After a call from his friend and former teacher, New York great Shawn Pelton, this Indiana native found himself leaving his Midwest home for the Big Apple and an audition with the newly signed British rock band Fiction Plane (www.fictionplane.com).
It’s been over six years since landing the Fiction Plane drum chair. In that time Pete has enjoyed a nine-month US/Canadian tour, two separate tours in Japan, a U.K., a 2 month, 29 date, 25 country European tour with Fiction Plane opening for Sting. He was honored to share the stage with such amazing musicians (Sting, his long-time guitarist Dominic Miller, new guitarist Lyle Workman, and drum legend Abe Laboriel Jr.). He was thrilled at getting a chance to play the Police classic “Next To You” w/ Sting when both bands rocked the song on stage for the last two shows. Fiction Plane was honored to be the opening band for The Police world reunion tour. The band enjoyed 87 shows opening for the rock legends. Ending in Honolulu Hawaii the band shared the stage with The Police for the last time with both bands performing together. After a short but very fun tour with "The Feeling" in the UK and a 4 week tour with The Bravory, the band did European summer festivals including Rock 'em Ring and Rock 'em Park in Germany, Des Papillons de Nuits and 24 hours of Le Mans in France, Paaspop and Pinkpop in Holland. FP return back to the states to rock the Unity Tour with 311 and Snoop Dogg. The summer ended with a one-off with Foreigner. A personal hi-light was meeting Jason Bonham. What a great guy!
Pete and Fiction Plane have made appearances on several TV shows including “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”, "The Jimmy Kimmel Show", “MTV News”, MTV2:“You Hear It First”, “E! News Live”, “Extra”, “Viewsic on the PLANET” (Japan), “Taratata” (France) and made their US network television debut on "The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn". Pete enjoys contributing as a writer as well as providing the rock solid backbone of the rhythm section with his ferocious, but still delicate, musical drumming style.
Pete’s first band, The Cutters, formed in 1991. This rock band, consisting of four friends from Bloomington, was Pete’s first taste of the music industry big-time. The band got signed to a BMG label and did a US tour in support of their album “Sonic Wave Love”. They supported The Flys and Fuel, and even landed on the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower out at sea to do a show for the troops. The band enjoyed an eleven-year career releasing two EP’s and two full lengths. In that time Pete played drums on over 35 studio albums and performed numerous live shows, which included the likes of Michael McDonald (The Doobie Brothers & solo), G.E. Smith (SNL) and Jazz great James Moody (Blue Note).
Growing up in Bloomington Indiana, home of Indiana University School of Music where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Jazz studies & Percussion, Pete had the great fortune of being taught by some of the top drummers in the world, including Shawn Pelton (SNL, Sheryl Crow), David Baker, Dominic Spera, Wilber England and drumming legend Kenny Aronoff. Kenny was not only Pete’s professor, but also played on Pete’s recital, helping him out with a double drum solo to close out the performance.
Pete now calls New York City home and has already made an impact on the music scene there playing many shows with Ari Hest (Columbia Records), French pop star Veronica Antico (Sony Europe), and Irish folk rocker writer Michael Brunnock. Pete often makes frequent flights to London to play shows with Fiction Plane, write, record and even shoot a music video with the band. While in London Pete also finds time to do shows and studio work with other artists such as Laura Critchley (www.lauracritchley.com) and Steve Rushton (http://www.myspace.com/steverushton).
Pete was recently honored to voted #3 Up & Coming Drummer in the Modern Drummer Reader's Poll 2009, July issue.
