Working Drummer

At age sixteen, Michael Bland won the "twin cities' best drummer" contest and was the beginning of a rewarding career.

With his recognition as a prodigy, Michael was actively sought by many local acts. At seventeen, Hiram Bullock snagged him up, and took him to Pittsburgh and New York to do some one-nighters. That same year, he joined Dr. Mambo's Combo, a house band at Bunker's Music Bar and Grill, a local club where many Minneapolis musicians cut their teeth. Bunker's is where Prince first spotted Michael, Michael joined prince in 1989 and he toured, recorded, and performed with the new power generation for the next seven years.

In 1996, immediately after his tenure with Prince, Michael went on tour with Paul Westerberg, which led to tours and recordings with other national acts, such as Chaka Khan, Maxwell, Dionne Farris, George Benson, Phil Upchurch, Howard Hewitt, and many others. Since 2005, Michael has been a member of the band Soul Asylum.

In this episode, Michael talks about:

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Over the last decade plus, Quinton "Q" Robinson developed a busy and sustainable career drumming with Gospel and R&B acts such as Avery Sunshine, Peebo Bryson, and Anthony David, and recording in his home studio. But he got interested in musical theatre and started spending time in New York meeting Broadway drummers, musical directors, and contractors, and playing readings and off-Broadway productions. He also got in with the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta played a litany of shows there. That legwork has culminated in Q landing the drum chair for the touring production of "Ain't Too Proud," the Tony-winning Temptations musical.

In this episode, Q talks about:

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Clifford Koufman is a Nashville-based, award-winning drummer who founded Sound & Rhythm Drumming School in 2000. With over 20 years of experience, Clifford carries a world of experience to every scenario, whether creating music, performing or teaching. He's honored to be the recipient of multiple grants, the Thrive award to build community through community drumming classes, performances, and drum circles, and the Regional Arts & Culture Council professional development grant to study music in Guinea, West Africa. He's toured internationally, throughout the US, and in Alaska. Clifford has spent time living and learning from master musicians in Ghana and then Guinea, West Africa, and has performed, taught, and worked with thousands of people as well as working with numerous bands, songwriters, and composers throughout the United States. In an effort to share in his musical experience, inspiration and to connect with creative people through conversation, he began "Clif Chats" where he's has conducted over sixty interviews of creative people at the top of their fields.

Clifford teaches people in Nashville as well as traveling to schools, colleges, and universities as well as teaches internationally online. He creates play-along tracks for drum circle facilitators as well as making music for licensing. Clifford embraces the spirit of collaboration in Nashville, performing and recording and writing, collaborating with songwriters, bands and composers. He is continually experimenting with a hybrid drum set, incorporating percussion and drum set elements with various hand drums. He facilitates leadership development events using the drum circle as the vehicle. Clifford continues to teach students all over the world and is excited to collaborate with songwriters, bands, and composers. He continues Clif Chats and is always looking to geek out about people living creatively, drums, art, and music.

In this episode, Clifford talks about:   

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Blair has been an LA staple for over two decades, having recorded and/or toured with Alanis Morissette, Chris Cornell, Gwen Stefani, Brandi Carlisle, Melissa Etheridge, and many others. Blair has a couple of new calling cards, one of them is his podcast Recording Drums, he’s getting ready to get season 2 of that going. And the other is his suite of online courses, Introduction to Recording, The Snare Sound Bible, and Improve Your Groove. For the month of March, Blair is offering a 15% discount on these courses to drum click listeners, check ‘em out at blairsinta.com and use the promo code BFSDSDB at checkout.

In this episode, Blair talks about:

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Noah Levy is an in demand drummer that lives in the Minneapolis / St Paul area of Minnesota. He has toured and recorded with a long list of international artists including Five For Fighting, The Honeydogs, Peter Frampton, Nelson, The Bodeans, and Golden Smog.

Noah spends a lot of time as a session player working in studios around town as well as his own home studio. He currently plays with Brian Setzer in his Rockabilly Riot, and Orchestra.

In this episode, Noah talks about:

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Zack was recently in Nashville for a gig, so he and Matt took the opportunity to sit down and chop it up.

In this episode, Matt and Zack talk about:

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Rob Rufus is an author, musician, screenwriter, and advocate. He is the recipient of the American Library Association’s prestigious ALEX Award. His literary debut, Die Young With Me, was named one of the Best Books of the Year by Hudson Booksellers and is currently being developed as a major motion picture. His follow-up, The Vinyl Underground, was named one of the Junior Library Guild’s Gold Standard Selections. He lives with his dog in East Nashville, Tennessee. Catch him on the road with his bands The Bad Signs or Blacklist Royals, and learn more at www.robrufus.net

In this episode, Rob talks about:

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Chicago drummer George Fludas was born in Chicago on October 10, 1966. He was inspired to play drums by his father, who was also a drummer, and who exposed him to great jazz drummers such as Art Blakey, Max Roach, and "Philly" Joe Jones.

He has played with many stellar musicians such as Lou Donaldson, Kenny Burrell, Betty Carter, Benny Green, Roy Hargrove, Hank Jones, Cedar Walton, Diana Krall, Benny Carter, Phil Woods, and Bobby Hutcherson. George has performed at numerous jazz venues in the U.S. such as the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, Yoshi’s in Oakland, the Blue Note, Village Vanguard, Smoke and the Jazz Standard in New York and Catalina's in Hollywood, as well as many international Jazz Festivals, including Montreal Festival du Jazz, Bern Jazz Fest in Switzerland, and Glasgow and Edinburgh Jazz Fests. He toured Europe and Japan extensively as a member of Ray Brown's Trio, and with groups led by Hank Jones, Diana Krall, Monty Alexander, Cedar Walton and Joey Defrancesco. He can be heard on numerous recordings as a sideman with Ray Brown, Eric Alexander, Monty Alexander, Bobby Broom, Lin Halliday and The Chicago Jazz Orchestra.

In this episode, George talks about:

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Simon Phillips, multifaceted drummer and composer, producer and engineer, is renowned for his historic stints with Jeff Beck, The Who, Toto, Jack Bruce, Mike Oldfield, Joe Satriani, Judas Priest and countless others. His life of top-tier session work has fostered an extraordinary versatility and boundless artistic curiosity, something he’s long carried into his work as a leader, mainly under the banner of Protocol.

An entirely self-taught composer, Phillips debuted the solo Protocol project eponymously in 1989, then revived it in quartet form on Protocol II (2013), Protocol III (2015) and Protocol IV (2017). Throughout, Phillips has grown his vision for an instrumental music with pop sensibility and lyrical, almost singable melody, all over a complex and elusive harmonic foundation. Of the original members (guitarist Andy Timmons, keyboardist Steve Weingart, bassist Ernest Tibbs), Tibbs remains in the fold; he joined keyboardist Dennis Hamm (Thundercat) and guitar virtuoso Greg Howe for Protocol IV. He is gamely on board again for Protocol V, partnering with the group’s newest members: veteran keyboard magician Otmaro Ruiz and two prodigiously gifted young players that Tibbs himself recommended, guitarist Alex Sill and saxophonist Jacob Scesney.

In this episode, Simon talks about:

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Ash Soan is one of the most in-demand drummers in the world, with a long list of live and studio credits that includes many of the biggest names in pop music over the last few decades. In addition to his studio and touring work, he is also well-known for his seven-year stint as the house drummer on The Voice UK. He is the creator of a series of video lessons available on his website and commands a wide social media influence from the confines of his small home studio, a converted 18th century windmill base that resides on his property outside London and has become synonymous with his drumming.

In this episode, Ash talks about:

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