Dustin C. Se.

     I come from a musical household. My father has been playing classical guitar since he was 5. It was very important to him that my brother and I took an interest in music. All throughout my childhood I had my dad pushing me (in a positive way) to play and listen to music. When I was 5 or 6 my dads friend Steve gave me his tiny 4 pc blue sparkle Ludwig drum set. It was a runned down, dusty old thing with minimal hardware, no crash, no ride, only hi hats. I played and played and played...

     In '88, METALLICA released ...And Justice for All. This changed my outlook on drumming and music in general. As a third grader, I was blown away by the fast double bass and couldn't believe that kind of stuff was even possible. Looking back, this album pretty much changed my life. I still find myself influenced by those shredding guitar riffs and crushing drum beats.   

     In 7th grade I played in my schools jazz band. It was at this time I learned how important structure was in music. Before then I didn't know how to keep time. I would just sort of play whatever I felt. This didn't work so well with 10 other kids all playing the same thing at the same time. My music teacher Mr. Hawk was very good about teaching us the music on the paper but then letting experiment with our own styles as long as we were staying on time and not taking away from the rest of the band. These proved to be very important years in shaping the kind of musician I was to become. Thank you, Mr Hawk.

     When I was 14, I joined a crust punk band with some friends from school. We had mohawks and spikes and painted skulls on our leather jackets and put safety pins in our ears and noses. By this time, my father had helped me build my little blue sparkle Ludwig into a some what "professional" drum set. I was getting faster at playing double bass on my double kick pedal and had started to dabble with blast beats. I had crashes, a ride, a china, even some splashes. It was time to start playing live!