Risty Bryce

Location: Sioux City, IA

Challenge: Hereditary Spastic Paraparesis

Website: www.drumsparx.com

Risty Bryce is a drummer from Iowa who is responsible for the development of the Drum Sparx,a voice activated drum trigger.

Risty says "I’ve been playing drums since I was about 8 or 9 yrs old. See drums and drumming was kind of a family thing from my gramps playing in big bands back in the 30’s to my dad playing on and off in his younger years to me".

Risty didn’t really take drumming seriously until after high school and he realized he wanted to be in a band. Risty adds "At that point I kind of ditched all the technical sides of drumming and dove head first into playing solely based on feeland experimentation".

Throughout Risty's main years of playing (11 yrs) he played and recorded with numerous bands achieving mild local fame.

He adds "Then in 2003 after a trip to Nashville to record the second album with the band I was in I decided to step away from the scene to deal with an issues that was stealing my legs right out from under me".

Risty says "Quick back story to the “disease”: I was raised in a disabled household by a single mother who suffered from what doctors thought was polio as a child but later realized it was a disease more closely related to MS (Multiple Sclerosis). This disease slowly took her ability to walk away over the course of my childhood and eventually took her away from us in 2004. She fortunately passed this on to my older brother and I. I say fortunately because of many reasons based off what it made me become".

Risty left the music scene to deal with doctors and all that comes with that area and before he knew it 10 years went by. He was on the verge of packing up my kit for good. Risty adds "By 2013 I could barely use my legs to do anything let alone play a kick drum".

During this time there were multiple things happening within and around Risty, one being reuniting a friendship with his first guitar player Mike Goodman (also a member of Drum Sparx) and them listening to their very first recording that led him to ask the question "There’s gotta be a way to play the kick using my mouth?"

And that was the beginning of what later would become Drum Sparx!

In 2013 Risty met Matt VanMeter, a fellow drummer, who helped develop Drum Sparx, the device that allows the kick to be played with just the mouth using voice. He adds "I am completely amazed at what we've done with Drum Sparx and what it's done for me! Just a short time ago what seemed to be like an insane idea has come to life and brought me back home behind my kit".

He finishes with "Now that we've changed my life I hope we can give "The Power to Play" to so many others out there".

Risty is playing in a band called In Due Time.

Risty Bryce - Drumsparx Demonstration