Located in Nashville, Tennessee, I write, produce, edit and record rock, hip hop and electronic songs. I’ve played drums for 16 years in many different styles including jazz, rock, and electronic/techno. After touring with a rock band and an electronic band while in college, I graduated in the Spring of 2011 from Belmont University with a degree in Music Business. As I build my own catalog of beats, I am also playing gigs, producing bands, and writing and recording songs. I am known as an artist, FonneP, and under this name I write and record my own material. I engineer recording sessions for artists with producer Lincoln Parish of Cage the Elephant. My true passion and talents are in playing the drums and writing my own music, and my goal and intention is to scale new heights as a drummer while becoming an innovative, leading producer and engineer.

MY STORY: Drum/Studio 

The drum teachers I have been blessed with are a huge reason why I am the musician I am today. They have all brought different styles of their own to unique teaching methods, but they have all taught a singular crucial lesson: play what the music calls for. This helped me to approach music as a musician, not just a drummer. When I was eight years old a family friend and drummer, Jack Schneider, set up my first “real” drum kit and gave me my first drum lesson which eventually led to playing drums in a band with friends in elementary school. During my middle school years, I played drums in a band, Elixir, and began drum lessons from Rich Adams that would last a year. In high school, I played drums in a rock band called Sham Battle and recorded an album. During this time, I also took drum lessons from Derico Watson, a phenomenal drummer who plays with Victor Wooten. His method of style has been the greatest influence on me. He taught me vital skills in an important time, when I was eager to learn more, in my high school years.

During my first year of college, I began playing a jazz gig every week over the course of two years with the Mick Utley Trio. This helped me round out my playing by allowing me to use different facilities of the drums. A jazz drummer plays much more differently than a rock drummer. Also, in my early days at Belmont University, I studied with Chester Thompson, who is nothing short of a legend. He has played with Weather Report, Frank Zappa, Genesis and Phil Collins, to name only a few. He taught me an immense amount of extremely useful exercises and methods of thought that made a huge impact on me.

I got the opportunity to utilize all of my training and took a semester off to go on tour with STS9 playing drums for Sub-Id. Touring the northwestern US during brutal winter weather gave me an extremely valuable experience. I endured the true work ethic of a musician on the road.  It is experiences like these that take musicians from semi-pro to pro.

Once back at Belmont, I studied under Brian Fullen, Todd Kemp, Todd London, Chris Norton and Tommy Giampietro. All of these drummers brought different and unique flavors of drumming to my attention. For example, with some of the teachers listed I would learn a piece on marimba or timpani, play a classical snare drum part or a classical bass drum part. Drum set playing was of course required as well, so they did a great job of giving me a versatile skill bank to pull from.

During my last semesters, I recorded an album with a band called Red Chakra (produced by Lincoln Parish and mastered by Joe Palmaccio ) while taking several audio classes at Belmont. I became well versed in a studio environment and proficient with recording software, primarily LogicPro 9. Some of my other experiences include editing Toontrack’s EZ Drummer samples and building drum catalogs for the EXS sampler.