For those of you that have known me for a while, you know that this time of year is very special to me… it is a time of rebirth, as this time 4 years ago I was getting ready to be physically reborn again, thanks to my mother donating her precious kidney to me in order that I could live a somewhat normal life again… so once this time of year comes around, I cannot but reflect on what it is I am doing with my life… am I happy… am I doing things that will truly help me reach my full potential… am I moving forward, instead of spinning my wheels on the spot? Because something I have had to learn the hard way, is that things can change at the drop of a dime… you can never really take this precious thing called life for granted, and there is only one person who can make that decision to make a change for the better… and that is YOU!
2016 is especially meaningful to me for reasons I have never shared with anyone but close friends and family. But now I feel the time is ripe for me to share this with my online community… but in order to do so I am going to have to backtrack to 2009 whilst I was on tour with Cirque Du Soleil in Los Angeles…
I was particularly excited to be there not just to be performing on the beach at the Santa Monica Pier for 10 weeks straight but to finish my right arm sleeve tattoo that I had begun all the way back in 2001 when I lived in Hollywood. Bok, my tattoo artist and friend, took a few basic design pointers of what I had in mind and RAN with it… by about 2006 he had tattooed my arm all the way up to my bicep and then said he had something in mind for my shoulder and would do that the next time I was there… well 2009 was that time and when I went there, I told him to go for it…
I had no idea what he was planning to put there but had complete trust by this point that it would be amazing… he took out his sharpie markers and just started free styling on my upper arm and shoulder and within about 15 minutes had drawn an enormous Phoenix on my shoulder. It was so awesome, that I was like “Let’s DO this!” and the rest is history!
At the time I didn’t read any significance into it, but what was about to happen was very eery to say the least…
For those of you unfamiliar with the Phoenix myth, this is what Wikipedia has to say: “In Greek mythology, a phoenix is a long-lived bird that is cyclically regenerated or reborn. A phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor.”
Within about 3 months of having my tattoo completed, I was rushed to hospital whilst performing in San Diego only to be told that both of my kidneys were shutting down that very moment and if I didn’t get immediate dialysis treatments I would be dead within a few days – at that moment I didn’t even know what dialysis meant but that was about to change…
In just a few minutes the entire trajectory of my life changed and would never be the same again. I went from international touring musician with one of the most successful entertainment companies of all time to a person who needed to be hooked up to a machine that cleansed my blood every couple of days just to stay alive.
My life as I had known it for all intents and purposes died a metaphoric slow and painful death. I spent the following two years being kept alive by dialysis machines and thought that this was the way it was going to be for the rest of my life…
That was up until January 2012, when my mother went through the painful process of having one of her kidneys removed and, in an act of pure love, gave me a new start to life again.
That was three years ago almost to this day. During that time though things were still pretty intense. The medications had been tough for my system to get used to – they weaken my immune system so that my body doesn’t reject the transplant – and it literally took a couple of years for my body to get accustomed to them. And then I had another unfortunate thing happen to me – my right shoulder joint tore and I need surgery yet again, and that took over a year to heal. Which brings us to the current time…
For the first time since 2009 I feel physically, emotionally and spiritually strong again and ready to take on the world – the Phoenix is ready to take flight once more. And from 2016 forward, I have decided to go all out and pursue my dreams like never before… no more looking back… only onwards and upwards.
One of my biggest dreams has always been to document my process and method of drumming for the current and next generations, as it definitely is a unique one… for those of you that have known me for a while, you know that I have been keeping journals of all of the insights I have had and exercises I have come up with since the early 1990’s – hundreds of pages of handwritten notes and exercises – and I am glad to announce that I am going to be putting together a series of online courses throughout 2016 and beyond, in which I will share all of these deep insights about rhythm that have come to me through decades of practice and performing.
Let me be completely honest with you… I have been wanting to share this method with the world for many, many years now, but felt insecure about presenting it in its purest form… there was always that little devil sitting on my shoulder, telling me it wasn’t good enough and that I needed to make it more palpable and entertaining to get people to check it out – as you know, competition online is crazier than it ever has been!
That has all changed now though. I have decided to listen to the angel on the other side and stay true not only to myself but to the source whence these insights have come from and present it all, as it has always meant to be presented. And I have decided to give away the fundamental ideas of KOA Drumming that, as far as I know, are unique to me – at least in terms of what is on the drumming market online and elsewhere. I will be rolling it out on my site, koadrumming.com, in regular installments from this day forward.
If you have any interest in drumming – if you are a beginner, intermediate or even an advanced player, you really won’t want to miss this chance to access these ideas and exercises that I have been crafting and refining for so long now… trust me, you will save yourself years of work!
Remember this is the time of rebirth – the year of the Phoenix… you have a brand new opportunity too, to start anew and give yourself the chance of understanding and expressing yourself through rhythm… and the time truly is now… because, as in my case when I was diagnosed with kidney failure, things can change at the drop of a hat and you may not have the time and energy to do this in the future like you do right now…
Think of all those years in the past when you made a new years resolution and didn’t see it through… if you had just stuck with it, where could you be right now? I say make 2016 the year you decided to dive deep, and I mean deep, into rhythm and make a commitment to yourself to make it happen… I would be honored if I could be your guide along the way.
Just for the record, I too am only human, and it helps me to know that there is a community of people out there, however small, that not only support what I am doing here, but are also interested in the subject matter I will be sharing… I don’t usually ask for favors, but in this instance, if YOU are interested in this in any way, please let me know, either in the comments or drop me a line at eshan@koadrumming.com so I know there is someone on the other side of my screen who is reading this – if not you could share it with someone you think might be interested… that will definitely give me the motivation to keep going (and trust me I need every bit of it :).
If you haven’t done this already, click here right now – not tomorrow or the next day, and sign up to get started, and also stay up to date on the stuff I will be posting in the future.
Thanks for taking the time to read this – I know it was long – and I look forward to passing on this flame I have been nurturing for so long – for YOU to take it to the next level… Look forward to hearing from you, eshan