Carlos Solorzano is a professional drummer & songwriter from Southern Arizona who is available for
drumming services & music licensing opportunities.
Carlos has been featured both as a performer and writer from DRUM! Magazine and is endorsed by and proudly uses:
Soultone Cymbals, Ahead Sticks & Accessories, Drum Dots and Hansenfutz Pedals.
Carlos Sanchez
Q; What drew you to the drums? Was it a particular drummer or a genre of music?
Carlos; I was interested in drumming in Middle school. I liked the parts that Lars Ulrich played on the “…And Justice For All” album. I was 12 when that album came out, but it wasn’t my 1st Metallica album. “Master of Puppets” peaked my interest at that time with the different feels in every song.
Q; You have a very powerful sound. Tell us a bit about your tuning method as well as your equipment choices. Why does this work for you?
Carlos; First of all, Remo heads exclusively. I can never find anything close to them. Emperor X Ebony Batter for my snares. I like the longevity of those heads. I’ve been using a brass Pearl Soprano snare. It’s basically a shallow 14” drum. I can crank it to sound like a Piccolo with a full body sound. I played on Tama Swingstars ever since High School. I love the shallow toms because Solorzano told me back then to keep the toms flat, no need to angle them. I recently switched to a Pearl Session Custom this year. It has a nice full bass drum sound, but with smaller/shorter toms (10,” 12,” & 14). I’ve been using Vic Firth Danny
Carey sticks for the last 15
years or so. I love how they
feel in my hands and the “notch” at the fulcrum of the stick. This prevents the sticks from flying out of my hands if I loosen up for a quick second.
Q; You have a strong presence in your playing. Can you give us some background on your technique? Who did you study with and how did this instructor impact your playing?
Carlos; “Play Through The Drum”. I teach this technique in the Marching World. It’s not only a
physical technique, it’s a mindset. Why stop at the head? Push the air through the drum. By the time I started to drum, I’ve had 4 years of piano lessons and 3 years of saxophone playing in Middle School. My first drum lesson was through Applied Music at El Camino Community College when I was 16 years old. Jeanette Wrate was my 1st teacher. She was a jazz drummer from Cal Arts. She opened up my mind with polyrhythms and odd meters. I was playing Frank Zappa’s “The Black Page” a year later. Joseph Mitchell was my next teacher. He helped me with my Concert Approach. You don’t just bang on drums, there’s a “Touch.” The late Tom Float was my Marching Percussion instructor. A big influence on the way I teach and write for ensembles.
Q; You have been a teacher for a long time. What got you into teaching and what has this taught you both as a teacher and a performer?
Carlos; I started teaching while I was in High School. My friend Tony Hughes was a band director at a local high school. He needed some help with his percussion section, so I would volunteer my spare time to his program. Then I went on to teach other programs, including my Alma Mater, after graduating High School. Teaching taught me to be patient, pay attention to detail, time management, expectations, and to be open minded about technique and approach on teaching/writing/performing.
Q; What advice would you give to those who want to get into teaching?
Carlos; The biggest tip I would give to those who wants to start teaching is to be patient. Not everyone learns the same way. Some students are readers, hands on, “you play and they copy”. Learn how to attack a lesson from many directions.
Q; You are also involved with writing and arranging music. How did you get involved with that and how did expanding your musical vocabulary impact your drumming?
Carlos; I started to write and teach at the same time. Why pay someone else to write custom arrangements for your groups? I write slightly above the levels of my groups so they have goals to achieve. It has taught me to pay attention to form, phrasing, musical vertical alignment, timbers of instruments, and to support the group; not just play time for a band.
Q; What are some of your immediate goals?
Carlos; I have different musical projects going on right now. I’m playing with a few groups at the moment. I would like to play more frequently with them. I’m currently teaching/arranging the Pep Band at Cal State Dominguez Hills, hoping to build that program again because it shut down during COVID. I’m also publishing drum set transcriptions and marching band arrangements.
Q; What is the best place for
people to see samples of your
work and contact you?
Carlos; You can find me at www.sonsofsocalband.com. My personal webpage Drumchuck.com is going to be up and running soon with multimedia of my work. For my transcriptions, you can search for “Carlos Sanchez” on sheetmusicplus.com. You can contact me at [email protected]
Here are some videos of Sons of So Cal:
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