House of Drumming.com

How does one develop their individual voice, their "own thing", in a world over-saturated with players and musicians who share, more or less, the same influences?

I think a good way to begin to answer this question is actually by emulating many, many people and having many musical (and other) heroes, over a long period of time. Tony Williams said that he tried to play exactly like Art Blakey, Philly Joe Jones, Max Roach, and others when he played along to records. By trying to cop not just the notes, not just the phrasings, but the FEEL of his heroes, he came up with his own feel in the process. He was being intentional, without trying too hard. Likewise, Vinnie did everything he could to play exactly like Tony, Billy Cobham, Elvin Jones, and others, and yet he came up with his own distinctive feel as well.

The key here, is that it didn't happen overnight, for anybody. All of the greats practiced their butts off, and not just the technical side of things...Jeff Porcaro was a great example of someone who emphasized the groove, the nuance, the tension and release of playing great music.

Vinnie himself said once in an interview, IIRC, "Before you can play for the music, you have to WANT to play for the music." Every unique musical individual has that attitude.

Sorry if I'm rambling a bit, but those are my thoughts.

I disagree slightly that we all have the same influences. We are an amalgamation of not only our drumming influences, but our musical influences, lifes influences etc etc. It is these differences that make us who we are as individual drummers. There are way too many variables to make us sound the same.

If you do sound the same as a particular drummer, cut it out!! You probably are aware that you are doing it. I don't quite understand why someone would do this...just copy everything a drummer would do. I understand this is true of younger drummers that are in the learning stage of their development. But there has to be a point where you want to have your own voice. I think listening to a lot of different music, and not just drummers, helps you develop your own thing. Playing another instrument helps as well.

I disagree whole-heartedly that we have the same influences.

Sure, we might share a handful or two but growing up, we had
local teachers, national treasures and regional greats to inspire us, before
we turned our attention to the international scene.

Some of my biggest influences at an early stage were:
Jan Lysdahl
Niels Ratzer
Alex Riel
H.C. Mogensen
Carsten Sønderskov
Per Lindwall
Nicci Wallin
Steve Holly