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Matty Amendola
2008-08-08

Hey, what’s up, MD readers. My name is Matty Amendola, and I’m from Brooklyn, NY. I play drums on a few projects, one of which is Weird Old America, featuring guitarist Nick Diaz, who’s originally from Texas. We recently finished recording our debut CD. I also play bass and a member of a band called The Classic Futures, featuring MTV VJ Damien Fahey on drums. Both these CDs are available at iTunes and our myspace pages listed below.

Besides those two projects, for the past five years I’ve been working as a drummer for hire on the NYC session and club scene. I did a few nationwide tours with several different acts, and I’ve been fortunate to play just about every small and large venue in the NY area at a very young age. (I’ll be twenty at the end of this year.)

I grew up learning my way around my dad’s studio and playing along to The Beatles and many other classic rock records from his massive record/CD collection. As I grew into my teens, I moved along to funk and hip-hop. I later studied jazz while broadening my perspective of music theory.

When I was twelve years old, I taught myself guitar and bass, and this really opened my eyes to learning what being a musician really was. I started writing and recording my own songs and playing everything just for fun. The next challenge was learning to sing. When I started studying music seriously, voice training was my top interest. As much as I love playing drums, I didn’t want to read charts or practice rudiments all day. I wanted to be able to write, produce, and perform my own songs.

About a year ago, in between being on tour, I started writing and recording my debut solo album. I’m happy to announce that it’s now available on iTunes and any other digital music outlet. The CD is called = Ecstasy, and I wrote, produced, and performed everything on it. I hope you have a chance to check it out and learn the same important lesson I did about being a drummer: It’s all about playing what’s right for the song! No matter what instrument you’ll see me play, I will always be a DRUMMER first!

Thanks for checking out my blog. Drop me a line to say “hey,” I’d love to hear from you!
 
Matty

For more on Matty Amendola, got to www.mattyamendola.com, www.myspace.com/mattyamendola, www.myspace.com/theclassicfutures, & www.myspace.com/weirdoldamerica.
 
Photo of Matty by Jules Follett

Windsor’s Ian Falgout
2008-08-07

Hello, all. It’s been a busy and interesting year in “iangroove” land! After spending almost three years straight on the road touring with country acts, I’ve finally decided to get back to my normal world, starting with the return of Windsor!

With a quick summer tour with country act Marshall Star, I was able to share the main stages at festivals across the US with Danielle Peck, Craig Morgan, Dierks Bentley, Trace Adkins, and Kenny Chesney! All the bands are really nice and down-to-earth. Also, great to have your mug on a JumboTron projected to thousands…yes, my nose looks HUGE!

Now that the summer tour has wound down, I have an opportunity to get back with Windsor with a CD release party/show at the House Of Blues in LA on August 21! We’ll have some celebrity guests and surprises, and we look forward to having a good time and seeing many friends and fans who’ve been anxious for our return. We’ve been lucky that people still remember us from past Warped Tour appearances and the bit of “love” we had from MTV.

The new CD, Forever Endeavors, should be available by show time. Keep checking www.windsormusic.net for details. The drum tracks were mostly recorded at Tantrum Studios in Montecito, CA, and I was able to use Aynsley Dunbar’s kit for the tracking. He is a really nice, humble, tall man.

So it’s, “Out with the cowboy hats and in with the new violet faux hawk!” It’ll be great to get back to the LA area and hopefully visit my friend and mentor, Earl Palmer. Earl, one of the most recorded drummers of all time and one of the most influential cats in modern drumming history, has been ailing. You all need to get educated on this man and see what he has done for us drummers! Earl taught me so much about attitude and mindset, and that has helped me in my career more than anything someone could have shown me about licks, sticking, or notes. I thank him, and hope I can carry on his passion and attitude for years to come.

The last time I was in LA, I was a celebrity judge for Guitar Center’s King Of The Blues contest with fellow judges Elliot Easton (The Cars) and Fred Kaplan (Fabulous Thunderbirds). It was fun to be Simon Cowell for the contests, and all of us judged petty harshly. It was a great experience, and I enjoyed Elliot’s quirkiness, stories, and fashion sense.

On a fun note, I have a new vice: karaoke. I’ve always sung lead, and on many occasions I’ll do so either from behind the drums or as a front man for fun side projects. I’m usually the “high harmony” guy or the “take the chick parts” guy…LOL. I’ve studied singing, and I was involved in theater for most of school, so I always love to sing. Recently I’ve gone to the dark side, having fun at karaokes across the nation. Whenever I get into a new town, I try to find the karaoke hot spot and get the band to cruise out or invite fans in the area to meet up to sing some fun songs. This has caused me to be brought in as a celebrity guest DJ a few times, and what fun that is. Oddly enough, I have connections with many of the artists whose songs I’ll sing. Kind of fun, and the people get a kick out of it. So if you want to have fun with your band and bond with fans, go out and make an ass of yourself singing ’80s chick songs!

Look for me to be out on the road and playing some fun side shows with my own band, Kit Shicker, in which I move to the front man/lead singer role. We’ll start out with some shows in the Dallas area later this year.

I endorse Taye drums, Aquarian heads, Stagg cymbals, EMD music, Ahead sticks, Flix sticks, and HQ Percussion. And I was recently sent a large selection of PureSound Percussion snares to try, and it seems to be my newest family of equipment-makers to join! Thanks, Steve @ D’Addario!

And thanks for reading. I hope to see you all on myspace or on the road!

Ian

For more on Ian, go to www.myspace.com/iangroovedrums

Vince Ector Of The Dizzy
Gillespie All Stars
2008-08-07

Hello to all! My name is Vince Ector, and I am a drummer/composer based out of the New York City area. I’m writing today from my hotel in Brignoles, France while waiting for transportation to the airport for our next stop, Javea, Spain.

We’ve been touring for over a week now. We visit one country a day, with two or more flights each day, before playing an evening concert in 2,000- to 5,000-seat venues. I would have blogged earlier, but this has been the first time I’ve been able to take a breath in over a week!

The audiences have been great, and the artists I’ve been traveling with were longtime members of Dizzy’s bands—some before I was even born. That really puts the heat on me to be “on point” at all times, on and off the bandstand.

Dizzy Gillespie was not only the father of bebop, he was also the first major jazz artist to combine the elements of Cuban music with jazz. This requires me to be versed in swing, Latin, funk, and yes, hip-hop rhythms and concepts. What more could you ask for in one gig! It’s been a blast, and sometimes I have to stop myself from spacing out just thinking about how great it is to come from playing drums in a South Philly basement to performing on stages in countries I sometimes can’t pronounce.

My equipment: Mapex Orion series with 10", 12", 13", and 15" toms, a 20" bass drum, and a Black Panther series Thick Flamed Maple snare, plus Vic Firth AJ-1 sticks and Attack drumheads.

My road advice for up & coming drummers: Stay sharp and humble, bring a practice pad (you never know when you’ll be able to warm up), and do your homework with regards to the music you’ll be playing. Most of all, be professional, but have fun—that’s why we started playing in the first place!

For more info on Vince Ector, go to www.vincentector.com

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