Conversations with Matt Bover

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Bover

Hi Matt, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Growing up around Woodstock, New York music was a MAJOR part in both the local culture and in my family’s life. From a young age my dad would take me to go see shows almost every night after school, Both my father and brother were hobby guitar players but for my father although he played a little guitar he was mostly a major lover of all things music. All the way up until I graduated high school he would take me to go see all of the legendary groups from an extremely wide variety of music ranging anywhere from rock, jazz, metal, prog, blues, psychedelic, and everywhere in between. Watching, hearing and absorbing a wide variety of live music was engrained into my DNA at a young age through my father’s love of music combined with the local Woodstock “Peace, Love & Music” mindset.
Although both my dad and brother were guitar players it didn’t click with me until my brother bought me the video game “Guitar Hero” for Christmas at 11 years old. That was the moment it all clicked for me. I began playing the game all day, every day. It became my whole life. Seeing my love for this game, my parents bought me my own guitar and put me into guitar lessons. As time went on I stopped playing guitar hero and devoted all of that love into actually playing the guitar. I had started my own little band with some friends from school. One day the drummer had brought his drum set over my house and originally had told me his mom would be picking it up after rehearsal, well, he didn’t pick his drum set back up for another 6 months. In that time with now a drum set sitting in the middle of my bedroom I began tinkering on his drum set. I quickly realized I didn’t have to think about “right or wrong notes” anymore. I could just hold the sticks and play! I began playing the drums all day, I was obsessed! Once he picked his drum set back up I begged to get a drum set of my own and graciously my parents had bought me my first drum set for Christmas at age 13. From that moment on I was obsessed with getting better and better. Later on, my father found an ad in a newspaper for drum lessons with Jason Bittner of the metal band Shadows Fall. I began taking lessons with Jason, showing me the fundamentals. He was tough! He showed me the importance of discipline. As high school was ending I knew I wanted to go to Berklee College of Music, Jason had gone to Berklee so he helped me learn the right material to nail the audition. I also began taking lessons online with JP Bouvet (who also went to Berklee). JP taught me creativity and expanding my imagination when it came to drum set vocabulary. Flash forward, I did the Berklee audition and at the time I felt good about it… only to find out months later that I had been rejected. I was completely devastated… BUT Berklee had offered me a proposition to a new program they had never done before where they gave me the option to study at one of their sister schools in Barcelona, Spain, Tel Aviv, Isreal or Athens, Greece and only if I had gotten all A’s then I could go transfer to Berklee College of Music in Boston. To me there was no other choice, I was not going to risk waiting another year and maybe getting rejected again. I had this serious voice within me that told me I have to go to Barcelona, Spain. My parents begged me not to but I had to follow my heart. At 18 I moved alone to Spain, studied at Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu. In Barcelona I studied 13 hours every single day becoming the best drummer I possibly could. After I had lived and studied in Barcelona for over a year I had achieved my good grades and had left with great letters of recommendation from almost all of my teachers, I was ready to move to Boston and start my Berklee journey. Going into the Boston school I was very gracious to have more and more scholarships come in. At the start of my first semester I had 70% of my tuition covered, which later turned into a full tuition scholarship, and by the end of my 2nd year I then had the backing & support of Berklee where they made me one of the few students that they actually paid to go to their school. While at Berklee I studied alongside some of the best drummers & musicians on planet earth. From the moment I walked into Berklee I began practicing 15 hours every single day, at one point hitting 17 hours a day. No exceptions, no excuses. Doing no matter what it took to become the best drummer I possibly could! Unfortunately my very last semester of Berklee was in 2020 when the pandemic had hit. I was forced to go back home to New York. Forced to finish my time at Berklee over zoom, without a proper graduation. It was a very depressing way to end out what was such an incredible and life changing journey for me but it was beyond any of our control. Through the pandemic I mainly taught drums through Zoom and eventually brought back in person drum lessons. During this time I also began traveling back and forth to Los Angeles frequently for recording sessions with multiple artists and eventually as things opened up, live work.
Flash forward to today, I have recently moved from New York to Nashville and am excited to bring what I do here! Through my story, my playing and my teaching I hope to inspire a new generation of drummers and musicians to continually strive for greatness and to work on being the best version of themselves, every single day. No matter what!

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?
Those who know the life of being a professional musician know it is never a “smooth road”.
From losing relationships over my obsession, opposition from loved ones, being initially rejected from my dream school Berklee, losing my father so painfully, writing my own book, Covid threatening to throw away the whole industry I had just got into! and that’s just to name a few… It has NOT been easy! But every obstacle that has come its way has been a lesson to me. Taught me new things about the world, myself, and my relationship to my craft. Everything is a lesson! I try my best let these struggles make me stronger, for example… when Berklee told me I wasn’t “good enough” I chose to let that motivate me, instead of accepting defeat, which at the end was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.
Aside from myriad of personal issues that come and go with life, pushing yourself to practice 12- 17 hours every single day is extremely exhausting! Mentally and physically. Waking up after not getting enough sleep and choosing to get yourself out of bed… showering… putting your clothes on and showing up all for the “greater good” is absolutely painful! But that’s the level of self discipline you need to become great at this. You need to show up for yourself no matter how you feel. Doing that every single day for years was extremely challenging. So many days where I didn’t want to get out of bed, but I forced myself, knowing that future-me was depending on the present-me to put in the work and discipline. I lost many relationships, friendships, opportunities, all for this obsession of bettering myself. When my friends were going to parties in college, I was sitting in a small room completely alone working on bettering myself and my craft, and this is just concerning the practicing portion of being a musician! There’s been many gigs I’ve lost, long gigs I played where I didn’t get paid (or worse… lost money on) broken expensive gear while traveling. Being a musician means accepting you will hardly ever be appreciated the amount you deserve for the amount of work you put in to get as good as you are… but at the end of the day we do this for personal enjoyment, leaving a legacy behind your name, contributing something to the art form, inspiring the next generation, leaving your “finger print” on this thing called music! We know by expressing ourselves we can touch others deeply, this is why we love what we do, no matter how difficult it can become. Making somebody feel something about themselves through us being ourselves is the endless chase for us artists and achieving that is worth all of the struggle that may face us!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
In the broad sense Im just a drummer, a musician, a teacher and an author… but what really fulfills me most in life is to to imagine new possibilities on the instrument, to hopefully contribute something bigger to the art form and most important to simply inspire others. Whether it be inspiring other musicians & drummers to become the best versions of themselves through my teachings, my book “Chops For The Modern Drummer” and my own personal playing , or inspiring somebody (musician or not) through my story of personal dedication, extreme self discipline and unwavering determination to follow one’s passion irregardless of whatever obstacles are in your way. Showing somebody the incredible power and potential hidden within themselves is what makes me do what I do!
Being on the Drumeo Podcast was another incredibly rewarding moment in my career thus far. Drumeo is by far the biggest drumming platform on planet earth, the fact they wanted to hear my story still blows my mind and the fact so many people have since reached out and told me they felt inspired after listening to that podcast fills my heart with so much joy and self fulfillment.

At 21 years old I wrote my first drum book “ Chops For The Modern Drummer”. It all started by me writing down exercises for my own practice sessions and me realizing other people might get something out of it too! I am incredibly proud to say it has since become a classic piece of modern drum literature and very well received among the new generation of drummers looking to advance the language of the drums!

A lot of people come up to me and recognize me through knowing my story, for being the guy that Berklee College Of Music first rejected and then ended up actually paying to go to their school. I think that this is a story that many musicians have found inspiring, (especially younger drummers who want to pursue going to music college) because it is the classic underdog story… being rejected by the establishment, overcoming adversity and coming out victorious on the other side. Unfortunately in this dog eat dog industry it is something that doesn’t happen often… but through hard work and dedication ANYTHING is attainable, THAT is the key to my story, it wasn’t “luck” and certainly not because I am “naturally talented” it was through relentless hours and discipline I put into my craft to prove those that doubted me wrong! It fills my heart so much knowing people have gotten something out of this story. Believe in yourself, no matter what!

To summarize the answer to the question “what I am most proud of”, I am most proud of my book, my Berklee degree, being on the Drumeo Podcast, my story and my playing and teachings influence on the modern language of drumming. Having had many of the drummers I looked up come to me and tell me they are inspired by me and MY drumming, even some of them even taking a drum lesson with me. I am most proud to be me, myself, Matt Bover! And I want to inspire every single other person to be just as proud of being themselves too.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
There has been so many risks I’ve taken amongst my journey. From applying to my dream school Berklee College Of Music, to then being rejected and moving to Barcelona, Spain alone immediately after high school, then going to Berklee in Boston without a financial plan… deciding I’m going to practice 15-17 hours everyday no matter what, writing my own book, these are all big major risks I’ve taken and every single one I can say we’re the best decisions of my life. Even just putting yourself out there as an artist is a risk nowadays. People will love what you do and some will hate what you do. My father being a business owner and watching him negotiate business my whole upbringing really showed me the ins and outs of business and the weight of risk. As a business owner, to him everything was negotiable. I think the nonchalant attitude I watched him bring to risk (in form of negotiation) within business mixed with having the knowledge and confidence to know when a risk is worth the potential reward made me very much so a risk taker. Funny thing about this is my mother is the the farthest thing from a risk taker. In terms of my professional career this always put me in this weird middle position where my father would radically support my potential risks and my mother would usually be very concerned, and weary of any potential risk for me. I think growing up with these two sides gave me the confidence to be able to make thoughts, feelings and ultimately decisions for myself. When I was told I was rejected from Berklee and given this ultimatum to either go to Barcelona Spain and then potentially go to Berklee in Boston only through getting good grades, or not go to Spain and be forced to wait a year to reapply, to possibly get rejected again, I was not going to risk waiting and despite what teachers and other people had tried hard to convince me I certainly was not going to throw my dream away. It ended up being a huge personal risk, but it came with the biggest reward In my entire life. I don’t want to be an old man and say “ if only I did (x) I would have been more successful”. All decisions with that much weight deserve taking a risk, because if you don’t then you will be using that as an excuse your whole entire life to why you’re not where you want to be. This is the same line of thought that lead me to moving to Nashville.

Pricing:

• As of right now, in person or zoom lessons – $35 half hour $60 hour $80 90 minutes.
• Send me a lesson inquiry with the code #VOYAGE to get 10% off first lesson INCLUDING a free PDF with content that will be featured in my next book!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/bover_drums
• Facebook: https://Facebook.com/mattboverdrums
• Other: Mattboverdrums@gmail.com

Image Credits
Above photography
Tabitha Henson