Daily Inspiration: Meet Jake Dickinson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jake Dickinson.

Hi Jake, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started playing drums at eight years old on Long Island. My parents got me my first kit a year or two later, and I was hooked. I played with neighborhood kids, and after my dad introduced me to Van Halen, I spent countless afternoons learning double bass parts in my basement. I didn’t always feel like I fit in middle school, but drums gave me something that felt entirely mine.

In high school, a friend named Kyle asked me to join a band he was starting. We recorded an album and played shows, and I went on to study music in college. Over the next few years, I played in my cousin’s band at Warped Tour in 2015, wrote music with a college band, and joined a longtime reggae group. By the summer of 2019, I was gigging regularly, but I knew I wanted to take music further. I needed to find out what would happen if I really committed to it.

A close friend, Russell, helped me take the first step away from Long Island. I moved upstate to work on a hemp farm, then spent time doing contracting work and running an Airbnb out of an old hotel in a tiny town. After a breakup and a lot of soul searching, I realized I didn’t want to keep putting my ambitions off. I moved to Maine to stay with a childhood friend and former bandmate, got a factory job, saved about $10,000, trained for and completed a half Ironman, and built out a camper van. Then I drove to Los Angeles to pursue music.

I’ve been in LA a little over two years now. I live in my camper behind a studio in Santa Monica and work full time as a drummer, mostly performing with DJs at weddings and corporate events, along with band gigs and whatever else calls for drums. Over the past year, I’ve also taught myself to produce dubstep and electronic music in Ableton. After 23 years of drumming, I’m now releasing original music as **The Human Drum Machine** and building a show that brings live drums into the world of bass music. It’s been a winding road, but every chapter brought me closer to the artist I’m becoming.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It hasn’t been a smooth road. For a long time, one of my biggest challenges was making myself smaller to fit into places where I didn’t really belong. I was the friend who couldn’t hear a song at a party without drumming on the table while everyone yelled, “Jake, stop!” Music was always there, but I spent years putting other people’s needs and projects ahead of my own.

I’ve had a couple of moments where I had to choose a different direction. The first was in upstate New York, when I realized I wanted more from my life and made a plan to get to LA. Once I arrived, there were incredible highs, but also stretches where I felt completely lost. I was moving around in my camper van, trying to find my footing. Leaving a toxic relationship here was another low point. It hurt at the time, but I’m grateful I left; I’ve grown more in the past year than I thought I could.

Money has been a constant challenge too. I earn my living playing drums, but funding an original music project while making sure I can cover basic needs takes real discipline, and managing my finances is something I’m still working on. I’ve found an amazing group of music friends in LA, though I’m still trying to build deeper connections with other producers.

Learning production was its own mountain. I remember working with a producer I admired and realizing how little I knew about Ableton. It was overwhelming, but that moment pushed me to learn it for myself. Now I’m releasing my own music and working toward a show where a festival takes a chance on bringing a full drum kit onto the stage. I know the music and the show have to earn that space, and I’m putting in the work to get there.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a drummer, electronic music producer, and live performer working under the name **The Human Drum Machine**. My music lives in the heavier, more rhythmic side of EDM and bass music, drawing on 23 years behind a drum kit. I want people to feel the connection between a human playing in the moment and the sounds I build in Ableton.

I also work full time as a live drummer. Most weekends, I perform alongside DJs at weddings and corporate events, and I play band gigs as well. That work has taught me how to read a crowd, adapt quickly, and bring energy to a room. With my original music, I’m taking those instincts into a different setting: building a bass music show where the drums are central to the performance.

I’m proud that I’ve gone from being overwhelmed by Ableton to releasing my own tracks, including “WHA,” a recent collaboration with DVNK. I’m still growing as a producer, and I’m excited by how much there is left to learn.

What sets me apart is the combination of a lifelong drummer’s physicality and a producer’s ability to create an entire world of sound. My goal is to make music strong enough to stand on its own, then bring a full drum kit to festival stages and give people a show they can feel as much as hear. My dream is to make the whole world dance with drums. In some ways, I’m already living that dream every weekend; now I’m working to take it further with my own music.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
I’m an Aries, and I’ve always connected with the idea of being willing to go first. The quality that matters most to me is the courage to follow a vision even when I can’t see a clear path to it yet. In dance music, I’ve seen artists bring saxophones and other live instruments onstage. I want to make a full drum kit central to my own festival show and show people what a drummer can bring to bass music.

That ambition takes discipline. I completed a half Ironman in 2023, and I’ve kept taking care of my health because playing drums at that intensity is physical. When the opportunity to bring this show to a festival comes, I want to be ready to give it everything I have.

Underneath both of those qualities is my love of music. I’m obsessed with the energy of EDM and with what happens when rhythm moves a crowd. That passion is why I kept playing for 23 years, why I pushed through the frustration of learning to produce, and why I keep working toward a show that sounds and feels like me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehumandrummachine/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Thehumandrummachine
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/thdm1
• Other: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/dvnkthehumandrummachine/wha