Jean-Paul Gaster is the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 drummer for rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band Clutch

Clutch (band)

Clutch is an American rock band from Germantown, Maryland, formed in 1990. The band's first release was an EP entitled Pitchfork, which debuted in October 1990. Their first studio album, Transnational Speedway League, was released three years later in 1993. To date, Clutch has released nine studio...

.

Style and influences

Jean-Paul Gaster has learned to play drums growing up on 1960s and 1970 heavy rock bands like Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

, Cream

Cream (band)

Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...

 and Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...

. Favorite drummers of Gaster are artists such as legendary jazz drummers Elvin Jones

Elvin Jones

Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....

 and Buddy Rich

Buddy Rich

Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove, and speed.-Early life:...

 and blues-rock

Blues-rock

Blues rock is a hybrid musical genre combining bluesy improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended boogie jams with rock and roll styles. The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar, piano, bass guitar and drum kit, with the electric guitar usually amplified through a...

 drummer John Bonham

John Bonham

John Henry Bonham was an English musician and songwriter, best known as the drummer of Led Zeppelin. Bonham was esteemed for his speed, power, fast right foot, distinctive sound, and "feel" for the groove...

 (Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

). He also claims to be inspired by Questlove, drummer of Hip Hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 band The Roots

The Roots

The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...

.

Projects

In the late 1990s, Jean-Paul Gaster was part of instrumental blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 project The Bakerton Group

The Bakerton Group

The Bakerton Group is an instrumental blues jam band and the side project of the blues rock outfit Clutch. They incorporate elements of blues-rock, psychedelic rock, jazz and stoner rock.-Biography:...

 (a band composed of other Clutch members Tim Sult

Tim Sult

Tim Sult is the guitarist for hard rock band Clutch. He is also the guitarist for an instrumental side project, The Bakerton Group and, schedule permitting, the Reggae/Rock band Lionize...

, Neil Fallon, Dan Maines

Dan Maines

Dan Maines is the bassist for rock/funk metal/hard rock band Clutch. He is also the bassist for an instrumental side project, The Bakerton Group. Dan Maines has remained the bassist for Clutch since the group started in 1990.-External links:*...

, Mick Schauer). The Bakerton Group formed an independent record label, River Road Records, to release their own music.

Jean-Paul Gaster made an appearance on the album The Mystery Spot of rock band Five Horse Johnson

Five Horse Johnson

Five Horse Johnson is an American blues-rock band, formed in 1995 from Toledo, Ohio. They have toured with such popular groups as Clutch and Halfway to Gone. The band combines hard rock, blues and other influences into a blend of stoner rock/blues music they call their own...

. The album was released on May 23, 2006 via Small Stone Records

Small Stone Records

Small Stone Records is an American record label based in Detroit, MI. It was founded in 1995 by Scott Hamilton and is a self-dubbed "heavy rock" label...

.
In 2007, Jean-Paul Gaster collaborated with Opeth

Opeth

Opeth is a Swedish heavy metal band from Stockholm, formed in 1990. Though the group has been through several personnel changes, singer, guitarist, and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt has remained Opeth's driving force throughout the years...

 keyboardist Per Wiberg

Per Wiberg

Per Jonas Wiberg is the former keyboardist of Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth, and a member of Michael Amott's stoner metal band Spiritual Beggars. Wiberg toured with Opeth from the 2003 Deliverance/Damnation tour onward, and joined Opeth officially in 2005. Wiberg provided backing...

 and Kamchatka

Kamchatka (band)

Kamchatka are a Swedish power trio highly influenced by late 1960s and early 1970s blues-rock bands. Their sound combines elements of blues-rock, stoner rock and psychedelic rock....

 guitarist Thomas Andersson on a project called King Hobo

King Hobo

King Hobo is a rock band from Sweden, formed in 2005. Jean-Paul Gaster from Clutch met Opeth keyboardist Per Wiberg at the Sounds of the Underground Tour. They jammed together, and allowed other musicians to join them, with the motto of "get funky or get out"...

.

During 2008, Jean-Paul Gastor played drums on Scott Weinrich

Scott Weinrich

Robert Scott "Wino" Weinrich is a doom metal guitarist and vocalist. Active since 1976, when he started his first band War Horse, Weinrich is best known for being the frontman and guitarist of the doom metal bands The Obsessed and Saint Vitus...

's solo album, Punctuated Equilibrium

Punctuated Equilibrium (album)

Punctuated Equilibrium is the first solo album by American singer/guitarist Scott "Wino" Weinrich, released in January 2009 on Southern Lord.-Track listing:# "Release Me" 5:52# "Punctuated Equilibrium" 2:46# "The Woman In The Orange Pants" 3:25...

.

Gaster on file sharing

"As a musician, I think it is irrelevant to me. It exists and it is out there and no matter what I try and do about it, it will always be there. I don't mind kids trading tapes, that's totally cool. Videos are cool too. They only add to the live show. A kid might show that to some of their friends and they might think that we are cool and might come out and see us next time.

The reality is that an artist has to have a record go gold, before they are even going to see a dime. Bands put out 3 or 4 records on a label and never see a dime from record sales. So, it is not like people who are downloading would be putting a dollar in my pocket if they would have bought the record. The industry is set up so that the record company will immediately get paid from record sales. So...download all you want!!!

I think that the internet has changed the record industry and will continue to do so. The record labels will find some way to make money. I think that the artists main concern is to concentrate on their live performance and be the best artist that they can".