now one of the worlds most prolific drummers german musician benny grebs tryst with the drums began when he started to play on all kinds of things in the house till he finally got a small and cheap drum set when he was sixyearsold that was just the start of a journey that would later tread diverse and multivariate musical waters and result in associations with different genres and acclaimed artists benny gets talking to ctmusic in beatswhen it comes to making music it really just boils down to context many drummers try to learn standard beats and play them where they hope they fit my music comes mainly from listening first it is also important how you listen when i want to create a pattern of beats i listen to music with all my concentration and get inspiredcollaboratingworking alongside fellowartists helps you to always keep yourself open and create something new no two people are the same and i try to treat every artist and art form with a lot of respect i get great experiences in return of course it is the best when i work with an artist who is skilled and also has a sense of musicianship benny has worked with a number of bands ensembles and solo artists like the ron spielman trio sabri tulug tirpan jerobeam bobby mcferrin wayne krantz strom and wassermusical momentsthere are so many memorable incidents and moments but the one that comes to my mind is the work that i did for stewart copeland drummer of the police i am a huge fan of his and when one of your drum idols asks you to play for him it is very special it is something i will never forgetindia callingindia influenced me long before i even got here i was impressed and inspired by the indian rhythm culture for many years and i tried to find musicians who could teach me to play the konnakol i later met pete lockett an english percussion master who is very good at these things also since drummer steve smith is a good friend of mine i got many ideas from him in fact in one of my dvds i have a duet piece with lockett on the tabla i love the sound of the tabla and have huge respect for it i recently bought a digital tabla drum computer and plan to have some fun with itin the pipelinei will play a gig with chennai guitarist prasanna in sri lanka next weekend and after that i will record another stewart copeland song back in germany for a group called elbtonal percussion i will do more solo shows in africa next month and then go on tour with blue touch paper a new jazz band from englandfavourite drummersthere are so many but my teenage heroes were steve gadd stewart copeland and dave weckl