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‘I want to be an icon in gospel drumming

‘I want to be an icon in gospel drumming

By Olaoluwa Omolafe
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In a bid to lay the foundation of a good and high-spirited music for entertainment, an Ibadan-based gospel drummer, Anjorin Damilola, has said that he wants to become an icon in the gospel drumming and entertainment industry at large.

Damilola, popularly known as Damisticks is a young drummer who ventured into drumming in the year 2016, and had a highly challenging start in the Industry shared this with Friday’s Extravaganza in an interview on his drumming career.

According to him, he started drumming alongside his crew members called ‘Yaga nation’, a gospel rap and Hip-Hop crew of 10 members in his first year as an undergraduate in 2016 and has recorded countless stage performances with the vision of becoming one of the best in order to influence and motivate young people  and to change the mindset of people towards drumming and music in general.

His words, ” Music is life. God, being a supreme being enjoys music. There is a whole new world in Gospel hip-hop music especially the drumming aspect. Drummers lay the foundation of a good music and we drive the bus( music).”

Damisticks, being motivated to become an icon in the gospel drumming and entertainment industry also shared that he desires to motivate children with his drumming skills.

Speaking about his parents, he said that his parents are a bit supportive though they didn’t really support him at first.

According to him, his parents believed that music is for unserious, lazy and unintelligent people but they didn’t know that the reverse is the case.

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Facing several challenges, Damisticks in his words said, “most Africans don’t see value in music as a whole. Now imagine how they will view drumming. They believe music is done by people who don’t have something tangible to do with their lives which is a big lie.” He stressed that most people don’t see value in what drummers do, they only see it as waste of time.

Sharing his unforgettable memories, Damisticks said “it started at my early stage of learning how to drum. Then, I went to play the drum in my teacher’s church when they were having a vigil.

The church drummer had played the drum the previous night till the following morning. So, during the last offering session when the vigil was about to end, the drummer told me to come and play the drum which I accepted and started playing normal groove. It was neither too fast nor too slow but because it wasn’t sounding as groovy as that of the previous drummer, the singer started to signal to the church drummer to take back the drumsticks from me. Before you know it, everything there became weird and the choirs also started drawing the song. They were not putting the spirit, so everything looked distorted as if I was the one that caused the whole thing.”

“After the offering, they met with the church drummer and asked why would he give the drumsticks to somebody like me, saying that ‘can this one beat the drum well?’ That day was so painful to me. Even the guitarists and keyboardist didn’t complain.”

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“What they don’t know is that if nobody gave my teacher (Michael) the chance to improve himself, he wouldn’t have gotten to that level today.” He added.

Adding to this, he also shared his positive memories as a drummer. He said, “There was a day I was invited to come and play in church for a four day crusade somewhere in Akure, around Oke-Ogba area.

“When I got there, I played the worship and praise session which lasted for an hour. Then, I and the person that invited me had the chance to talk. He told me that though he has seen drummers that are more crazy but he enjoyed the way I played, so I was really a blessing to him.”

“That was the first time someone would walk up to tell me that kind of a thing and I knew it was serious, not all this flattering we get all the time.”

“Though I have gotten other comments like that before but that day, I felt that as a motivation for me too on what I am doing.” He added.

Damisticks also mentioned his role model in the drumming aspect of entertainment in person of Calvin Rodgers, known to be father of gospel drumming.

Damisticks in his words of encouragement told the upcoming drummers to ‘seek after knowledge, be creative, be yourself and keep pushing’.

“To those who have made it, I will say, keep doing what you know how to do best, keep influencing and keep motivating.

He concluded that “In future, I see myself touring the world with various artiste and as a solo performer, influencing and motivating people with passion for drumming and enlighten those who don’t know the value of drumming.”

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