Darren Cesca has been a part of the music industry for over a decade. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2003 and specializes in extreme styles of music but has been taught and has playing experience in many genres.

Back around the year 2000, Darren’s interest in drumming began to grow from rock/metal into something a bit more extreme.  Speed metal, death metal and black metal really became a central focus of his drumming.  This approach to drumming required an entirely new thought process and routine to be able to play.

Over the next 3 or so years Darren studied everything about some of the top extreme drummers and best albums at the time.  Learning about the nuances that make each subgenre it’s own as well as the drumming choices that made each drummer stand out.  He also put together a practice regimen that more closely resembled a speed and endurance workout then what someone might typically do for a drum rehearsal.  This was the kind dedication that was required to get his body and mind to where it needed to be.

Also during a couple years in the 2000’s Darren worked with Mike Mangini as an instructor.  Mike became an integral part of helping Darren look into the importance or muscle function and body movement when it came to maximizing speed, endurance and accuracy at high speeds.  Darren introduced Mike to the extreme genres of drumming that he was learning and studying and together they found great ways to apply some of Mike’s philosophies to Darren’s playing.

In the mid 2000’s Darren hit the road and toured internationally with bands such as Arsis, Burn in Silence and Goratory.  It was a challenge playing extreme music every night but one that Darren relished in.  His goal always being to try and perform at the top of his game every single night he walked on stage.  As with everything else, a regimine was put into place before stepping on stage, which instilled the confidence needed to perform at a high level regardless of the circumstances surrounding the evening.

After coming off the road and having garnered a nice reputation in the extreme drumming scene Darren decided to focus more on session work.  He had always taken an interest in the production and engineering side of things when it came to music and had plenty of experience in it.  With that in mind “House of Grind of Studio was born.

Since around 2007 Darren has worked almost exclusively out of his studio and has done work on albums with bands such as Eschaton, Pillory, Incinerate, Skinned, Isolation in Infamy and many more.  He has also worked with Treyarch/Activison on music for the game Call of Duty Black Ops 2.

2014 was the year that Darren’s first official solo record under the name Pillory was released through Unique Leader records.  It was an opportunity to write without compromise and try some new concepts and approaches that maybe hadn’t come up in the past.  He wrote, recorded, mixed and mastered the entire album and considers it one of his biggest accomplishments.  The drumming is a great representation of Darren’s style and creativity. Look for a follow up in 2017 or 2018!

Now in 2016 he currently runs “House of Grind studio” where he does the majority of his session work as well as producing, mixing and mastering work for other artist s as well as video production work.  With several more sessions planned for the near future it seemed like the right time to find a drum kit that could put a stamp on his work.

Spaun understands that for extreme drumming the everyday drum kit just won’t cut it.  The new Xtreme Series was created with a certain style of playing in mind.  A special genre of music requires a special kind of kit.  Very soon, the first sessions will be tracked on these Spaun Xtreme Series drums and people will be able to hear them do what they were designed for.  There are already albums lined up for Darren to work on and he doesn’t look to be stopping anytime soon!

If you’d like to contact Darren for work or just to say what’s up, you can find him through numerous different sources.

Message me on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/DarrenCesca

Hit me up on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/darren.cesca

Find me on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Blastfest03

Check out all types of audio that I've been involved with on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/darrencesca