Jeff actually just e-mailed me this bio. Since the bio pages aren't ready yet for the website, I thought I'd just post it here for a better introduction of our new drummer.
"Jeff Willet has been playing drums since middle school. He stayed in the
school band all throughout high school, and gained a lot from playing in
the Rolling Thunder Drum Line while there. Besides the drum line, Jeff
draws his influences from such drummers as Danny Carey, Sean Reinert,
Jason Rullo, Thomas Haake, Mike Portnoy, Marco Minneman, Gavin Harrison,
and Virgil Donati. Jeff played in band right from the start of his
drumming career, but during high school was when it really started picking
up. His prog/rock band at the time, Ellipse, was playing at a local
coffee house called The Common Grounds. From this came many more
opportunities, and he then joined another prog band, Awakenings. From
there, he joined up with the technical death metal/"grindcore" band
Aborted Existence, and recorded 2 CDs and played many shows. Jeff has
also played with guitar shred-master Chris Gordon and keyboardist Joe
Trainor for a few shows varying in styles from prog rock to instrumental
guitar shred metal to funk/fusion/jazz. He recently attended Berklee
College of Music in Boston, MA, and is teaching at French Woods Festival
of the Performing Arts during the summer of 2007. The following semesters
will be spent at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, PA, where he will
study Music Recording Technology. He is excited to be playing with such
talented musicians, and is very much looking forward to the new CD as well
as upcoming shows, knowing that he definitely has quite the shoes to fill.
Jeff exclusively uses TAMA Starclassic Performer EFX Drums, SABIAN
Cymbals, DW Pedals, and is endorsed by GRINDSTIX. He is featured on
www.SickDrummer.com as well as www.Grindstix.com."
