SPIKE the Percussionist – violence
SPIKE the Percussionist is a classically trained performer and composer who studied under percussion guru and Yamaha performing artist Dr. Norman Weinberg, author of Guide to Standardized Drumset Notation and The Electronic Drummer. A master of drumming and acoustic percussion, SPIKE is also an expert programmer and electronic music expert with a degree in audio engineering.
While most drummers with SPIKE’s talent and training would have headed for a career in classical symphony or jazz composition, SPIKE took an entirely different route. Inspired by Dr. Weinberg’s advocacy of technological advances in percussion and his own inventiveness (SPIKE’s award-winning sophomore recital was the first entirely electronic composition ever performed by a percussion student in competition), SPIKE focused his formidable abilities on ambient noiz and electro-industrial, two burgeoning, but at that time obscure, genres of music.
“When I started back in the 80s, nobody was doing what I was doing. I am the only drummer I know of who actually embraced the coming of the drum machine—and the only one who could actually play along with it.”
While SPIKE’s numerous bands achieved some local notoriety throughout the years, primarily in Houston, Texas, his attempts to break into the national scene always fell short. To SPIKE, the frustration was almost unbearable but he refused to give up.
“Music isn’t a hobby for me; it is my life. I just wasn’t able to find anyone on the local scene with that kind of commitment. And then I met Jo Bird and Geoffrey Mueller!”
Now after years of paying his dues, SPIKE is wrapped up in the spell of Fiddle Witch and the Demons of Doom.
“It has been an incredible ride so far and we are really just getting started. I think both Jo and Geoffrey would agree. We are all finding fulfillment in the implicit challenge of writing and performing complex material that pushes our boundaries as musicians. But most importantly we are loving what we are doing on stage, in the studio…even rehearsals. We are having fun. And that is what comes through to the fans.”