#161 Demian Arriaga- Percussionist, Educator, Podcaster and More!
Photo taken by Cynthia Parkhurst of Teammate Company.
This week’s guest is Drummer and Percussionist Demian Arriaga, who was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. At the age of 19 he moved to Boston where he attended Berklee College Of Music and graduated in 2004. He had the privilege of taking percussion lessons from Eguie Castrillo, Ernesto Diaz and Mike Rinquist. His drumset studies were under Dave Dicenso (Hiromi, Josh Groban) and Mike Mangini (Dream Theater, Extreme).
In 2007 he made the most important decision of his career which was to move to Los Angeles. Since his arrival to said city he has kept more active than ever not only performing, touring and recording but also teaching. He has also made numerous TV appearances at shows such as: The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Conan, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Good Morning America, Late Night with Seth Meyers among others.
R.I.P Bob Gullotti
Gullotti was a professor of percussion at Berklee School of Music from where he graduated in 1972. Gullotti was a co-founding member of The Fringe and also performed with Hal Crook, Michael Ray & the Cosmic Krewe, Rick Stepton and several others. Gullotti was part of Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio‘s Surrender To Air project in 1996 that also featured with Sun Ra Arkestra director Marshall Allen along with John Medeski, Marc Ribot, Oteil Burbridge and Phish’s Jon Fishman.
Gig Alerts
Damon is playing at Cisco Brewery in Portsmouth, NH with Billy Ruegger on Friday the 31st from 4-7pm and Saturday the 1st from 3-6pm.
He is playing the Brooklyn Bowl on Valentine’s Day with the Atomic Funk Project for the “Divas of Soul” show.
He is a special guest playing with Morgan James at the FTC Stage One theater in Fairfield, CT on Friday the 28th of February.
Marcos is playing with La India on Feb 7th at Empire Lounge in Elizabeth, NJ.
He is playing at Murphy’s Law in Bridgeport, CT with Karibe Mambo on the 14th of Feb.
He is playing at Casona in Hartford, CT with Manolo Mairena on Feb 21st.
And, back at Rockwood Music Hall with Jeremy Bosch on Feb 28th.
The Thrill is Gone tribute to B.B. King concert will be held on Feb 16th and 17th at the Capitol Theater. There are tons of performers backed by a house band of Steve Jordan, Pino Palladino, Issiah Sharkey and more!
The Love Rocks concert looks like it is sold out, but maybe you can find some tickets on stubhub or something like that.
Educational Spotlight
The Autobiography of Martin Cohen is out now! Get your copy here.
The DIY Music Conference 2020 will be held in Austin Texas from August 28th-30th. There early bird tickets for $129. You can find the links to four friends of the show who have spoken at this conference below.
#150 Ari Herstand- Singer/Songwriter, Author, Music Business Expert & More!
#95 Chris Robley- Singer/Songwriter, Blogger, Podcaster & Music Industry Professional!
#52 Suz Paulinski & Cheryl B. Engelhardt- CEOs of Rockstar Advocate, CBE Music & In The Key of Success
If you want to go to Cuba, Kosa has two upcoming trips: First one is March 22nd-29th heading to Havana for “Fiesta del Tambor”. The second trip is April 29th - May 6th going to Matanzas for the Matanzas Jazz Festival.
If you have a home studio and need to take it to the next level you need to take a listen to The Six Figure Home Studio Podcast.
Music News
For a list of the 62nd Grammy Award Winners click here.
Fired Grammy Awards CEO Fires Back With Sexual Harassment, Discrimination Claim Against Recording Academy - Paul Resnikoff - Article
Following Outrage, Discovery Networks Backs Down on Composer Ultimatum - Jon Burlingame - Article
The song leading into the interview is called Chasing Shibuya by Demian.
Demian Arriaga Interview
Demian is originally from Venezuela. He considered himself a rogue musician as he was into Mr. Big, Megadeath, Dreamtheater, Extreme, and not so much into traditional Venezuelan music. Damien mentions how social media and the Venezuelan exodus and how Venezuelan refugees are all over the world has affected Afro-Venezuelan drumming since there’s a sense of duty to connect back to their roots.
This is the video on Job Bon Jovi that Damon mentions.
The instrument that Demian mentions is the Quitiplas. Demian recommends to talk to Daniel Prim and drummer/percussionist based in NYC about finding the instrument and about Afro-Venezuelan Music.
Demian mentions how his parents encouraged him to listen to all different genres of music from Iron Maiden to Ruben Blades. He was also influenced by MTV and VH1. Demian became enamored by anything metal or rock that he would hear on MTV and Headbanger’s Ball.
Demian listened to Guitar centric music for a while by artists like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Greg Howe, Richie Kotzen, and Nuno Bettencourt. Demian mentions wanting to study at Berklee College of Music with Mike Mangini after seeing the G3 live recording of “For the Love of God” by Steve Vai.
After starting at Berklee in 2000 Damien was intimidated by the talent of the drummers. He was afraid of the competition and didn’t know how handle that he switched his major to Percussion. Demian mentions that it was one of the best decision he’s ever made. Marcos also has a similar story of how he major in percussion when he arrived at Berklee.
“The idea of embracing difficulty and adversity and that sometimes quitting certain things and not battling uphill necessarily is the right decision. Sometimes quitting could be the best thing that happens to you. Sometimes being afraid and embracing that fear could be the most consequential part of a decision.”
During his time at Berklee, Demian mentions that studying percussion taught him to be a better listener. He would listen to Guaco records and listen to every single part as if it were stems of a session. He was able to listen to instrumental cues to make transitions rather than playing the bars. Demian talks about his process of how he slowly learned how to play Guaco’s music and how it helped him at his audition at Berklee.
Demian took some labs with Dave DiCenso and Mike Mangini at Berklee. Ernesto Diaz, Henrique De Almeida, Eguie Castrillo, Jamey Haddad.
Demian talks about how he began applying his percussion studies back to the drumset and his duo project with Japanese pianists “___“. He talks about how his failure of getting into the Mango Blue’s Salsa Band that was then followed up by a chance to play with his favorite singer of all time Gary Cherone from Extreme.
Damien shares his views on active and passive listening. He enjoys to listen and value music for what it is and this was influenced by punk bands like H20, Gorilla Biscuit, and Youth of Today. When he needs to actively listen to artists like Pat Metheny or Björk he can turn it on like a switch.
When Damien moved to LA in 2005, he was hired by Carl Restivo who had just opened the first School of Rock. Damien met Richie Kotzen at a Van Halen tribute at the school and he complimented him on how the drummers of the school were sounding. Richie then asked Demian if he was interested in a one off gig! Demian also brought the good vibes by being able to introduce Richie to David Filice.
Damien drops some immense knowledge on following your dreams. Damien talks about “how important geographical proximity to our goals and dreams is.” He also mentions how you need to know what your dream and goals are. Damien encourages our listeners to hone to follow whatever is it that excites them and forget about what “should” .
Demian started a Podcasts to help bring awareness to information that he learned as a musician to help others. “I aim to motivate, inspire, challenge, and empower children and people of all ages that want to make music their life or art.”
Demian encourages our listeners to teach students and how rewarding it is of an experience it is. Compares it to being better than playing at Madison Square Garden.
Demian currently plays percussion with the Jonas brothers. He also played drums and percussion for Nick Jonas and Joe Jonas as solo artists before their reunion. His rig consists of LP Patato Congas on his left, a pair of Karl Perrazo Timbales with mounted tambourines, on his right side he has Fiberglass Bongos and features the LP raw series to emulate the “electronic” sounds. He has the 14”and 16” Street cans, two trash snares, a micro snare, and a bunch shakers and tambourines. Demian mentions having weak shoulders so he uses the cyclops single row tambourines.
He digs the oversized Egg Shaker by LP. Demian uses Zildjian cymbals, Cluster Crashes, A Customs, and K Custom Dark Crash. For Swells he uses a 21” Constantinople, and a Spiral Crash. Demian has been using Remo heads for drums and percussion for this tour. He uses Eucatape for his fingers and Cympads for his cymbals, and Gibraltar Hardware. Damien plays bass for a part of the tour and he uses a Kala U-Bass. He uses Ultimate Ears for monitors and Nirvana Handpans.
Demian tells us how he has been inspired greatly by the Handpan and it has been one of the instrument that has helped him write and compose his own music. Demian once again encourages our listener to be fearless and compose and enjoy music from all different genres and to draw inspiration from wherever it comes. One of his compositions Hippocampus was inspired by the testimony from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s on Brett Kavanaugh.
“The most beautiful thing in life is not to make your dreams come true but to make our lives a true living dream.” - Demian’s Mother
You can follow Demian on Website, Sticher, Instagram, Spotify, Twitter.
The song leading out of the interview is called Hippocampus as described in the interview by Demian.
