NYC Street Performer

Shakerleg

About

Paiste Artist Since
June 2008

Main Affiliations
NYC Street Performer
The Kin

Website
www.shakerleg.com

Follow Artist

Shakerleg

Videos & Pics

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Biography

Driving call girls around NYC was never part of his plan but led to becoming a veteran street performer, then joining the band "The Kin" and ended up touring the world, opening 40 arenas for Pink and Coldplay, while creating an entirely new technique of playing drums without sticks, barehanded. When Shakerleg was 20, he became so overwhelmed after seeing a video of Buddy Rich, he made up his mind that he was too late to fulfill his dream of becoming the “Greatest Drummer on Earth.” Buddy had recordings at 3yrs old that made Shakerleg feel his playing was mediocre… midlevel at best and gave up immediately. Buddy had the crown and Shakes was not going to take it away anytime soon... if ever. He moved to NYC to pursue his FIRST dream, before drumming… becoming “The Greatest Actor on Earth”. Seems to be a lofty pattern here. He was instantly turned him off by actors so excessively enthusiastic and crawling off the walls to get a part, that he wanted no part of it. An ad for “Drivers Wanted” for an escort service sent him on a goof to impress his roommates and he called every number shown. Hired... 7pm-7am every single day. 3 yrs later, he found himself in a bizarre job that had him sitting and waiting in a car for hours on end, doing nothing creative besides drumming on the middle of the steering wheel while playing the top part with the backs of his fingers. BOOM. In a snap decision, he quit and vowed to try his hand at drumming in the subways and attempt to pay outrageous NYC rent at all costs… never having to answer to a boss again. His goal now was different… not to become the "Greatest Drummer on Earth"… to become “The Most Unique Drummer on Earth.” Flash forward over a decade and Shakerleg, (name comes from literally wearing a homemade shaker around his left leg, to mimic a closing hit hat) slowly built up an odd drum set consisting of an 18in Djembe, a tambouring snare leaning up against it to make the Djembe sound both like a bass drum and snare depending on hand placement, and an array of cymbals above that he would hit on the UPSWING with the backs of his hands while playing the Djembe below. He wanted to avoid reaching for a stick at all costs and to keep the rhythm flowing. Because his barehands and taped finger would result in a fairly muted cymbal hit, he would go on to add sticks on spring mechanisms attached to cymbals so that he could hit the stick with his hand and the stick would hit the cymbal! (articulating ride cymbal patterns etc) He joined The Kin and the band would go on to sign to Interscope Records and eventually open shows for major bands on world tours. While Shakerleg was creating this odd set, he was using a different mixed set of cymbals but after appearing in a 2005 Modern Drummer article profiling his subway performing and single goal of appearing on the Conan Obrien Show, he reached out to Paiste to endorse. He’ll never forget the reaction of the band when he re-outfitted his set with the new Paiste cymbals… “MY GOD YOU SOUND LIKE AN WHOLE NEW DRUMMER!” was the cry from each member. Shaker has been sold on Paiste ever since.