Matthew Antolick is probably best known for the variety of styles and musical settings he has performed in over the years. He developed a love for percussion at a young age, studying orchestral percussion and drum set up through his second year in college. In high school, he served as percussionist for the Florida All-State Band 3 years in a row, eventually earning a percussion performance scholarship to study with Robert McCormick at the University of South Florida.In college, he played in various orchestras, serving as the drummer for various plays and operas, including the Tampa Bay Opera's performance of Puccin's Turandot, Steven Sondheim's Assasins , and world-premiered several compositions with the University of South Florida Percussion Ensemble at the Bonk Festival of New Music. He switched majors and went on to earn an M.A. in Philosophy. Ironically, this was a musically fruitful time, due to his exposure to so many different ethnic and electronic musical styles. He began freelancing around the Central Florida Area, working with the likes of The Post Future Quintet, Figure Versus Ground and Lush Progress - all groups he helped to found, or for which he composed. But it was the street-experience of live improvisation with drums and electronics that really began to mold him into an original player.After earning his Philosophy degree, Matthew began working as a full time percussionist with a major stage show at Busch Gardens, Tampa. He then went on to work as a freelance percussionist with a variety of groups including the Groove Chefs at Sea World, Orlando, The Village Beatniks at Disney's Animal Kingdom, EPCOT's Off Kilter, and Mo'Rockin in the Moroccan pavilion at Disney's EPCOT Center - the group with which he now plays full-time, playing drums on an electronic midi-controller called a Zendrum (www.zendrum.com). Matthew has also worked with Persian singer Kouros, Moroccan recording artist Amir Ali, eclectic hip hop artist S.K.I.P., The Future Funk Collective, Alexandrah Sarton of the well-known hip-hop group the Sollilaquists of Sound, the Irish group Tuskar Rock at Downtown Disney's Raglan Road, and is currently drumming for The Bridies, featuring members from the cast of Lord of The Dance, Riverdance, and Celtic Tiger.
Matthew's work with his original music group, The OaKs, earned him mentions in Modern Drummer Magazine and Bass Player Magazine, as well as numerous online music blogs and music publications, including Paste Magazine. He currently resides in Orlando, FL with his drumming son, Elias, where he is busy working with the worship team at Orlando Grace Church, numerous side projects in his home studio in and around Orlando, as well as an upcoming solo album while pursing a second Master's degree in Counseling from the Reformed Theological Seminary in Oviedo, FL.
Asked by Modern Drummer about the strengths of his approach to drumming, Matthew says:
1. Diversity of styles—I spent a whole year just emulating electronic beats from artists like DJ Cam, Squarepusher, and Thievery Corporation. I listen to hip-hop, Arabic classical music, Arabic jazz, fusion, trip-hop, indie rock, percussion ensemble music, bebop, classic rock, Brazilian music from bossa nova to Yoruban ritual music—everything. I believe in building an ever-expanding musical vocabulary through listening to as many different styles of music as possible. In fact, I get my greatest inspiration through listening to non-drum music—like Bartok, for example, or John Coltrane’s saxophone. Dynamics is such an important aspect of the drums, and is often overlooked.
2. Creativity on the instrument—I approach drumming melodically, but with the number-one concern being the pocket, and the space between the notes, so that everything feel good first and is simultaneously interesting to listen to tonally and rhythmically.
3. I try to remain humble. Humbleness fosters openness to new things, which means I’m always growing and expanding. That’s the attitude required to be the kind of player people want to play with and hire back time and again. There’s no separating personality and perspective from performance quality.
4. To me, drums are like paint and a blank canvas: It’s a medium of personal expressions though which I can channel my soul into the world. It’s hard to explain. But drumming is so much more than showing off chops.
email: kungfudrummer [at] gmail [dot] com
You can stream Songs For Waiting by The OaKs (one of my projects) for free by clicking on the album cover below:
Here I am playing Fire by Jimi Hendrix (with my friend Jeremy Siegel from The OaKs playing bass and singing):
Here is some video of me playing ZENDRUM in rehearsal with MoRockin at EPCOT:
Here's a clip from that song from our Feb 1 performance in Tampa:
I currently use Ludwig Drums, Aquarian Heads, Bosphorus Cymbals and Vic Firth Sticks. I exclusively use the Zendrum midi controller. For sound module and recording/production, etc. I use an apple MacBook Pro 2.6GHz with Logic Studio, Ableton Live 6, and Native instruments Battery (ver 3).
You can drop me an email at -- kungfudrummer [at] gmail [dot] com.
Thanks for stopping by!
Matt
