Drummer Erik beats a new rhythm (From South Wales Argus)

Drummer Erik beats a new rhythm

2:56pm Wednesday 25th April 2007 in News By Jane Helmich

DRUMMER Erik Stams was born in New York and went to the city's renowned Fame school - but he is now experiencing a different rhythm of life in Newport.

Erik's musical career spans nearly 20 years of performing and recording in the US and the UK.

He also teaches privately and at the famous Drumtech performance school in London and was recently on television instructing singer Aled Jones for the Play It Again programme.

Forty-year-old Erik left the Big Apple for love and now lives here with his wife Rhian and their two young daughters.

He was born in the Bronx and took up the drums as part of a school music programme at the age of 10. "It was either the drums or the flute and I'm really glad it was the drums - although a flute would have been easier to transport."

At 13 he was accepted at Fiorella Laguardia High School for the Performing Arts, the Fame school in Manhattan, and spent the next four years there. "It was fantastic," remembered Erik.

He first started performing in bands when he was in his late teens but, after leaving school, got a job in the construction industry. "My father wasn't going to have me hanging around the house."

Erik did not enjoy it, especially roofing in the baking hot New York summer, and went back to his studies at the reputed Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.

However, he only stayed there for a year. "I was just bursting to get out and start playing. I played in and around New York, touring, recording and playing with a bunch of people who became successful."

As well as that, he also appeared in the Francis Ford Coppola strand of the film New York Stories and worked on soundtracks while managing bars in the busy city.

He met Rhian when she went to work in New York and, after she returned to Britain, had a transatlantic relationship for more than two years before he moved to London where he found the pace of life very different.

The couple, whose American relatives were very impressed when they married in Caldicot Castle in 1997, later moved to Newport.

Erik's current projects include playing with Drill Queen, who he described as "70s glam punk", and War Machines of Love with former New Model Army guitarist Adrian Portas.

Erik believes strongly in the value of a good musical education and the pursuit of music as a hobby for adults and children.

He wants to set up teaching facilities in the area and is offering a free one-hour drum lesson to anyone who can find him a usable teaching space in or near Caerleon/ Newport.

"It needs to be a place where I can make noise, that is accessible and a parent would bring their kids to."

Anyone interested in having lessons with Erik should visit his website, www.erikstams.co.uk.

His drumming heroes include Stewart Copeland, of The Police, John Bonham, of Led Zeppelin, Art Blakely, of the Jazz Messengers, and Buddie Rich.