Nick is offering drum lessons for all ages, beginner to advanced. Nick also offers drumtech services for your studio, live show or church. To discuss/schedule lessons/tech services and get pricing please contact Nick at: nick_jps@yahoo.com
Drum lessons are taught in "2112 Percussion" at 5250 Capital Blvd. in Raleigh, NC on Fridays and Saturdays. Lessons can also be scheduled at your residence/practice space any other day of the week for an additional fee.
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Private Apocalypse
Sexual Harris
Scotch Gravy
Jam Pain Society
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Rickey Medlocke/Blackfoot
Far Beyond Pluto
Tennessee Jed
Arcanum
Brent Jordan
Turning Point
Mike "Howlin Wind" Davis
Jim Quick and Coastline
Sexual Harris
Scotch Gravy
Jam Pain Society
Lynyrd Skynyrd
The Marshall Tucker Band
Marcus King
American Aquarium
Tommy Redd (Nantucket)
Rickey Medlocke (Lynyrd Skynyrd/Blackfoot)
Charlie Star (Blackberry Smoke)
Richard Turner (Blackberry Smoke)
Peter Keys (Lynyrd Skynyrd/P-Funk)
Johnny Colt (Black Crowes/Lynyrd Skynyrd)
George Lynch (Dokken)
Keith Christopher (Kenny Wayne Shepherd/Lynyrd Skynyrd)
J Bass Kott (Robert Randolph and the Family Band)
Devon Allman (Devon Allman Band)
Dale Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
Stacy Michelle (Kid Rock/Meatloaf)
Kenny Olson (Kid Rock)
Carol Chase (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
Trevor Nealon (Band of Heathens)
Ed Jurdi (Band of Heathens)
Gordy Quist (Band of Heathens)
Roger Earl (Foghat)
Mickey Thomas (Jefferson Starship)
Richie Owens (Richie Owens and the Farm Bureau/Dolly Parton)
Steve "Boxcar" Traum (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
Daniel Anderson (Heroic Dose)
Daniel “Slick” Ballinger
Will McFarlane (Bonnie Raitt/Muscle Shoals)
Michael Troy (Yngwie Malmsteen)
John Custer (Grammy nominated Producer)
Bobby Patterson (DAG)
Gaurav Bali (Eve to Adam)
Tony Nagy (Terri Clark, Lee Roy Parnell)
Wade III (Soul Psychedelic)
Panyelo
Nathan Asher
Brent Jordan
Tennessee Jed
Mike "Howlin Wind" Davis
Alex King
Violent Peace
The Josh Preslar Band
Jake Dean Band
Jim Quick and Coastline
At 13 years old, Nick began playing drums. He had been wanting to play for years before he attained his first drumset. When he finally got a set, he fell in love with the instrument immediately.
Two years later, at 15, Nick joined his first band. At 17, he played in his high school jazz band. Then, at the beginning of his junior year of high school, he had a life-changing experience. Nick was one of six students in his school system to be accepted into the Drums and Percussion Class at "The Fine Arts Center" (a magnet School of Arts in Greenville, S.C.). The other five students were in the marching bands of their respective schools, they could all sightread, they knew the rudiments and they had good technique. Nick had none of that but he could play. Nick worked hard to catch up, and he did. Learning from his teacher Gary Robinson (a symphonic percussionist) was most influential in his development.
When Nick was about 18 he formed a progressive rock band out of Greenville, S.C. called "Arcanum". The band lasted about two years. Then he auditioned for a more well-known local band out of Greenville as well, "Violent Peace" (progressive but more pop) and played with that band for about eight months.
Toward the end of his time with that band Nick started commuting once a week to Spartanburg, S.C., to study under Paul T. Riddle, "The Marshall Tucker Band's" founding drummer. Paul developed whole new facets of Nick's playing and mindset, and they developed a great friendship.
After studying under Paul for about six months, Nick moved to Durham, N.C. He'd been in the area for less than a year when he entered a drum competition sponsored by 2112 Percussion in Raleigh, N.C. Nick took first place in the advanced category.
Shortly thereafter, Nick auditioned for and got the gig in a local progressive pop group called "Goujroy". The band lasted for about a year and then broke up. At that point, he began taking lessons from a local drummer, Wes Little (Nashville, TN session great) and landed a gig with a local cover band. Both the lessons and the gig came to an end about six months later.
A few months after that, Nick auditioned for a well-known local Raleigh, N.C. band called "Jam Pain Society". This band had been around a few years and had built quite a following all over N.C. They had also gone through several drummers. Nick auditioned and made the cut out of many. He then relocated to Cary, N.C. to be closer to the band's rehearsal/recording studio. Nick performed/recorded with the band for 14 years.
During that 14 years Nick performed and recorded mainly with JPS and "Sexual Harris" (more on SH later). In early 2000 JPS released a c.d. called "Disco 13". JPS recorded another disc "Blacklight Messiah" which was released in late 2008 and featured Ace Frehley of "KISS" on a track named "The Ride". The disc received rave reviews and combined have sold over 5,000 copies. "Blacklight Messiah" is the recording that enabled JPS to go to L.A. to perform for Tony Furgeson of Interscope Records. JPS played mainly between North and South Carolina and Virginia. JPS had also played in N.Y., New York, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and Texas. Both albums still get airplay on college radio and some commercial radio. JPS was also featured on a local public access television show.
While in JPS Nick had also done some session work, the occasional restaurant gig and was the house drummer for the open mic at "The Berkeley" in downtown Raleigh for about 2 years.
In 1998 Nick was asked to do a drum clinic at 2112 Percussion in Raleigh. It was his first clinic and in his words, "was scared to death". In the end, everyone seemed to like it and it became a big stepping stone in his life. Nick has performed five other clinics since then. Four in Raleigh and one in New Bern NC. The four Raleigh clinics were at Mars Music (one in 2000 and one in 2002), one at Guitar Center in 2002 (also on the bill that day were Mike D'Angelo, Jim Chapin and Rick Latham) and one at Sam Ash Music in 2004. The New Bern clinic was at Fuller's Music in 2006 to celebrate their 100th anniversary and was the first clinic Pearl drums called on Nick to perform...Pearl drums had brought Nick on as one of their regional artists in June of 2000.
In late 2002, Nick, in association with Grubsrof Productions, released an instructional DVD titled, "Building Better Technique". It sold well locally and received really good feedback, including an excellent review in DRUM! magazine. Around the same time in 2002 Nick came on-board as one of the instructors at Drumlab in Raleigh.
In his off time from JPS, Nick formed an instrumental band called "Sexual Harris". SH lasted about 12 years and is where he had absolute artistic freedom on the drums. "Jam Pain Society" developed Nicks' playing on levels such as playing with a click (live and studio), concentration on playing as close to the original recording as possible, and styles such as metal, pop and funk. In "Sexual Harris", on the other hand, he has never played with a click live (although he used one on the c.d. "Obvious" that "Sexual Harris" released in 2001), the dynamic range is formidable, improvisation abounds and the music blurs the lines between rock, reggae, jazz, latin, funk and atmospheric textures. In early 2009 "Sexual Harris" added vocals to their sound and renamed themselves "Scotch Gravy".
In early 2010 Nick parted with JPS to pursue a new musical path. Once he left JPS, Nick focused on writing new music with "Scotch Gravy" (formerly "Sexual Harris"). "Scotch Gravy" had a large catalog of music already from the SH days and had just finished recording a new collection of songs (as of late 2011) titled "Milk of Amnesia". "Milk of Amnesia" was released on Bandcamp.com...downloads are free. "Scotch Gravy" ended at the close of 2011 right after the songs were released due to Nick relocating into the Nashville, T.N. area.
Nick always has and still does session work and fill-in gigs. He has recorded with several area songwriters, some demos/some releases. One album session on October 25, 2004 had Will McFarlane on guitar. Will's recording and performing career has placed him in some impressive company, including multi-Grammy winning artist Bonnie Raitt, "The Pointer Sisters", "Jackson Browne" and he was part of the famous Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Nick also has done a couple of sessions with Robert Sledge of "Ben Folds Five".
In early 2011, Nick was contacted and accepted the offer to work for Michael Cartellone of "Lynyrd Skynyrd"/"Damn Yankees" as his full-time touring drum technician and is again in that capacity. Nick has also teched a show for Jason Sutter and clinics for Kenny Aronoff, Jim Riley, J.R. Robinson, Steve Smith, Akira Jimbo, Vigil Donati, Russ Miller, Steve Ferrone, Greg Bissonette, Billy Ward and Johnathan Mover.
In October of 2012 Nick worked the "Lynyrd Skynyrd Simple Man Cruise" and was able to perform with the "Rickey Medlocke All-Star Jam".
In 2013 Nick had the opportunity to fill-in on drums for "Lynyrd Skynyrd". He subbed three shows for Michael. The HOME image on this site is from the show in Paso Robles, CA.
Again in 2014 Nick had the honor of performing live with the "Rickey Medlocke All-Star Jam". Only this time, instead of playing two songs as before, he performed the entire show sans two songs.
In 2015 Nick performed live on tour playing congas during "Gimmie Three Steps". The few weeks of this culminated at the live recording of "Lynyrd Skynyrd's" "Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd & Second Helping" DVD.
There were several doors opened because of these performances and he has since recorded on Rickey Medlocke (Lynyrd Skynyrd/Blackfoot) and Stacy Michelle's (Kid Rock/Meatloaf) new music and performed live with Peter Keys's (Lynyrd Skynyrd/P-Funk) band "The All-Time Low Stars".
Near the end of 2019 Nick ended his tenure with "Lynyrd Skynyrd" and became the full-time drummer for a regional group out of South Carolina named "Jim Quick and Coastline". The group has been recording/performing professionally for over 25years (averaging around 200 shows per year) and has multiple CBMA (Carolina Beach Music Association) awards. They recorded a full-length original album in 2020 titled "Revival" in which Nick was fortunate to be a part of.
At the beginning of 2022 the "Jim Quick and Coastline" job ended and Nick re-joined the crew with "Lynyrd Skynyrd" in the drum tech capacity and is currently performing that duty as his full-time job. Nick was also asked to fill-in again on drums with Lynyrd Skynyrd for a show in October of 2022 and one in November of 2024. He also performed on congas regularly with the band in 2024.
Currently, Nick is writing/recording with his new band "Private Apocalypse" between dates teching for Lynyrd Skynyrd. You can find "Private Apocalypse's" music on all streaming platforms...take a listen! You can watch Nick record the drum parts on his Youtube channel as well. www.youtube.com/user/analogbeatmaker
Michael Cartellone (Lynyrd Skynyrd/Damn Yankees)
Jason Sutter (Smashmouth/Cher)
Kenny Aronoff (John Mellencamp/Session Great)
Jim Riley (Rascal Flatts/Nashville Session)
J.R. Robinson (Steve Winwood/Session Great)
Steve Smith (Journey/Vital Information)
Akira Jimbo (Casiopea)
Vigil Donati (Derek Sherinian/Steve Vai)
Russ Miller (Ray Charles/Nelly Furtado)
Steve Ferrone (Average White Band/Tom Petty)
Greg Bissonette (David Lee Roth/Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band)
Billy Ward (B.B. King/Ace Frehley)
Johnathan Mover (Alice Cooper/Joe Satriani)
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