Nicholas Leftwich

What made you enter the contest on ReverbNation? Had you heard of Sick Drummer Magazine before?

"We have a ReverbNation page and we try to enter ourselves into anything that we believe our genre has a chance of getting recognized." Nick first found SDM around 2007, just after high school graduation — a time when watching The Black Dahlia Murder play Augusta completely shifted his perspective on what live drumming could do to a room. He values how the publication champions both established and emerging artists based purely on work ethic and consistency.

How old were you when you started playing?

Around age 10. His father's best friend — a drummer himself — was the catalyst. The two would get into drum competitions with each other, and those early head-to-head sessions taught Nick something beyond technique: persistence and determination. "He helped me learn that you should never give up."

Did you play in a school band or any drum corps?

Nick attended a military academy in South Carolina where he played in both the jazz band and the drum corps, performing during parades and battalion events. He rewrote cadences for drums and learned to read music composition through that experience — a skill he initially lost for over a decade, relearned in 10th grade to reform marching rhythms, and says "completely redefined my style." Understanding the dynamics of other instruments, he adds, is what separates a great musician from someone who simply plays the same patterns on repeat.

Who are your top 5 metal influences?

The Black Dahlia Murder, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Rapheumet's Well, Irreversible Mechanism, and Inferi.

Any other favorites worth mentioning?

A Loathing Requiem, Enfold Darkness, and Beyond Creation.

5 albums in your current rotation?

1. The Black Dahlia Murder — Deflourate
2. Inferi — The Path of Apotheosis
3. Irreversible Mechanism — Infinite Fields
4. A Loathing Requiem — Psalms of Misanthropy
5. First Fragment — Dasein

What do you do to warm up before a show?

"I prefer to stretch — in particular, the wrists, ankles, and calves. Nothing too serious, though." Simple, deliberate, physical. A reminder that drumming at this level is as athletic as it is musical.

Do you read music? How has it affected your playing?

He learned sheet music in elementary school, lost the fluency for over a decade, then relearned it in 10th grade to rewrite marching rhythms. The effect was profound. Understanding how every instrument in an ensemble functions changed how Nick thinks about drumming — not as a solo act but as the foundation every other player stands on.

One piece of advice for young drummers?

"In the moment you feel that you want to quit, don't — because in that moment you make an incredibly important choice." That single decision, Nick says, is the one that separates those destined for excellence from everyone else. It is not a motivational platitude. It is a line drawn from experience.

Best live performance you have ever witnessed?

The Black Dahlia Murder at The Masquerade in 2016. The crowd energy was so intense it created what Nick describes as an almost trance-like atmosphere — the kind of show where you stop being a spectator and become part of something larger.

Outside of drumming — what else drives you?

Fitness: gym work and trail biking. And programming — Nick holds a degree in computer programming and builds games independently outside of music. The same obsessive precision that shapes his drumming applies to everything else he puts his hands to.