Ex Drumtech student Aaron Fagan, better known as “Breakbeat” returned to the
school this week, after spending four years working in the industry so far as a
session Player. Breakbeat’s debut into the industry was with fame academy winner
David Sneddon and since then has Worked with the likes of John Legend, Estelle and
Kanye West, performing at stadiums and on tv shows such as “Later with Jools
Holland” and “Top of The Pops”.

Currently Breakbeat is working on his own project “UKSP”, for which he has recorded,
arranged, produced and mixed himself. With all of this under his belt aged twenty-one;
students were eager to see him perform! Making it one of the busiest masterclasses so far
this year.

As the queue got bigger a particular buzz circulated, giving large smiles to the faces of the
pupils when they saw the three drum kits on stage! This due to Breakbeat bringing his
friends Josh McKenzie (Natasha and Daniel Beddingfield), Leon Mead (Madonna) and to
accompany them on bass “Joel“ (Estelle). With everybody sat in their seats it was time to
kick things off with a track “Theme Song” off of UKSP’s debut album “UK Special”.
Consisting of a tight rhythm section the track had a great groove throughout, for which
Breakbeat had some great, very much “in the pocket” ideas for fills etc that fitted beautifully.

When the track finished, hands were in the air and it was already time to answer questions!
As Breakbeat began to answer the questions you could see he has already gained a lot of
experience and learnt a lot since leaving Drumtech. Maybe not so much in his playing -
though he has had lessons with “Andrew Small” (Kylie Minogue), but more about the
industry and the business side of it all. As he explained to students your playing ability
covers only about forty percent of getting agig the rest will be down to your personality and
how you present yourself.

As many of the professionals that come to the school Breakbeat also talked of the irst gig
that got him into the session scene. As mentioned earlier Breakbeat’s was “David Sneddon”
which in his opinion gave him the so-called “weight” needed to go onto work for other artists.
The hard part is getting that first one!