Adam Silverman : Nashville Session and Touring Drummer

Last night marked the end of Winter Fest 2011. For the last 2 month in a half I’ve been out on the road playing for 33Miles, Jason Gray, and Kerrie Roberts. We’ve done about 12 or 13 shows in the tour, and it’s really been another amazing experience for me. I had the great pleasure of continuing to work with 33Miles and being challenged there to keep playing like crazy. But it was also really cool to work with Kerrie and Jason. Both of them are extremely talented at their art and musicianship, but they are also extremely different.

I think the challenge for me each night was being about to go from playing Kerrie’s style, into Jason’s style, into 33′s style. If you haven’t heard their music it’s definitely worth a listen to be sure. Kerrie is really cool pop style with lots of drum trax, while Jason is very singer/songwriter or what I like to call the new Folk, it’s awesome. This was my first experience with Jason and Kerrie. They were both absolutely amazing people, and I definitely loved getting to work with them! Then you have my normal gig with 33Miles who is like a crazy mix of country, rock, pop and blues. All of them couldn’t be any more diverse, but as a drummer, having to use the same kit for them all, the challenge was to make them all sound like they were supposed to sound. I think I did a good job at it, I know I sure enjoyed it.

So now that the tour has come to an end, what’s next right? haha. Well when I figure that out I’ll be sure to let you guys know. Seriously, the next month I am really on the hustle. Continuing to try to bring in as many sessions as possible, maybe doing a little teaching, and doing a lot of meetings with new friends and catching up with old ones. Then I’ll be back with 33Miles on their next tour in the Spring. Oh yeah, and of course, practicing like crazy!!

This past weekend I had the awesome pleasure of playing up in Edmonton Canada for a huge festival. As I walked into the venue that night for sound check I had this overwhelming sense of fear going on inside my head. I don’t think it was the crowd, I’ve done many shows where there have been at least that many folks, and played for over 18,000 with Casting Crowns last year, so it wasn’t the audience, it was the other musicians I was worried about. I started wondering how I would stack up in comparison to the other drummers there, would I stand out as being really good, or really bad, how would the other players look at me? It totally got into my head, and I felt myself having a little panic right before the show. The question that comes to mind here is … why??

After talking to Jason Barton of 33Miles I think it sunk in that it’s because I am still growing as a player, and in moments like that, I feel how immature I really am at this stage in the game for me. I am still so worried about what everyone else is doing. If there is another good drummer there I feel threatened somehow, that I won’t be noticed, that people won’t find me to be talented, and that fear of loss of affirmation terrifies me to no end. But I think it only scares me because I scare myself into worrying about such a silly thing. It’s trivial to think about it at best, but I bet if we were honest with ourselves, many artists and players feel the same thing, they just don’t wanna admit it like I am doing here. My wife always tells me “never underestimate the insecurity of an artist”, and I’ve added “or a player” to that quote.

To overcome this fear I’ve realized a few things. There is only 1 Adam Silverman, for the bad and the best. So the good news here is that I am literally the only person that can do exactly what I do on the drums. I get hired because of my playing, my personality, and my price point. That’s the God’s honest truth about it. So while there are other players that are also good at playing, everyone has a weakness. For me it’s always been my chops that have stood out as being really strong, and the way that I approach a groove, but I am very weak at showmanship. I barely smile when I play, and I tend to ignore the crowd. When I see another player twirling their sticks I feel sick because I can’t do that as well as they do. Call it competitive, but I’ll call it immaturity right now. Instead of freaking out about it, I just need to learn from the experience, and figure out what I can do to improve the things that I notice I am weak on. That’s all, no panic needed here people.

I think we all struggle with this in our lives in one way or another. I just continue to learn and fall back to the fact that God made me how I am to accomplish a specific goal that He has set out for my life. In the meantime, instead of being afraid of what others do well, I just need to do what I do the best that I can possibly do it, and continue to grow all the time. The rest is not really up to us, so the faster I start focusing on what I do right, the easier it is to go out there and let it fly on stage. If I’m reserved, people will notice, if I am confident and happy to be there, they will notice and feed off of that excitement, and that’s really what I wanna bring to the stage when I get up there. Fun, not fear.

These are my confessions. Hope they encourage someone out there!!