Andy Prado is a drummer’s drummer.
Talk to practically anyone you’ve heard of about who their favorite drummers are, and Andy is likely to be in that sentence.
He’s one of a small list of drummers you could call “elite choppers” - a list that includes people like Ron Bruner, Mike Mitchell, and not too many others.
As such he’s in both an enviable, and an unenviable position. And you better believe we dig into the multi-edged sword of “chops”. (It’s way harder than you think to get them, you don’t have anything to “hide behind” like groove drummers, and when you reach the top of your profession everybody either wants to be you, hates you, or both.)
Andy touches a bit on the unhuman work ethic necessary to reach the level he’s reached. We also get into:
Huey Lewis and The News - based or cringe
Andy’s weekly routine and current projects
The importance of being authentic
Whether drummers’ outward personalities match their music
How Andy is also an elite groove player
and much more
I know you’ll enjoy this light-hearted convo with one of the LA OGs, the GOAT, as Forrest Rice calls him.
And if you haven’t caught my weekly video about a lick I adapted from another GOAT, Joel Turcotte, to escape from the bottom side of the kit, you can watch that below.
And here’s the free download to accompany that video.
Enjoy!