AUSTIN, Texas — Austin is known as the live music capital of the world and there are many talented musicians in the area.
One of those musicians is a percussionist named Michael Gonzales. He has been playing the drums for 10 years.
KVUE spoke with Gonzales in what he calls his “drum shed.”
“This is this is my drum dojo. This is where I practice every day,” he said. “I pretty much consider myself like a forever student.”
Although he’s been handling drum sticks for a decade now, Gonzales took up biology during his first year at the University of Texas. But he said that wasn't the path for him.
“Funny enough, I didn't get into the music school. Uh, I guess I wasn't good enough for whatever reason,” he said. “My backup plan was to become a marine biologist. So, I studied biology for the first year of UT, and halfway through that, I was like, I can't do this. I have got to play drums.”
Upon coming to that realization, he doubled down on getting into music school.
“So I took that first semester and really dug in on my audition music and whatever I needed to do,” he said. “Once I got in, I knew exactly this was it. This was what it was going to be for the rest of my life, for sure.”
Behind a drum set is where he feels like his best self, he said.
“I feel like I'm my most self. And that's the most cliché thing, I think. But I really do feel my best self when I'm behind the kit or playing percussion,” he said. “It's crazy.”
But, like in the case of the many others, the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to playing together with others and making music as a band. Gonzales said he missed it, to say the least.
“We've missed it,” he said. “We missed this for a year and a half. I didn't play music with my friends for almost a year and a half. It's kind of crazy. So come out and enjoy. Everybody wants to do it. Just come in and we love it.”
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