I'm Meytal Cohen, Drummer with over 65 million YouTube views. AMA!

Top 5 Metal bands. GO!

in no particular order, 5 of my all time favorites are: Tool, Deftones, System Of A Down, Faith No More, Sevendust.

Is there a reason you play barefoot sometimes and sometimes you do not? Is it a comfort thing, or does it have an affect on how you play?

I notice weird things, I know.

it does affect my playing, I think it's a bit more solid with shoes... as silly as it sounds it usually depends on what I wearing, my favorite drumming shoes just don't go with everything lol.

Fellow drummer here, what made you decide to start making drum videos?

after we uploaded the video of toxicity, and it getting millions of views in a very short time I was getting may emails and messages asking me to upload more covers... I had all these songs that i've been practicing anyways so I decided to shoot those and upload.

Have you ever covered Dream Theater? If so, link? SOAD and DT are my top 2 bands of all time!

Edit: Just saw the quote from Portnoy on your Kickstarter page. High praise coming from one of the best of all time! I think I would have died hearing that from him!

I did "Pull Me Under": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hx_YU9m7nI also, met Mike and did this short interview with him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1O5bG-shd8 - he was so nice and yes, i almost died hearing that from him!!

Coming to LA to attend school straight from Israel, how hard/easy was it for you to get used to the change in culture?

It wasn't so easy... I knew english from TV before I came to the US but I found out that speaking it is much harder.

Hiii! You are amazing! The first song i heard you cover was Everlong by Foo Fighters and ever since then I've seen most of your videos! Question! How old were you when you first started playing the drums? Did you want to learn or did your parents make you?

I was 18, My dad was killed by a drunk driver while he was standing on the side walk when I was in second grade, and my mom raised us all by herself. it was very important to her that we all go study,and have a "serious profession that you can actually make a living of off" so no she wasn't happy with it. my entire family consists of lawyers, and dr and I would get calls on a daily basis asking me if "I've made it yet" and the general vibe was that I'm wasting my time.

1. What did you do for living (or still do?) after you came to USA? What paid your bills and bought your food,and drum sets?
2. Is it true that u and Lior Ron are married?

1. I didn't have a work visa for the first few years after moving to LA. and as terrible as it is, the only things that allowed me to stick around for as long as i did, was the fact I got some money from an insurance company, after rolling off a little cliff (I wasn't the idiot driver) and breaking 3 vertebras in a car accident with some ppl from school. the money ran out about the exact time when my drum covers started picking up bit. I wasn't able to make a living off of views because the songs are copyrighted, and so I opened my tiny online shop and was able to get by thanks to ppl that would buy my t shirts and posters.

2. Lior is my bf

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I use in ears monitors... I haven't found a very good pair yet. I really want to get a custom molded pair, but those cost insane amounts of money. it's definitely a problem for me, cause for learning drum parts by ear, I need to be able to hear the songs very clearly. then I've also been having a problem hearing myself when I play on top of songs, so lately I've been taking out the in-ear on the right ear, leaving only the left in, when I shoot videos... I think my right ear is starting to hate me. I need to get a better recording set up for sure.

No questions here, but I do want to say that I think you are a very talented woman, I absolutely LOVE your covers, and your smile is EPIC. I look forward to hearing your complete album. Keep being awesome!

-- Stephen

Thank you for the support!!!!! :-)

What's the mic setup you use to capture audio from your kit? I never see any visible mics on any of your drums, is it just room mics or are the audio and video streams recorded separately?

And as a fellow metal drummer it's awesome to see you doing this AMA and getting some recognition, keep it up!

thx! the first videos i did, i used an overhead mic and a kick mic (that's all i had and all i could afford!). some of them were recorded seperatley and then shot, although for almost all of my vids - what you see is what you hear. then i slowly started getting more mics and an interface, and now i record with: 2 overheads, 1 kick, snare top, snare bottom, hi-hat and 1 mic for the floor toms. i wish i could afford better mics and some pre-amps so that my kit would sound much better. hopefully with the kickstarter, i'll have some money left to ugprade my studio setup!

First off: You have an awesome name! How cool is it to be named Meytal? I just recently found your videos courtesy of stumbleupon.com. -the first video I saw was the Toxicity/violin cover.- You are an amazing drummer, and the song Breathe has become one of my favorite songs.

My question is: Since starting your YouTube channel and now your kickstarter, have you been getting more calls from record labels or music producers?

Thank you! Meytal means "dew water" in Hebrew and is quite a popular name in Israel. Yes, I have been getting some more recognition lately. it's almost as if the kickstarter and my song made people see me less as a gimmick and more as a legit musician. and yes as a result I have been getting some offers for representation, which I never had before, so I really hope more opportunities will open up as a result.

Hey Meytal! Huge fan of your videos! Do you have any plans to tour?

Keep rockin' \m/ \m/

yes, once my album is ready and I can find a way to fund that! I really hope to be able to tour in the near future!

What are, in no particular order, your all-time favorite bands?

so yeah it's super hard to put in order and it's kinda hard to put all these in a specific genres but these are the bands/ albums that have greatly influenced me: science and make yourself by incubus, deftones- white pony, the first korn, later on Sevendust- home and animosity, Tool Anima and lateralus, faith no more- king for a day. Primus sailing in the sea of cheese, pork soda, Led zeppelin, Metallica, Pantera.... and of course now there are many more that i can name but those were the ones that started it all for me.

I've seen your videos and I'm a huge fan of yours. my question is how did you learn to play or why did you want to learn to play?

always loved drums and rhythm, even as a kid, I asked my mom if I can drum, she didn't think it was a good ides, and put me in a tap dancing class instead. I did that for a couple of years , till my russian tap dancing teacher got deported. that was the end of that... till much later, one day in high school I found out there was a small music room that had a drum set, and ever since then, I would go on all the breaks and practice my drumming with pens and pencils. pretty soon I decided I wanted to learn drums. I just got into nu metal at the time and really wanted to be able to play all these crazy drum parts I was listening to. so I got a job, and worked till I was able to afford my first really shitty drum set!

Coming from another drummer, I honestly look up to you. What are some tips for a metal drummer?

thank you so much! I don't know that i am the best person to give tips for being a 'metal drummer', but some tips to improve your chops would be: practice with a metronome, work on your rudiments, learn other drummers parts (which is my personal fav) but mostly just practice in a consistent way, don't change your routine everyday.

Thx everyone! See you all next time. Meytal

Any Tool covers in the works for the future? That's how I found you, and I'm sure a lot of people did the same way.

i really wanted to cover 'eulogy', but then i realized danny uses percussion instruments for many parts of this song... i do have '46 & 2' on my shortlist right now. it takes forever to take out danny carey's drum parts, so going in to learning a tool song i need to have at least a week and a half or 2 available, so it's been hard fitting that into my schedule. i love tool and there will be more tool drum covers for sure!

Hi! Who or what has inspired you to be a drummer? Any future plans to cover a mars volta song?

always was drawn to it, from a very young age but got super into it when I got into metal around 16-17 years old. my first bf gave me a mixed tape, that had many amazing songs on it, I can't really say why I liked it so much, but something just clicked, and that was when I really decided I want to play drums.

Hey Metal! Oklahoma here! Have you ever done or considered doing a live broadcast or stream, such as on Justin.tv or Ustream?

hi oklahoma :) yes, i tried doing a live broadcast and their website crashed after 10 seconds due to heavy traffic coming from my audience.... i'm open to doing it but gotta find a more stable solution! any suggestions?

Hey Meytal! Fellow Israeli here... First off, as a fellow drummer, I love your videos... what do you use to record your covers (both the audio and video)? Also, how long does it take to shoot each video?

thank you! i use logic pro on my macbook to record the audio and final cut pro to edit the videos. it usually takes me between 2-5 days to learn the song for a shoot (the longer and harder a song is - the longer it takes), and then 1 day of shooting and another 1-2 days of editing and preparing the final video. it's a long but fun process!

Was there any one thing that made you want to be a drummer? When I was 8, way back in 1987, I saw Def Leppard at the Dane County Coliseum in Madison, WI. I was in the front row, and watching a one armed drummer tear it up made me want to drum. So I did. That moment was like a switch being flipped for me. Did you experience anything like that?

not really, I just got into nu metal at the time and really wanted to be able to play all these crazy drum parts I was listening to. I remember going to my first Drum lesson asking the teacher to teach me how to play ball tongue by korn. not a lot of band came to play in Israel so that wasn't really how I got into it.

If you could be on the cover of any magazine, which would you chose and why? Inherit 20 millions $, what do you do? Any celebrity crushes? Fav band of the "Big 4"? Paper or plastic?

Modern Drummer, I always thought it would be amazing if that ever happened. with that said- I don't read it. or any other magazine for that matter. I'm weird. If I had $20 mill I would go on the craziest longest world tour, drumming and traveling, what can be better?! celebrity crushes? no, not really... i used to like the lead actor from Hercules, the TV show, no idea what's his name... Paper or plastic? Paper, but if possible then niter, I try holding it if I can.... sometimes that doesn't work, and I drop it all on the way to the car.

What is your opinion on blast beats? Some drummers love them and some hate them, just wondering if you have any solidified opinion.

I'm not a huge fan... it's kinda impressive to see someone else do it, but not enough for me to actually spend hours practicing it.

What is your opinion on blast beats? Some drummers love them and some hate them, just wondering if you have any solidified opinion.

I never was into super heavy music... the heaviest I covered would most likely be composure by august burns red, which i really liked cause it had a really cool groove/vibe. but I tend to go for much more open syncopated grooves.. not a huge fan of blast beats.

Hey Meytal When are you visiting Mexico City?

i was supposed to come perform in mexico city with akira yamaoka last year but the tour got cancelled in the last minute... in my facebook page stats, it says that mexico city is one of the top cities where my 'likes' come from - i will be coming for a tour as soon as i can!

did you already made your militar service in israel?

yes, i served for 2 years in the IDF when i was 18 years old, right after high school.

Favorite movie of all time?

Matrix. and I'm a little embarrassed to say but anything Disney :)

how much does youtube pay approximately per thousand or million views?

the general rule, as i understand, is 1 dollar for every 1,000 views, or 1,000 dollars for every 1,000,000 views. ofcourse, you only get paid if you own all the rights to your video - visual and audio. when i upload a drum cover, i use the original song, making my drum covers non-monetizable.

Hi there Meytal!

1. What's your favorite cover you've made so far?
2. Is there any cover you wanted to do but just couldn't (too hard or complex, etc.)
3. How do you take all the sexist/dirty comments you sometimes get on your videos? Must be annoying.
4. What's next for Meytal?

Thanks, keep rocking :)

favorite cover (not song) would be I hate everything about you, mainly because the lighting came out so perfect. favorite song I did is most likely Ænima 2.the only song I gave up on was rage against the machine "killing in the name of" when I cover songs it's important for me to get it exacts, and I didn't feel like I got the little drum solo super exact. i should try again... my ears get better all the time! 3.omes with the territory, I try to focus on the good ppl. which luckily are the majority. 4.producing my own music, finding my own voice, taking all that I've learned from my favorite drummers and creating something new. and hopefully inspire other ppl to follow their dreams in the process...

Hello, I am also a drummer. I am wondering, since you have gained most of your following through the internet, is there any benefit to also living in LA? Seems like a really crowded, expensive place to live, plus there are so many extremely talented drummers there that it seems like it must be hard to find work. Why not live somewhere cheaper?

that's a good point... yeah it's hard to make it here, there are so many amazing drummers, but if you do make it here i'm guessing it pays off the most, just like with actors,it's the hardest to make it in hollywood, but making it here means a lot more then in other places. as a youtube drummer you don't necessarily need to be anywhere specific, I think youtube is a great tool for ppl to make a name for themselves, and then move closer to the industry, when the time is right and when opportunities start presenting themselves.

hello meytal huge fan from venezuela my name is melina ( greek) if you could would you come to venezuela ? want to meet you so badly im 21 years old

hi melina!! i would love to come to venezuela and south america!! let me get this album ready and then start working on a tour... :-)

Meytal, I always get a laugh at the end of your cover of Would by Alice In Chains. Did you get a splinter in your finger?

i think that was a blister!

hey Meytal.. do you have any quirky/weird/strange habits?

also, did you ever feed the pigeons in Ordea Square in Ramat Gan?

we lived in bialik street in ramat gan till i was 3! so i probably did, but i can't remember feeding the pigeons... strange habit - i can't have the radio on if we're talking in the car. if there's music - everybody has to be silent and listen :)

Hi! Edinburgh here, Scotland. will you consider doing a Primus cover?

hi scotland! yes - i did tommy the cat :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXlHFpwGnck

Is the music that's played in your videos a "drumless" track and your drumming is mixed in? It would be cool to see a drums only version of those songs as well since, to me at least, it's hard to differentiate your drumming from a normal track. (Too your credit I'm sure)

I play over the original track, and use the original album versions with drums. I put my drums higher in the mix so you can always hear what I'm playing.. I've posted some 'drum only' videos - you can check this one (Nightmare): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-4I92mL5u4

I'm a fan and love to watch your vids. Your Tom Sawyer cover is one of my favorites. I've asked a few times in Facebook comments, and I'll ask here to: can I get a Primus cover? Something good like Tommy the Cat, To Defy the Laws of Tradition, or Winona's Big Brown Beaver.

I covered tommy the cat, I have to say I don't feel I did a very good job with that one, but you should look it up and tell me what you think!

What other instruments can you play?
What instruments would you like to learn if you had the time and will?
Do you sing?

I had exactly one bass lesson back in Israel, now the bass guitar looks very good hanging on my living room wall. I still want to learn bass... maybe one day. I feel it would be too hard mastering two instruments... unless you start at a young age. I sing a little, mainly alone, while driving... not so much in the shower. sometimes I think I'm good... but I'm probably wrong.

hi Meytal. What double pedal do you currently use? is it a chain or direct drive? do you enjoy playing other styles than metal? #your biggest fan

DW 9000, chain... have been using this pedal more or less ever since I started drumming, it's pretty awesome. and for your second question, I studied a lot of styles, jazz, funk, afro cuban, but my favorite style, and the reason I started playing drums is metal... or alternative rock, or whatever you wanna call it :)

Hi Meytal, Just saw this AMA, Just want to say you are a fantastic musician and good luck in the future..

Thanks love!

How do you feel about travis barker

Was never into blink 182... I know he inspired a whole generation of young drummers so I'll defiantly give him credit for that. not that familiar with his playing, as strange as it may sound. how do you feel about him?

Hi, sorry for my bad english, why you only play Rock/metal covers?, rock/metal is the only music that you like?.

i like all kinds of music, but rock and metal has to be my fav to drum to. i also really like whitney Houston and a bunch of disney tunes but something tells me that won't make a very good drum cover.

what was the most anoying moment of your career and what was the one you will always and truly remember?

nothing more annoying then working your ass off on a drum cover to have the label block it...most annoying was that they blocked Nightmare. the best and most memorable moment was when my kickstarter was funded :)

Hey, no question, just wanted to drop in and say that you gave me inspiration when I hit a plateau which let me further myself. Also wanna thank you for helping me rock the fuck out. Stay metal \m/

you're very welcome. :)

Hello Meytal. My name is Anthony and I really want to learn how to play the drums so I have been looking at some of your drum lesson videos. My question is why is it important to learn all those music notes that you show? Alot of people have stated that I should be a drummer because I have great rhythm. Are those music notes very important when playing or can you learn to play by getting up there and start beating on the drums and rocking out?

there's no one way to do this... that's how I started out learning, so that's why my lesson start from the very beginning in a formal way of learning music. ultimately, I do feel I've learned the most, by simply learning my favorite songs... so yeah.. anything goes. good luck!!

hi meytal. if you could chose to be any animal in the world what would it be?

a bird.

Hello from Ireland Meytal. Well done with the ks campaign! My question is about the IDF, what was it like? Any funny/shocking stories?

Hi Ireland :) IDF story - one time I was on a late night guard duty, when a huge bug decided to dive deep inside my ear, and left me no way of reaching it... the base i was at was infested with ants. I was taken to the hospital and by the time he was taken out, the bug had died, in my ear. my he rest in peace. that was my only IDF kill.

Do you earn any revenue off of your youtube videos? If so how much?

i earn very little (relatively) money from my youtube videos. last month i made less than $400 - it might sound like alot but doesn't even cover my studio rent. because i use the original songs on my videos, i am not allowed to monetize on them. i do however get some traffic from my videos into my online shop, and that helps me pay the bills and my living expenses.

What is your process when learning songs that you cover?

I use logic pro to loop specific sections and I play part by part till I can play the whole thing. if there's a part where I'm not sure what the drummer is doing, I go to youtube and look up live shows.. if I can't find a live show that has a good view on the drummer at that specific moment (which happens and is the most annoying thing ever) then I look up other people's drum covers... before I go with whatever I think is right.

Hey Meytal, that cover of that SOAD song you did with the two violinists is pretty sick. Did you do anything else with them?

no, we recorded and shot this video in less then a week... after that i tried getting us all to upload more, but they didn't think it was a good idea to upload weekly videos to youtube... so then I decided uploading my drum covers. I think we had something really cool there but it just didn't work out...

What kind of gear do you use/prefer? Are you sponsored yet?

I play DW drums, Meinl cymbals and Vic Firth sticks. I'm very lucky to be sponsored by all these amazing companies. Here's my full gear specs:

• Meinl Cymbals: 8" Byzance Traditional Splash 14" Byzance Medium Hi-Hats x2 17" Byzance Medium Thin Crash x2 17" Soundcaster Fusion Medium Crash x2 10" Byzance Traditional Splash 21" Byzance Dark Ride 20" Byzance Brilliant China
• DW Collector's Series Drums: 6x10" Maple Snare Drum 6x14" Chrome Snare Drum 6x6" Rack Tom 8x10" Rack Tom 9x12" Rack Tom 12X14 Floor Tom 14x16" Floor Tom 18x22" Bass Drum
• DW Hardware: DW 9000 Series Pedals and Hardware: DW 9002 Double Bass Drum Pedal DW 9500 Hi-Hat DW 9700 Cymbal Stand (x9) DW 9934 Double Tom/Cymbal Stand DW 9999 Single Tom/Cymbal Stand DW 9300 Snare Drum Stand (x2) DW 9212 X-Hat Arm w/clamp DW 9100 Airlift Throne

What the heaviest band/ subgenre of metal you listen to?

I don't listen to a lot of really heavy metal... the heaviest covers I did would probably be august burns red, lamb of god, and as i lay dying, I like those specific songs that I covered but I wouldn't call myself a huge fan..

How are you better than every female drummer ever?

I don't think that's true, i think it's just that you don't see a lot of girl drummers so the ones you see usually are not great... it's most likely the same ratio of "good" and "not so good" male drummers, it's just that there's so much more. I really don't know why not a lot of girls play an instrument. i wish more did.

Are there any musicians you wish you could collaborate with on your debut album?

So many. and I'm trying to make it happen. A few are: Maynard, Corey Taylor, Chino, Les Claypool, Flea, Chris Cornell, Mike Patton, Jonathan Davis, Billy Howerdel, Brandon Boyd, Dirk Lance.