J.J. LaBriola

This is JJ and welcome to my website that I have put together to share my drum demos and influences to other musicians out there to network with. I have finally relocated to my birthplace of Denver,CO and am pursuing my goal of being a rockstar in my hometown. A little about me, I have always been into music and specifically music where drums are very noticable and in your face. I have always been into the classic rock bands such as Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, AC/DC, Aerosmith and all of these bands had a kick-ass drummer who was always in the pocket and very prominent in their playing whether it was simple or intricate. One of the drummers I first was compared to was Rick Allen of Def Leppard, one of the things that always stuck out in the early stuff was that heavy thud of the snare in their songs it was unmistakable and that was,and still is, their signature sound, if you check out Trigger/Pullit demo you will hear that influence on me and at that point I have been playing drums for only 9 mos. and I was hanging and playing with 15 yr musicians. The biggest influence to this day was when Motley Crue hit the scene and I saw them open up for Ozzy, the things that Tommy Lee did on a kit and how hard he hit the drums, I still watch interviews with other rockers and all of them cannot believe his power and timing. Once I bought my own kit , and sat down on the throne before I knew anything I double-tapped that snare just like Tommy and right then I knew what my style was going to be and who it was going to be after. I like to coin the term "Sunset Sleaze Metal" the music that spawned acts such as LA Guns, Motley Crue, Guns N Roses, Jetboy, Wasp, and mutiple other bands of the genre. I still listen to these guys in one way or another everyday and I often practice to Motley Crue to keep my chops up. I would have to describe my style as a cross between John Bonham and Tommy Lee and the speed on the bass drum of Lars Ulrich. I would like to find like-minded musicians that want to play this type of music either covers or originals and who have a legitimate love of this style of music and would like to keep it alive and bring it back to mainstream. The demos on this page show my versatility in my playing, the band London Quireboys had a real bluesy rock and roll sound, the Bones are a kick-ass punk group, Sick Love Song is a new Crue tune that I hope the next studio CD they will release will sound like and of course the speed of Lars. I am a very driven drummer and take the music very seriously and I want to be up on stage or in the studio again, the reason I have these demos because I would rather have other musicians hear what I can do and not try to explain in an email, the demos are my drum beats, when we did these in the studio the music is in the background thru the headphones but my beats are over the original tracks, so to give you an idea of my timing it had to be dead-on or two drummers would be heard instead of just myself, I have practiced with a metronome ever since I picked up the drumsticks and I am a "machine" when it comes to timing. I wanted to share these demos so bandmates can hear what I can do and not read in an ad. In the words of Aerosmith, "Let the music do the talking."- JJ.