"I travel the globe and meet so many players! I am so impressed with a young drummer I have had the privilege to meet. Dennis is such a tremendous talent. His maturity in his approach to drumming is very creative. Combined with a strong musical standard secures himself as a talent to listen for in the future! Keep your ears open..."
Born and raised in the west of Holland, Dennis Leeflang (pronounced "Lafe-long") was never the ordinary Dutchman. After several years of playing snare
drum in various local brass bands, the step up to the drumset was a natural progression when entering high school. Labeled by many of his classmates and
friends as a loner, he had dedicated himself to his one and only passion of playing the drums, locking himself up to practice sometimes up to 12 hours a day.
His dedication soon drew the attention of local musicians and press and at age 20, Dennis was not only gigging all over Europe, but also teaching drums
part-time. By age 22, successful projects in his home country included bands such as Within Temptation, Sun Caged and Epica.
When invited to tour with New York's craziest guitar virtuoso Bumblefoot, a.k.a. Ron Thal (Guns N' Roses), in 2002, Dennis soon realized
how small Holland, and how big the rest of the world and its opportunities are. In 2004, the 25 year old drummer exchanged wind mills for skyscrapers and
moved to New York City, carrying with him merely his cymbals and some clothes.
Only days after his arrival in The Big Apple, Dennis found himself teaching and playing with local bands daily. Now able to commit himself to working with
the man on his home territory, Dennis became Bumblefoot's steady skinsman, which enabled him to record and tour with the Foot on a regular basis. This did
not go unnoticed by his motherland's press and a handful of drum companies. Dennis would soon join forces with several companies in the form of endorsement
agreements, enabling him to travel all over the globe to perform clinics and workshops and exchange knowledge with like-minded drum fanatics. Around the same
time, Dennis was voted high in the readers polls of his home-country’s drummers magazine Slagwerkkrant, as well as featured in advertisements and
write-ups in major international drum magazines such as Drum! and Modern Drummer.
In New York, Dennis has been studying with the great Dom Famularo, as well as accepting projects in various unfamiliar genres with some world renown
artists and producers, forcing him to develop a great sense of diversity, dynamics and technique, as well as a fresh approach to creativity. Because of close
and numerous production collaborations in New York as well as in Europe in the past, added to deep-rooted interest in recording techniques, Dennis has gotten
more and more involved in the production side of his recording sessions, resulting in numerous (co-)production collaborations in NY and overseas.
Dennis claims to be a band drummer, first and foremost. Playing with as many people as possible is simply a valuable learning experience for the eager
musician, always on the lookout for "that one band", but never limiting himself to being involved in few projects. Whether it'd be as a drummer, teacher,
producer or event organizer.
While possessing over a great knowledge of technique, Dennis feels like a fish in water when he's asked to lay down a solid groove. As some of his main
drumming influences, Dennis names Nicko McBrain, Steve Jordan, Dave Abbruzzese, Stewart Copeland, Chad Smith, Jeff Porcaro and Josh Freese.
Hi Dennis Leeflang, "Meet the Meatbats," the debut release from Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith's new group is a TOP 10 Jazz/Funk Album on iTunes! The CD is a sexy and loud, sonic funk experience that fuses together styles as diverse as funk, punk and 70's R&B! GET IT NOW ON ITUNES, along with Free banner and wallpapers downloads on the MySpace page! Please help spread the word with your friends and thanks for supporting Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats!!!
Hey Dennis - if you get a moment of free time - I'd be HONORED if you took a look at my band's videos!! Just come out to my page to check them out, or go to Youtube and type in Circleswitch in the search engine. I hope you're havin' a blast w/ Lita Ford!
Hi Dennis Leeflang, Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers & Chickenfoot) presents the Bombastic Meatbats, a sexy and loud, sonic funk experience that fuses together styles as diverse as funk, punk and 70's R&B! The CD will be in stores on September 15th and is available for <a href="http://www.warriorrecords.com/bombasticmeatbats/">PREORDER NOW, along with Free banner and wallpapers downloads</a>! Please help spread the word and thanks for supporting Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats!!!
Well, I was just gonna add something else as I was bidding farewell but MySpace didn't let me because I'm such an intensive text bitch and I hit the message's character limit :0 Soz.
Anyways, I was just gonna tell you to stay cool and hoping everything went okay on the tour. I was surprised to see your names on Lita Ford's lineup band, must have been a really interesting experience :) Make sure you tell us how everything went for you.
Oh god NO! I've been so awfully busy that I didn't even have an idea for how long you'd be around touring with Lita Ford. My bad for not being synched with the tour dates, sorry.
There's a good chance I might have the opportunity to see Ron LIVE in the near future (or not), since I bet Guns'n'Roses will stop by Portugal or Spain eventually. And meeting him would be awesome, naturally. But I have to see you drum and congratulate you on what you've accomplished so far. Been noticing and following your stuff for a long time already, when I was still an open-yet-close-minded kid who only considered prog to be music xD I admire the way you grow musically on each record that's out, especially noticable on your input on Bumblefoot's albums. On Abnormal I was stunned by the change you put into it, such a different groove from Normal, and totally setting the "Abnormal" ambience thingy going on. You definitely influence me, and it seems Ron has found someone who complements him :D And Ron being my number one artist ever, I'm happy for him and for you! Oh, and of course, I HAVE to catch some Bumblefoot (band) live act somewhere, somehow, someday. But I imagine it's hard setting out a tour overseas and get a chance to drop by south europe.. It'll happen, I'll be there eventually.
By the way, I'm registered on the BBForum under Baltazar but I don't post often, because the architecture course is a life-sucking-bastard. But I hang around and check it every once in a while and I find it really cool that you guys are always up-do-date with it and get all confortable reaching out for the fans and stuff. Awesome of you, because you guys don't hear that as often as you should. :) But I've been trying to get some time so I can post there more often and live the thing a little. I will most certaily bother ya with some drum things I've been wondering for a while, BBF tracks related.
HELLO DENNIS! NICE TO MEET YOU MY NEW FRIEND! I KNOW VERY WELL WHO YOU ARE!!!! HE,HE,HE! YOUR PLYING IS SO 'HARD' THAT I VERY DIFFICULT FORGOT IT!! I SAW YOU BEFORE IN A FEW DAYS WITH LITA AND THE ONLY THING I CAN SAY IS..."YOU GOT IT MAN!"... HARD ROCK BANDS WANT DRUMMERS LIKE YOU... GOOD LUCK MY FRIEND DENNIS AND I HOPE TO SEE YOU AGAIN... KISSES AND HUGS FROM GREECE... (ACTUALLY YOU MAY SUFFERED WITH ALL THESE UNUSUAL HOT WEATHER SITUATIONS AND YOU HAD THIS GREEK HOT SUN STRAIGHT TO YOU!)...BUT YOU WERE GREAT!;)
Alles goed? Druk on the road zie ik! ik zit sinds een aantal maanden in een nieuwe band Gentlemen > www.myspace.com/musicbygentlemen. Geniet van het weer!
Damn, gast wat ben ik mega jaloers op je! Met Lita Ford touren. Zou ik niet alleen een 'boner'van Lita krijgen, maar ook van deze tour! ;-) Enjoy, dude!
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