Jacopo Volpe on Drumming, Post Malone, and Developing His Unique Style
When did you start playing drums?
I started playing drums at like four or five years old. I was surrounded by music because my dad used to play, not as a professional musician, but he plays organ and stuff like that. So it’s probably why I started playing drums and music in general. I joined him in playing when I was very young, and we used to do jam sessions. I didn’t have a Plan B for my life. I always wanted to be a musician. Being on stage is the best feeling in the world.
How did you get the gig with Post Malone?
Of course, I was a fan of Post Malone. When I used to listen to his songs, I felt connected with him because I really liked the songwriting, and he didn’t have a specific genre. He can play everything, and everything he does sounds amazing. I met him in 2018 when I flew from Italy to the US for one of his shows.
It was May 2018. A friend gave me a backstage pass, and I saw him in front of his tour bus. I got to show him a video of me playing one of his songs called, Over Now, and he was really interested in watching the video. After he saw the video, he gave me his number.
After that, I stayed in contact with the production team. At the time, he wasn’t playing with a band. He was just playing with tracks. I would check in every six months or so. In 2019, I had the chance to jam with him in a jam room backstage, but it wasn’t until 2023 that he started going out with a band, and that’s when I got a call. I had to rush to get my Visa to work in the US. I had less than a month to do everything. I started learning all the songs, every arrangement, every single pattern. I was trying to be as precise as I could.
My motto is that you have to play for the music, not for yourself. I wanted to be respectful, and then, when we were in the rehearsals, we changed things a little bit. He might say, give me some more on this, play less on that, and that’s it. On the first day of rehearsals with Posty, we played like five or six songs, and then we jammed for like four hours, going from blues to country, and ended up in metal stuff. It was so cool!
How did you find your drumming style?
You’ve got to be very specific to find your style, no matter what the genre is. I grew up listening to a lot of different styles of music, from rhythm and blues to country, jazz, and fusion. Then I switched to punk rock, metal, electronic music and stuff like that, but I always tried to find my way of expressing myself, trying to mix all the influences I had to become the best drummer I could be. Not being stuck just in one style is important. Versatility is important, especially if you want to work in the music business.
What is your warm-up routine?
I don’t have a specific routine. I want to be ready for the show, so I usually start playing on my drum pad and doing a lot of rudiments. Backstage, everyone likes to listen to music. They put on a song, and I do single and double strokes on that beat, and then I go to triplets and get up to 64th notes. It makes the practice more fun to play along with a variety of songs. It’s a good way to not just be on your phone with a metronome doing rudiments, although playing with a metronome is important. I started playing with the metronome and click tracks at 18 or 19. I used to play with a lot of bands and artists with backing tracks because it’s part of the show – the lights and everything are orchestrated around the click, so you cannot mess up with that.
My suggestion is that when you practice on your own, you play with a click and also play without a click and just go with the flow. But if you want to work in music and do pop or big gigs, you’ve got to be able to play with a metronome.
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