Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Little Drummer Girl Phenom: 14-Year Old Caitlin Kalafus


(As published by the Fairfield Weekly on 12/15/2007)

Her videos have garnered over 525,000 views but Caitlin Kalafus, 14, is not just another YouTube fad; she's an actual drum star on the rise.

She lives in Milford and doesn't have a driver's license, so she's left with what the local music scene has to offer. So what does she do? She plays in three bands at once and frequently joins Connecticut's most popular jam-rock group, the Breakfast, onstage at Toad's.

One of her bands, Switch Up, consists of Kalafus and the Breakfast's Adrian Tramontano and Tim Palmieri. Its central idea is giving each musician a chance to shine. They write and play their own songs (with some covers thrown in) and switch instruments. The caliber of each musician is unmatched in the area. Tramontano is as subtle and intricate a drummer as any, Palmieri is one of the best guitarists in the business and Kalafus is just as gifted at songwriting and guitar-playing as she is a drummer.

But what is she doing with these vets?

Tramontano, who is also Kalafus' drum teacher, met the drummer girl at a competition at the Guitar Center in Orange a few years ago, where he was also competing.

"She was really fearless with engaging the audience before she even sat to play and that caught my eye," Tramontano recalls, "And then she played a drum solo and I was like, 'Wow, that's really good!' I could tell there was a real passion there, and I definitely thought I could show her some new ways of playing, you know, crackin' a whole other realm of playing." His regimen includes playing live as much as possible and becoming more aggressive with her playing.

Whitney Maus, a shocked audience member at a Toad's performance in October, said, "Oh yeah, she's good. I think she's a lot better than she should be!"

"She's up there," says Tramontano, "And another thing here is she's gonna be a great—and I mean great—drummer. She's gonna be really top-notch."

Caitlin Kalafus' passion to play rock music started at age 7, when she began learning the guitar. She quickly moved to drums and, as quickly, she outgrew her peers.

"In elementary school, my dad helped me to play 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' with some friends," she says, "and that was pretty much the only time I was with kids my age." It's not that she pushes them away or feels superior; she simply treats music differently, with more respect.

"It's not that I don't take kids seriously," she says, "it's like, I'm on a level where I understand things differently, rather than 'Oh, yeah, I can play drums.' Music is my life, it's what makes me feel complete."

She has a boyfriend and friends her own age, but when it comes to music you'll usually find Kalafus playing with the adults (and because of age restrictions at clubs, she usually plays to adults too). She's in a band called Rock House All Stars, sponsored by the popular instructional DVD company Rock House Method, in which she plays with other teenage musicians (she's still the youngest).

"It's scary how good she is," says her father, a high-school music teacher in Milford. "[S]he doesn't go down [in the basement] for eight hours a day. And my thought is, imagine if she did! But it might ruin her, it might burn her out."

The support system Dad has set up for her knows no boundaries. Dad's her driver, her biggest fan, her lead guitarist in the band Caitlin on Drums (with family friend Chris Barber on lead vocals) and he's traveled as far as Los Angeles with her to play.

At the last gig in Milford, a gray-pony-tailed man with a Dark Side of the Moon t-shirt walked up to the band after a song. "These guys are awesome!" he yelled. "Where can I get a shirt?"

"I'm a huge music fan, man, and I've heard of these guys," he explained. "I just had to make sure I came out and checked them out."

It's off-putting to see Caitlin on Drums play in bars and family restaurants. And it's not quite because of Kalafus' age; it's that she possesses serious talent and originality—and it's clear she belongs on a much larger stage, in a much larger spotlight.

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