Life on the frozen tundra of South Dakota Life on the frozen tundra of South Dakota

So the Tundra Boy started playing drums at a very early age. Before he could even talk in complete sentences he would arrange pots and pans on the floor and beat on them with spoons. This isn't uncommon, except that I noticed he would play along with the radio and not just bang, but actually try and keep time.

When he turned three my brother bought him his first "real" drum set. It was a small beginner set. He played on it for two years and literally wore it out.

So for his fifth birthday my brother bought him a bigger set. This was the set that is in this video.

About six years after that my very generous brother gave him an extremely expensive custom made set that he currently plays, and will probably be the last drum set he would ever need.

Anyway, back at age 7 the Tundra Boy asked me to record him playing. He had watched a video where Rick Marotta talked about the session where he played on Steely Dan's "Peg" and about the high-hat technique he had used on that tune. The Tundra Boy took what he'd seen in that video and figured out how to do it. So he wanted me to film it and show it to the world.

It was an impromptu request, so I unfortunately didn't have good lighting set up. As a result the video is a bit dark. But you can get the point.

And now that he's a teenager the Tundra Boy is totally embarassed that this video exists. Which is awesome.

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This page last updated on 06/28/2018