Getting to into the drumming?

Hey guys, im in a few bands at my high school and recently one of them entered a local battle of the bands. At the auditions we sounded quite bad but still got through, so we watched our perfomance nd learnt from it, we all looked rigid and wasnt really enjoying it. For the next round we really gave it our all and had a great time playing and sounded much better. I was kind of confused though, because i went up to one of the older bands drummers for a chat as we were old freinds and he said to me it was alright but "you got to into the drumming" i didnt really get what he ment, but at the end of the night they announced the winners and it was me and my band, and i also won best musician. I was thinking surely getting into my drumming cant be that bad?
What do you guys think he ment by this?, it stumped me.

It probably means he is jealous.

If you won the contest, don't sweat it. Just keep playing and having fun, and if you, your band mates, and most importantly the audience likes it, don't worry about what other drummers think. He might just be saying it to get in your head.

FWIW, I myself used to get "too into it".

I was basically trying too hard to the point where it was counter productive. I thought, that for any song, I had to give it my ALL. That was wrong, for the music I played. I wasn't in control of the music, the music was in control of me. That's backwards for what I needed to do.

The various metal genres may be the exception to what I'm saying here, those guys have to give way more than I'm capable of, so if you do metal, this may not apply.

Of course, if you're just starting out, you will naturally want to try your hardest. But after you start listening back, you should realize that it's better to work smarter not harder. This all takes time and the really smart ones sidestep the "I have to give everything I have to every note" phase. I was not one of the really smart ones. I played that way for far too many years.

I actually had to mentally detach a little for it to work for me. I had to greatly limit my emotional involvement of the song. I would play the same notes, but not "get into them". It's sounds bad on paper but playback was much more cringe free and pro sounding. Try it at a rehearsal. Play the notes, but keep your head about you, different mental approach.

I think that's what your friend meant.

Best advice I ever got, applies to almost anything...

If you're working TOO hard, you're doing something wrong.

Nothing against working hard, but you have to know when you're working TOO hard. There's a difference. That's when it's time to stop and rethink things. There's always a better method if you look for it, always a better way way to accomplish what you're after.
My opinion only here, you want to make it look easy, not make it look like you're maxed out.

Yerr i see were your coming from there. I watched the video of the night and i didnt look like i was going to "mad" because there was a few tricky bits in the song, and i couldnt lose focus to much as it would sound bad. Ive been playing for 10 or so years now, and this guy was older but been playing for less and he turned with his band who were all much older then me and my band, to be honest it couldve been abit of freindly rivaly maybe.