“My senior year, we went to a jazz festival down in Portland Mountain hood jazz festival and they named me the best drummer in the festival, and I thought ‘Man I’m really good!’ even though really, I’m not. I guess I was good at that festival! 

“One year I was in the snare line for Northwest Marching Percussion Championships and one of the captions we won was best snare line. That was fun! 

“There was a friend of mine, his name was Dan Hauge who was a really good drummer. He always did a good job, and it was fun to play with him. I guess I would say that I looked up to him. I definitely respected him, and we had a lot of fun playing together, that’s for sure. 

“Right now, specifically drumming, Charles Meyersberg and Grayson Gross are so fun to teach and to watch learn as they become better drummers because Charles reads so well and can take the music score and be Mr. Reliable. I can count on him to play anything. And Grayson has this great natural knack and feel. Both of them are really fun to teach for sure.”