1. Billy CobhamTotal Eclipse

This is my childhood in a nutshell. I grew up in a very instrumental house, full of musicians, and this was religious for us. Billy Cobham, Tony Williams, these were the pillars my dad raised us on. Total Eclipse, though…

My dad had that album on vinyl, but me and my older brother we weren’t allowed to touch the record player unless one of my parents were there. But my dad would go to work, and we would wait until he left and then we would put the record on. We would do all kinds of stupid stuff that kids do when they’re playing vinyl; messing with the record, warping it, trying to scratch if it’s hip hop, but we were really cautious not to literally put scratches in my dad’s vinyl. We would listen to Billy Cobham, and my older brother was a drummer, so he was listening to this with a lot of intent. We were really young, and on that album the level of musicianship is absolutely amazing. It’s one of those things that also inspired me to play my instrument the way I play.