I learned tabla for three years when in school, then started picking up the basics of the acoustic guitar when in college.
Percussion is physical, as most instruments are. The body must function well in order to play the instruments well. Last year I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.
For me, it's always easier playing with a drummer.
When I sit behind that electronic drum, it dominates me; there is no innovation in composing music like that.
I played in rhumba bands, mickey mouse bands; all kinds of bands.
The first album I ever bought was Santana's 'Abraxas.' Obviously, I was a huge fan of Carlos because he had the unique guitar sound, and he had incorporated a lot of the percussion and really, really fun rhythmic bass lines in there, too.
White rhythm is waltzes, marches, and the polka. In Africa, rhythm is used for a celebratory groove, but white rhythm doesn't have such an enormous vocabulary of spirits. It's basically militant.
I'm blessed with a pretty good voice. So just sitting back there banging on the tubs wasn't enough.
When I was nine, I was passing by a drum class and saw them playing and I was moved. That's why I started making music.
I can think of a lot better things to do with my hands than to cut them up on the rim of a drum.
Because I don't play guitar any more, African harmonies and rhythms have been an inspiration to me. I love the raw origin of the sound. It complements my voice and words naturally.
To me, Bill's musical heart is in Earthworks, in the jazz they are playing, in the acoustic kit.
With horns and a full rhythm section, the drums always looked like the best seat in the house.
My first memory of playing music was when I was 3 years old in Puerto Rico. I played percussion on a tin can behind my uncle, who played the cuatro.
I had some proper training, but that was only on snare drum. Learning all the techniques in marching bands and realizing how important it is to play tight set a standard for me for when I did get into a band.
I look up to a lot of old school drummers from the '70s, '80s, and '90s.
My dream job is to be a rock drummer and the alternate drummer for the Foo Fighters.
I have been drumming my whole life.
What I'm trying to do, in my own small way, is trying to bring African and Afro-Cuban rhythms into rock.
As a musician, I don't think I'm the greatest guitar player. I'm a bigger fan of the drums than I am the guitar; I just happen to play guitar. I play drums almost every day at my house. I wrote a lot of songs behind the drum kit, just having the music and vocals in my head and playing the rhythm.
I started playing the drums at five years old and used to listen to a lot of screamo bands like Asking Alexandria, Dream Theater, and Attack Attack!
My father was a jazz listener, and I think, at least before I was 5, I was not so into that. Although there were records that emphasized percussion that I liked, like Baby Dodds.
I had different bands. I played with the Acoustic Warriors for the most part, without girl singers. It was the same kind of sound, acoustic guitar, bass, with violin and sometimes accordion, and the guys would sing, that kind of thing.
I wanted to play the drums, but I had no rhythm.
My dad was a kind of semiprofessional Dixieland-type drummer, and I learned the drums from him. When I was about twelve, we bought our first Ludwig drum set from a pawnshop - a marching-band bass drum, great big tom-toms, and big, deep snare drums.
