Growing up, I had a chance to hear so many types of music in my household. My parents listened to Japanese music, Dixieland Jazz, Be-Bop, Elvis Presley, and even Country music.

Throughout my formative music years, I listened to progressive rock (Genesis, King Crimson), Classical (both classic and contemporary composers), jazz (John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny), Latin (Latin-jazz, salsa, and folkloric Cuban music and drumming), world music (particularly West African, Brazilian, and Indian music), and of course rock and pop that was popular during the 80’s and 90’s while I was growing up and watching Mtv.

Many of the artists that I liked are still going strong today… people like Phil Collins, Sting, and Peter Gabriel.

My first choice has always been percussion. By the time I was in elementary school, I asked my parents if I could take up the drums. My mother told me that I would have to take at least two years of piano lessons before I was allowed to delve into anything else. I started piano at age 7, and then started Classical percussion, both in the school band/orchestra and privately, at the age of 9. I also started studying drumset at around this time.

I went onto study with the Principle Timpanist of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in middle school and high school, and then took up Afro-Cuban and Brazilian percussion at the age of 15. When I was 17, I entered Berklee College of Music as a jazz drumset major. I later switched to hand percussion and devoted my time to studying with conga master Giovanni Hidalgo for four years, as well as studying Brazilian, Middle Eastern, Indian, North African, and West African percussion.

Since I have been on the road for over three years straight now, I find it difficult to maintain any sort of practice regimen. I make sure to keep my chops up on the road by using a practice pad in the hotel room. I also make a point of warming up and stretching as much possible during soundchecks and before shows, especially if I am playing more physically demanding instruments such as congas, djembe, or taiko.

When I am at home, I run many exercises that I learned from my teacher, Giovanni Hidalgo, on the congas. I also keep my stick chops up with rudiments on the practice pad, and playing timbales. I am also making a concerted effort to practice instruments using smaller muscle groupings and finger techniques, such as tar, bendir, riq, tabla, and kanjira.

My new projects when I get off the road are devoting time to playing marimba again, and experimenting with my Boss RC-50 loop pedal both with acoustic percussion and electronics, such as the Handsonic 15.

The tour is going well. This is my third time working with Utada Hikaru. My role in the band is fairly different in comparison to what I do on such gigs as Fleetwood Mac and Bette Midler. As this is pop music, I am playing many more specific parts from the album. This means that I play much more electronics, performing parts that would normally be programmed. The advantage of this is that I can add a human feel, and the band as a whole has more flexibility than if they were just playing along to a sequence. My time spent touring with Whitney Houston definitely prepared me for this, as I had a similar role in much of her show.

Many people would assume that this is boring, but actually it is quite mind-boggling at the amount of parts I have to cover with all four of my limbs. I definitely don’t have time to get bored, as this approach often turns into an exercise in coordination. To pull it all off, and make it groove harder and feel better than any drum machine or sequencer is the ultimate goal.