J Swif – Welcome to Drum and Bass HQ, we are excited to be joined by Steven Escalante today. Steven is a professional drummer from Long Beach California now living in Manchester UK.

As I said Steven, I know nothing about drumming so please forgive my ignorance, so how long have you been drumming for?

Steven Escalante – 23 years.

J Swif - I don’t know if this information is correct but have you been drumming since you were 3 years old?

Steven Escalante - Yes, my dad was a drummer and he taught me very early

J Swif - And how would you go about starting off as a drummer? Do you just start with like a single snare drum?

Steven Escalante - Actually I started off on a real set but I was so small that all the drums were just basically on a couch and I would hit all the drums so yes they were all individual drums but they were all set up next to each other instead of being on a full set. Then when I was about 6 I could get behind the drum kit

J Swif - Ok, and did you know straight away that you wanted to be a professional drummer?

Steven Escalante - That came when I was, i’m not sure what they call it in the UK, I was in 6th grade, I was about 11 so in primary school and that when I first started forming my early bands and found that was my path. Of course before then I knew I wanted to be a drummer but it didn’t start sinking in until late elementary school.

J Swif - Ok, so if I wanted to be a drummer, if I was an aspiring drummer how would you recommend that I start out?

Steven Escalante - Patience! I’ve been doing it for years so its hard to tell people like how do you drum, like I don’t know, I’ve got so much muscle memory now my bones and muscles just kinda do it naturally but definitely patience, and if your dead serious be in love with it. I drum on anything and anywhere, I just can’t stop drumming, honestly I’m tapping on my pants as we speak. It’s definitely something you gotta be in love with.

J Swif - Yes because it looks like you need a lot of energy and a lot of practice and you might even need to go and work out in the gym to be a drummer?

Steven Escalante - Oh yes since I came over here I’ve been training Muay Thai and keeping my cardio up and you know, just staying in shape, Drumming definitely keeps you in shape.

J Swif - I’ve been watching your YouTube videos on your YouTube channel and in your drum clip video are those electronic drums?

Steven Escalante - Yes, all those videos were back in the States, and I should make a correction, I was born in Long Beach but I was raised in Tucson Arizona so neighbor to California but I’ve played countless shows in California and have  a lot of love for both of those states. But yes those videos were on electronic drums and live drums.J Swif -So have you got all of your kits over here now?

Steven Escalante - I am brand new over here, I’m getting my kit very soon, in fact I should be getting it next week. I’m brand nw to the Uk I’ve only been here for about a month, I’m just setting everything up for myself over here.

J Swif - How you finding Manchester?

Steven Escalante - I love it! Arizona has zero rain most of the year and I love this weather, I love being cold! I’m in a place where I’ve wanted to come since I was 6 years old, Europe, England, Manchester, I’ve wanted to come to these places since I was very very little

J Swif - You mentioned you were going to Norway as well, has that been a longtime ambition of yours?

Steven Escalante - Norway was actually a surprise when I got to Manchester, I landed and then about a week later a person I drum for, he’s a hip hop artist, he has a show in Norway and asked if I wanted to drum, I said of course! We’re playing a Festival.

J Swif - Hopefully you’ll get some audio or some footage maybe and you can put it up on your channel and we’ll link to it.

Steven Escalante - I’ll record it while I’m drumming!!!

J Swif - You did some launch parties in Arizona didn’t you?

Steven Escalante - Yes a  magazine launch party, The YouTube video, I was in a duo where I drummed with a DJ

J Swif – Golden Ghost? (GLDNGHST)

Steven Escalante - Yes, GLDNGHST, that was my group, I’m no longer in the group, I’m over here and DJ s back in the states. Yes, that was our group, that’s what got me started drumming with DJ’s

J Swif - That party looked crazy!

Steven Escalante - Yeah it was fun, that party was in Scottsdale Arizona.

J Swif - Cool, so what are your significant musical influences, because I know that you do drum and bass but you do Hip Hop, Metal and there is quite a lot of clips with different styles of music on them, so what are you’re influences.

Steven Escalante - It started with Jungle, Drum and Bass, I was about 6 and I was living in Tucson and a cousin showed me Jungle and I was just infatuated with it. Just the complexity and the intensity and it was right then at 6 I heard Jungle, Drum and Bass, House and Death Metal, Metal, all that. It was just overwhelming and I loved it. I’m a huge metal fan and i grew up playing hard heavy rock genres like punk metal, hardcore but at the same time I had this strong love for Jungle and House, specifically funky house and I didn’t know you could drum to it, I was too young, I thought drummers can only drum in rock bands until I was older and I started groups like prodigy and Kosheen and bands that started to use live drummers. I was ok “OK I can play my drums to electronic music”.

J Swif - The weird thing is, you still don’t see that many drummers to Drum and Bass and House, there’s are few but they’re not very common, you’d think there would be more but that good for you I guess!

Steven Escalante - Yes its great, honestly when I started drumming with DJ’s to house music I never really saw that, cos I love house music, I know most of the time its a 4 to the floor beat but I like putting my own spin to it. I mean, growing up I didn’t think I’d be able to drum to house music.

J Swif - That’s what I love about it, when you put your own spin on things. Like I think from the sessions that I have seen I’d say 6 days by DJ Shadow, you drumming over that.

Steven Escalante - Yes,I have that cos that’s one of my favorites, we would put the original mix without the drums and I would play my own breakbeat on top of it.

J Swif -Yes, that sounded really cool, and also I like the “Seed” by the Roots.

Steven Escalante - Oh yeah! that’s one of my absolute favorites, the Roots are incredible. I like the hip hop that samples classic breaks and samples Soul and Funk albums. The Roots really put their own original attitude to it

J Swif -So who are you a big fan of in the Drum and Bass scene?

Steven Escalante - I know there is alot of controversy on both sides but Pendulumand its not just music, its the fact that I heard them right when they came out and it sounded different than all the other Drum and Bass acts that I had heard and then of course I saw them live and I saw what they did with the live instruments and I was like “OK this is intense!”

Matrix and Futurebound are killing it right now

J Swif -Yeah I love them

Steven Escalante -The first track that I heard that really changed me was Roni Size, Brown Paper Bag

J Swif -Wow, that was gonna be my last question,  because I always ask people to name their number 1 Drum and Bass classic. So what was it about Brown Paper Bag?

Steven Escalante -The fact that, In Tucson Arizona its not small but it’s not huge by any means. You really, especially in the late nineties early 2000′s you had to dig to find UK Garage, Drum and Bass, Jungle and I would stay up til like 2 in the morning just to watch 120 minutes and listen to the Roni size video. It was like Roni Size, Atari Teenage Riot it was like back in those days, like Prodigy. But I heard Roni Size I was like “oh my god!” I heard the Amen break, I heard the drums, that was the first track that really stood out to me.

J Swif - Cool, well I’m going to play that one at the end cos I’ve got that somewhere, we always get the guests to choose a drum and bass classic and we play it. So.. what do you do when your not drumming?

Steven Escalante -Right now I’m just having fun in the UK  but I’m a huge fan of the cinema, I love world cinema, foreign films, indy films, I love eating. I’m a huge fan of food and I like trying all the different foods out here, Pakistani, Thai, Indian, I have had alot of that. It’s been a fun little eating tour over here.

J Swif -Like Man vs Food?

Steven Escalante -Yeah!

J Swif -I’ve seen some of your videos and I’ve seen some of the crazy stuff you do. You throw stuff around, You jump on top of the  drums. Have you ever done something on stage and it didn’t go quite according to plan?

Steven Escalante - Basically you name it, it happened. I’ve had people hug me while I was playing the drums. I’ve had leg cramps and spasms, I’ve had to play the rest of the show with like one leg. I’ve stood on my seat… and luckily no one really cared, I stood on my seat and I basically fell but I didn’t fall too hard and everyone laughed it off. Other than that, no, I’ve played while being sick.

 J Swif - Its all part of the show

J Swif - So you said you work with a DJ, is this your main DJ that you’re travelling around with at the moment?

Steven Escalante -Actually no, I put those videos up so that I can show people what I do but I’m starting from scratch over here in England, I’m basically starting from the bottom looking for DJ’s, looking for acts and everything like that. When I lived in the states I would drum for a DJ called DJ HEM in L.A and Hollywood and that’s the one where I’m wearing the luchador  mask

J Swif - Yeah,  I was gonna say , there’s a video with DJ Hem and the drummer’s wearing a mask, so that was you?

Steven Escalante -Yes, that was me, that’s was fun, I go to put on that persona and go crazy and everyone enjoyed it. SO that was mostly L.A, Hollywood and Scottsdale. With GLDNGHST we basically could do whatever we wanted, Dubstep, Hip Hop, couple Drum n Bass here and there but mostly House and Hip Hop. And then in L.A they want everything from Trap, House, Club hits and stuff like that but it was nice to have that contrast, the main two DJ’s were DJ Hem and the DJ from GLDNGHST.

J Swif - Cool, Cool. So I can see there’s going to be no sign of you putting down the sticks and doing anything else. Is there anything you havent done yet that you want to do n the future?

Steven Escalante -I guess be more on the production side. I love performing live that’s where people have fun and I can be creative but over here I would like to be more on the production side, put my own breakbeats on tracks and work with an artist and play some live drums on some tracks.

J Swif - And finally, where can our audience find out more about you or see more of you?

Steven Escalante - YouTube is a good one, you can see what I do there. I’m getting my drums mastered so I can have my drums onSoundcloud definately Instagram, Instagram’s a big one and Twitter

J Swif - Thanks for taking the time to talk to us today, hopefully we”ll speak again soon and I wish you all the best.