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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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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Quincy Davis might be the best jazz drum educator on YouTube.

And like Stanton Moore, Quincy is not an “online native”. He studied with the great Billy Hart. He’s got many playing credits, among them Tom Harrell and Benny Green. (But that’s just scratching the surface.) He’s on the official faculty of the fabled University of North Texas.

But he also adapted to the online world in a way that makes him unique. His YouTube channel is a mix of straightforward jazz lessons, subtle innovations, and authentic, no-frills teaching.

Quincy and I were contemporaries in New York in the early 2000s. I used to hear him at Cleopatra’s Needle, and watched as his name started popping up on albums and tours.

I was curious to learn what equipped him to “hit the ground running” in New York. But we quickly went down a rabbit-hole about finding one’s own voice while staying true to the tradition, dealing with imposter syndrome, and re-discovering your love for the music. (This conversation was one of the big inspirations for my latest video.)

I know you’ll enjoy this conversation with Quincy, who’s wise-beyond-his years, and who embodies in every aspect of his being the musical maturity he found.

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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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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.

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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.)

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Andy Prado is a drummer’s drummer.

Talk to practically anyone you’ve heard of about who their favorite drummers are, and Andy is likely to be in that sentence.

He’s one of a small list of drummers you could call “elite choppers” - a list that includes people like Ron Bruner, Mike Mitchell, and not too many others.

As such he’s in both an enviable, and an unenviable position. And you better believe we dig into the multi-edged sword of “chops”. (It’s way harder than you think to get them, you don’t have anything to “hide behind” like groove drummers, and when you reach the top of your profession everybody either wants to be you, hates you, or both.)

Andy touches a bit on the unhuman work ethic necessary to reach the level he’s reached. We also get into:

• Huey Lewis and The News - based or cringe

• Andy’s weekly routine and current projects

• The importance of being authentic

• Whether drummers’ outward personalities match their music

• How Andy is also an elite groove player

• and much more

I know you’ll enjoy this light-hearted convo with one of the LA OGs, the GOAT, as Forrest Rice calls him.

Whether or not you’ve heard the name Arthur Hnatek, you’ve probably heard the drummer.

If you love Tigran Hamasyan, by definition you love Arthur Hnatek.

Since the Mockroot album, Arthur has been creating unique drum parts for Tigran, and weaving himself deeply into the fabric of the band, and the albums.

As my interests currently sit at the intersection of jazz and prog rock, I was extremely interested in who Arthur’s influences were, and how he’s developed his voice.

We start out having the usual conversation about developing a music voice, but quickly segue into “musical family trees” - i.e. is Keith Carlock the “grandfather”, and Mark G and Nate wood the “fathers” - something I’m gratified that Arthur likewise found fun.

Maybe most fascinating, Arthur didn’t ever consciously play prog rock, but rather absorbed it via osmisis.

Insights like, and something surprising about Tigran’s input into drum parts, abound in this interview. Know you’ll enjoy.

When I was first getting started on YouTube, there were only a few drummers doing the same thing. One, of course was podcast guest Mike Johnston. Another was Brandon Scott.

Brandon brought great playing, low-key humor, and humility to his videos, and immediately captured attention.

Over the years, as my production quality stagnated, Brandon kept leveling his up, becoming a student of great filmmaking in general, and youtube videography in particular. Recently his video chops caught the attention of Drumeo, who hired him to make a few one-off video ads. That gig turned into a full-time position as a Drumeo videographer, as part of which Brandon regularly commutes to Vancouver and shoots spots for artists like El Estepario Siberiano.

I knew I wanted to get Brandon on a call to help me with my video production, and he graciously agreed. We also rap about Brandon’s drum journey, and how/why he low-key sounds so good. (I say “low key” because his playing is never the focus of his videos; he just sounds great.)

If you have any interest in YouTube or video production, this episode is for you!

One of my proudest “hipster” achievements was being an early adopter on Ari Hoenig. Long story short, I arrived in New York 3 months before the start of my first school year in grad school, and spent the summer checking out live music with other students who’d stayed around the for summer.

One of those things we checked out was Ari. And as such, I was able to share the discovery with my classmates when they arrived in the fall.

Who was this guy who looked like he was outrunning demons when he played, who had a crispness and simplicity to his playing, and yet who was pushing the boundaries on so many things. For those in the know, Ari was already making waves with Kenny Werner by the time I caught him with the Jean Michel Pilc trio.

But as more and more jazz students cottoned to him, he quickly became the unofficial mayor of what I’d call New York Village Jazz. (As distinct from uptown and downtown jazz.) And his own groups birthed at least a few stellar careers, among them that of Gilad Hekselman.

It had been years since Ari and I had spoken - I’d “fanboyed” to him a number of times after gigs - so it was great to revisit one of the most influential drummers when I was in school and the years afterward.

In this interview, Ari and I speak about the origins of his unorthodox style, forging a path as an individual artist, how to deal with the critical voice and self-doubt while developing as an artist, his approach to practicing improvisation and more.

I guarantee you’ll enjoy this one.