Author: Richie DeMaria
Meet the Occidental Drumline-they’re seven strong and one of a kind. Founded in the spring semester of ’09 by percussion instructor Mike Englander and currently consisting of Kay Ambriz (junior), Seth Hansen (junior), Craig Kaplan (junior), Don Rowe (junior), Zach Levenger (first-year) and President Veitch’s son Alex Veitch, the small squad has added a rhythmic flair to sports games, theater performances, talent shows and other events in its short lifespan and has made fans across campus.
The drumline most recently made an appearance at the Oxy Homecoming game, where they punctuated halftime with a 10-minute performance.
Among college drumlines, Oxy’s is unique. Though other schools have drumlines, they number in uniformed groups of tens or hundreds – and probably don’t boast a 12-year-old drummer in their ranks.
The drumline started basically from scratch. The idea for a drumline came to Englander in November of last year when he found himself with a larger-than-usual amount of percussion students. He approached each of them to see if they wanted to form a drumline and, when seven students responded positively, he went out to look for instruments.
“The school had nothing,” he said. “I basically scrounged my garage and hit up some of my friends so we could end up with two snare drums, two bass drums, two pairs of cymbals and two sets of quads. It was just extra stuff out of my garage.”
Within two months, he had a drumline. The group held its first rehearsal on Jan. 19 and clicked from the get-go.”The dynamic was fantastic from the very beginning. There was just such an eclectic mix of people,” Englander said.
The drumline had its inaugural performance at a women’s basketball game and was soon booked for more. The drumline played mostly basketball games – five women’s, three men’s and the Chapman playoffs – but also played at one of the Keck performances of “Hair,” Relay for Life, a pair of quad shows and the founder’s day luncheon. At all shows, the troupe played to relatively intimate audiences, a benefit drummers at larger schools would not get.
“We’re in performance situations where we’re very close to our audience,” Englander said. “We like it this way. We connect with our audience. I don’t know if you could do something like this at a huge school. The dynamic here is unique.”
The small size also allows for a different playing style. “The drumline at Oxy is a little different of a style than I am used to because in high school we marched with our drums on,” Ambriz said. “By not marching, we can focus more on the music itself and really be creative.”
“The team dynamic is very equalized,” Hansen said. “It’s pretty cool, actually. Mike just talks to us, and shows us all of the parts individually, then we run through them until we get tight.”
The group’s creativity comes in its original pieces – Englander wrote or adapted nearly everything they play – and its multi-instrumentalist approach. No player sticks with the same drum for an entire set and each may incorporate a little extra panache.
“We want to keep the rhythm going during every piece, but we also encourage crazy behavior and antics during the performances, such as incorporating spinning and jumping into the pieces,” Kaplan said. Though they’re serious about the music, they know how to have fun.
“It’s not about being perfect. It’s about enjoying the playing and interacting with the audience and sort of sharing this joy of drumming,” Englander said. “It’s about being silly in front of your friends, learning how to be silly and do a performance.”
Still in its infancy, the Oxy Drumline has plenty of room for growth, and shows signs of becoming an Oxy fixture already. “Eight people got together and made something from nothing,” Englander said. “It took energy and commitment from everybody. It’s been very special.”
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