On February 12th 2004 the students at Drumtech were fortunate enough to receive a
masterclass from Death in Vegas drummer Simon Hanson.

This was unlike any masterclass I have ever attended before. Instead of pulling out mindless chops and generally showing off, he opened with the Death in Vegas track “Aicha”, which demonstrated how to play for the song and also showed his amazing time keeping even when he knocked his headphones off.

It was then time for questions, and again this was a different experience, when asked about his motivation for becoming a drummer, he gave his original answer as wanting to be a “rock star”, and then he threw the question back at the audience, he listened to a few answers before pulling some students on stage for a debate. The energy, enthusiasm and humour he showed were infectious and he was soon opening our eyes as to the right and wrong reasons to be a drummer.

The next subject on the agenda was our goals, once again, Simon got a student on stage
with him and outlined the steps that can be taken from where we are now to where we want to get to.

The main points learned from the evening were that in order to succeed then you must have confidence in yourself, and also that most of time it’s about your ambition.

Liam Pemberton (Drumtech student)