Manchester Drummer Earns Admission To Berklee College Of Music

MANCHESTER, NJ -- For many parents, the idea of a drum set -- and endless noise that goes with it -- is something to be avoided.

Billy Bernstein of Manchester says his mom embraced it.

The family was at the boardwalk in Seaside Heights when Billy, then 8, won a set of bongos.

But when they got the bongos home, the set was missing some of the nuts needed to put it together. So back to the boardwalk they went, he said, this time coming home with a drum set.

“I spent hours and hours playing,” Bernstein said recently. And his mother, Lisa, ”was very supportive.”

Unlike some kids who will play for a year or two and then move on to something else, Bernstein stuck with it. More than stuck with it, in fact; the Manchester Township High School senior fell in love with the drums, and has spent countless hours working to hone his skills and learn new ones.

All of those hours are paying off, as Bernstein has been accepted into the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. It is one of the top music schools in the country, with roughly 4,100 students total. The college accepts just 35 percent of those who apply.

Bernstein auditioned Dec. 12 at the school, and received his acceptance letter Dec. 17 -- far sooner than the month he had been told for a decision.

“I was so nervous,” Bernstein said of his reaction when he saw the email from the college in late December. And when he opened the email, ”I jumped up in the middle of my physics class” with excitement.

“Julliard is more (geared to) classical music,” Bernstein said. But Berklee has produced a number of well-known and diverse musicians, from Joey Kramer and Brad Whitford of Aerosmith to Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, and Bruce Hornsby, Melissa Etheridge, John Mayer and Branford Marsalis. Train’s Rob Hotchkiss and Charlie Colin and the Imagine Dragons trio of Ben McKee, Daniel Platzman and Wayne Sermon all are graduates of Berklee.

Bernstein rattles off a list of drummers who have graduated from the school -- drummers whose music he follows, whose skills and approaches he studies. He talks about music styles with a fluency akin to a Frenchman speaking French in Paris, and with the passion of Gordon Ramsay cooking in Hell’s Kitchen.

“I’ve always loved music,” he said. As a little boy, he fell in love with the musical “Phantom of the Opera.”

“I would dress up as the Phantom -- I had the tux, the cape, the half mask,” he said, and he would walk around the house singing songs from the show.

That changed when he won the drum set. His former stepfather, Frank Gallo, was a huge classic rock fan, especially of the band KISS.

“He (Gallo) played ‘Crazy Train’ “ and Bernstein was hooked.

Gallo also introduced Bernstein to Peter Criss, the drummer for KISS, at the Chiller Theatre Convention in 2006 -- a toy, model and film expo in Secaucus.

“I talked to him for half an hour,” Bernstein said, and the famous drummer gave him a piece of advice he has never forgotten and that influences his music even now: “Keep in mind, sometimes less is more.”

Bernstein said that while heavy metal is his strongest influence and preference -- the band he is in, Silent Future, covers songs from other heavy metal bands in addition to producing its own music -- he enjoys a variety of styles including concert, jazz and Bossanova.

“It (Bossanova) is very relaxing,” he said.

He also added a season of marching band to his resume last fall.

“You learn so much,” he said. Marching with 30 pounds of drums -- he played the quads -- while playing honed his coordination as well as increasing his hand strength and hand speed and his placement, which is where he strikes the drum with the drumsticks.

Bernstein said the emotional aspects of marching band were important, too, in the teamwork and being part of the group, which placed eighth at nationals and broke a school record with its highest score.

“It was doing something I loved, but it was fun, too,” he said.

Marching band also helped Bernstein with reading music, he said -- he had primarily played music by ear as he learned to play the drums. Michael Pollock, the marching band director at Manchester Township High School and Bernstein’s music teacher, has also taught him music theory -- “how the scales fit together,” Bernstein said.

It’s something he continues to work on.

“I want to be able to perceive music like second nature, to look at music and hear it in my head,” Bernstein said.

He continues to work on his music with his bandmates from Silent Future, writing and performing. He and the others -- Nick Pellicano on guitar, Nick Pappas on bass, Michael King on guitar and Ed Megill on vocals -- have headlined at the Brighton Bar and have recorded an EP, raising the money for studio time to have it professionally recorded.

“It cost us $1,500 for six songs,” he said. The first song from the EP, “Relinquish,” will be released in February.

And while he plans to keep working with the band, he is excited to get to Berklee, where he plans to study contemporary writing and production with a minor in business -- which he expects will aid him and the band as they try to build their audience.

When he went to Berklee for his audition -- accompanied by his father, Bill, who lives in Toms River, and his grandmother -- “they had 10 drum sets lined up along a wall,” Bernstein said.

After impressing the Berklee staff enough to earn admission, Bernstein said, he’s excited to head to Boston, where he will be able to experience life in the city.

But there’s another aspect of it that he is looking forward to. He hasn’t been able to practice as much as he would like since his mother moved to an apartment where drumming would be too disruptive.

“I just want to spent hours at a drum set,” Bernstein said.

At Berklee, he will be able to drum to his heart’s content.

“It’s cool to be in an environment where you’re understood,” he said.

Video of Billy Bernstein playing for campers at the Harry Wright Lake summer camp.