Ryan Van Poederooyen

RVP

Junior Member
Hey Everyone,

Thought I'd drop in and introduce myself.

My name is Ryan Van Poederooyen. I play drums for a band called the Devin Townsend Band and my newly created metal band on the side - Terror Syndrome. I love talking drums and can't believe I haven't heard of this place until now! I recently found a link to here through Gavin Harrisons Website (Porcupine Tree Drummer and one of my all time fave drummers!) This place is awesome, great people, amazing drummers and cool topics to talk about. I've been checking this site out the last couple days and thought it'd be cool to join and talk drums!

Hats off to Bernhard for putting together such an awesome community here. Look forward to mingling with you fellow drummers on this kick ass Forum. I think I'll hit the Gear Section to talk drums.... Take care,

All the best,

Ryan Van Poederooyen
 
Re: RVP from The Devin Townsend Band

what's it like working with devin after hes worked with the likes of gene?

It's awesome man. Gene actually recommended me to Devin when I got the gig 5 years ago. The Devin Townsend Band stuff is definitely not as crazy as the Strapping Young Lad stuff (as I'm sure you know), it's more progressive (as opposed to Thrash Metal) in a hard rock way and very fun to play. Devin pushes you as a musician and is a very open minded guy, so it's always exciting jamming with him cuz you never know what he wants to do next, it could be crazy or chilled. Either way I'm game and I always have grooves and chops ready to go when he needs them.

Hope that answers your question....

All the best,

RVP
 
Re: RVP from The Devin Townsend Band

Hey man, some of your stuff with Devin kicks ass. Do you trigger?

Nope.... don't trigger. Devin used to like using triggers on the kick drum live, but I really do prefer a natural kick sound. I never really liked triggers although they are good for the really fast double kick stuff for definition. I love a nice warm, punchy natural kick sound. Hope that answers your question bro.

All the best,

RVP
 
Hey Ryan, good to see you here! I've enjoyed your playing on the DTB stuff.

I see you like to record with a lot of different people whenever you can... what were a couple of your favourite sessions? (Either playing or doing the tech thing...)
 
Thanks for the support and cool words guys,

Hey Tutin, to answer your question,

Tutin - What bands are you into?

Right now I'm listening to Porcupine Tree a ton. Love their music and Gavin Harrisons drumming is amazing. I actually put my PT "Arriving Somewhere.." DVD on my iPOD and just listen or watch it when I can. Primus with Tim Alexander is probably my biggest influence and one of my all time fave bands, love 'em. Other bands that I listen to regularly are Meshuggah, Rush, The Beatles, Pantera The Police, Faith No More, Dave Matthews Band (Carter is another monster of a player!), SYL, Bob Marley, Sigur Ros for chilling out, NIN, Opeth.... my god, too many to mention, I listen to so much music everyday. I also love varies Jazz, Blues and Classical from time to time. There you have it bro!

Hope that answered your question!


Hey NPX, to answer your question,

I see you like to record with a lot of different people whenever you can... what were a couple of your favourite sessions?

Man, thats a tough one cuz I've had many cool sessions with many cool artist's and producers. I'd have to say that the two I'm most proud of are Non-Human Level and Lalu.

Non-Human Level was a side project that guitarist Christofer Malmstrom (Darkane) started. He asked me to play drums, and Gustaf Hielm (ex-Meshuggah Bassist) to play on it. Darkane Drummer Peter Wildoer sang on the album. I do a lot of double kick drumming, cool beats, fills and weird time signatures on that album, it was a nice challenge and a ton of fun to do.

Lalu was another really cool session I did. It also had Annihilator Bassist Russell Bergquist on it. This was more like a Dream Theaterish type of Prog album. So needless to say there were a ton of time signature changes, weird beats and fills all over the album... full out prog. It was a blast to record.

I'm very proud of those two sessions the most.

Hope that answered your question bro.

Thanks for the questions and support guys, this Forum is very cool with great people on it!

All the best,

RVP
 
Hello Ryan! Amazing to have another pro on here. I have a question for you. If you could only practice for ONE hour of evry day, What would your routine be? And another question. What do you think the best way of developing foot independance? Sorry if im being a pain and welcome to the forum!
 
Hello Ryan! Amazing to have another pro on here. I have a question for you. If you could only practice for ONE hour of evry day, What would your routine be? And another question. What do you think the best way of developing foot independance? Sorry if im being a pain and welcome to the forum!

Hey Vinnysimmo,

Thanks for the welcome, I love this place! As for your questions :

I have a question for you. If you could only practice for ONE hour of evry day, What would your routine be?

When I do practice for an hour, I usually break my practicing routine into these exercises :

1. Hand Rudiments for 10 mins.
2. Feet Rudiments for 20 mins (Mainly for double bass reasons).
3. Displacement of beats and fills (with a click track) for 30 mins

This has changed over the years because you evolve and get certain things down faster than others but currently this is what I find myself doing. I use the rudiments to warm up and strengthen my hands and feet for control and speed. I use the displacement of beats and fills to expand on what I already know. You can never know enough in my opinion. This routine really works for me but remember, everyone is different.

Your other question :

What do you think the best way of developing foot independance?

What worked for me with my feet was practicing single stroke and double stroke rolls, along with triplets. I'd do these rudiments by themselves and then incorporate them into different beats while practicing with a click. I use to do that for an hour or two a day when I started double bass drumming. I would also practice various beats with my right foot as the lead kick, then with my left foot as the lead kick. As soon as I felt my right foot and left foot were fairly equal with eachother I started adding displacement beats and switching it up with my feet. It was a definite evolution for me, again everyone is different. I feel my feet are very strong because of the routine I went thru, although I'm still working on my feet to this very day. There is still much more i could learn and will learn.

For both questions, always have fun and know that nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it, trust me on that one! Just practice your butt off and great things will always come!

All the best,

RVP
 
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Thank you for the quick answer. It means a lot.
 
Ah Porcupine tree! They're awesome. "Futile" and "The sound of Muzak" are my favourite songs. Have you watched Gavins cymbal song? Genius. I'm really into fear factory though right now. Some of Raymond's drumming is really kick ass.
 
Have you watched Gavins cymbal song? Genius. I'm really into fear factory though right now. Some of Raymond's drumming is really kick ass.


Yeah man,

The Cymbal Song by Gavin Harrison off of the "Arriving Somewhere..." DVD by Porcupine Tree is amazing. It just goes to show what you can do with a variety of Cymbals whether they are on your drumkit or not. I love Cymbals and try to use them as more of an orchestra of sounds. It's amazing what you can do with the different pitches of cymbals. Gavin's amazing at it so is Tim Alexander (Primus)... I love both these guys Cymbal work and drumming over all.

As for Raymond from Fear Factory,.... that guy is a monster. Great drummer and great guy. I know Byron Stroud (Bassist for FF and Strapping Young Lad) very well and got to meet Raymond thru him. Raymond is a chilled guy and an awesome drummer, great feet!

All the best,

RVP
 
Yeah, his feet are sick.

Your use of cymbals shows through man, it's great. Chris Adler is another drummer who's really good with cymbals, my brother introduced me to lamb of god a few years ago andI was blown away.

Listening to the Lalu stuff just now. Really tasteful drumming! Well done man.
 
Yeah, his feet are sick.

Your use of cymbals shows through man, it's great. Chris Adler is another drummer who's really good with cymbals, my brother introduced me to lamb of god a few years ago andI was blown away.

Listening to the Lalu stuff just now. Really tasteful drumming! Well done man.

Thanks for the cool words Tutin, glad you're enjoying the Lalu album.... "Potboy" is by far the coolest drumming track on that album in my opinion, nothing like an 18 minute epic song! LOL!

All the best,

RVP
 
Thanks for the cool words Tutin, glad you're enjoying the Lalu album.... "Potboy" is by far the coolest drumming track on that album in my opinion, nothing like an 18 minute epic song! LOL!

All the best,

RVP

Totally, I played for a prog metal band for a while. We're short of members right now but we'll be getting more soon and out again. If you want, check us out here.

Not all the stuff up there is prog, and it's all very rough recordings done when I was very ill. Word of advice, turn the bass down. It's soooo muddy haha.
 
Hey Ryan, I'm curious, how did you get your first break as a drummer? Like, first touring band, whatever.
 
Hey Ryan, I'm curious, how did you get your first break as a drummer? Like, first touring band, whatever.

Hey Drovja,

I'm assuming you mean as a professional......

That would be for the Devin Townsend Band. Basically, I was doing a ton of session work around Vancouver, BC, Canada and getting a name for myself and I also played in a band called God Awakens Petrified which was a very popular metal band in Vancouver. My name got around town and Mr. Gene Hoglan (Strapping Young Lad) came and checked out a few of our shows and thought I was a cool drummer (I'll never forget the time when he came up to me after a show and gave me props... thats another story). So.... when Devin decided to form the Devin Townsend Band with members other than the guys in SYL, he asked Gene about drummers in Vancouver he thought would be cool for the gig. Gene recommended me to Devin as did many others (thats what Devin told me anyway). Dev called me, asked me to try out and the rest is history, as they say.

On a side note...

This is the advice I would give to you if you want to get your break in this industry....
- Practice your ass off with a click track and be at the top of your game at any given time.
- Gig as much as possible, get your face out there and be known.
- Stay positive and know that good things will come with hard work.

Hope that answered your question!

All the best,

RVP
 
Great to see you on here Ryan giving all this great advice. I enjoyed Synchestra very much.

Do you practice different styles each time you practice? With how diverse the tracks are I can see how it would be hard to stay on top of them all.
 
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