Having grown up in Potsdam, New York, a town just two hours north of Syracuse, drummer Jason Sutter considers Syracuse University a “hometown university.”

Now based in Los Angeles, Sutter will revisit SU as a speaker for the Soyars Leadership Lecture Series, sponsored by the Setnor School of Music, the Bandier program and the department of art and music histories. He will speak Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

Before speaking at SU, Sutter will also present a drum workshop at the Guitar Center located on 3150 Erie Blvd. Tuesday at 4 p.m.

“It’s an entirely different world, and very rarely you get the insight from the streets, so to speak,” Sutter said of the music industry. “So it’s real fun to be able to address that and relate it to the nuts and bolts of the music business and what I live and breathe every day in my profession, and be able to bring it back and discuss it to a larger student body.”

Sutter has played with acts such as Marilyn Manson, Foreigner, Chris Cornell, American Hi-Fi and the New York Dolls. Most recently, Sutter returned to Smash Mouth to kick off the band’s 20th anniversary tour “Under the Sun” eight years after he first played with them.

Throughout his career, Sutter had been hosting drum clinics in which he combines drum instruction and technique with lectures in front of crowds at music stores all over the nation.

“But last year I did one clinic at my graduate school alma mater, University of Miami, and realized there’s so much more I can cover than just the drums,” Sutter said. “I wanted to do it on an academic level, doing a bigger scope.”

Theo Cateforis, chair of the department of art and music histories, is one of Sutter’s childhood friends. The two of them have known each other since they were in junior high and have kept in touch over the years.

“I saw him enough times that I realized, ‘Yeah I should bring him in to talk to the class,’” said Cateforis, who has been working at SU for 10 years. “It was difficult with his touring but we finally reached the point where he had a clear schedule.”

Sutter thinks the best clinics he experienced came through his music school when he was a child. Those clinics addressed “the big picture” of the music industry, Sutter said, and as a result, he’s always wanted to be able to bring those ideas to students.

“I’ve always gravitated toward that information and always learned the most from that,” Sutter said. “I always wanted to be able to bring that stuff to the students. That’s something that’s always been very important to me.”

Christopher Allis, a friend of Sutter and also an SU alumnus, met Sutter through mutual friends and from their involvement in the musical community.

Allis, who is from Syracuse, said he and Sutter were able to connect upon learning they were both from the central New York area.

“…anyone who wants to be a professional musician is really going to learn a lot,” Allis said.

Sutter also said he’s looking to do more drum clinics at multiple colleges throughout the country and is already talking to some schools. He’s looking to focus on teaching two main mantras — getting students out of their comfort zone and forcing them to establish their own goals.

“I don’t just talk about drums when I do my drum clinics,” Sutter said. “Most of it is just a life lesson or a focus on your path or being professional and making a goal, and I thought it would be cool to bring this to college students because I went though years of academia.”

Published on February 10, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Clare: clramire@syr.edu