INFO : MONTANA DRUMS : ABOUT ALEX MONTANA


Drumming. Pounding the heads and cymbals with relentless agression. Creating the rhythm that makes bodies move to the beats that are flowing from my hands and feet. Drumming is more than making music to me, drumming is my innermost passion.

Starting at the age of 11 after my parents bought me a first drumkit (a small Dixon set), I quickly noticed that I spent all my time downstairs in the basement practicing as much as possible and every day. I even started skipping school so that I could play as much as possible (don’t do that at home kids, I am a professional!).

My early main influences (or "idols" if you want to call them like that) were Matt Sorum of Guns n’Roses and Simon Phillips who were later replaced by the drummers who should profoundly influence and shape my playing: Dave Lombardo of Slayer and Vinnie Paul auf Pantera. Learning to completely play Slayer’s double live album "Decade Of Aggression" by the age of 18 gave me a tremendous boost and raised my confidence so that in 1995 I auditioned for the vacant drummer position when Dave Lombardo had left Slayer and Paul Bostaph didn’t seem to be a constant replacement. I made it into the last 20 candidates but apparently was too young for the band and (as everyone knows) in the end Paul Bostaph kept playing with Slayer.

I spent the past 10 years drumming with very different bands, honing my skills, getting new influences from people like Mike Portnoy, Gene Hoglan and Dave Weckl and generally improving my playing.

Right now, after 14 years of playing with many different bands, I am the live drummer for Faderhead and am really looking forward to getting on the road and playing my ass off for each and every one of you. Playing tightly is always a challenge especially if you have to double the existing drummachine-beats. It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it, haha!

Every couple of weeks I will write a little article or tutorial regarding some aspects of drumming or I might upload an mp3 of a beat or fill and talk about that - so hopefully you’ll enjoy what my little section of this site has to offer and I hope you check back regularly!

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