Famous Drummers – Steve Shelley
Steve Shelley is an American born drummer who is most famous for his work with Sonic Youth, though he also worked for a punk rock band formed in 1982 as well as several other Michigan based bands. He was hired onto Sonic Youth without an audition, showing just how skilled he was, not only as a drummer, but also as a performer. Shelley split his time between Sonic Youth and Two Dollar Guitar, though he is perhaps more famously known as the drummer for Sonic Youth.
Shelley was discovered while playing for a band in the early 1980s in Manhattan. He met Thurston and Lee, both members of Sonic Youth while playing in New York and later when he returned to New York after leaving the band, he met up with them again and they invited him to play in order to replace their previous drummer Bob Bert who had left due to differences in opinion about the music the band was playing (though he and Shelley have an amicable relationship today). The founding pair had heard him play and were so impressed that they brought him into the band without an audition and he did not disappoint them. Everything fell into place for both parties after that-the band got a very skilled drummer and Shelley got a job with a band that would continue to work steadily through the 80s and be well known into the 90s and beyond, (to the point where the band has been guest stared in the popular Guitar Hero series). While working for Sonic Youth, Shelley also partnered with Tim Foljahn to create the band Two Dollar Guitar, which focused on grimmer, darker songs than Sonic Youth, giving Shelley a wide breadth of music genres to draw upon for his experience.
Steve Shelley was born in 1963 in Midland, Michigan. He joined Sonic Youth when he was only 22. He continues to play with the band today and has also created his own independent label Smells Like Records. He runs it out of his own home, treating it more of a hobby than a job since treating it as a job bored him. He enjoys traveling and playing music-running the label seems to be nothing more than a side hobby to him and he would never let it consume his life. He now lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, where his label is based and travels to Sonic Youths studio in Manhattan whenever he is needed there, or even just when he grows weary of his home office.
Drew Mers is a marketing consultant to Empire Rehearsal Studios, which rents aspiring bands, musicians and drummers music rehearsal space in Long Island City, Queens, New York. He is also a marketing consultant for a New York self storage company.