Russell Holzman is the human Amen Break
Is he the funky drummer reborn?
4,3 / 5,0 | 
Russell Holzman aka Star Power Drummer is currently tearing up the internet with his Jungle and Liquid Drum & Bass live drumming videos, but how is he doing it?
You may know Russell as the drummer from Caroline Polachek‘s band, or perhaps you’re already a fan of his @starpowerdrummer viral drumming videos on Instagram and TikTok.
Either way, he’s certainly created some noise around his approach to drumming, and Andrew Huang’s YouTube interview with Russell gave us some great insight into his creative process.
Russell Holzman is a DnB Machine
So how is he doing it? Well, as much as I’d love it to be a simple trick, it’s not. Instead, like many aspects of music, it involves hours of hard work and research. For starters, Russell is a Jazz trained drummer who honed his skills by learning improvisational techniques and studying complex drum solos.
He is also adept at creating drum notation by ear. By using the Symphony Pro iPad app and reducing the playback speed of songs on YouTube, he has developed an easy system for memorizing the Drum & Bass tracks he plays in his videos.
The process is similar to drum programming, but using a stylus pen, he quickly jots down the loops and any fills and variations. After that, he will begin playing the song section by section – slowly at first – and then speeding up gradually as he burns the pattern into his memory.
Building Drum & Bass Drum Kits
That’s all well and good, you might say, but how does it sound exactly like a Drum & Bass track? This takes time, research, and experimentation, as for each of the tracks Russell performs in his videos he creates a different drum kit configuration.
In some cases, he may have three different-sized snare drums and only a single ride cymbal. Other times, he could position an array of 4 or 5 cymbals around him to perform a particular arrangement.
It’s important to note, too that constantly rearranging your kit is likely to make you a more versatile drummer. This is because instead of developing comfort zones, Russell creates a unique setup per track which forces him to improve. Also, a background in Jazz improv surely comes in handy.
In addition to all this, he pays very close attention to the individual pitches of each drum or cymbal he uses, particularly the snare drums. Many styles of Drum & Bass including Jungle and Liquid DnB make use of pitched-up snare hit samples that Russel then recreates with real snares.
Luckily, Russell is also a producer and he creates his own sample packs from his unique kits. By combining his knowledge of piccolo and timbale-style snares with his production experience, he is able to closely reproduce the overall feel of the tracks in his videos.
What’s the secret to his technique? Start slowly, with a track that uses a relatively simple drum loop and build from there. As Russell himself says in the video, “You don’t have to play the hardest thing to be fast.”
More about Russell Holzman:
- Russell Holzman’s Linktree
- Star Power Drums
- All about Drums
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