THE TEAM
MAT DUNIAM
OWNER
Mat is a jazz trained drummer, music writer/arranger, author of tutorial book “The Artillery for Drums”, owner of manufacturer Red Rock Drums Australia and drummer in The Wildes. He is also the Head of Percussion at Shelford Girls’ Grammar and instrumental teacher at Camberwell Girls’ Grammar and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College.
In 2011, Mat received the Yamaha Music Directors Award at national stage band competition Generations in Jazz, for inspiring and engaging his Shelford students in the spirit of jazz. He instructs six percussion ensembles over his three schools along with classroom instrumental programs, jazz and concert bands. The ensembles always commission his new works and arrangements.
Mat maintains a performance career with Core/Sony Music artist Lachlan Bryan and their collaborative project The Wildes. Their 2009 debut album “Ballad of a Young Married Man” received wide spread acclaim, recorded by ARIA Award winning producer Jonathan Burnside. The Wildes gained five star reviews and album of the week nods across media in Australia and the US, including runner up for Radio National “Album of the Year 2009″. It also found support from CM radio, CMC, Music Max and Triple J. The band embark on regular national tours and have played main stage at the National Music Muster along with many other festivals. They also continue to collaborate with Emmy Award winner Sean Genders to create their now signature cinematic music videos, which have achieved CMC’s “The Best of 2009″, Rage’s “Fifty 2009″ and released on EMI’s “Winner’s 2010″ DVD.
Mat’s early love of restoring vintage drums led to building complete solid stave drum kits when the idea was born sometime around 2004. This officially became Red Rock Drums Australia in 2007. Mat designed the company to produce stunning drums with unique and attractive branding, as well as a strong sense of family and support for creative talent. Red Rock Drums is one of the first known drum manufacturers to also endorse music producers including the great Jack Douglas (John Lennon, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick, The Who).
In 2011, Mat released “The Artillery for Drums”. It is a ‘to the point’ 57 page encyclopaedia of grooves, fills, concepts, techniques and solos designed to give students an immediate vocabulary for practical occasions. It is the first of three drumming books he has planned to complete in the near future and is being utilised by teachers and schools around Australia.
Mat has self published various works for tuned and untuned percussion ensembles and marching percussion style Drumline. He is one of the first known Australian composers to publish works true to the DCI Drumline style. In late 2001, Mat generated the Drumline for the Australian Youth Band off the back of roles as centre snare in the Sydney 2000 Olympics Opening Ceremony International Marching Band of 2000 musicians and 700 piece International Marching Band assembled for the World Universiade Games Opening Ceremony in Beijing.
He first began music studies as a 6 year old learning piano before drums took his focus around age 12. Mat studied throughout his teens with Motown legend Gil Askey (Academy Award nominee and composer/producer/musical director to Diana Ross, the Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson Five and many more). As a young musician Mat was given many opportunities to sit-in and play at Gil’s gigs, as well as with trad jazz legend and band leader Tommy Carter (OAM).
Whilst attending the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, Mat commenced jazz drumming lessons with Graham Morgan who was extremely influential through many years of lessons and encouragement. Following secondary school, Mat continued into the Victorian College of the Arts and graduated with a Bachelor of Music (improvisation stream) in 2004.
Following University, Mat began writing, recording and performing with bands such as Spargo and ARIA Award winner Gotye. He and his band mates performed extensively around the UK, Europe and Dubai. Mat’s collaborations have been the recipients of various government grants including an International Pathways Grant for overseas development.
ROGER TERRILL
MANUFACTURING
Roger is a stave drum builder of 15 years; many of which have been spent passionately crafting African hand drums and large African basses using the stave shell method. He is a qualified cabinet maker specialising in fine furniture and in recent years has also created extraordinary Flamenco guitars based on Spanish designs from the 1800s.
His ability to create superior wood products was the reason that Australian stave drum kit manufacturer Red Rock Drums became an official venture in 2007, following several years of intermittent prototyping and development. Roger built machinery to create entire stave drum kits before other manufacturers began to even show.
Over the last few decades, Roger has also maintained a calling to perform most notably in the roles of event and ensemble director for African Percussion groups in major parades and festivals in Melbourne, as well as regional and community festivals throughout Victoria. Projects previous to this have included roles as keyboardist and guitarist in gigging cover bands.
Roger has vast experience holding African Percussion workshops to a broad variety of ages and cognitive abilities. He is a DRUMBEAT facilitator and has been the ‘artist in residence’ in several primary schools. He was also the Lifestyle Coordinator at an Aged Care Hostel in Warragul.
In conjunction with drum production, Roger continues to instruct African Percussion.