Zeppy Zittle

Drums

Mike Zep Zittle (drums), the grandson of a jazz musician and son of a pianist and music teacher was musical from birth. He played piano at 5 and picked up his first drumsticks at 7. Growing up in PA, Mike played in various school bands, and earned first place in numerous competitions, including winning the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award in 1990. With few opportunities in rural PA, Mike moved to where you go to make it in music: Hollywood, to attend the Percussion Institute of Technology, graduating with honors in 1991.

 

Honing his live playing and networking skills, Mike quickly gained recognition in the Los Angeles music scene, with “drum rhythms beyond immense, yet always crisp and full of groove”. Mike studied music theory at Santa Monica College, graduating in 1994, and was dubbed “Zeppy” by his band mates – a nickname that stuck. Over the years, Zep recorded and performed with many bands in a wide variety of styles at almost every venue in LA. Zep has a wide variety of influences, all of which blend together into his intense, flamboyant, drumming style, interspersed with rudiments and flowing jazz phrasings and “more emotion than a mid-life crisis.”

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