209 – Petar Janjic: Drumming for Cory Wong, Subbing for Michael Bland, Moving to the U.S. from Serbia to Study Music

Working Drummer

Petar Janjic was born in Kraljevo, Serbia, also known as Kingstown. At 5, his father, a well known Serbian drummer, gave him a drum set and at the age of 10, Petar began studying with legendary a Serbian drummer Slobodan Stojanovic. In high school, Petar toured all over Europe before his eventual move to the United States. In 2008 he studied Music Performance & Percussion at the McNally Smith College of Music and eventually became one of its percussion instructors.

During his time in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area in Minnesota, Petar’s passion for learning and persistence won the trust of Prince drummer Michael Bland and the music community that surrounded him. Petar eventually became Michael’s first call sub. Currently, he continues to tour and record with Cory Wong and just moved to Nashville in pursuit of more music and recording opportunities.

In this episode, Petar talks about:

* Moving to the U.S. from Serbia to study music

* Becoming the sub for Michael Bland in Dr. Mambo’s Combo in Minneapolis

* Overcoming the challenges of learning “popular western music” in Serbia

* How he approaches live drumming vs. drumming in the studio

* Being asked to play on a Prince record by Prince

* Working with Cory Wong

* His approach to soloing

Petar endorses Paiste Cymbals and Vic Firth sticks

This episode is sponsored by Shure microphones. Apply online by April 15th 2019 at drum-mastery.shure.com for the Shure Drum Contest.