With John and Stephanie Abreu returning to school in September of 2009, Alan Darragh needed a new drummer and bassist. After years of studying and playing with older musicians, he’d enjoyed working with the Abreus, who were closer to his age. For that reason and the fact he wanted musicians, who had musical aptitude and a gift for musical creativity, but weren’t yet locked into set patterns of playing and musical thinking, he decided to scout out the Rosedale Heights School of the Arts, an arts based high school in downtown Toronto.  After visiting the school, he obtained permission to put a couple of ads around the school advertising for a drummer and bassist. 

While he was at the school, by chance he heard a group of students rehearsing.  Although the drummer seemed to be bored into a semi-conscious state, every so often a creative spark filtered through in his playing.  Alan wondered if he’d found the drummer he was looking for. There was something there. He debated whether to talk to him but then decided against it. 

A couple of weeks went by without a response to the ads. Just when Alan was about ready to give up hope, a student called and a date was agreed on.

Saturday, October 24, a tall – very tall – young man, with biblical Samson hair that would tempt more than one Delilah, walked into Despot Studio.  It was the young drummer Alan had heard.  By the second piano drum improvisation, there was no doubt that Julian Clarke was a prodigiously intellectual musician – when he wasn't bored.

Julian Ian Clarke was born June 26, 1992, Toronto. He is a senior music student at the Rosedale Heights School of the Arts in Toronto.

Julian started performing on drums when he was nine. He said, "My interest in drums started at a party at the house of a friend of my parents’ – Kenny Kirkwood. He’s a sax player. I found a drum set in a studio in his basement. That’s what I did at parties, I’d wander into rooms no one was in. Bored, I guess. I just sat down and tried to play.  The idea that you could make music with sticks and hitting them kind of struck me. I also realized how bad I was at it. I decided I was going to get better at it.  I started on the guitar but found I couldn’t do chord changes fast enough.  But that first time I sat behind a drumkit, I felt comfortable. Drums came easier to me and I got the hang of it faster."

So enamoured was Julian with Kenny Kirkwood’s drumkit that he decided to take music lessons from him.  Although, Kirkwood is not a drummer, he is a man who wears many musical hats.  He is a pianist, saxophonist, bandleader, arranger and composer.  He also directs the Blue Moon Music School in Toronto and has been a private music educator for over 17 years.  Julian said, "He taught me music.  Less about techniques and ability.  It was more about feel and style and sound.  I still study with him.  He was always pushing me to do more.  To play with more confidence.  Take risks." 

By the time he was nine, Julian was playing the drums as part of Kirkwood’s music workshops for the Toronto Public School Board.  Julian said, "I was his first student – an inspiring example for prospective students.  He paid me so that was fine.  I played at shows – for example the opening of an early child care center."

Although only seventeen, Julian has already overcome one major hurdle for many young musicians, especially drummers – the temptation to channel the tumultuous emotions of adolescence into their playing. He said, "I’ve learned to separate my emotions from my playing.  I think it’s a by-product of playing for a long time.  How I play has become less an extension of my emotions and more of what I want to hear. I’m playing what I think the drums should be sounding like. I think of the music as a sound that already exists and I try to find a way to support it. I do my best to fill the role of the drummer from everything I’ve learnt and heard.  I take everything that I hear that I think is working when I’m listening to music and the next time I play I try to do my own take on it."

At Rosedale, he is in the senior band and the senior jazz combo.  He also  is one of the stage crew – the sound operator.

Julian has studied with drummers Jesse Barrid, Blake Howard, Dave Clarke and Ethan Ardeli.

In 2007 Julian and a couple of buddies from Rosedale formed a rock/pop band, which they called The Usual Suspects.  Since that time, the group has played around Toronto at The Opera House, Holy Joe’s nightclub, Poor Alex Theatre, The Gladstone Hotel, and the Sound Academy.  The eight members band is made up of horns, drum, electric guitar, electric bass and electric piano. Julian is the band’s drummer, co-arranger and recording engineer. To hear some of their music go to their MySpace page below.