Who
is he? A Scottish snare drummer? An Afro-Latin percussionist? A
composer? A music teacher? A band leader?
Lynnwood,
Washington native, Steve Roy, has been drumming four hours a day since he was 10. At the age of 14, he was introduced to the Scottish snare
drum and began compiling credentials in the competitive world of the bagpipe bands.
He has played with the Keith
Highlanders, the Washington Scottish Pipe Band and the Grade I
Seattle Pipe Band. In 2007 he taught and led the Keith Highlanders’
Grade III drum corps to an impressive inaugural season after
preparing their Grade IV drummers for the World Championship Bagpipe
competitions in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2006.
As
the drum director for the NorthWest Junior Pipe Band, Steve Roy was
instrumental in turning a obscure local bagpipe band into
one of the premier youth bagpipe bands in the world, finishing
in 5th place in their class at the Pipe Band World
Championships in Glasgow Scotland on August 16, 2008. The only youth
band from the US among the 224 world class competitors had the grizzled Scots judges scratching their heads. No one had heard of them. The judges were
impressed by Steve's drum compositions.
His
blending of Scots/Irish dance melodies with African, Latin and
flamenco traditions is a hallmark of his composition style, expressed
dramatically by his young pop group, the Bucket Men. Their music is
"fusion" at its best: bagpipes, buckets, and world percussion
instruments.
The
Bucket Men was formed in 2006 as a way for Steve, the teacher, to
introduce disciplined rhythmic focus to his drum students. Starting
with a few raw beginners, some experienced youth snare drummers, and a
couple of dedicated young pipers, the group quickly began to develop
a following. “Bucket Men School” soon followed, teaching the
fundamentals of percussion, ensemble and drumming in a performance
environment reminiscent of the rock bands Steve played for in the
80's and 90's.
That
was when Steve Roy, one of the rising young rock drummers driving
Seattle's burgeoning rock scene, performed and recorded with bands
such as Skin Groove, White Raven, Flop, and Shannon Mcconnell’s,
the Pulses. He appeared as percussionist and drummer in a number of
nationally distributed recordings.
A
passion for the intricacies of African rhythm lead him to Afro-Latin
percussion. His most
recent release, a Latin jazz disk, Luna Nueva's Amenecer, is available in local music outlets.
Despite his heavy
workload as a teacher, drum director, and composer, Steve still anchors
Latin groups such as the Rumba Kings when his schedule allows, and
regularly plays the cajon for flamenco singers and dancers.
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