My Story
I grew up in Zurich, Switzerland
I went to see a lot of live music when I was young. All sorts of bands would pass through Switzerland with Zürich on their tour schedule. This was the 90’s and I went to see some of my favourite bands at the time such as Jamiroquai, Lenny Kravitz, Michael Jackson, Rick Astley, Skunk Anansie, Phil Collins, Pink, Foo Fighters, The Black Crows, Brian Adams, Aerosmith… I can barely remember them all, there were so many. But out of curiosity I also went to see bands I wasn’t even into that much. Acts like Destinies Child, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carrey or even The Spice Girls! Oftentimes I wouldn’t even mention to anyone that I was going to see these shows, worried that my friends might make fun of me. Whomever I was watching, they always had a good band behind them. They were session musicians, the pros of the music scene. I wanted to know how the show was put together. I was observing the production, how many people were on stage doing what, who was MD, which instruments were played and so on. I would watch and learn. I just knew in the deepest of my heart that one day I WAS going to be a pro drummer and that all the analysing and observing would come in handy.
My Dad – A Bandleader
I grew up in a musical family and caught the musical bug at a young age from my father, renowned jazz trumpeter and singer Dave Stewart. My Dad was a bandleader of a very successful jazz band called The Piccadilly Six based in Zurich, Switzerland. They used to perform in Switzerland and all over the world and played some prestige gigs such as The WEF (World Economic Forum) in Davos performing for all the world leaders including Bill Clinton.
We would frequently go and watch the band play and they were often on TV. As a little lad I would go behind the TV set, puzzled to find my Dad wasn’t there…
I also went along whenever they were recording a new album. The Piccadilly Six recorded 18 albums and 6 EPs over their career span. They often recorded at high-end studios such as Powerplay Studios in Switzerland (bands and musicians like Europe, Keith Jarrett, Lady Gaga, Lenny Kravitz, Prince, Snoop Dog, Yello etc. recorded there). It was extremely exciting to go and watch the recording process. It also meant I got to have a go on Jimmy’s drums!
Dad’s Drummer – Jimmy Garforth
Jimmy was the drummer in The Piccadilly Six and joined when I was just one year old. He’s an extremely talented drummer, a showman! He did the craziest drum solo ever where he attached a tube to his first tom and he blew air into it, which would change pitch of the drum! People went mad for it! They had never seen anything like it before. Rumour has it that Jimmy played with the Beatles before they got famous. He also got into trouble for hammering nails into the stage floor of the Royal Albert Hall to stop his kit from slipping! Jimmy had a great philosophy behind the drums and he would point out the importance to serve the music and keep it simple. “Don’t get in the way,” he used to say, “and remember, it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing!” This was definitely one of the reasons my Dad kept him in the band all those years. He is the sole reason I ever took to the drums in the first place. I still listen to the band’s music today and study Jimmy’s swing.
My First Drum Kit – The Beginnings
Jimmy was like a second dad to me. He was also the one who first set my drumming into motion by lending me his first snare drum. I distinctly remember coming home from lido by the Zürich lake on a hot July’s evening. I looked out the window and saw Jimmy parking up and walking across the road with a snare drum under his arm. He set it up in my bedroom. It was a spare and he left it for me to practice on. About a week later he added a ride cymbal on a stand. A year later my Dad bought me hi-hat. I would try and copy Jimmy’s drum solos. I was hooked.
A few years later we moved from our house to a block of flats a few roads down. This meant I couldn’t play my snare in my bedroom anymore because we had neighbours up, down, left and right. So my Dad bought me a practice kit. I distinctly remember unboxing it on Christmas morning, not knowing exactly what it was. It’s in fact a low volume practice kit. It was a leap forward from what I had because it mimicked a real drum kit including the bass drum pedal. I have kept it all these years and I still practice on it in my home in London. I have come close to replacing it with an electric kit or something more modern. But the fact is it’s all you need to get your muscle memory and it also has a huge sentimental value to me seeing I’ve had it so long.
Marching Drumming
It was also Jimmy’s idea to stick me in a marching band when I was just 10 years old. I joined the KMZ Swiss Marching Band. He said this would help me develop strong hands and master my rudiments. The drumming was very strict. The notation for marching drums is one line instead of five like in a stave. What’s above the line is played with the right hand, what’s beneath is played with the left. We would not only march on parades like the famous Sechseläuten in Zürich every year but we would also perform in huge concert halls and even on Swiss TV on a show called Benissimo. I was 11 years old at the time.
As a marching drummer I would also compete against other drummers at drum battles thus as a collective, 50 drummers were marching in formation performing routines. But I would also compete as an individual. Standing in front of judges I would perform rudiments like a double stroke roll. Starting slow, gradually getting faster, as perfect as I possibly could. I won a few prizes in my category.
Before I knew it I had travelled to quite a few countries and done some large performances. It was a great experience and it gave me a head start on developing my hands, which kit drummers often skip.
But I was drawn to playing the drum kit and after my side drum lessons I would sneak into the brass band rehearsal quarters and into the back room to play on the drum kit. Nobody ever really showed me how to play a beat… It was pure instinct, I sat down and for some reason my first drumbeat was just there.
Bands
When I was 13 I joined the school band. We had our first shaky performances at the local funfair in our school which happened every year. Ironically my Dad played the same stage with his band the following day for which the marquee was packed! Because my Dad was minor celebrity and often appeared on TV our village felt privileged to have him as one of their citizens. Everybody came to watch my Dad’s band. The crowds would stand on the table by the end and scream for more… The atmosphere was through the roof! I felt a sense of pride because that was my Dad up there! On that very same stage we had just played. I was proud to be his son. But it was quite daunting because I had a long way to go until we would get that same reaction out of our audience.
At age 13 I also had enough birthday and Christmas money saved up to buy my first drum kit. Up until then I used to rent a rehearsal room with a kit at a local drum store in Zürich called Drums Only. One day Dad said it was time for me to get my own kit. It was an all black Tama Rockstar. A 5-piece kit with 20inch bass drum. I was the happiest I’ve ever been. I asked the caretaker at my school if I was allowed to set it up and practice in the big hall. I couldn’t wait until the end of school just so I could go and play. Sometimes at the weekly choir singing ensemble, my teachers would let me accompany them with my drums. So the entire school had to sing boring songs but I was allowed to play the drums! I loved it. But I soon upset the caretaker when I scratched the surface of the wooden stage floor, ruining the surfaces.
It wasn’t long until another door opened. One day my school friend’s father approached me during the school pick up and said he knew a band who was looking for a drummer. I checked it out and ended up joining a covers band called Concrete Blossom. While I was just fourteen years old they were in their 30’s. They had a rehearsal room which was merely the top floor of an industrial building. But it was a place to set up my kit and be as loud as I wanted for as long as I wanted. They also did gigs. They played in local pubs and got hired to play at birthday parties etc. This presented a problem because I wasn’t 18 yet and technically not allowed into pubs. But I was part of the band and luckily I was quite tall for my age. So I managed to get away with it. These were proper gigs and a step up from the shaky funfair performances with the school band at the fair, playing to a few uninterested guests and an old lady.
Needles to say I was hooked. Many bands followed. In a way I tried to be in as many bands as I possibly could. It usually depended what nights they rehearsed on. One band would practice on Wednesday, one on Thursday, one on the weekend etc. They all had occasional gigs. Sometimes I got paid, the bands got better. I even landed myself the odd recording session at Swiss DRS Studios.
But when I finished school it wasn’t quite enough to make the jump to being a pro drummer. I had gigs. But by no way enough to make a living. My Dad told me he was lucky to find a job playing and doing what he did. The reality was it wasn’t easy, especially in Switzerland. He said I was to learn a trade as a back up. In case the drumming career didn’t work out, I would have something to fall back onto. So I ended up getting an apprenticeship in an advertising agency. This was office work combined with 3 days a week of school which after three years would give me a basic business degree.
After I finished my apprenticeship I ended up working for Swisscom Telecommunications in a call centre. I was fluent in three languages by now and it was a well-paid job. I was able to move out and afford a nice flat, put fuel in my car and go out. I was pretty set. But at night time, when things were quiet and I was staring at the ceiling trying to get to sleep, I would dream about being a drummer in a famous band. Every time I went to see a live band I understood exactly what the drummer was doing and why. I understood live music because of watching my Dad as I was growing up. Whilst others would enjoy watching the bands, I would feel different. In a weird sense I felt kind of jealous of the drummer, I didn’t want to be in the audience, I wanted to be on stage!
Drumtech
Drumtech was so much fun. It was a crazy life-changing decision which I made one night when I was sitting in a call centre, contemplating on how I was making a living. Although I was paid well, I was feeling unhappy about sitting in a call centre on a Saturday night. I googled one of London’s top drum colleges and knew right away: I was going to quit my job and move to London to do Drumtech!
And so I did. I first signed up for a 3-month course and in the first week realised I was going to complete the entire course. It was so exciting! The whole house was full of aspiring drummers. There were drum kits in every room, practice pads in the corridors with drummers trying to outdo each other with lightning fast rudiments whilst waiting for their next lesson. Our teachers were legends too. Eric Stams was an outstanding drummer, Bosco D’Oliveira famously sessioned for Michael Jackson. I went on to win first prize in the performer of the year competition.
Teaching Drums
I have an insatiable enthusiasm for drums and I love passing my knowledge on to other drummers. I offer private one to one lessons at students’ homes.
Since 2019 I have also been teaching for The Rock Project in St. Albans. We rock up at local schools and bring drums, bass & guitar amps and microphones. The lessons are split in two. In the first lesson we teach every instrument separately. I teach young kids in groups of 5 on electronic kits a new song every two weeks. I make my own transcriptions like drum exercises or charts of all their favourite songs. In the next lesson we all come together and show the kids how to play what they’ve learned as part of a band. At the end of the year we put on a large concert in the school hall and have all the parents, friends and family come and watch. It’s very rewarding! I also find teaching other people and passing on my knowledge makes me a better player.