For those of you who are unaware of who I am, I’m the stick man behind that notorious British metal group Asking Alexandria. I am kindly thankful to Modern Drummer for giving me the opportunity to write you to fill you all in with an insight into my world as an internationally touring drummer. Trust me when I say there’s plenty of crazy stuff that goes on in the life of anyone in a touring band, but the life of a member of Asking is a tad more extreme. I’ll start with an excerpt on how I got myself into this whirlwind of an industry.

I started playing drums around the age of thirteen, trying to cover Slipknot and System of a Down tunes, beating the crap out of my grandfather’s poor old jazz kit. It took me a year or so before I took my playing seriously and got myself a tutor. Ian MacPherson and Stuie Ellerton are the two guys that I can thank for my drum skills. Without them I’d still be holding my sticks all wrong.

As far as my introduction into Asking, that came about a few years later. I was a music student studying performance when I was asked by Ben Bruce to follow him to America to be a rock star, and naturally I said goodbye to college and jetted off to America. Advertisement

Since then my life has been part of an insane journey that’s taken us worldwide, playing hell-hole clubs all the way up to arenas and pretty much everywhere on the planet. We’ve had the honor of sharing stages with some of the greatest artists and bands that music has to offer. Check out our latest release From Death to Destiny. Cheers!

 

For more on Asking Alexandria, visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/askingalexandria.