574 - Chris Draper: His New Book "The Inner Athlete", Recovering from Two TBIs, Playing "Hamilton" on the West End, Coming Up on the London Jazz/Fusion Scene

574 - Chris Draper: His New Book "The Inner Athlete", Recovering from Two TBIs, Playing "Hamilton" on the West End, Coming Up on the London Jazz/Fusion Scene

July 2, 2026 · 1h 16m

About this episode

Chris Draper discusses his journey as a drummer and author, including his new book on performance conditioning and his recovery from traumatic brain injuries.

Chris Draper is a drummer, author, and performance coach based in London. After coming up on the city's Jazz and Fusion scene as the drummer in the house band at the legendary Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, Chris began getting opportunities in musical theatre, culminating in landing the drum chair on the West End production of Hamilton. His new book, "The Inner Athlete: A Musician's Guide to Performance Conditioning," is the result of what Chris learned through rehabilitation after sustaining two traumatic brain injuries and subsequently getting certified as a personal trainer. In this episode, Chris talks about: No longer having a home studio, and not missing it How a chance meeting at a pub led to his musical theatre career Playing in the house band at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London How some college programs are becoming more open to commercial music, especially when it comes to drums The traumatic brain injuries and subsequent recovery that inspired him to write “The Inner Athlete” What regulation is, physiologically, and different ways to do it The power of breath work Why conventional weight training and athletic conditioning doesn’t work best for musicians Here's our Patreon…

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