demand drummers. After getting turned down for music college three years in a row Mike shares the path he took, landing him his current gig with Shawn Mendes. We're going talk about the most important parts of his job on AND off the kit and some of his most important lessons he's learned along the way.

Why Listen? Learn:

• The importance on onomatopoeia in drumming
• Why it's extremely important to understand how to run backing tracks
• One of Mike's biggest lessons he's learned from being on stage
• What to do if music college doesn't let you in three years in a row
• How to transform your drum sounds on the fly
• Working with a Musical Director on stage

MikeSleathDrums.com / Instagram / Twitter / YouTube

In this episode of we have Kris Mazzarisi of @BigFatSnareDrum and Trey Smith, Front of House extraordinaire for Matt Kearney & Sara Bareilles, discussing how to create an amazing live drum sound. From tuning, mic positioning, mic selection, EQ'ing and Gate-ing, Kris and Trey cover it all. This unique and valuable insight is difficult to find anywhere else. Lastly, this entire episode was recorded at the White House... Yes, the white house. Enjoy!

Ever wondered how you can use tools like YouTube and Instagram to spread the word about your drumming and create a career? Josh Manuel did at a young age and began exploring every area of the net in search for different ways to share his talent. Eventually landing a touring gig with Issues, Josh shares his experiences and insights into the world of Social Media as it was when he got his start, and as it is today.

Ever wondered what it takes to make a living playing drums? Have you had your first audition for a band? Are you thinking about studying to get a college level education within the music industry? Wondering if playing music without an education was the right decision? Today with Tim Buell, we're answering your questions. We're focusing on the heart of the matter, discussing his experiences doing all of the above. Tim shares phenomenal insight into his studies and current strategy. He shares tips and tricks on how drummers can expand their playing. As well as how drummers can use all their senses to improve their skills. Hold on tight, this is a good one.

Preconceptions, ego and fear are a few topics who's prevalence should lead to greater self inspection. As drummers it's important we realize not only how to improve, but how to refrain from creating self-made pitfalls. Preconceptions are the perspectives that form in our mind while ego is the response to our preconceptions with a focus on me. Lastly, fear is that driver that motivates preconceptions and ego to protect oneself, often at the expense of others... and almost always at the expense of ones self in due time.

What we're saying in this post is, self-awareness in life isn't always as important as self-forgetfulness. Creating models that matter while adding value to those around you, is what matters most.

This podcast features Wayne Blanchard, and let me tell you, he is one incredibly wise man. Not only is Wayne a studied drummer in his own right, but Wayne also has worked with everyone from Neil Peart to Dave Weckl. In his time working for Sabian, Wayne helped the company rebrand aspects of it's business and change it's approach to marketing. This podcast is one of my personal favorite's. Wayne's insights are not only brilliant, but also are that of his experiences and the environment that assisted in his wonderfully creative approach to thinking.

Growing up in Germany, England and Scotland, now living on the east coast of Canada, Wayne Blanchard lives a life that embodies personality, creativity and humility. Playing in clubs by age 13, Wayne grew up drumming and playing bass, drawing inspiration from Beat-Club and listening to Radio Luxembourg. It wasn't until hearing Cream and Hendrix that Wayne found himself transmogrified as a musician. The influence of Average White Band and Jeff Beck also made an impact as Wayne transitioned from a life in Post War Germany, to one in England and Scotland.

Wayne shares why:

• Phil Collins and Mike Portnoy are the ultimate endorsers
• Distinction matters (don't be neapolitan ice cream!)
• Everyone liking you is a distraction from what matters
• Innovation is important

• Most people prefer to be informed enough to make up their own mind.
• Accept that you're not right all the time. The one time you're wrong can wreck everything.
• Just because people like things doesn't mean it's good for you.
• Brand is like a magnet.
• It's what you are, not what you do.
• Don't sell, create value.

[email protected]

Value, how do you add it? Are you wondering how you can add value to the massive wall of content being uploaded to Instagram every day? Confused about where to begin, how to make a name for yourself or whether you have value to add in the first place?

Often times we overestimate what we can achieve in the short term, get discouraged and give up, before our idea is ever realized. The problem is we've underestimated what we can achieve in the long term. If we could keep our ideas going for days, weeks, months, or most importantly, for years, believing it would one day pan out - we would likely achieve far more than we ever thought possible. Enter, Tristan Kelley.

With well over 50,000 followers and 1,000 posts, Tristan Kelley has successfully posted an Instagram "new beat a day" for the last several years. 700 days to be exact. Are you kidding me? Years, folks! Talk about consistency and dedication to the vision. Drummers have begun to find the value in his creativity, and it didn't happen over night. His beats have gotten better, his video and audio has improved and his numbers continue to spike as drummers flock to check out his latest beat, every single day. He's even scored the attention of some of the heaviest companies on the scene as of lately.

Here's his instagram account: @TristanKelley

I highly recommend you follow him!

Creating a career drumming isn't easy. Creating a versatile drumming career is wiser, yet harder still. Creating a life that is driving with clarity, using your highest level of capability, and is executed with confidence is astronomically harder to achieve... Unless you put in the work, then something strange happens. Things begin to fall into place.

• Decades of experience as a drummer, author, speaker, coffee consumer, and full time human being
• First experience behind a drumset at 5 years old
• Experience starting with cello and moving to drums at 9 years old
• Moment watching The Beatles and Ringo Starr on Ed Sullivan
• Battle against Cancer
• Favorite books
• Moment of realization having played drums in front of over a billion people (1,000,000,000 - incase you don't realize how big that number is)
• Experience writing his book "3 Steps to Top Performance - Conquering Life's Stage Freight"
• Experience doing clinics since 1991
• Failed audition for Bad English taught him more in a moment than many successes in his career. "It was the best worst day of my life."