Derek Roddy

Derek "One Take" Roddy (born August 28, 1972) is an American drummer, originally from South Carolina. Though he may be known as the second drummer of Hate Eternal, he has also played and recorded with Nile, Malevolent Creation, Divine Empire, Council of the Fallen(where he also played guitar), Today Is the Day, Traumedy, and Aurora Borealis. On March 28, 2006, Derek Roddy announced his departure from Hate Eternal. In February 2006, Roddy was briefly named as the drummer for Blotted Science, but was unable to record due to conflicting schedules. Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler had also been considered for the project.

Roddy is known for his radically fast and technically refined drumming. He grew up surrounded by a musical family and is largely a self-taught musician, though he often speaks of learning vicariously through others. His ability to record entire drum tracks in one or two takes earned him the nickname "One Take".

Roddy's musical acumen extends far beyond drumming in heavy metal music. An international drum clinician, he has been writing and recording original music with his own band, Serpent's Rise - based out of Deerfield Beach, Florida. Serpent's Rise music is often featured at his clinic performances and in his videos. He has played and recorded drums professionally with a variety of musicians in the southeast - building a resume that spans blues, jazz and country music. Along with Cryptopsy drummer Flo Mounier, Roddy was a featured performer for Matthew Barney's live interpretation of "Cremaster Cycle". More recently, he was a featured performer with the Cornell University Wind Ensemble - performing composer Ryan Gallagher's "Exorcism."

Roddy's first instructional drumming video presented organized exercises for developing the speed and endurance often required to play the drumset in such a manner. Though entirely self-produced and released in the VHS format, the tape sold several thousand copies without any formal promotion or advertising. Clips composing the entire tape have since leaked onto websites such as YouTube, where they have garnered millions of views. Combining formal music theory and inspiration from a variety of drummers, Roddy would go on to publish the genre's first instructional book, The Evolution of Blast Beats - originally released in 2007, and since re-released by Hudson Music.

Roddy has been noted for the role that internet exposure and word-of-mouth have played in his rise to prominence. Among extreme metal drummers, he was one of the first to launch his own website in 2003, which now includes a popular discussion forum about drumming and related topics. In stark contrast with many prominent musicians, Derek himself often posts and participates on his own forum, with other notable posters including Jason Bittner (of Shadows Fall), George Kollias (of Nile) along with international drum clinicians such as Johnny Rabb and Phil Maturano. In February of 2007, Roddy used his website to launch the Artisan Foundry - an exclusive forum where he posts monthly drum exercises and provides drum instruction directly to his student-subscribers.

Since his departure from Hate Eternal in 2006, Roddy has become a featured drum clinician for several companies, including Meinl Cymbals, Vater Percussion, and Sonor Drums. He has been featured as a solo performer at the Singapore Drum Festival, NAMM Show, Meinl Drum Festival, DrummerLive, PASIC, and most recently, at the 2008 Modern Drummer Festival - a performance which has since been released in the DVD format by Hudson Music. Thus far, he has performed on every continent except Antarctica - either as a clinician or touring musician.

The Biography appearing in this section is attributed to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Roddy. Portions of this Biography may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.