Drums, Christian, and Passion...these are the things that keep popping into my mind when people mention about this guy....
Raymond Goh was born on March 26th, 1991 in a quiet town of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. As the youngest of Roland and Denise Goh's three children, he was what everybody would call "pampered". For those of you who had known him since the day He was born would know how he was like! In the Goh family, Raymond was brought up in a Buddhist background and was quite a handful during the days when he was just a child, but through thick and thin, his parents raised him up to be a very knowledgeable and mature teenager he is today.
One faithful night, around November of 2003. He saw a friend playing the drum set for a Thanksgiving Event in an Anglican Church, that sparked the idea for Raymond to start picking up the drum set. In the middle of March 2004, Ray started learning the drums from a humble, yet talented drum teacher by the name of Boran Chai. That was when he started to learn how to read drum notations, pull off simple hand/foot coordination, and keep time. After a few months of learning, Raymond's parents saw that he really had an interest in the drums and decided to buy him his own personal 7-piece drum-kit. This was also the time when Mr. Boran along with some of Ray's Christian friends started to share the Gospel with him. A year after, through their life testimonies and deep unconditional Christian love for Raymond. He finally felt the presence of the Holy Spirit and accepted Christ as his personal Lord and Savior in a Christian Youth Concert “Passion” in SIB Skyline Church. This however did not upset Ray's Buddhists parents. In fact, they were very happy for him and respected his faith. For he has found a purpose in life and it was in Jesus Christ.
While still learning from Boran, Ray progressed in his drumming tremendously and shocked his teacher with his amazing speed and coordination. Ray learned so fast that Mr. Boran had thought him everything he knew within a year and a half! Soon after, Mr. Boran introduced Ray to an extreme drummer/ drum instructor by the name of Mr. Shaun Harun. Through Mr. Shaun's tasteful drumming and excellent teachings, Raymond gained a lot of drumming knowledge and applied it all whenever he plays in Church and in gigs.
In the year 2006, Raymond Goh entered a local drumming competition and got 1st Runner-Up. Out of all the contestants, he was the youngest in the competition. Because of this amazing feat, he was finally recognized amongst his peers and many musicians as a drumming phenomenon! In 2007, he started to get serious with his faith in Christianity and started practising the Christian Life. During that time, Joshua Siaw took Raymond under his wings and guided him in his spiritual walk. Ray grew spiritually and gained much godly-wisdom thanks to Josh. Giving him a deep personal love for God and a powerful revelation to use the drums as an instrument to bring the message of Christ throughout the whole-world. He co-founded the website “RhythmPraise” with Anson Lau (who is also another amazing Christian drummer/ friend of Ray).
Together they thought people how to play Christian Songs on the drums and gave out lessons through Video (YouTube). Soon after, they recruited more drummers for Christ and caught the attention of over 40,000 visitors from all over the world to watch and learn from their videos.
That same year, Ray was fortunate enough to attend a drum clinic from his no.1 drumming inspiration “Thomas Lang” in Singapore. That was when he heard of many other great drum events that were to come in the year 2008, such as the Singapore Drum Festival which that year previously had great drummers invited to the event like Derek Roddy, Grant Collins, Tony Royster Jr., Benny Greb etc..
Realizing that his drumming skills was growing and wanted to take the message of Christ further, Raymond joined a prestigious drum competition known as “Drum Challenge Asia” held in Singapore which had nearly 100 over contestants from all over Asia! (it was also part of the Singapore Drum Festival that was to be held a few weeks after the competition) He auditioned through YouTube and made it not only into the quarter-finals, but also into the semis and finals. For the finals, he played along with some of his Christian buddies including Joshua Siaw on the song Take It All by Hillsong United, followed by a short 3 min drum solo which is now available on YouTube. Ray chose to play that particular song because he wanted it as a prophetic act that no matter what happened that day, he would give his all to God. The results came out and he got 1st- Runner Up. Even though he did not get first, he was still joyful over the whole experience. He was very grateful for both his friends and parent's financial and spiritual support. It was a huge impact for him because after that, he went for the Singapore Drum Festival and met many great drummers such as Teddy Campbell from American Idol, Johnny Rabb, Mr. Q (Jay Chou's Drummer), Nate Morton from the Tv show “Rockstar INXS/Supernova", and the great Virgil Donati from the band "Planet X". (Virgil is one of Ray's biggest drumming influences besides Thomas Lang)
Raymond Goh currently worships in SIB Skyline Church. He teaches the drum set as a part time job at DeNotes (a local music school) and is currently taking a business course at Pine Academy (College). He enrolled on the 12th of Jan 2009 and his plan is to get a Masters Degree in Business Admin. or Marketing and further pursue his music studies/career in the United States. He will continue to inspire and influence others with the Love of Christ through drumming.
His ultimate goal... "I want to make music that inspires the whole world Spiritually. So that they can live life more meaningfully with the faith, hope, and love of God (Jesus Christ)."
