Drumming :: Setup, Equipment, etc.

My Set

Tama Rock Star w/ midnight blue color
Gibralter rack hardware and DW remote hardware
Pro-mark 5A sticks, Remo heads on toms and Aquarian Super Kick I heads

22" bass drum with Pearl kick pedals
14" maple covered Pearl snare drum
8", 10", 12", and 14" rack toms and 16" floor tom
1+2 of high pitch Tama octaban set and 5+6 of low pitch
Pearl cowbell

14" Zildjian ZXT rock hi hat
6" AAX splash and 6" B8Pro spash
8" B8Pro splash
10" HHX Evolution splash
17" Zildjian A custom projection crash
17" HHX Evolution crash
20" Zildjian ZXT rock ride
12" Wuhan (the china just bit the dust)
14" AAXplosion and 18" HHXplosion crashes (on stand-by)

My Projects

Aechelon :: A progressive rock/metal band currently featuring Paul on guitars and Emeric on keyboards. We are still in the developmental stages at the moment since the keyboardist lives in Connecticut. At the moment, Paul has begun practicing and writing music with a bass player where he is studying. Things will really start moving in the fall of this year so stay tuned! Visit us at MySpace.com and ask to be our friend!

Ishmael :: My rock band where I play drums and sing. We are on an extended hiatus until our schedules allow us to come together again and record our full-length debut. We recorded a five-song demo near the end of high school that I am very proud of. We are also in the midst of deciding on a new name for the band. You can listen to the track Unwind from our demo by clicking here.

An Accident Waiting To Happen :: Formed in my freshman year of college alongside songwriter and guitarist David Galenski, this is an off-the-wall metal project that until now remains instrumental. It was and remained a two-man band. We had roughly 6 songs complete and hopefully we will get back together to try and remember those songs and work on new ones. One day we may even record them! At the present time, David records his own style of electronic music that is absolutely amazing. I will post a link here to that shortly.

Carcinomic :: A technical death metal band created by Sagar Nadgir who had already released an ep of material on his own before recruiting other musicians. I worked and performed with the group during the summer and fall of 2007. You can find video of me playing with them on August 8th, 2007 by going to YouTube.com and searching for Carcinomic. You can check the band out at MySpace.com.

My Story

I started playing drums late in the 7th grade. I began by taking lessons with a local music teacher named Kimberly Haywood. Earlier lessons from my cousin had proven futile as he told me I was unteachable. That is not that hard to believe considering my notoriously short attention span. After a year of learning the basics of playing with Kim I decided to upgrade my drumset at home from a used Percussion Plus drumset to a brand new Mapex. I would go on to play in the high school band where I played the snare drum and Timpani. By the end of high school I upgraded again (size-wise) to a Tama drum kit.

Since then I have been continuing to try and progress as a drummer in every way. I have many influences that have helped shape who I am today, and I look to every musical genre for inspiration. Being a drummer, one has endless possibilies and the journey is never done. Progress is neverending...

My Inspiration

Henry Ranta, Peter Wildoer, Bobby Jarzombek, Mike Portnoy, Virgil Donati, Thomas Lejon, Dennis Chambers, Tony Royster Jr., Jason Rullo, Trym, Chad Sexton, Sean Reinert, Tim Yeung, Hannes Grossmann, David Haley, and Igor Cavalera.