Drummer

While secretly living as a fugitive from the law, I lived in Southern California. Towards the end of a two year period of time I lived in San Diego county.

There were times when my friends and I would drive around and check out random places. One night some friends and I found this lot that overlooked the 76 freeway. It reminded me of one of those make out places from movies.

Around this time, one of my roommates moved to New York to pursue a photography career. He packed all he could into his two-door Civic and made the trek, leaving me his drums.

As a child I used to play the drums that my dad had in his body shop in Houston. He and my uncle were in a band. One night while visiting him before going back to Bay City, I asked if I could have his drums. He said if I could hold a beat I could. At the time I couldn’t.

My whole life following that moment, I would dream of owning my own set. When I was gifted the set from my roommate I felt like I was living some kind of dream. He and I

would play together: he on the guitar, I on the drums.

During this time I worked at a glass tile warehouse in Carlsbad, a job that was secured through a temp agency. One day following the handoff of the drums, I called in faking being sick.

I loaded up the drumset in the Dodge Neon my sister Jackie gave me before she moved to Louisiana. I drove back to the location, set them up and played for my own enjoyment.

At one point a mom drove up with her young son and they watched me play for about thirty minutes. There was a truck that came later that dumped waste in the lot before leaving.

It was an amazing experience to just show up and play in an vacant lot just to experience it.

However, after about a month of being in New York, he wanted to join a band. The band had a guitar player, but needed a drummer which meant he would require his drumset. Needless to say, I was devastated. Yet, I did ultimately surrender them.

I documented the experience and took self portraits, not for any reason, but to have a physical rendering of an experience. I’ve only played the drums a handful of times since. This was sixteen years ago.