Interview with Mike Dolbear on www.mikedolbear.com

Having spent the early part of his career honing the talents of others and developing some of Britain’s most promising musicians as part of the Drumtech School Tom Meadows finds himself in the enviable position of having worked with Lucie Silvas, Girls Aloud and now world wide multi platinum selling artist Duffy as she continues the promotion of her world wide smash debut album Rockferry. I caught up with Tom on a well deserved but rarely possible break from touring as he reflected on the last 18 months, the future ahead and his past successes and influences.

Tell us your plotted history, did bands or teaching come first, where did the practise and the teaching cross over and where do you think were the key moments where you made the decision to do a particular job?

It’s interesting actually because, as it’s still relatively fresh, I can see clear choices and clear branches. I’ve been in bands since I was 16 years old, when I was 17 I played in a band that were signed to the Acid Jazz label, unfortunately that whole style, that culture, was starting to die as the now-burgeoning dance and, specifically actually, drum and bass scene arrived, so bands like Galliano who were the vanguard of acid jazz music, were starting to experiment with drum and bass breaks so the whole sound was shifting; it was becoming more dance and club orientated.

So that was about the time I was finishing school, finishing A levels and I was like ‘Right OK I’m going to be a musician’. I got one offer from Middlesex University and I decided not to do that and at the time I had been offered the teaching role in the school I was actually doing my A Levels at…

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