Percussionist

My Percussion Story

I was wandering back home from a careers fair at the end of my third year at university. I'd studied philosophy and psychology joint honours and been in a band called 'Changeling'  and I was wondering what I was going to do next. I was feeling really depressed at the thought of having to sign up to some graduate careers programme and get on the treadmill. I'd bought some congas with my last student loan but didn't have a clue how to play them save for a VHS tuition video by Giovanni Hidalgo. I remember the moment on that walk back to Beeston, I was at a loss as to what I'd do with my life and I just had the thought 'F*** it... drumming has been around a lot longer than Marketing and Human Resources; I'll do that and something interesting will happen.'  It wasn't hugely considered but it was based on a sort of deep feeling or realisation that for some reason I trusted in that moment.

A fair bit did happen and a lot of it was pretty interesting.  It's not always been easy but it has been fun and mostly felt good and I've learnt a lot about myself. Becoming a professional percussionist involved some heavy self-delusion at first and being completely unaware of what I didn't know. Thank God You Tube didn't exist then... I'd never have got going if I realised how far there was to go. There were years of coming up against myself, performing, teaching, having fun, loads of travelling, making tonnes of mistakes but a lot of learning. I'm at a stage now where I feel happy with what I do as a percussionist and musician, I know a lot more about what I don't know and I enjoy hitting drums and learning new stuff more than ever.