Feature Stories
Modern Drummer is the world’s most widely read drum magazine, is dedicated entirely to the art of drumming and caters to the needs of amateur, semi-pro, and professional drummers.
Keith Carlock
After touring with Sting and Steely Dan, and recording Donald Fagen’s Morph The Cat, Keith Carlock faces the musician’s cruelest fate: a night off in Cleveland. “Where is the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame”? Carlock wonders while on tour…
LaFrae Sci
As a college graduate with a degree in political theory and economics, drummer LaFrae Sci decided that law school probably wasn’t in her future–once she’d been paying her rent for a year by playing drums. “I’d played drums and other…
Harry Judd of McFly Interview
MD: When did you start playing drums? Harry: I started when I was sixteen, so I’ve been playing for four years now. I tried playing guitar when I was fourteen, but the teacher was only teaching me nursery rhymes. But…
Joey Zehr of The Click Five
Last summer I got to experience what it might have been like at Beatles concert at the height of Beatlemania. On separate occasions I saw shows by two new bands: The Click Five, from America, and McFly, from the UK.…
Mark O'Connell of Taking Back Sunday
“That guy is seriously a genius,” says Taking Back Sunday drummer Mark O’Connell. The “genius” O’Connell speaks of happens to be Eric Valentine–the producer of Taking Back Sunday’s third album (and Warner Bros. debut), Louder Now–whom O’Connell notes as the…
Michael Bland
Most MD readers know Michael Bland as that funky R&B drummer who played with Prince for seven years during the ’90s. And in fact, you can hear him on the title track of Prince’s latest recording, 3121. But even though…
Joe Morello: Revisiting A Master
By John Riley In the '50s and '60s, jazz groups had plenty of work. Most would do location gigs of two to nine weeks in a club before they would move to the next club in another city. This…
Audioslave's Brad Wilk: Original Fire
By Michael Parillo For a guy who can really punish his drums, Brad Wilk has always been hip-shakingly funky. In 2002, he told MD, “I’ve listened to a ton of old organic funk. I would go to sleep with…
Lee Crystal
Still Loves Rock ’N’ Roll Lee Crystal, drummer for Joan Jett & The Blackhearts from 1981 to 1986, is just a regular guy from Brooklyn–except that he’s so much cooler than the rest of us. In 1977, three years out…
Steve Smith Update
There have been some major changes lately in Steve Smith’s two touring bands. “Over the past eight years Buddy’s Buddies has developed a unique ‘small big band’ sound and direction,” Steve explains. “We’ve moved away from exclusively playing music associated…
Timm Biery
Timm Biery is in the midst of a lengthy tour with Nils Lofgren, supporting the guitarists recent album Sacred Weapon, which was recorded at Lofgren’s home in Arizona. “We tracked for about thirteen days–Nils, of course, on guitar, and Kevin…
Chuck Burgi with Billy Joel
When Billy Joel decided to tour this year, Chuck Burgi went from holding the drum chair in Billy’s Broadway musical Movin’ Out to being the drummer in the legendary artist’s band. “There was no better way to audition for Billy…
Mike Wengren of Disturbed
Around the middle of last year, Disturbed began touring behind the new album, Ten Thousand Fists, and they’ve been out on the road, nonstop, ever since. Drummer Mike Wengren says it comes with the territory. “After ten years with the…
Michael Novak Jr. of Every Time I Die
The members of Every Time I Die are “lucky to be alive,” says their drummer, Michael Novak Jr. While touring earlier this year, the innovative metal-core band was driving through mountains in Wyoming when their van skidded on a patch…
