From my bio on the Saluda Cymbals website (they asked for a bio, so I wrote how I started playing, LOL):
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Scream (www.screamrocks.com) drummer Kevin Siegel has been playing music all his life, beginning on, of all things, the violin at age 4. Kevin’s father got him started in music and it’s been a passion that consumes him to this day. “I always loved the drums,” Kevin says, “but my dad has a Bachelor’s Degree in music playing violin, so that’s where I started. I was, however, always banging on pots and pans and boxes and stuff around the house, you know, the standard drummers’ story, and it just blossomed from there.”
Growing up in the greater Ann Arbor, Michigan, area, Kevin was fortunate to be in the Saline School system, one of the best performing arts school systems in the Midwest. Once Kevin got to 7th grade, the opportunity to play drums for real materialized, as Kevin became the first student in the history of his school system to be able to play percussion without the mandatory 2 years of piano lessons. Kevin recounts, “The school system had a requirement that percussionists had to have 2 years of piano to even begin to play percussion, and I didn’t. But, my orchestra teachers, Martha Froseth and especially Robert Phillips, went to bat for me, and I wound up being able to play in the percussion section, as long as I kept up with the violin. It all worked out for me, since I got to have multiple classes in band and orchestra each day. What kid wouldn’t want more music class every day? I really owe everything musically to them.”
Kevin played both violin and percussion through high school, performing with both the orchestras and the bands, along with jazz band, pep band, and held a snare drumming position in the marching band’s prestigious drum pit. Upon graduation, he joined the US Navy for 4 years. After leaving the Navy, Kevin immersed himself in the music scenes of Charleston, South Carolina, and upon moving, Central Pennsylvania, where he now resides.
Kevin’s reputation as a drummer grew by leaps and bounds in Pennsylvania, as he added to his drumming resume, playing with, jamming with, and subbing for a diverse group of bands like Felix And The Hurricanes, Stix-N-Stones, Banditos, Gin-N-Juice, Bad Daze, Hair Force One, and more. Kevin is still one of the most in-demand sub drummers in the Central PA region.
Kevin is the newest member of legendary Pennsylvania-based rockers Scream, a band that traces their roots back almost 25 years. Once upon a time, Scream was known as Bashful, one of the most successful hard rock bands in Pennsylvania. Says Kevin, “This is the band that I’ve been looking for since I was born, I think! The guys and I just clicked right away, and I love their approach to music. We have an unofficial mentality for our shows, which is kind of a ‘go big or go home’ approach, since we play music that is in the 80’s hard rock/heavy metal genre. We want every person that sees us play to feel like they’re at a concert at Madison Square Garden, so we spend a lot of money on production to have a massive light and sound system for our shows. We go all out, 200 percent, every single time we hit the stage. We owe that to the people who spend their money to come see us.”
Kevin’s influences are wide-ranging and too numerous to mention in full, but include John McKnight, Neil Peart, Cindy Blackman, Peter Erskine, Tommy Lee, Chris “Whipper” Layton, Pete Sandoval, Vinnie Paul, Lenny White, Billy Cobham, Hillary Jones, and more.
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And that's how it started. Violin at age four, got my first drumsticks and practice pad that same year, and have been banging away ever since, almost 34 years now.
(Haven't touched a violin since I graduated high school, though.)
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Me, My Story, and Pics Of My Drums:
http://www.saludacymbals.com/c/ksiegel.html
Proud to endorse Saluda Cymbals since 2006.
Howie is my homie. Word.
they were so impressed, because by the time they got me a drumkit, I already knew how to play the drums hahahah or at least do the basic rhythms 
