1.What is your name and what band do you play for?

I’m Herman Riera and play drums for Ancient Settlers

2.Who made you want to play drums and why?

I Grow up in a family of music lovers, they used to join in weekends to sing with some friends who were musicians. I have listening live music since was I kid. They always tell me that I have always tried to grab the instruments, specially the “tambor” while they were playing. I was really annoying! Laughs!

3.When did you get your first kit? Tell us about it…

My parents bought me my first kit when I was 15. I told them that I wanted a drum set so they made me to save some money from my allowances for school! I saved just a small amount but enough for them to notice my interest, so they bought it. It was a black Yamaha YD series with Zildjian ZBT cymbals!

4.Where your parents supportive of you and your loud / expensive new habit?

They truly were! They had a lot of problems with the neighbors because of me. My father had multiple discussions with all of them. Two of them even threated us (even with guns) but my parents never stopped supporting me. I’m really grateful for that!

5.What drum performance on an album is perfection to you?

The latest Lamb of God’s album with Art Cruz on drums!

6.Tell us about your current kit and set up in DETAIL.

Now I have an Alesis Surge kit with a Pearl twin pedal just for practicing and recording. I connect it to my laptop with some drum software to get better sounds. At least for recording and practicing, it works for me.

7.If you could have a dream kit tell us about it in DETAIL

Yamaha and Pearl have been my favorite brands, I dream about a Yamaha Maple custom or a Pearl Reference set with 14” steel snare and 8”, 10”, 12”, 14”, 16” toms, loaded with Soultone Extreme Cymbals, 13” hi hats, 16” and 18” crashes, 6” and 8” splashes, 14” and 17” chinas and 22” ride cymbal plus an Axis twin pedal.

8.Name your top 5 drummers excluding Neil Peart and Mike Portnoy

My top 5 drums are (With no order): Sean Reinert, Mario Duplantier, Gene Hoglan, Daniel Erlandsson and Eric Moore.

9. Do you prefer Live or Studio?

Nothing compares to live performances, but when it comes to listening to music, I prefer studio recordings, I like to analyze and get into detail about the mixing and mastering works!

10.Do drummers really get all the chicks and if so how do we convince the guitarist?

The drum set is the sexiest instrument of all. No one can argue that. If we were upfront the stage, they wouldn’t stand a chance, but even being like that, all the looks go to the boy with the sticks!