Patrik Benek - drummer, teacher, producer
Patrik Benek is, in the first place, an outstanding drummer, studio drummer, teacher and last but not least a music director. He was born in a musical family full of good musical genes already for generations. Since he was a little boy, he kept his parents and relatives impressed with his musicality. When he was seven years old, he started playing a trumpet, which at the time already surprised nobody. His progress was fast and between his eight and fourteen years of age he successfully participated in a number of competitions and shows. Certainly, his musical path continued at the State Conservatory of Ostrava (Státní konzervatoř v Ostravě) studying the aforementioned instrument. Unfortunately, during his studies he was disabled ever to continue with his trumpeter career and quickly moved to percussion instruments.
Even in the percussion field he soon started being appreciated, which culminated with the title “Discovery of the year,” which he was awarded at a music festival Rockfest in October 1989. At that time the bells already tolled for the Communist party in the former Czechoslovak Republic. The first real band of his, as Patrik says, was a hard rock band Metayer, and if you want to ask what kind of drum kit they had, it was an Amati kit from Kraslice (a small Czech town). Patrik was getting into a wider consciousness at the time and soon became a drummer of brother Rypars’ rock band Eleison, which was getting popular on the Czech big beat scene. During his time in Elesion he experienced another of his life events when he got to Yamaha Live Custon drum kit, which was the first foreign drum kit Patrik could play. When he needed it the most, he acquired his own professional instrument, at the time trendy Yamaha Recording Custom. They were already expensive then, but they fell in love for quite a few years.
It is quite possible they were the first YRC in the recently independent Czecho-Slovakia. It did not take long for Patrik to realize how amazing kit it was and so he continues playing it up to this day. As the years went by, Patrik decided to move to Prague, the capital and the centre of culture. Soon enough, big city life interwoven with everyday rush, stressful situations and superficial honesty brought him back to Moravia once again, where although we have fewer opportunities, life is also slower and more peaceful. Today, because of his musicality, flexibility and impeccable timing, he is a popular drummer in bands of varied styles such as rock, pop, Latin or jazz. To list just a few bands he has been part of: YABA, Eleison, Benedikta, The Gizd Q, Boris Band Combination, Lazaro Cruz Quintet, Million Pounds or Missing base. He also collaborated with various performers significant for Czech musical culture, such as: Karel Gott, Věra Špinarová, Jiří Stivín, Jaroslav Wykrent, Marie Rottrová, Janek Ledecký, etc. Nowadays he is a member of Ostrava radio orchestra (Ostravský rozhlasový orchestr), further he has contract with Jiří Myron’s Theatre (Divadlo Jiřího Myrona) band, he is an important member of a musical formation Ladě, which has both ciritics’ and public’s appreciation, he also plays with Martin Chodůr’s band. Patrik is also a teacher in a school of musical arts and is proud of many of his students, who asserted themselves not only in many country-level contests but also in other successful bands and projects. I think I should not forget to mention that Patrik had not forgotten about his first instrument, which he plays in a folkloric band Silesian band (Slezská kapela). To all of this he employs himself in his own recording studio PATBEN, which he had himself built in his own house, as a director. Recordings in his productions have been nominated for music awards or even awarded with them. All of us from Drumcenter.cz are pleased that Patrik Benek hosts our product videos regularly, because they are incredibly popular worldwide and their number of views today is around …... Even talk came into existence mainly because many of our subscribers ask daily who this Patrik is, and that is why you can read this article in English as well.
We work together with Patrik a lot of years, all begine in 2006, when he had one of the first worksops in our previous showroom, which was in the 2nd floor in the building situated it the center of the city. You can see this really old video from this action:
This next video is with his current "home band" called Ladě
Today he is, I dare say, a well-known player, a representative of our You Tube channel, where he is very popular and admired not only for his virtual technique...
