We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kash Filburn a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kash, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

When I was 20, (I am 25 now) I was working part-time at Dutch Bros Coffee and doing music related things with my free time. This was such a great job for me to have because I was allowed to take as much time off as I needed. I was allowed to have weekends free for gigs, and even larger amounts of time off for touring. Eventually, I was making just enough from music to be able to quit Dutch and be full-time in the industry. This was insanely risky due to the obvious financial implications, but even more so in regards to my lack of direction at the time. I was very idealistsic and blindly prided myself on being full-time in the industry no matter the cost. I dove into teaching, performing, recording, booking tours, and even recording bands. This worked to my benefit as I was able to find a decent amount of work in a short amount of time. However, it resulted in a scattered psyche and a lack of focus that deprived me from ever actually sinking my teeth into one of these specific niches. The kind of teeth-sinking needed to master something.

“…tell us how it turned out.”

Well, I’m not sure. I sort of just realized all of this recently. I’ve grown in many ways over the last 5 years, but not in the precise way that I want to. I want to become the best musician and artist that I possibly can be. I do not know what the future holds or how things will turn out, but I do know one thing for certain: The days of allowing money and pride to cloud my focus are behind me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am a professional drummer. I specialize in live performance, but also work as a recording artist and educator.

When it comes to performing, I really enjoy working with pop artists. The tranformation of songs that are usually dominated by elecronic drums/bass/keys into a live context with real instrumentation endlessly fascinates me. When you come and see an artist that I work with live in concert, you are not just hearing the songs that you know and love played for you. It is so much more. You are hearing those songs being played by stellar musicians who have carefully re-imagined them into a live context. It is beautiful and I love it more than anything else that I do. You can come see me live with the insanely talented Sorry X if you want to experience something that I am very proud of having helped craft.

I also have an original project called HKL HVL. We are a three piece instrumental progressive rock band. Our music is available on Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube, etc.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

My work ethic. I’m not perfect as a person (far from it actually), but I will always give a client 110%.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Other musicians. When they find a drummer they like playing/working with, they keep calling you for gigs and tell other musicians to call you for gigs as well. It’s pretty great!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kashplaysdrums/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kash.filburn/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/KashFilburn/videos
• Other: solo.to/hklhvl

Image Credits
Haylee Finn – Main Photo, as well as #1, #3, #4, #7, #8 Neil Schwartz – Photo #2 Jacob Eldridge – Photos #5 and #6