Sick Drummer Magazine

Wednesday, 03 February 2010 14:12

Keep up with Gabe here:

www.myspace.com/fallenfigure

I started playing drums at the age of three by banging on pots and pans in the kitchen. It wasn't technically playing drums, but I was expressing the rhythms and sounds I heard in my head through whatever way I could at the time, and it bugged the hell out of my Mom. I was a man on a mission, and I soon graduated from pots and pans to my godparents drum set, which was a bit more welcomed then my previous drumming escapades. My love for the drums eventually led me to my first real drum set at the age of eight. It was a piece of shit, black 6 piece that was beat up as hell. I used the hi-hat as a ride and a crash, and I later added a second bass drum that we found in the trash. It was a frankenstein set for sure, and the fact that I could even play that thing amazes me to this day. After I got my drum set, I started playing latin beats and rhythms with my uncle's band where I played till the age of eleven. After I felt that I had mastered that particular style of drumming within the genre, I didn't know where to take my music. I actually ended up giving up on drums altogether until my junior year in high school.

It wasn't until that year in High School that I got introduced to the world of metal. I quickly realized that metal music was where it was at because it was always changing and evolving in ways that I could gather something new and different every time I picked up my sticks. This new found passion for metal is what eventually rekindled my love for drums, and shortly after that I started my first band called Sculptured Wounds. In that band, I learned different techniques and stylistic theories and ideas that I still use to this day, such as a variety of blast beats such as hammer blasts, bomb blasts, gravity blast, and I also became familiar with using fast double bass. Those techniques I picked up over the years helped progress SW from a nu-metal band, into the death metal machine that I had always wanted it to be. Sculptured Wounds was going strong up until 2007 when we went on hiatus after losing our singer. It was difficult time for me, but it ended up proving itself to be worth it in the end. Later that year, I joined an upcoming death metal band called Fallen Figure (www.myspace.com/fallenfigure) where I continue to further my passion for drumming with intense blasting, creative ideas, and catchy, energetic drumming that push Fallen Figure and myself toward new boundaries, and a promising future.

Gabe Lopez Interview:

SDM: How old were you when you started playing?

Gabe: Technically speaking, I started playing drums when I was eight when I received my first drum set. But drumming happened much earlier in my life when I was only three.

SDM: Did you play in a school band or any drum corps?

Gabe: Nah, I didn't ever get into any of that stuff haha

SDM: Who are your top 5 influences?

Gabe: My top 5 influences are Derek Roddy, George Kollias, Gene Hoglan, Richard Christy and last but not least, Nick Barker.

SDM: Assuming that influences doesn't mean favorites, who are your favorites?

Gabe: My favorite drummers are Dave Lombardo, Vinnie Paul, Neil Peart, Marco Minnemann, Chris Adler, Marco Pitruzzella, Daniel Erlandsson, Nils Fjellstrom, Hannes Grossmann, Derek Roddy, and many, many more.

SDM: Let us know 5 CD's that are in your current rotation

Gabe: My band Fallen Figure's new album titled Resurgence, The Faceless-Akaldema, Aeon-Bleeding the false, Necrophagist-Epitaph, and The Black Dahlia Murder-Miasma.

SDM: What do you do to warm up before a show?

Gabe: I always set up my snare and kick with the drum bags still on them so that way I don't get any rebound on em. Then I'll jam on them for like 15 to 20 minutes before we go on, and then I'll do some stretching to loosen up a bit more prior to doing that.

SDM: Can you remember a night you think was your best playing ever? If yes, when and where?

Gabe: Yeah, my best night with Sculptured Wounds was the night that we won the first place $2000 prize at the battle of the bands final at The Chain Reaction in Anaheim, CA. For Fallen Figure it was at The Gathering Of The Sick festival in Albaquerque, NM that we co-headlined. We were also featured in the Albuquerque local newspaper the next day for being the most requested and favorite band of the fest.

SDM: Do you have a favorite brand of drums or cymbals?

Gabe: Yeah definitely. My favorite brand of drums is Pearl, and as for my cymbals, it's all about Sabian maaan haha.

SDM: If you could give one piece of advice to young drummers, it would be...

Gabe: Never give up and keep practicing. Stay opened minded and take criticism as advice, not an insult. With that, it's damn near impossible to hit a wall in your progression, and you'll continue to better your own drumming as well as better yourself as a musician and band member.

SDM: Who gave the best live performance you've ever seen?

Gabe: The best live performance I've ever seen has to be when I saw Iced Earth at The Wiltern. The show was fucking incredible, and they sounded exactly...I mean EXACTLY like the album. Which isn't something that a lot of bands can pull of nowadays.

SDM: If you had to stop drumming, what would you want to do with your life?

Gabe: If I had to stop drumming, it would be because something really bad had happened in my life. And that thing would probably prevent me from doing pretty much anything else. So if I couldn't drum, I pretty much wouldn't do shit I guess lol