Drumline can be a grueling activity. The drummers have to go to all the Football and Basketball games, plus some of their own events. Here is a Q & A with one of the drummers, Gavin.

How were you introduced to music?

Honestly, Rock Band. I was in 3rd grade and my parents noticed I liked drumming so they were like, “Oh we’re just going to give him a drum set and see what happens”. I hadn’t ever had a lesson but from there I kinda just taught myself. Even now I’ve never had outside lessons, just Mr. Morris and band teachers teaching me.

Do you plan to pursue a musical career in the future?

I really want to it just depends on what I can do in college. I’d either want to play in symphonic percussion or maybe start my own band or be in a band.

Who are some of your musical influences?

I really like Mac Demarco and other types of indie bands like that but I’m also very into rap. I listen to pretty much every kind of music, except country, I don’t get into it that much.

How has drumline changed for you from Freshman to Senior year?

I feel like it has gotten a lot looser. When I was a Freshman there was more of a respect system, those who were older played the better instruments but now anybody plays whatever they want really. When we were Freshman we didn’t have that many things to play, but since we were Juniors and Seniors we wrote a whole bunch of music to play.

You wrote those songs yourselves?

We write all the drumline cadences ourselves. Justin, Luke, Grant, and I wrote Pepper in one afternoon. We’ve wrote pretty much all of them or just changed up some of the old ones.

Does drumline have any traditions or ways to pump yourselves up before performances?

We just have band camp, thats a main thing. I guess a tradition would be at the beginning of the year when we set down certain times to all teach the Freshmen and in that time we also write new material.

What is your favorite piece to play?

My favorite drumline piece is Pepper, you can really have some fun with it. I’m glad that everyone enjoys that one so much.

What’s been your favorite memory so far?

My favorite one was probably winning first place in BDX two years ago. That was pretty fun because at that point we’d never won first place at a competition like that. Knowing that we were the best drumline in Washington was pretty cool. Last year we got second but there was basically a percussion ensemble that beat us, not really a drumline.

Tell me about the friendships you’ve made through drumline.

We have drumline and we also have a class together so it really helps having all those classes and time spent together, we really do become a big family. Before Freshman year I wasn’t that good of friends with Justin and Grant, but now they’re my legitimate friends and everyone else in drumline too.

What kind of impact do you think drumline has on our school?

I love being able to do this kinda stuff. It’s crazy you don’t hear about other schools getting super hyped over their drumline, its really cool that at our school its cool to be in drumline You don’t get that anywhere else. You can do whatever you want at this school, there isn’t really a popular or not popular thing to do. Sports people can be popular but also drama people can be really popular too.