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YOUR DRUM COACH
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Steve here, owner of the BORN 2 BLEED brand and your personal drum coach.
I have over 20 years of drumming experience, have played in and managed my bands for years, written and recorded original music and played gigs all over Ireland and as far away as the USA.
Scroll down to the bottom of this page to check out my Motley Crue and Pantera drum covers as well as music videos by my old band INTERROGATE.
I prefer the term COACH as drum tutor/teacher sounds too boring and school-like and I don't cover theory...
It's ALL about getting you playing what YOU want to play as soon as possible, and helping you become the best you can be.
What you won't get from me are boring, 'by-the-book" drum lessons where you do more theory and pad exercises than playing music.
I help my students develop a positive mindset, greater awareness of what they're playing and HOW they're playing, learn develop discipline and how to practice more effectively, share advice on being a more valuable band member, how to improve your health, fitness and advice on overcoming and minimising risk of injury.
I have a lot of experience to share with you about drumming and overcoming struggle and adversity.
Twice my health STOPPED me from playing drums and writing/performing music - my no.1 passion!
A lot of people let injury, health, setbacks, lack of self-belief and other circumstances stop them from doing or even trying to do things they'd love!
I broke my back and badly broke my left arm and wrist in a motorbike accident in 2000 and then chronic knee pain forced me to stop playing drums in August 2013 - I overcame both of these and came back STRONGER!
You can read about how I did it in my blogs below:
FROM BROKEN DOWN TO STRONG, FIT & HEALTHY!
MY STORY & WHAT LED TO CREATING BORN 2 BLEED!
CHANGE YOUR MINDSET - CHANGE YOUR LIFE! (how I healed chronic knee pain)
Let NOTHING stop you doing what you love!
MORE ABOUT ME & MY LOVE FOR PLAYING/TEACHING DRUMS
As a lifelong METALHEAD who has a 🔥BURNING PASSION🔥 for heavy music and drumming I wanna help YOU become the 👌BEST👌 drummer YOU can be!
Whether you're 15 or 55 and starting from SCRATCH or been drumming for years and want to take your playing to the next level, I look forward to helping you raise your game, develop solid timing, practice routines and a POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE!
I'm based in Castledawson, right in the centre of Northern Ireland but students come to me from 💥ALL OVER N.I.💥
Beginners AND experience drummers aged 7-50 years old have have come to me for coaching / drum lessons from Magherafelt, Cookstown, Derry / Londonderry, Belfast, Lisburn, , Newtownabbey, Dungannon, Portadown, Armagh, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Portrush, Crumlin and Annalong to name a few.
If you're serious about learning nothing will stop you!
Too many people want everything to be close, handy and easy but the best things never are!
I used to do 70 mile round trips 2-3 times per week for years to practice with my band in Belfast!
I am a self-taught drummer from Castledawson, Co L/Derry, Northern Ireland with 20+ years of drumming experience.
I first started drumming by playing rock n roll, rock, punk and metal covers in my first band playing anything from AC/DC, Guns N Roses, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath to Status Quo, Green Day, Oasis, to Sepultura and Fear Factory.
The very first song I learnt to play was 😎Iron Maiden's Fear Of The Dark😎 which I learnt along with 2 of my friends who both played their guitars through one tiny amp.
🥁 My 'drums' were 8 little electronic drum pads on a drum machine with a kick drum pedal that resembled a computer mouse so don't think you need a massive expensive drum kit to learn to play drums on!
The majority of my playing was spent with my band 💥INTERROGATE💥 who were a big part of the local metal scene for many years in here in Northern Ireland although I formed another band called 💥7 DAYS DEAD💥 with our guitarist after it ended.
It was in INTERROGATE that I really developed and honed my drumming skills always trying to push them to the next level, come up with new and interesting grooves and fills, effectively using dynamics and most importantly learning to play FOR THE SONG as we always strived to write the best songs we could.
Even though we were a METAL band I always tried to take influence from different styles of rock, metal and different genres. I even used dance and hip-hop beats in some of our songs.
Being a good drummer is NOT all about playing as fast, technical and fancy as possible it's about playing (or not playing) effectively to make the song the best it can be.
I was a co-founding member of INTERROGATE and as well as being the drummer, co-wrote and arranged the music and wrote the lyrics to quite a few songs.
I also managed the band booking the majority of the gigs we played, recording studio time, arranging photo shoots, artwork designs, ordering band merch (t-shirts, hats, keyrings etc) and everything in between.
This band was my passion and obsession and put me through a lot of hard times but also gave me some of the best times of my life.
I had a lot of amazing experiences, met a lot of people and made a lot of friends and for that I am very thankful and would encourage any of you thinking about forming or playing in a band to do it and follow your dreams but be aware it's a LOT of hard work even at just a local level if you are writing/creating your own music.
Nothing beats that feeling of being up onstage playing in front of a crowd who are loving the music that you have written, singing the words back to you or moshing, dancing or headbanging along!
My band/playing experience in summary:
INTERROGATE (1998-2011) - Recorded and released one 4-song EP and two albums which can be heard on Spotify. Gigged all over Ireland and East Coast tour in the USA
7 DAYS DEAD (2011-2013)- Recorded and released a 4-song EP (available on Spotify)
SMALL BUT MASSIVE SAMBA BAND - Was a member of the Glasgowbury group's Small But Massive Samba Band for about 1 year and played several gigs/events
Check out the videos below and both of my bands on Spotify.
If you want to learn from scratch or take your playing to the next level hit the button below to apply now and I'll be in touch soon.
I look forward to helping you become the best you can or want to be!
Steve
