1. what first inspired you to become a drummer?

At high school we had to choose an instrument to learn and drums was pretty much the only one offered that had any relevance to any music i liked. Plus it was a bonus that i could bash the shit out of something. I didn't really take it seriously until later on after becoming a bit more involved with the hardcore/grindcore scene and seeing bands like The Kill, Vaginal Carnage and Captain Cleanoff I thought it was about time i taught myself how to play blastbeats.
 
2. anything that you’ve learnt along the way that’s really helped you as a drummer?

I'm still floundering with a bad style and a lack of control so I think I'm yet to come across the big secret that'll help me with my technique. Although the one discovery I've made that's helped has been to cover my thumbs and forefingers in Elastoplast fabic band aids and rub sultanas on them which helps keep me from dropping my sticks and stopped me getting blisters under any callouses I had which always ended up ripping off haha. Seems ridiculous but it works for me.
 
3. who have you and/or who are you playing with at the moment and what are the bands movements/Anything to plug?

I'm in Roskopp at the moment and have been for about 5 years. We're grindcore with a good dose of goregrind and tech grind and a bit of death metal, sludge and hardcore mixed in. We broke up last year but reunited early this year with a new member and it's all going really well. Playing shows quite regularly and we have a 7" out on Crucificados Pelo Sistema Records from Germany. We'll have a split 7" with another local band called Agents Of Abhorrence which we are gonne re-record for soon since the recording we did turned out to be quite below par. That'll be on Yellow Ghost Records here and Crucificados overseas. We have split 7"s planned for later this year with Blue Holocaust from France which will be released by Last House On The Right and one with Skullhog from Holland which will be on No Escape Records, a label I co-run. No Escape will also be doing our full length Cd which we'll hopefully have out by the end of the year.
 
I also recently started a new band called Doubled Over which is also grindcore but a bit more stripped back and heavy, and is sounding killer so far, we're trying to write enough songs so we can start playing shows as soon as possible.
 
4. what gear are you using at present?
 
A 5 piece Mapex mars pro kit, but i usually use a shallower snare drum, i think it's a Peace drum? They're all desperately in need of tuning and new skins but I dunno what I'm doing so I'm thinking they'll stay that way for a while. I use Zildjian Z rock hi hats which I love (the only things that haven't broken on me), a shitty old Z rock crash that's full of holes and a Sabian (I think?) Rockatgon crash that's had so much cut out of it it's now more like some 11 sided sawblade although I just got a new Meinl Mb20 heavy crash so the Rocktagon can get the heave-ho now. And a Paiste Sound reflections ride which is way too quiet. I have some Yamaha double pedals, and that's about all I can remember about them.
 
5. what would be your dream gig?

Hmm... to play a show with Meatyard, The Kill, Skullhog, Integrity, Accept Death, General Surgery, Engorged, Hatred Surge, Machetazo and Despise You! Actually we played a show the other week which was about as close to perfect as i could ever hope for. We played probbaly the best set we ever had, and Aeroflot, The Day Everything Became Nothing and Die Pigeon Die all played utterly devastating sets too. All the bands were really good friends with each other, there was a good crowd, a great vibe and everyone had a blast! Die Pigeon Die played the most bulldozingly crushing set I've ever seen any band play and we had to follow them, so I really felt like I had to step it up a heap to even hold and candle to them, and that push made me play harder, faster and more intense and as a result I had heaps more fun than usual and was really happy with our set.
 
6. favourite drummers and/or bands and why?

My favourite existing bands are probbaly the ones listed in the previous question, and favourite dead bands would be Hemdale, Carcass, Deadguy, the early lineups of Phobia and Today Is The Day, Autopsy and old Biohazard.
I don't really have many favourite drummers, at least not many that really have everything I want out of my drumming. Chris Reifert from Autopsy/Abscess would probably be my favourite since he has such a distinctive style and great feel. He plays raw and loose and crazy but he doesn't play as fast as I'd like to. Jensen Ward from Iron Lung is killer since he plays really really hard and aggressive, but likewise doesn't play quite as fast as i want. Most of the really fast drummers I've come across don't play hard enough to really keep me interested and seem a bit too light touch and precise, and too many of them do 2 foot blastbeats which I'm not a huge fan of. As far as 1 foot blasters go I guess Dave Witte from Discordance Axis is a bit of a god to most people as he's fast and plays hard and very tight, but he's a bit too controlled and isn't wild enough. I think I just like drummers who play far beyond their capabilities all the time. If there's no struggle there's no interest with me. One of the 2 drummers who had the biggest impact on me was Fab Ciccionetti from Vaginal Carnage who was a great example of what I love. He had his own style and wasn't just playing the traditional grind basics all the time, he mixed in his own style and was always teetering on the brink of chaos and/or collapse but almost always managed to hold it together. I loved the volatility of his style. My other drum hero was Jay Jones from The Kill, he was basically the last word in flat out relentless 1 foot blasting and played wicked rolls as well. And although he was/is very tight and quite controlled he still had a real intensity that I usually don't see in many drummers who have a quite smooth style.
I think my favourite drummer at the moment is Brad Smith from a local grind band called Super Fun Happy Slide. He's unbearably fast, very creative, hits hard, has his own style and a great feel, and really puts 110% into it all the time. You can see the pain in his playing all the time and that makes all the difference to me.