We recently connected with Emily Gould and have shared our conversation below.
Emily, appreciate you joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
My passion for drumming started way back when I was 9 years old. Around that age, I, like most kids, bounced around from interest to interest, and my parents supported me through many. When I told my parents completely out of the blue that I wanted to learn to drum, the first thing my dad said was, “Ok, let’s get you lessons!” Little Emily was thrilled and grateful to get to pursue this whim, but it took me until I was an adult teaching other young people how to drum that I realized just how unique and incredible my folks were for backing me. And let’s be clear, not just supporting me with an art, an instrument, just a little hobby… no, no, I picked the loudest, largest, most difficult thing to disrupt the whole household and they encouraged me anyway. As a teacher, I encounter folks who don’t see the value in drumming or don’t want a set in their home. My parents were not those people, they supported me completely and, even to this day, they come to shows, travel with me to events, and my dad has appointed himself my imaginary career manager.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a full-time drummer working primarily through teaching private drum lessons, recording drums, and performing at concerts and events. This super cool career came about way back in ’99 when I was listening to Travis Barker in Blink 182 and something just clicked, leading to drumming becoming the focus of my entire life. This is saying something as I am an ADHD person with ever-revolving interests, but drumming has remained something I truly enjoy and especially like to share with others. As a woman in a predominantly male-dominated field, I proudly represent a different demographic and appreciate the position I’m in to encourage other women or minority groups to pursue the joy that is creating music. I am currently involved with about six bands in and around the Colorado state area, playing a variety of gigs and recording regularly, as well as teaching drum lessons 6 days a week to people of all ages, backgrounds and ability levels.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I imagine a lot of folks bring this up, but the pandemic and lockdown are what forced me to pivot in ways I hadn’t fathomed before. Once everything was shut down and I could no longer play shows or teach, I realized how completely my identity was tied to being a drummer. I was not an individual outside of my career. It was WILD to experience. I had to figure out other means of finding happiness and what makes me who I am if I’m not hitting things with sticks. Over time, I was able to establish online lessons and worked hard on building my recording studio so I could independently track for folks anywhere in the world. These changes allowed me to work at least somewhat close to what I did before, however, once live shows came back and I could resume creating and collaborating in-person, it was a massive relief. Since then, I’ve found it easier to balance my career and my life outside of drumming.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Supporting artists and bands has gotten more complicated since online streaming really took off. Streaming services are incredibly convenient and help get many artists out in front of new listeners, but paying for streaming services ultimately funds the owners of the platforms rather than the artists doing the creating. The payment scale of streams/listeners per artist or track ends up being pitifully low, and that’s after reaching a certain threshold of listeners. So, streaming is not a viable option for most musicians to profit from. Something that definitely helps support the arts in general is to buy tickets to shows. Not only does a ticket sale help the artist, it also helps the venues that feature us. Many smaller venues pay by how many tickets the artists pre-sell, so it really does make a difference. However, the absolute BEST way to support artists now is to buy tangible products and merchandise, like shirts, stickers, vinyl’s, cd’s, anything like that, because, in my experience, it is the most direct way of making sure the money you spend goes to the creators. If this was more of the societal norm, I think we’d see a far more developed field of arts and culture.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.EmilyGouldDrumming.com
- Instagram: @emilygoulddrummming
- Facebook: @emilygoulddrumming
