Thursday, April 30, 2009

No. 18 ~ Teddy Campbell ~

Teddy Campbell... as for as gospel drumming goes, he is probably one of the most sought after drummer! He is particularly famous for being the drummer of American Idol. He is one of my personal favorites not just because of his amazing drum fills and gospel chops, but for his amazing ability to groove to any type of music. He proves it very well on the American Idol show, when the contestants wants rock, he'll sound like a rock drummer, when it's jazz, he sounds like he has been playing jazz for all his life, and it goes on and on...

His resume is super impressive too!
Since he's the drummer for American Idol, there's no need to mention that he has performed with Kelly Clarkson, David Cook, Hudson Taylor, Fantasia etc. but he also performed with Britney Spears (back when she was at the top), Backstreet Boys and Christina Aguilera




In 2006, he was invited to perform at the Modern Drummer Festival with many other goespel drummers like Aaron Spears (drummer for Usher), Gerald Heyward (drummer for Mary J. Blige), and Marvin McQuitty(drummer for Israel & New Breed).



Teddy at the Modern Drummer Festival.



I personally had the opportunity to meet with Teddy Campbell at the Singapore Drum Festival, and he is one of the nicest guys you'll ever see and very humble.
I not only respect him for his amazing drumming but also for his faith, during the festival said "When I play the drums, I am only ushering people into the presence of God." When he said that out loud just like that, I really wanted to shout amen! (laughs)...

watch this video at 1:47


God bless you Teddy Campbell and may the Lord shine upon you.

photos and info courtesy of www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Teddy_Campbell.html
video courtesy of www.youtube.com

Sunday, April 26, 2009

No. 17 ~Tony Royster Jr.~


When it comes to Tony Royster Jr., there is only 3 letters that sums up the whole thing about him... O.M.G. !!!! He is probably one of the craziest -young drumemr I have have ever seen and heard. His drumming is really out of this world...



Tony Royster Jr. was voted #1 Up and Coming Drummer by Modern Drummer magazine 2000 readers' poll and has been voted #2 in the UK 2001 readers' poll. And believe me when I say this, do not underestimate him. He's currently 23 years old.... but watch this video when he was only 12 years old!








Amazing right!!!

watch him now!







Now he has groove and amzing techniques that just blows my mind that he can play better than that video (when he was 12 years old)






This video show his ability to work with a band with double bass drums....and I love his groove.

That's the thing, the groove, I do not know about you, but I find this is close to becoming a fact. Black guys who plays drum has the most amazing licks and grooves! Dont believe me? I'll let you see all the goespel drummers that I like on my next blog.

Anyways, Tony Royster Jr. is one of my all time favourties because he is living the dream. Endorsed by DW Drums! That's my dream! The DW drums will make you drool!

Currently Tony is touring with big hip-hop artist Jay-Z. This video shows how nice Jay-Z's concert is with Tony by his side.





Tony makes Jay-Z sound 1000 times better in my opinion.

My salutes to you Tony Royster Jr.
Hopefully I might have a chance to drum with you!

Monday, April 20, 2009

No. 16 *Update on What's New*

Hello everyone, just want to take a break on "the drummers that I like" posts and just give you all a short update about what's been going on with me.

Well, about a 3 weeks ago, I was called up by a local magazine "BandWidth", and they said they wanted to interview me for their April's issue. I was very excited that they wanted to interview me, an 18 year old guy who just loves to play drums. =) So anyway, those of you who wants to get the mag in K.K, you can find them in San Francisco Coffee, and other local music stores. For those who wants to read it online, go to www.kkbandwidth.com.

The cover...

The content...

For those who are curious because you saw my site on the mag, yes, I am a Christian. Currently worshiping at a local Church. Jesus Christ is my personal Lord & Savior so do not get confused when I said "Creator" in the interview.

Recently, I had my exams, it was hard.... Very hard....to fail. =P My exams only lasted for 3 days(Wed to Friday), after that, my college friends and I went to the computer lab(which is also a cyber) to play Left 4 Dead (a first person shooter game). To release our tension and stress, and we went to the K-Box to sing and drink ourselves silly (except for me who just drank Coke) on Saturday night from 8 PM to 1 AM. It was a really fun time, funny how a friend of mine got drunk with only two glass of Tiger Beer. "Thank God my friend was not driving that time." Currently enjoying the 1st day of my 3 week holidays, drumming and playing my PS2.

So yea, that was overall what has been happening recently, what about you guys?


P.S. Do drop by my website as I continue on with my next fav drummer... Tony Royster Jr. (YEA BABY)

Thursday, April 2, 2009

No. 15 ~ Mike Portnoy ~


Oh boy... this is going to be a big one. A man who seriously has some of the biggest drum kit monsters I have ever seen...aside from being one of my biggest rock influences, Mike Portnoy is probably one of the most respected technical musicians in the Progressive Rock industry.




Mike's long list of Awards include 24 Modern Drummer Magazine Reader's Poll Awards including: 2004 Hall of Fame Inductee, Best Progressive Rock Drummer (12 years in a row!!), Best Clinician (twice), Best Educational Video/DVD for Liquid Drum Theater, and Best Recorded Performance of the Year (6 times) for Dream Theater's Awake, A Change of Seasons, Falling Into Infinity, Scenes From A Memory, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and Score.

When he was a teenager, Mike Portnoy was awarded a scholarship to study at the Berklee College Of Music, where he met John Petrucci (guitarist) and John Myung (bassist) . Eventually forming the greatest progressive rock band we now know as Dream Theater. -**HUGE FAN of Dream Theater **-Mike, Petrucci, and Myung decided to stop studying in Berklee and make their own music, eventually hiring a vocalist James LaBrie and a psychotic keyboardists "Jordan Rudess". And to show you how amazing Dream Theater is...just watch this MV of them...



Guitar solo at 3:10
Keyboard solo at 3:50


The past few years since I've heard about Mike Portnoy, I have seen many of his Drum Instructional DVDs from Hudson Music and they are mind blowing-ly awesome!

Mike Portnoy In Constont Motion and Liquid Drum Theater.

One of the things I really like about Mike Portnoy is not only the fact that he drums technically but also the fact that he can make it sound sooo nice that it can even attract people who dont know a thing about drums...especially when people look at his drum kit....

and his Collection of Drums that TAMA (the drum company) has given to him...
Mike and his two kids...

Another reason why I like Mike Portnoy is because he is working in a band where he is really great but he is working in a band where every single musician awesome! Here are just some short videos them!

The bassist John Myung...


A crazy 10 minute intrumental in the Live at Budokan video.... includes addictive bass lick(John Myung), mind blowing guitar shredding-picking (John Petrucci) and keyboard/ drum duet (Jordan Rudess and Mike Portnoy)



To put it simply, Mike Portnoy = crazy/awesome drummer

Mike Portnoy in Dream Theater = AMAZING/Crazy/Mind-blowing/awesome/technical/powerhouse/ music!!!!

Mike Portnoy with Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) left
Mike with David Archuleta (an icon)...I'm referring to Mike.