Lucas Frank Is A Jack Of All Trades By Mia Lepp

GRAMMY Camp®, held at the USC campus in Los Angeles, is filled with talented Campers from all over the U.S One of them is 17-year-old drummer Lukas Frank, from Santa Monica, California. At the GRAMMY Camp mini-concert held on July 10th he showed everyone how talented he was by playing in two different combos, one being a jazz piece and the other a rock piece. Each time he performed in a combo the faculty would make comments on the drumming by saying, "The drummer did a good job keeping the pace of the song where it should be and not rushing it." The following day I met up with Lukas to interview him and talk about his drumming.

ML: Hi, my name is Mia Lepp, and you are?

Lukas Frank: I’m Lucas Frank, I’m 17, and it’s my first time at GRAMMY Camp.

ML: How do you like it so far?

LF: It's good, I like it. I like the collaboration, the different tracks, and that everyone working here is pretty much in the thick of It In their field. My favorite parts are the collaborations and that's my favorite part about music in general. I think this gives you a good sense about what the real world is like and I’m enjoying my track.

ML: How long have you been playing drums for?

LF: Ten years, but I tell people four.

ML: Why?

Lucas: Ttwo reasons: one, If you say 10 years they are expecting you to sound like 10 years and that's too much pressure on me. Then the other reason Is I don't count the years when I was like seven and taking classes, I had a good teacher and I liked It, I definitely liked It but I wasn't really studying, learning about the instrument. I really got passionate about It when I was 12 or 13.

ML: What is your favorite part about playing the drums?

Lucas: Just the feeling to have like an extension of yourself, just something to hide behind.

ML: Who inspires you when you play the drums? What musicians do you look up to?

Lucas: It depends, in certain situations I'll have different inspirations. If I'm playing a funky tune I'll try and sound like my favorite funk drummer. If I'm playing a jazz standard I'll think about my favorite jazz drummer or whatever. I've never had one, but if it was to be one person who constantly inspired me it would probably be like my dad, my uncle, my grandpa, or something like that.

ML: When you're playing the drums what types of style do you like to play the most?

Lucas: I hop around or I have been hopping around, it used to be jazz. I used to be obsessed and that was like my only thing and then sophomore year I heard John Bonham play and I was like, "Damn, that's cool," so I got back into rock. I get conflicted because you want to be a jack of all trades but you don't want to spread yourself too thin and you want to be a specialist but you also like certain different genres. It's hard to pick and chose but I would say jazz, rock, alternative rock, indie rock, funk, just anything with good musicians who will kick my [butt] and make it fun.

ML: All right well thank you and by the way you were great yesterday.

Lucas: Thank you so much.