Matt Garstka: Beyond drumming

I'm no drummer but I get inspired by drummers more so than guitar dudes. That's right, Hellhammer, Frost, Namtar, Dominator, Pete Sandoval, George Kollias, Tomas Haake, Steve Shelton, Brann Dailor, Neil Pert, Gary Husband & the list goes on. A good drummer makes the band- keep this in mind.

Matt Garstka is a drum geek. More often than not, such individuals would turn out to be outstanding players in their respective turfs. It's good to hear how he got to where he is now & it's all hard work, nothing less. More interestingly, I get to hear what goes on inside a drummer's mind when he's plying his trade. I believe drummers are excellent multi-taskers & their brains are something to be reckoned with; their abilities to compartmentalize instructions & assigned them to the different body parts simultaneously is simply outstanding. Matt Garstka's drum approach is very technical, he isolates ideas, permutates them & runs them all through the timing gamut. It's all about timing & the creativity manifested within the chosen time-based limitations. He's also a very disciplined individual, investing a ridiculous amount of practice time during his younger days & a religious devotion to reading & exploring styles. 

Matt Garstka started the clinic with some timing anecdotes. He stressed the importance of slowing things down, refining the ideas before adding speed to the equation. The reminder here was that speed is an ego thing, it does little to accentuate refinements. The reason many of us play fast has everything to do with second nature; the more familiar we are with certain movements, the more natural it becomes. We are so familiar with it to such an extent that it's immune to time-based variations. This is something that I would like to incorporate into my playing ritual with immediate effect. 

The clinic concluded with Mr. Garstka playing along minus one tracks which were not limited to Animal As Leaders tunes. We heard a trance, pop & rap tune given the Matt Garstka treatment & they were all beyond awesome. I find them extremely inspiring because they showcased a very learned application which, despite the technicalities, reflected good taste. Being technical is a very dangerous inclination because one tends to get boring very quickly, especially in the presence of a non-technically inclined audience.

At the end of it all, it dawned on me that Matt Garstka had very little mention of metal or prog as his music domains. He is just doing his job in Animals As Leaders, playing in the style of what his mates required. Lesson learnt here- if you know what you are doing & required of you, there will be no problems fitting in, regardless of the music genre. 

Thanks, Swee Lee, for the opportunity.

Pic: Swee Lee Co.