How is Anika Nilles so good? What’s her secret? What can we learn from her “success” that can help us in our drumming.
It turns out: quite a bit.
By her own description, Anika differs from many other guests of the podcast in that she wasn’t “a prodigy” Sure - when she was young, she found drums fun and easy. But it wasn’t until college, in her mid-20s, that Anika feels she really “put it together”. (I have a sneaking suspicion that if I “crossed checked” this claim with some archival video she’d have sounded better than the lets on.)
Making jumps as a young adult has many advantages, among them that you can remember what you did, because your brain was already mostly-fully-developed. As such I was fascinated for Anika to expand on her college years.
Was there something that “clicked”?
What and how was she practicing before she “saw the path laid out before her”? How did her practice change afterward?
What followed was a decently-deep dig into psychology, motivation, practice methods, improvisation, and even stage-fright that I hope you’ll find as fascinating as I did.
Finally, Anika dishes about bandleading, and what she’s learned from Jeff Beck’s drum chair.
I believe you’ll enjoy this one.