The full story
Hi, I’m Nick Cesarz.
I’m a Milwaukee-based drummer, content creator, and the founder of DrumSpy. I have been playing drums since 1999 and reviewing gear since 2016. Everything on this site comes from hands-on testing in my basement studio.
Background
From a name in a hat to the back of a tour van.
I started drumming in fourth grade after my name got pulled from a hat for the school percussion section. That turned into school bands, jazz groups, marching band, and eventually studying percussion performance at UW-Whitewater.
After college, I spent years touring nationally as the drummer for Vinyl Theatre. We were signed to Fueled by Ramen and toured with twenty one pilots, playing hundreds of shows across the country. Signing to a major label was a milestone, but it came with its own lessons. Creative control was something we had to fight for, and the pressure to perform commercially was constant. When the label let us go, the move to independence was hard at first, but it gave us full ownership of our sound and direction for the first time.
Those years on the road taught me more about gear than any product page ever could. You learn fast what holds up night after night and what does not.
What I bring to a review
Why my read on a kit is worth your time.
A touring drummer
Hundreds of shows across the country taught me what holds up under real use and what falls apart once the honeymoon is over.
Formal training
A percussion performance degree from UW-Whitewater, plus years teaching private lessons. I can tell you why a kit feels right, not just that it does.
Eight years on the bench
More than fifteen electronic kits bought and tested since 2016. I know the difference between a real upgrade and a new badge on old hardware.
The e-kit obsession
It started with every Roland on the showroom floor.
I have been fascinated with electronic drums since I was 15 or 16, walking into my local Interstate Music and trying out every Roland kit on the floor. They sounded incredible to my untrained ears. I knew I had to have one.
Now I am far more critical. I have bought and been sent more than fifteen electronic drum sets over the last eight years, and I have built a pretty good sense of what makes a kit worth it and what is just marketing.
YouTube
The camera came later.
The YouTube channel came after the site. I did not get into video right away. Honestly, I was afraid of talking on camera. But I worked up the courage, made a few genuinely terrible videos, and kept going. Everyone improves over time, and now the channel is something I am really proud of and happy to share with friends and family.
We do everything from kit reviews to music-industry commentary to drum covers. If you want to see the gear in action before you read the written review, the channel is the place to go.
Visit the channel →
The studio
Where every review happens.
My basement is set up as my dedicated content space. YouTube videos, in-depth gear reviews, audio samples, all of it happens down there. I have the tools I need to run accurate, quality reviews under consistent testing conditions.
I have also taught private drum lessons and worked with school music programs over the years. Teaching forces you to articulate why something works or does not, which is basically what I do on DrumSpy every day.
See how I test →When I’m not working on DrumSpy
I am either outside working on the yard, hanging out with my dachshund Ellie, or playing Overwatch with my girlfriend Sara.
Find me elsewhere
Come say hi.
See what I’ve been testing.
Every review on the site is gear I have played and measured myself. Start with the reviews, or read how DrumSpy works.