I started playing drums at age 6. When I was in kindergarten, we made a book about what we wanted to be when we grew up and I drew myself as a drummer in a rock band.
Well, I got to pursue my childhood dreams! As a teenager, I was in a number of successful rock bands in San Francisco, most significantly, Two Seconds and Elephone. Those bands both took off when I was still in high school, and I played at festivals and venues with The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Echo and the Bunnymen, AFI, The Dandy Warhols, and more.
And yes, I still play drums to this day. It’s like riding a bike!
Here are a few songs from the bands I played drums in as a teenager:
Two Seconds – Steadfast Kickdrum
Two Seconds – Lemonade
Elephone – 70 Takes
Elephone – El Jefe
Elephone – Day for Night
“Salsacore,” – Eliot Eidelman, Gabe Johnston, Zach Mallon and Lily Ray (all age 14)
Here was a popular track by my band Elephone, and I’m the drummer in the recording, although I am not pictured in the video (I had just moved to New York for college when they filmed it):
I played drums on this album with Elephone when I was 18:
I was 16 in the below videos:
This was my first ever band, Selective Amnesia. I was 13 here!