My name is Matthew Apostol, and I’m the drummer of Dear Life, which I helped start almost five years ago. I began drumming at the age of eleven. I’m now eighteen and will be turning nineteen in a few months. I think I speak on the behalf of many other drummers when I say that I should be much better, or should I say more skillful, after eight years of experience. The good news is that I’m young and have plenty of time to brush up on my skills and learn new techniques. Needless to say, I’m still proud to say that I will finally have a record released in stores with my drum tracks on it. To me, that’s an accomplishment in itself.

Our debut album, Framework, will be released on June 24. I recorded the drum tracks for the album at a studio in Long Beach City College, in less than a day and half. My goal was to record the tracks quickly yet precisely, so that I wouldn’t need to trigger my drum sound, which, for those of you who don’t know, is the replacing of natural drum sounds with pre-made drum samples. I can honestly say that I don’t like the sound of almost all triggered drums. I appreciate and prefer natural, warm, thick, and heavy drum sounds while still maintaining a pretty drum tone. Being picky is a good thing, especially when you’re in the studio. Luckily, our sound engineer and co-producer, Roger Camero, had similar tastes in drum styles and sounds as me. I couldn’t be happier with his work on our album.

I look forward to hearing what other people think of the album. Once it’s released, we’ll be touring extensively throughout the US and hopefully outside the country. We’re fulfilling our dream of performing music we love to people we don’t know. It’s an incredible and uplifting feeling when a listener comes up to you and tells you that they like what they hear. It’s not often that you get compliments as a drummer, especially nowadays, since there are so many good drummers who play well. Therefore I’m greatly thankful when it does happen. Advertisement

The next record is going to reflect the influence of the bands we’ve toured with as well as the music we grew up listening to. Personally, I’m going to do my best to make my tracks as technical and groovy as possible. It’s almost like taking two opposites and trying to mesh them together. However, most of what I do is unorthodox in the first place. In my view, it helps to keep things more interesting, because innovation in music is very hard to come across. I hope I can bring some of that to the table in the near future. Until then, have a listen to Framework; you might find something you like.

Matthew Apostol

For more on Matthew and Dear Life, go to www.myspace.com/dearlife.