09/08/2025
🎶 Inside Soundstripe: What's your favorite drum beat? 🥁
🎤 We asked the Soundstripe team to share their picks for the best drum beat—and wow, did they deliver. From classic jazz grooves by Dave Brubeck to the thunderous rhythms of John Bonham and the double-threat singer/drummer Phil Collins, the range of answers was incredible.
And our resident drummers? Let’s just say they had plenty to add...
🤘 Garrett Hawkins, Data & Revenue Operations Analyst
"Leaning into the rock side of things, I literally have a drum fill from 'Ocean Avenue' by Yellowcard tattooed on my arm, so I'm going to have to lead with that. The whole song is jam-packed with lightning-fast fills and cool orchestration around the kit.
"Anything Aaron Sterling touches is gold. Last year alone, he worked with Jelly Roll, Post Malone, Keith Urban, Sabrina Carpenter, the Jonas Brothers, Carrie Underwood, and more. I always think about his tracking on 'I Don't Want to Be' by Gavin DeGraw as particularly great. There are a ton of really cool explosive fills blended in with pretty straightforward rock bashing in the choruses.
"Ringo Starr was amazingly tasteful in everything, both grooves and fills. He always has a 'serve the song' mindset, and it shows. His left-handed approach to his fills in 'Come Together' is really unique. In a very different style, anything Tony Williams played on is fantastic as well."
🧑🎤 Seth Earnest, Director of Music Production
"No drum list is complete without Steve Gadd’s '50 Ways to Leave Your Lover' by Paul Simon. A very difficult groove to actually make feel right. I’d argue that of the thousand drummers I’ve heard try it, no one feels like Gadd when he plays it.
"Brian Blade on Emmylou Harris’ song 'Wrecking Ball.' That's a deceptively difficult part to play with the depth of groove he has and the finesse he uses to make it float along so beautifully.
"Ringo Starr is full of the above sorts of grooves—a very unique drummer with grooves that put a little spin on the given song, and only he can make them feel how he does ... he’s unique across the board in how he made things feel, both grooves and his fills.
"James Brown’s two drummers, Clyde Stubblefield and John Jabo Starks—very unique grooves, hard to make feel right. Grooviest grooves in the land.
