Born in Colombia, Juan Baratto is a professional drummer who lives and breathes drums…15 years ago, he committed to the instrument that has driven him to all around the world. Undoubtedly, Latin music has permeate through his drumming DNA…while later on drummers like John Bonham, Dave Grohl, Chad Smith, Alex González, Steve Jordan and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson gave Juan a whole world of ideas and a basic, groovy but powerful approach to drumming.
Juan has played with some of the most important bands and artists in his native Colombia: Don Tetto, Frankie Jazz, Claudia de Colombia and Sexto Sentido….He even won the Subterranica Award for “Best Drummer” in 2009…but outside of his country, he has also laid his signature heavy backbeat on different projects and recordings while living in France, and now settled in Australia he is currently the drummer for the Melbourne based Rock Band Holliava.
But playing the drums isn’t everything…since the beginning of 2012, Juan launched a website called ElDrumBlog.com. The project focuses on giving information, Vlogs, reviews, advice and material for drummers in a language in which sometimes it’s really difficult to find truthful and quality information or even worse, you’ll find it in a old boring style… Being from Colombia, Juan writes all this content thinking specially in all the Spanish-speaking drummers around the world, in a way that has proven to be quite appealing as well entertaining.
ElDrumBlog.com has received the support from thousands of drummers who everyday check in the website for news, reviews, articles, or the now famous “Vlogs” in which Juan give drummers enormous amounts of information concerning a wide range of drumming topics. The website has also had the approval from Professional drummers like Alex Acuña, Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez, Rich Redmond, Dom Famularo, Waldo Madera, Ernesto Simpson, Raul Pineda, Matt Halpern, Enrique Gonzalez and Brendan Buckley.
With the success of ElDrumBlog.com, Juan will be starting a tour of Clinics called “Así Que Eres Baterista??” (So, you are drummer right?) That will take place in Colombia by the end of this year and then will be visiting Mexico, Argentina and Spain in 2014, while keeping up with his drumming duties with Holliava in Australia.