Meet Pete Abdou

We recently connected with Pete Abdou and have shared our conversation below.

Pete, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

I think when it comes to Music and music related “Work” I have always stayed focused and driven to accomplish as much as I could while still having fun with it. If I couldn’t’ have fun doing something I wouldn’t do it. My father was always working towards something to support his family or just to stay busy, learning things, reading books a lot, He would be doing something in the yard every day, even through retirement and he enjoyed it. He was into crossword puzzles and word searches in the news paper, always kept his mind going. So I suppose I inherited that from my father. Even though I am into different things than he was I got the work ethic from him.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Currently I am touring the world with various Musical artists as a drumtech, (Volbeat, Bush, Extreme), performing in 2 bands around the New England area, teaching drums to students here in Massachusetts and recording various artists as a performer and a studio engineer at my studio, Mono e Mono Studios. I have been a drummer since I was twelve, so 40 plus years. All the other things I do now came as a result of that. As a drumtech for the past 15 years I have gotten to see the world and travel to places I probably would have never seen otherwise. Drumming to me in the beginning was just about learning covers or writing songs with my friends in my parents basement, I was pretty obsessed and would be down there every day , banging away making a racket. My parents are saints, my father got to bed at 9pm and would get up every morning at 3 am to go to work and would still let us jam till 10pm every night. Crazy.

As a kid being in a band you dreamed of being a rockstar so your focus was writing songs and going out and playing shows in your local clubs and then eventually spreading out regionally and maybe nationally if you’re lucky. There was no internet in the ’80s when I was doing this and you just had to get out there and be seen.
Now it’s a little easier with the internet because it’s easier to be seen I guess. My focus shifted as years went on, it wasn’t just about being a rockstar anymore It was about being able to do it for a living in whatever capacity.

I was trying to find other ways besides just playing shows to make money and survive and still be relevant in the music industry. I started teaching drums to get out of the standard 9-5 day job. I was up to 65 students a week at one point.

In the meantime, I would take every gig that was offered to me as a live or recording drummer. I played with so many different artists, learned new music through playing with those artists, recording different albums just to create a network. Later in life, probably in my late 30’s I discovered the “crew” side of music. I became a stagehand and eventually a touring drumtech. The drum tech position I embraced because I got to travel and see the world, meet different artists and bands that maybe I grew up listening to and just be in the thick of it musically . It was a natural progression for me always looking for that next step to keep things fresh and move forward.

Being a Drumtech takes up most of my time these days although I am starting to see a shift and the traveling isn’t as fun as it used to be for me. I am doing more in the studio and playing during the breaks from tour.
I will have a new EP coming out for Christmas this year with one of my bands, BUMBLES BOUNCE. I record a lot with these guys and we currently have 2 full length albums and an EP out. You can find us on all streaming services or through my website at www.peteabdou.com as well as everything else I do with music. I have new music from my second band “The Somethin’ Somethings” coming out in 2025 as well. My website has been the hub for all my ventures for decades.

Moving forward I am focused on doing more recording and teaching drums. It seems to be the most fullfilling for me these days, having something to show for it. Recorded music is forever.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Tenacity, focus and being open to all aspects of your industry.

Back when I was in my twenties a drummer by the name of Mark Schulman (Cher, Pink, Foreigner and more) told me he loved my tenacity. That stuck with me over the years and I really tried to embrace that and use that in order to go after what I wanted. I thank him for that because I never realized I had it and by him saying that it made me pay more attention to how I approach things in the future. It also made me keep in touch with people even when maybe the project we worked on together is over. It could be someone I played a gig with or on a record with or worked a tour with. I try and at the very least, send a “Happy Holidays” message or just a hello to people to keep me on their radar. it is so easy to lose track of people these days, which is kind of ironic being that we have more ways of communication than ever these days.

As far as focus goes I was always a believer and still am in focusing on whatever goal you’re trying to achieve and taking the steps to get there. And it could be playing with a band ,it could be recording a record, it could be finding new students or learning a new skill or language. You have to focus on what you want and kind of have blinders on. My mom would tell her friends , “If it doesn’t have to do with music Peter probably doesn’t remember that”. Even if it’s just a certain amount of time a day that you focus on these things at least you’re doing it everyday and you will eventually get there.

What I mean by being open to all aspects of your industry is this, let me give you an example. I was in a band for about 2 years in the early ’90s and that’s all I focused on was that band. When that band broke up I didn’t know what I was going to do because I had put all my eggs in that basket so to speak. I learned a valuable lesson from that. So from then on I played with whoever would give me a gig and by doing that I met so many great performers, played on so many cool records and toured with great bands for years. But it opened me up to maybe taking a gig in a style of music that I wasn’t comfortable with or never thought I would play and it made me a better player and it made my network bigger to get more gigs.

So that’s probably the biggest piece of advice I could give anybody, don’t pigeonhole yourself into just one area of your given industry. The wider the net you have the more you’re going to achieve and the more you will get from it. It’s true for me, that’s how i became a drum tech. I would not be a drum tech if I didn’t perform with a certain artist that I had met randomly in a bar after a gig years before I got the call to be a drum tech. That is the short version of that story.

My point is, look beyond your immediate skill, for me, I look beyond playing the drums. What else can i do in the music industry to move forward and stay in it. Then when you find something you think you are interested in trying, Focus on it, and be tenacious enough to go after it.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

I take on a lot of projects all at once so yes i get overwhelmed at times. In order to deal with being overwhelmed
the first thing i do is walk away, take a drive and listen to some great music to reset my brain.
Deep breathing helps a lot. Lists really help me accomplish tasks in an orderly fashion. Physically crossing things of the list is very gratifying so makes me feel better. Keeping a calendar also helps. I put certain tasks on each day that make sense for my deadlines. I don’t worry so much about how much I accomplish every day, just that i accomplish something.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Britt Bowman
Bethany Lamoureaux

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