Come Together

You would probably have to have been living on a deserted island for quite a few years now to not know that the world has come together through the internet.  The communication and information revolution that is known as the world wide web has earned its place in history books for the rest of mankind's existence. No question about it.

Throughout my tenure at Meinl, the web has been an indispensable tool for me as the USA/Canadian artist relations manager. Gathering information on potential artists, current artists, competitors, trends, etc. is done in large part through my time on the web. Indirect company feedback is also found on the web. To see the effect that Meinl's company activities can have on young drummers and the purchases that they make is an awesome thing to behold.

That's why I love seeing the two videos that I have attached to this blog.

The first is of a Canadian Cymbal artist by the name of Kevin Figueiredo. Kevin has spent the last few years touring internationally with his brother in a band called 401. He and his brother recently disbanded the group and are putting together a new project.

In the meantime, Kevin has continued the online promotion of his drumming, a promotion that has garnered considerable attention world-wide. Kevin has been taking today's top of the charts pop, rap, and r&b songs and has been throwing down a rock feel behind them, with a lot of groove thrown in. The videos have been getting massive hits and websites such as Perez Hilton's and Ryan Seacrest's have been throwing up links to Kevin's work. Pretty cool.

In Canada, Kevin has earned youtube.com honors for the following - 

#22 Most Subscribed All Time Musician

#23 Most Viewed (for the month of December) Musician

#79 Most Viewed All Time Musician

#100 Most Subscribed All Time Musician 

So the first video is of Kevin doing his thing over Madonna's Celebration. (Check out his awesome set of Byzance cymbals! He plays with great technique and he projects plenty of volume, but without having to slam the cymbals too hard. That's from the technique I mentioned. ***Young drummers take note...to have your cymbals flat like Kevin's and to not have proper technique yet like Kevin has, you may crack too many cymbals!!!***)

The next video is of a young drummer by the name of Shahen who posted a cover of Kevin's cover of the Madonna song on his own youtube.com page. Shahen is 13 years old, lives in New Jersey and clearly has a passion for playing the drums. He is throwing down! It's cool to see Shahen's Meinl Cymbals front and center in the video, just like Kevin has them!

I think these two videos taken together as a whole speak volumes. We're all connected, through word-of-mouth, through the web, through whatever, and it's great to see a connection between Meinl, Meinl Cymbal artist Kevin Figueiredo and Shahen.

 - Chris