Tonight, I'm on drum duties at The Iron Horse for my good friend Nathan Persad, so I thought I'd share my drum story.
This was actually my second instrument at 11 years old - even before I picked up a guitar. I've always been a drummer at heart - when I was really young I'd gloss over the keyboards in the Argos catalogues and make a beeline for the drums, but the racket they make is a luxury. On my Beatles CD's my ears gravitated towards the cruciality of Ringo. On my keyboard I'd spent half of my time on the drum sound, learning beats with my fingers.
At 11 when I started secondary, the drum kit was the only instrument in the music department that was only partially trashed, rather than completely. As an angry kid full of contained fury, in need of a musical outlet and this being the only one, playing an instrument where whacking the daylights out of it can be considered "playing" set me in my element. They should prescribe this on the NHS. I was in there every lunchtime.
At the time I was drawn to Dave Grohl who did just that, but as I became a teenager and discovered the Jimi Hendrix Experience, my ears were equally as mesmerised with the drums as with the guitar. Mitch Mitchell! His fills! His groove! His intricacy! Then John Bonham, then back to Ringo, then Roger Taylor, then Bevan, Moon, Baker, Hawkins, Pocaro, Watts, Copeland and Fleetwood.
I briefly took lessons with the lovely in-house teacher John Simmonds who I still see now and again, but as with any instrument lessons - same with guitar a few years later - my sonic urges vastly pushed away any hope of traditional lesson plans which we mutually realised. Tips and technique I eternally thank him for.
My live drum debut was at the age of 13 somewhere in Bexleyheath. I remember my parents being shocked to see I wasn't on keyboards, and even more so that I could play drums.
The legendary Bev Bevan of ELO/The Move has a hot take that you can either play drums or you can't. You have to be born with it. It might not come out for years but it's in you dormantly, and can be activated with the right guidance. And if you aren't born with it, you can only be taught so much.
Personally I'd twist that theory, and say you just have to REALLY want to. As with any other instrument in the world. The trial and error phase can put people off ploughing through, and temporary barriers can otherwise become permanent, so it's a case of resilient determination and varying extents of guidance.
I never pursued it fully purely because of the logistics of doing so. Even carrying a keyboard was laborious, and the reason I picked up the guitar. I could've if I wanted to. But in rehearsal rooms, every time the drummer would take five or go to the toilet I'd briefly hop on and squish those urges.
Since then my drumming is usually exclusive to studio recordings, but recently I've moonlighted as deps for trusted friends of mine, and increasingly partook in jams on rhythm duties. There's people who specialise in it and are far better than me. But when an opportunity arises, I still love it. And tonight I can't wait for!
Here's a clip of me laying down a groove for a tune I recorded in June 2020. It's coming out this year x