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Freddy Charles is old hat. If I could sum up our conversation quickly, I would simply say that Freddy respects traditional values and he finds the world is a place that is quickly removing themselves from this frame of mind. Freddy is a nomad and has been to over 200 countries in his lifetime and has seen a lot of culture. He draws comparisons to the many societies that exist in the world and how ours just isn’t that great in many ways.

Now, this stems also to drumming as well. I throw a Steve Gadd tweet at him and as you will hear, Freddy gets excited about the subject matter and he just goes for it. Freddy discusses the decline of innovation, dynamics and musicality in the majority of modern drumming. The Steve Gadd tweet was certainly suggesting that drumming is devolving and Freddy is convinced that this is true. It is difficult to pinpoint one reason why this is the case, but Freddy and I generally believe that the gold standard is whack.

I have to mention that I feel that Instagram sometimes feels like a diluted format for drumming. I see a lot of the same content. I see a lot of the same drumming and the overall engagement is lousy. You also can’t make a living in the drumming community with Instagram either and it more or less is a place for people to feel validation in their skills.  That is definitely a lot of major points against it but there are things that happen that can’t happen without it. I feel if people are truly engaged in their community on IG, you can make some real friends and you develop your own fold of “true followers”, and that is pretty dope. It is because of Instagram that I am able to do this show and I have met some great friends along the way. I guess you can say that both Freddy and I have a love/hate relationship with Instagram.

In many ways conversation is just what is on our minds and what we wish things would be and what it could be if more people became truly involved. It’s also an example of unapologetic truth.

Opening music by Mayo Coates

Freddy Charles
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DrumGAB
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