claudio rivera - drummer

claudio rivera - drummer


i kind of cheated my way into drumming. let me explain. way back in the day, when i was maybe 5 or 6 years old, i lived with my grandma in chile. she sent me to piano lessons a few times, and that was fun and all, but the one thing that always sticks in my mind is when i saw my first drum set in real life.

i asked the instructor to show me how to play a beat, and he did. he taught me that you cross your right hand over your left and there ya go, you’re a drummer!

fast forward to 6th grade, where i was asked what instruments i knew how to play by my school’s band director. previous to this, i had played brass instruments, and not very well. so, i decided to tell a little white lie and say that i knew how to play drums and that i had even taken lessons in chile.

from that moment on, i taught myself everything i know about drums. with the help of instructional videos and a practice pad and lots of down time at my job at guitar center, i worked my chops up to where i’m at today.

in the last 12 years, i was mainly the drummer for two bands from minneapolis: flipsyde (1996-2002) and somerset (2002-2008). 

in addition to drumming, i’ve also done sessions and teching for: motion city soundtrack, sing it loud, jimmy robbins, mathletes, you me and everyone we know, my lady four, and others.