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My early influences were predominantly rock drummers like Neal Peart, Stewart Copeland and that guy from Genesis.
After becoming bored with the rock style of playing, I started turning on to more jazz artists. In 1994 I was listening to a local jazz radio station when I heard a live version of the song "Ants Marching" by the Dave Matthews Band. I had never heard any drummer play like Carter Beauford and I was amazed. I had always been able to listen to a drum part and learn how to play it, but I couldn't even conceive of how he was playing some of the crazy stuff that I heard. I started to do a little research on his playing style and techniques to see what I was missing. To my amazement I learned that he was playing left-hand lead (left hand on the down beat instead of the right hand) on a right handed kit. I tried this method but became discouraged when my body just didn't want to behave this way (and when I found out that Carter was ambidextrous!)
It was a short time later that I broke my right wrist playing basketball. To quote the band Queen, "The show must go on" so I rigged up a Def Leppard-style drumkit for playing without my right arm that was pinned up in a cast for 6 weeks. It was then that I was forced to play left-hand lead. (coincidence? I think not!) After the cast and 6 more weeks of rehab therapy, I set up my full drumkit for left-hand lead and never looked back.
I have been playing drums since 1990. (You'd think I'd be better by now, eh?) I am totally self-taught. (Oh, that explains it!)
