Meinl continues to fill the line-up of their Meinl Drum Festival with great names and even geater drummers. After Thomas Lang, Luke Holland, Adam Markó and Richard Spaven, Ralph Peterson Jr, Kerim "Krimh" Lechner and Anika Nilles, Matt Garstka is the next addition to the festival roster. The Meinl Drum Festival takes place on June 27th, 2015 at the Meinl factory in Gutenstetten, Germany. Only two artist to go before the list is complete. We can only guess how Meinl will top this list.
Since 2012 a Meinl artists, Matthew Garstka's star is rising incredibly while his band Animals As Leaders is getting more and more popular. The Berklee graduate plays every style from Rock, Fusion, Funk, Punk, Latin, Jazz, up to Reggae. He released his debut solo album, in 2007, entitled 'Heavy Volume' which features Joel Stroetzel of Killswitch Engage, Chris Regan of FNB, Jo Sallins and many more. Matt toured several times with Gokh Bi System, an African Hip Hop band during his studies at Berklee College of Music. Matt graduated from Berklee in 2011. He moved to L.A. shortly after to further his musical pursuits. Soon after moving to L.A. he joined the band Animals as Leaders and has been touring with the band internationally.
Last year at the winter NAMM show he performed with Animals As Leaders at the Tama 40th Anniversary Event at NAMM 2014. That video is added to this article, and two more below.
