Matt Helders – He is the drummer for Arctic Monkeys and is my biggest inspiration for my drumming style. As I have listened to the band for many years, it has changed the way I play the drums. Matt Helders’ two biggest inspirations were Queens of the Stone Age and drumming in rap music. You can see this in his work as it is very groovy, as well as the fills he does and the sound he creates. This is shown in “Balaclava” and “Pretty Visitors.” This helped me as the way he integrates fills into beats is something that I want to do, as well as just being groovy. When writing these songs, I will use the way he places fills into my track as they never sound forced or messy, or sounds like he is playing too many.
Alan (Reni) Wren – Reni is the drummer for The Stone Roses, and is seen as one of the best drummers of his generation. What I find interesting about his drumming is how it is quite subtle. He takes influences from Keith Moon, blues and jazz. But it ultimately his style was rock. A lot of what is good about his drumming is the subtleness, as he will play beats that have subtle changes throughout the song. This is shown in “Fools Gold” and “I Wanna Be Adored.” This is something that I would like to use in my own drumming, as it isn’t in your face, however it is subtle and sounds brilliant. Another thing that is interesting is that he only used a 3 piece kit, which only had a hi hat, snare drum, bass drum and one tom. Even though this could limit a lot of drummers, Reni excelled with it as he used what he had excellently. This is something I could learn as I should utilise the drums that I have.
Keith Moon – Keith Moon was the drummer for The Who and is known as one of the best rock drummers of all time. He is known for his use of drum fills and the crash cymbal. He was one of the first drummers to use the crash cymbal loads, as it influenced drumming as the crash cymbal is a lot more used because of Keith Moon. Another thing is his use of drum fills, as he used fills in any place he could. However they somehow all worked, and made the songs even better as the drums were always doing something new and interesting. This is something that I definitely want to use in my drumming, as the drum fills he plays make the songs very interesting, and it is something I want to use.