You either know Boy Genius’ drummer Madden Klass, or you don’t know her yet.
Equally at home playing fusion tracks, creating her own “live” arrangements for hip hop songs, or holding it down behind roots rock groups, Madden has a depth to her playing that belies her 25 years.
She was quick to realize the upsides of digging in when her teacher Peter Greco introduced her to reading and rudiments, and, unlike 9/10 of people in that situation, she gave it 110%.
That attitude carried her through high school, when she redoubled her efforts to expand her repertoire by learning to play big band jazz, and college at Berklee, where at first she dabbled in the “sheds” scene and learned the “live arrangement” style of drumming ubiquitous behind R&B stars and shows like American Idol and Rhythm and Flow. (To this moment I’m still not sure when she worked djent in, but she apparently did.) Finally, the lack of a “quit gene” saw Madden double-down on home recording when the pandemic forced Berklee to send its students home in 2020.
So while it may be surprising to see somebody who plays with a maturity and taste of someone twice-her-age and the technical proficiency of someone exactly-her-age backing Boy Genius at Madison Square Garden and on SNL, it’s not once you understand her back story a bit.
I hope you’ll be as charmed and inspired by Madden as I was.