Band - Daniel Zimmermann
"I started playing drums at the age of twelve, before that I had played a bit of flute, but that wasn't the real thing, I had always wanted to learn how to play drums. I played for many years then all over the area around Nürnburg (where I was born in 1967) and Würzburg. Later, I went on to study at the Frankfurt music college (for jazz music), that was from 1988 to 1990, and around the same time I also played in a cover band. From 1991 to 1992 I studied at the 'American Institute if Music' in Vienna. That was really a great time, I really learnt a lot about playing drums. After that I went on to tour with the Comedy Rock band Heinz for about a year. After that, Lanzer was following who I was with from 1993 until only recently. I met Kai and Dirk in November of 1993 while we were staying here in Hamburg for the recordings of the Lanzer CD. During that I was working with Dirk, and Kai played a solo on one song. That was a very good colaboration with Dirk, and we got on well with each other right from the beginning and so I also learnt a lot about drumsounds. We also stayed in touch afterwards and in January of this year the Lanzer guitarist told me that GammaRay were looking for a new drummer and as I had told Lanzer that I was leaving anyway because I wanted to move on and leave that cover thing behind because I just wasn't enjoying it anymore I applied for the job with GammaRay then. I did so many cover things over the years, hardly anything of my own, because around the Nurnberg/Wurzburg it's really hard to get gigs whith your own music. Actually, the only way to become a good musician is to play live on stage as much as possible. There are also advantages about playing cover versions: you can make an easy living and you can play live a lot. However, I have reached a certain point now at which I feel I have to push on and go a step further and I'm sure with Gamma Ray that will work well."
Daniel Zimmermann (written right after he joined Gamma Ray in 1997) |
Photo © 2009: Alex Jusseit |