I had a chance to interview one of the most popular drummers in the extreme metal scene, Derek Roddy. He has played for Hate Eternal, Malevolent Creation, Nile, Divine Empire, Aurora Borealis, and Council of the Fallen, and is currently working on his own new band, Serpents Rise. This man plays some of the tightest blast beats on the planet and reaches light speeds almost effortlessly. Drummers take note, this guy generously shares his techniques and has helped tons of aspiring drummers become better musicians. Read on.

club.kingsnake: Last we spoke you seemed determined to take some time out to focus on instructional aspects of your playing style. I know you have a DVD available and your own website outside of bands you’ve played for. Do you prefer recording and touring or doing clinics and teaching your techniques to other drummers?

Derek Roddy: I love to perform and tour. I will continue to do it but, right now I need to focus on making my life comfortable before I go out and starve for a band. Most of the bands that play extreme metal are playing for 500 bucks a night. That doesn't even cover the cost of gas right now. If you've got four members, a sound guy and merch guy.......You're going to come home with nothing. That's the problem I see with bands nowadays. It seems that everybody is looking for the "ticket out of life" and band members will go on tour so they don't have to deal with real life. It's an escape for most people. But these guys don't understand that your life is the same after a tour....it's just 6 weeks later. Bills are still due! One day they will "wake up" and have NOTHING and will be 45 years old. What then? These people aren't taking the necessary steps to put themselves in a place that will allow them to go tour and feel good about it because they rely on it to pay there way through life. AND THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN. That's why I've decided to take a break, get my personal goals under control. I've got the "evolution of the blast beat" book coming out, a clinic tour in October and a lot of other interesting musical endeavors to take care of. I do have a band here in Florida named "Serpents Rise" and will be recording that at the first of the year. Honestly, I think it will be something that we just give away. That's the goal in the long run right? Getting as many people to hear your music as possible. No better way to do it than FREE! I don't care about making the money and whatnot. I don't play music to make money, I do it to make me fulfilled and encouraged. Therefore, I'm looking at other ways to make money and still be able to play music and feel good about it.

club.kingsnake: Do you feel that with practice anyone can become a killer drummer or are some people just not meant to be behind the kit?

Derek Roddy: I do feel like anybody can learn the mechanics of playing the drums.

"Feel" is a totally different animal and what separates the great drummers from the good drummers. It took me until I was more mature musically to notice this but... I often wondered why Ringo Starr inspired more people to pick up playing drums than Buddy Rich did. So the answer would be...

No, I don't think everyone is capable of being a great drummer but, surely everyone is capable of being a drummer.

club.kingsnake: In my opinion......drums have become a little distracting in extreme metal. A lot of fans focus too much on the speed and stamina and barely pay attention to the song as a whole. Do you agree?

Derek Roddy: Yes, I do agree. It seems that nowadays... fans just want to hear a band play as fast as they can but, don't seem to care if the band is repeating what has been done for 10 years....just faster. I don't get it. Yes, speed is an important element in this type of music but "how fast" isn't.

club.kingsnake: What do you think of guys who cheat? You know what I mean......the ones who play connect the dots in the studio and paste a bunch of crap together to create the illusion they’re good drummers. I have been friends with some guys who can tell what’s what as far as when the old fix it button gets pressed and these days it seems most studios have this technology as standard.

Derek Roddy: This is something else I've wondered about a lot. If the message of the music is to be as "real" and "brutal" as possible, why be fake and lie about your abilities as a band? I understand that we all want our records to sound as good as possible but I would think that you would want it to sound like your band. I've seen plenty of bands play live embarrass themselves because they didn't (in any way) sound like their recording.
I don't want to be know as a fake so I choose to do no editing with my drum tracks.
I leave mistakes and all. As long as it feels good...I can live with a few mess ups on a track.

club.kingsnake: Do you think the equipment such as pedals available now are superior to a few years back? This is in relation to speed....I mean I am asking if you play on certain equipment does it disagree with your style and cause you to not play at your best?
Derek Roddy: I will say that most drummers can't execute these tempos on any other pedal than a AXIS. I can't. And 95 percent of the drummers who play this stuff use them. Of course, there are exceptions but generally speaking most use the Axis pedal. It's the combination of the direct drive (as opposed to a chain) and the weight of the pedal, make it the "champ" for speed. No other pedal has this combo. They've been around for over 15 years so I would say that equipment on the whole doesn't matter too much. Practice does.

club.kingsnake: Do you trick out any part of your kit and have you had others copy you?

Derek Roddy: No not really. Set ups are so variable. I think I was one of the first drummers using really small drums with-in extreme metal. 8, 10, 12 toms are as big as I like to play. Seems to be the standard now, but when I joined Malevolent Creation in '96...Nobody was using drums like me or had a sound like mine.

club.kingsnake: I see a lot of fast drummers now, they’re everywhere. Ask some of these guys to play a slow beat and they just suck at it. Have you noticed this? Do you feel being a good drummer in an extreme metal band mostly means you are very good at playing fast or do you feel some drummers are recognized as masters of their instrument yet really they are only capable of playing a few different beats?

Derek Roddy: This runs rampant throughout the metal scene. I don't know but two or three "metal" drummers who could go do a wedding, restaurant, or bar mitzvah and get hired to do it again. This goes back to drummers not concentrating on feel and more on being fast. When you're 50 and all, your body can't take the strains of playing this way....do you want to be forced to stop making music because you can't really Play the drums? I don't. That's why I always try to play with as many people and as many styles as I can.

club.kingsnake: You have a lot of fans, they want to hear any recording you have ever done. Do you care what they would say if you decided to change your direction and play other styles of music?

Derek Roddy: I'll ALWAYS record and release my own metal music but, I have always played other styles. In fact, metal came much later for me. I grew up on fusion and jazz. A little bit of country in there too. I didn't start getting into metal until I was in high school. I had already been playing in clubs with my brother and cousin ( playing southern rock) for a few years. I started playing live gigs when I was about 12. I'm just a drummer at heart and I love all types of music, If someone has a problem with that, then they have a problem...not me. I've got all types of things I've played on over the years but none of it I would release. Maybe in the future I'll show up on a fusion record of some sort.

club.kingsnake: What can we expect from you in the future and how can people contact you?

Derek Roddy: My website www.derekroddy.com is the best way for anybody interested in my playing to go. Tons of video and updates from me daily. Right now, I'm finishing up a blast beat exercise book that will be released world wide. Also, Just finished a track for the Drum Nation CD from Magna Carta records. It will be out in August. Other than the clinics I will be doing this year, I have a recording coming up with guitarist Ron Jarzombek and bassist Alex Webster called Blotted Science. Hopefully that will be out by the first of the year.

club.kingsnake: I know you are a snake fanatic and you actually breed Pythons. Have you had times where your two jobs/hobbies clashed making you want to chose one or the other?

Derek Roddy: When I lost all of my Blackheaded Python eggs this year... It really made me look at what I was doing. I could no longer see spending thousands of dollars to go on tour when I have thousands of dollars in snake eggs in a incubator. At 34 years old, one can't afford to keep losing thousands every time you want to tour or as I like to say "escape your life."

I don't rely on either one of those things to carry me through life as I have a good job and also give lessons. Both the drums and reptiles are a hobby that just so happens to be profitable. It DID suck losing the BHP eggs this year though. Wasn't going to sell anyway. Haha.

club.kingsnake: Do you intend to bring your snakes more so into the picture as far as who you are and what you are about now or will being involved with music be the most important thing for you?

Derek Roddy: No, I have room for a lot of things and interest in my life. I mean, that's what it is all about right. We're only here for a short time and I feel that I'm going to make the best of it and do ALL the things I want. All it takes is hard work and dedication.

club.kingsnake: What snakes are you currently working with and what do you hope to get into in the next few years?

Derek Roddy: Right now I focusing on the BHPs And I have a pair of Womas just because.

I have a crap load of Carpet Pythons but I'm slowly putting them on the back burner.
I've been breeding carpets for the last 10 years and I love them but BHPs have always been my dream collection. Right now I have a 2.5 group.

Thanks for the interview Derek, see you in Daytona!