Luke Combs’ touring drummer Jake Sommers is the latest musician to take on Drumeo’s “For the First Time” challenge, tasked with playing “Stranded” by French metal masters Gojira.
Sommers' main job may be country music, but he seems quite well-versed in rock music. At first, Drumeo host Brandon Toews introduces songs by Korn and Porcupine Tree, but Sommers quickly recognizes them, defeating the purpose of the challenge, which is to get the drummers to play a song they've never heard before.
The beginning of Gojira’s “Stranded” then plays for Sommers, who responds, “I didn’t know that, whatever that was,” drawing laughter from the sound booth.
“What a cruel game,” Toews jokes, aware of the difficulty of the song Sommers landed on.
From there, Sommers proceeds to transcribe, using pencil and paper, the song's complex rhythms and time signatures (a staple of Gojira). As part of the test, the batteries were removed from the original track, leaving Sommers to guess the parts.
After an initial run through, where he moves through the track, Sommers is able to keep the beat surprisingly well in his official performance of the song, performing a pocket take. However, he is amazed after the engineers finally play him the original drum part of Gojira stickman Mario Duplantier.
“There's a lot going on,” Sommers says. “I'd hate to play that every night!”
When it comes to the “For the First Time” series, Sommers follows in the footsteps of drummers like Nandi Bushell, who was tasked with playing Twisted Sister's “We're Not Gonna Take It,” and Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers. who went viral for his performance of “The Kill” by Thirty Seconds to Mars.
Fans can catch Sommers performing during Luke Combs' 2024 US stadium tour, which kicks off in April. The tickets are available here.
Below you can see the full clip of Jake Sommers performing “Stranded” by Gojira.
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