Mike Caputo started playing drums at age 13 when living on Long Island in New York. He was very interested in metal from the get-go but never really played anything fast to start with. He started playing in a pop punk band at age 15, which he believes was the start of building up his speed and accuracy. After moving to Texas, Mike started his first metal band, Desecrate The Faith, at age 20. Over the next bunch of years, Mike made a name for himself, being a reliable drummer for many bands such as Rings of Saturn, The Zenith Passage, Internal Bleeding, Traitors, Brand of Sacrifice, Enterprise Earth, and most recently, Job For A Cowboy.
Mike’s Links:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikecaputodrums
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/mikecaputo
Mike Caputo Interview:
SDM: How old were you when you started playing?
Mike: I was given a vintage Ludwig kit as a gift when I was 5 or 6, which I promptly destroyed and didn’t even think about drums for the next bunch of years. I was then gifted a tabletop drum kit (a Yamaha DD-55) when I was 12 and started messing around on it here and there. My parents thought what I was playing sounded decent, so I started taking lessons and taking playing seriously at age 13.
SDM: Did you play in a school band or any drum corps?
Mike: I never did any school band things except for percussion ensemble when I was in college. I would play drums for that occasionally, but most of my time was spent just doing auxiliary percussion.
SDM: Who are your top 5 metal influences?
Mike: It changes all the time as far as current drummers go, but the initial big influences that got me to where I am now were Mike Portnoy, Derek Roddy, George Kollias, Tomas Haake, and Dave Haley.
SDM: Who are some of your other favorites?
Mike: There are so many amazing drummers, to be honest. Bryce Butler, Brandon Zackey, Anthony Barone, Steven Sanchez, Austin Archey, and Spencer Moore have all been absolutely killing it lately. Outside of metal, a couple of my favorites are Benny Greb and Carter McLean. There’s just something about how those guys groove that feels good all the time.
SDM: Let us know 5 bands in your current personal rotation.
Mike: I don’t really listen to music, just sitting around casually anymore, unfortunately, so the main time I listen is when I’m traveling. My go-to’s lately have been Spawn of Possession, Aeon, Job For A Cowboy, Meshuggah, and Defeated Sanity.
SDM: What do you do to warm up before a show?
Mike: Typically, I’ll find a place to sit down and do some singles and doubles with my hands on a pad for 30-45 minutes, nothing crazy. I don’t really warm up my legs and feet much, to be honest, aside from just kinda walking around.
SDM: Do you read music? Regardless of answering yes or no, please tell us how it might have affected your playing.
Mike: I can, yes. Luckily for me, when I first started taking lessons, my teacher wrote everything out on staff paper and taught me the basics of rhythmic notation. When I got to college, I got better at it because we had to read music in the percussion ensemble, and they also made us take classes specifically to get better at sight reading. I haven’t really done it in a while, so nowadays, I can’t really sight-read much, but I can figure it out if you give me time.
SDM: Can you tell us about the gear you use?
Mike: For pedals, I use Czarcie Kopyto, which are built like absolute tanks, and I’ve had zero problems since getting them in 2019. I have Footblaster Kick Triggers mounted on them, which are amazing; I can throw my pedals onto any kick drum and be good to go, which I have had to do a lot since a lot of the time I have to fly to start tours or play festivals so I am not usually playing my own drum kit. For sticks, I use Los Cabos, the Red Hickory Rock model. I also use Vratim drum shoes. For my personal acoustic kit at home, I have a Premier Signia Marquis kit with a Mapex Sledgehammer snare drum. Fun fact: the Premier kit is Dobber Beverly’s old drum kit, which was used on the Insect Warfare album World Extermination, as well as a bunch of other sick TXDM albums. With it, I use a Pearl Icon rack with Tama hardware. As far as cymbals, I have a mixture of Meinl and Sabian.
I also practice on a Roland TD-27KV electric kit. I replaced the kickpad with a Roland KD-120, and I’ve also added some extra Roland and Lemon cymbal pads.
I use 64 Audio in-ear monitors as well, which are absolutely amazing sounding.
SDM: If you could give one piece of advice to younger drummers, it would be…
Mike: Record yourself and watch/listen to it. So many drummers don’t listen to what they’re doing while they’re playing; they play. Developing that ability takes time, and recording yourself helps you develop the ability to hear and analyze yourself, which will improve your playing.
SDM: Who gave the best live performance you’ve ever seen?
Mike: As far as performing the music, probably Meshuggah. I’ve seen them twice so far, and both times were insanely precise. The most overall insane performance I’ve ever seen was The Dillinger Escape Plan. If you’re even remotely familiar with their live performance, I don’t think I need to explain why it was the craziest set I’ve ever seen.
SDM: Aside from drumming, what else do you like to do?
Mike: When not drumming, I like to spend most of my free time going to see other bands or playing video games. Lately, I’ve been playing a lot of Trackmania. I was recently given Baldur’s Gate 3 as a gift, so I assume most of my time will be sunk into that as I’ve heard it’s LONG but one of the best games ever.
Mike’s Gear:
Czarcie Kopyto bass drum pedals
Footblaster Kick Triggers
Los Cabos Red Hickory Rock drumsticks
Vratim drum shoes
Premier Signia Marquis (10, 12, 14, 22)
14×6.5 Mapex Sledgehammer snare
Meinl 18″ Classics Custom Dark China
Meinl 18″ Classics Custom Extreme Metal China
Meinl 22″ Mb20 Heavy Bell Ride
Meinl 10″ Byzance Traditional Mini Hi-hats
Sabian 14″ AAX Stage Custom Hi-hats
Sabian 18″ and 19″ AAX X-Plosion Crashes
Pearl Icon Rack
Tama Tom and Cymbal Arms
Tama Roadpro Snare Stand
Tama Iron Cobra Hi-hat Stand
Roland TD-27KV Electric Drum Kit
Roland KD-120 Kick Pad
Roland and Lemon Cymbal Pads
