Mike Steckling

Born in Grand Forks, ND and raised in Madison, WI., I was the older of two musically obsessed brothers. At age 11, I was already splitting time between middle school concert/jazz bands and countless hours in my parents basement, attempting to master Neil Peart and Alex Van Halen drum licks (with varying degrees of success). During high school, spare time was spent dabbling in ill-fated garage bands and absorbing massively unhealthy dosages of the heavy metal and punk rock records of the day.

These days, my drumming influences include: Stewart Copeland, Mickey Hart and the Santana Band; along with the often-cited Bonham, Mitchell, Moon, Watts, Starr ... and Ginger Baker. Since graduating from UW-Platteville in 1992, I have owned and managed Downtown Discs and have played in several local and regional bands, the most recent being A.J. Steil and Neptune Blue.

As conguergo and auxiliary percussionist with this Galena-based psychedelic-blues band, I can be heard on 1997's "A.J. Steil and the Rhythm Invasion" and 1999's "Neptune Blue." Both CDs were recorded at Heartland Studios and released by The Waterfall Music Company. After nearly four years and 350 gigs with the regionally successful group, I took an extended leave of absence, during which I married my soul mate Jessica.

I now find myself back on drum kit full time with the Roadies, but hope to bring an expanded percussion instrumentation to the band as well.

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