The 8020 Drummer Podcast Nate Smith

TaRon Lockett, who was Prince’ last drummer, who cut his teeth with Erykah Badu, and who was a key member of a scene that spawned Robert “Sput” Searight, Cleon Edwards and Mike Mitchell among others…
…showed up to our interview in character as his own life coach.
And from that point I knew this wasn’t going to be an “average” podcast episode.
It’s perfectly in-keeping with TaRon’s entire approach to music and creativity, though. There’s the dedication to “the bit”, evidenced by TaRon’s philosophy to dedicate himself 100% to assuming the character necessary to perform at his best for any gig he’s agreed to.
There’s the fearlessness that helped TaRon “not look back” when he left a college degree program to pursue music full-time after getting some high-profile gigs.
There’s the respect for age-old wisdom and the hard-won lessons of playing in church and learning by “respectful hard knocks”, and the dead seriousness of one’s dedication to their art.
Then there’s the duality itself, between irreverence, rebelliousness, and independence on one hand, and respect for the tradition and the aforementioned willingness to conform to perform his best on the gig.
In any case, if you’re patient, there are lessons, both humorous and serious to be gleaned both from TaRon-as-his-life-coach, and Taron-as-himself.
I hope you enjoy this fascinating the surprising conversation with one of the most underrated drummers around.
(And if you want to check out TaRon more, I recommend his instagram, starting with this clip.)
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Chapters
 
0:45 - how did TaRon develop his unique voice 
2:30 - early teachers and musical influences 
4:51 - how much was talent and how much was hard work
7:09 - memorable hard knocks lessons 
9:59 - how much time should drummers allot to technique vs music 
16:07 - being a musical chameleon 
17:33 - the limits of hard knocks 
24:09 - advice for someone who wonders if they have what it takes 
28:15 - what drew TaRon to LA
33:54 - how has his practice changed over the years
36:18 - the origins of the "floor tom thingy"
40:41 - his relationship with the practice pad
42:50 - biggest takeaway from playing with Erykah Badu
45:08 - biggest takeaway from playing with Prince

Today we have an interview I’m very excited about.
One of the forefathers of jazz drum instruction - though as you’ll hear he doesn’t like the taxonomy, preferring to say he’s an “improvisation teacher”.
The biggest surprise for me upon speaking to Ed is that he’s an iconoclast. His energy is pure punk-rock, and he has no time for the idea of “handedness” on the drums, nor the “walling off” of jazz from other forms of improvisation.
Ed and I chat about hierarchies in music, how Denton, TX became a music powerhouse away from either of the coasts, teaching psychology, the value of honesty in music, and more.
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Chapters
 
0:00 - how did the University of North Texas become such a music powerhouse
5:30 - how Ed balances "going deep into the roots" with giving a fast overview
9:00 - why does Ed like Warren "Baby" Dodds so much
15:00 - the origin of Ed's brush approach
19:31 - why Ed doesn't believe in "handedness"
20:59 - how to help a student find their voice
28:17 - how to tell if you don't have it yet or you'll never have it
34:00 - why Ed finds it important to incept students with a work ethic
41:10 - gentle ways to teach touch lessons
51:40 - why Ed doesn't like the label "jazz teacher"

Today’s podcast guest first caught my attention with his clean, slamming Instagram clips. Picture closing your eyes and hearing a mix of Clyde Stubblefield, Bonham, and Nate Smith, then opening them and seeing a skinny teenager with a big mop of black hair and an infectious smile, and thinking “this guy is playing this”?
To the degree we use the word “prodigy”, Raghav Mehrotra is that. Someone who exhibits a degree of artistic maturity we usually don’t expect until many years later, even though he’s barely in college. (Studying economics at Harvard, btw.)
Raghav played drums and contributed vocals in the Broadway musical School of Rock at age 15.
He’s sat in with Seth Meyers’ Late Night band several times.
And now he’s behind the drum chair for Jordan Rakei’s latest album, The Loop.
Naturally, I was curious about how he developed such maturity at such a young age. In this conversation we touch early teachers, practice routines, figuring out Instagram, what it’s like to sit in with the Late Night Band, advice he’d give to up-and-coming drummers, and more.
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Chapters
 
0:00 - what were Raghav's biggest influences
3:50 - why does he think he got so mature at so early an age
9:00 - who was his earliest teacher?
13:25 - how did he get on Instagram?
15:04 - should drummers be less afraid to put themselves out there?
18:33 - how did he internalize the key details so early
23:18 - how to decide when to "move on"
26:50 - Raghav's zoom-lecture practice strategy/how has his practice routine changed
31:00 - what advice would he give his younger self
34:54 - biggest advice he'd give to the median instagram drummer
37:04 - biggest surprise sitting in with the Late Night band

If you’ve watched more than zero of my videos, you’ll know that there’s a kick drum technique that I endorse pretty unequivocally - simple heel up.
Sure, it takes some dialing-in, but my general feeling is it’s the most versatile/least “distance-sensitive” technique for avoiding tension at multiple speeds and dynamic ranges.
But what if I was wrong.
Today’s interview subject has the opposite take: whereas I switched to “heel up” after several frustrating years trying to coax more volume, power, and speed out of my legacy “heel down” technique, he switched to heel down, when he found heel-up made soft dynamics and playing off the head more difficult.
I’m speaking of YouTube OG Tim Metz.
In our extended interview, which you can view below, we get into his background co-teaching with Mike Johnston in Sacramento, gig scenes in general, his approach to teaching, and the like, but for purposes of the YouTube video, we went head-to-head to debate the merits of the two techniques.
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If you haven’t heard of Arch Echo’s Richie Martinez, get ready for a rabbit hole.
(Richie’s Instagram)
Richie is one of the most electrifying young drummers around.
While he calls the genre of his band “progressive metal”, his playing encompasses a type of "cross-genre” fluency not many drummers have, but it’s exiting when you see it.
Equally comfortable in funk, fusion, or prog settings, Martinez brings energy, enthusiasm, and blistering chops to anything he plays.
Martinez’ background is an unconventional one - growing up in Houston, he was mostly self-taught until high school. That gave Richie a unique perspective on teaching and learning drums. What’s more, he’s made playing “hard” a science, and coaches many-a-touring-drummer on how to play forcefully without injuring themselves or burning out.
And while Richie responded to the question “is there a reason to play forcefully when you can just let the mics do the work” with “yea - do you want to be a LOSER?” He equally obsessed with the mechanics of the low end of the dynamic range, and frequently asks students to play softly on table tops. And while he’s a jokester, he shows an unironic love for the instrument and his students.
If you’ve ever wondered about the mechanics of playing drums hard without injury, why some of the “conventional advice” doesn’t always work, or just what a super disciplined player is like to spend time with, I know you’ll love this conversation with Riche.

Want to play drums injury-free into your 70s and beyond?
I sure do.
Today’s video guest, Brandon Green, was coaching elite athletes when a high school friend’s struggle with injury inspired him to utilize his skills to help drummers. Since then, Brandon founded the Drum Mechanics YouTube and Instagram channels, where he breaks down the setup and movement of some of your favorite drummers, and gives tons of free advice to help all drummers improve our setup and movement.
I wasn’t an uninterested party. Since becoming a “tall guy” I’ve always struggled with “Ichabod Crane Posture”, and over the past couple of years I’ve been experimenting with setup mental cues, and exercises to help me move better.
Brandon weighs in on the posture conundrum from both philosophical and practical angles.
Then I ask him to help resolve something I’ve always had confusion about: rack tom angle. And the answer surprised me. (But I’m making a change.)