This 8-year-old may be pint sized but she packs a real punch behind the drum kit. Hunter Wells met up with Welcome Bay’s own Queen of Slam.
She’s a reluctant star.
“Cos I’m not that special,” insists 8-year-old drummer Maia Roddick of Welcome Bay.
Even the humility is delightful.
“Lots of girls can do very cool things.”
Like who? Tell us.
“Well, my friend Azariah can do a double backward flip.”
That is pretty cool.
“She’s amazing!”
But right now it’s Maia’s time to shine, a chance to haul her drum kit from the shadows to the front of the stage. Into the spotlight. Her chance to make a noise.
Because making noise, big noise is this pint-sized kid’s thing, what she does loudly well. Small doing big.
“I like loud. It’s got to be loud. If it’s not loud I am out of here.”
Even when she’s not thrashing her drum kit in the lounge at home, Welcome Bay’s own little “Queen of Slam” pretends. She’s thrumming her fingers on the table as we talk.
That’s the snare, or the ride, I presume. Then she pumps the air – “BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!” – simulating walloping the kick drum, the big, thumping attack weapon in her drum kit.
So even when she’s not drumming, she is.
It’s not even 9am on a sleepy, suburban, school holiday Monday morning. But this place is already rocking.
Green Day’s anti-war anthem Holiday is pumping. But the band’s drummer Tré Cool has been kind of stood down because Roddick has assumed the “throne”, the drum stool, and is pounding out the rhythm, pretty well beat-perfect.
“I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies,
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives.”
The anti-Iraq war lyrics of Holiday might be lost on an 8-year-old, but not the song’s driving rhythm.
She’s in the zone, all grown up, doing her own “very cool” Tré Cool, punk-pop impressions – all energy and powerful fills.
But still a cheeky and vivacious kid in pink lacy socks, hoodie and a shock of wake-up hair that needs serious taming but, like it’s owner, probably never will be.
This one song Holiday has been on relentless loop for about a month in this household.
“Played 1000 times,” laughs Maia.
That’s the way they learn. Just one song, familiarise with all the nuances, get it down-pat, then move on to something new and more challenging.
What about the din? What about the neighbours?
“I just message them and wave,” hoots Belinda, Maia’s mum.
They hoot a lot in this household.
“They’re lovely and understanding.”
They’d need to be because when Belinda was channelling Maia’s music through that TV of Imax proportions on the lounge wall, she cranked the volume so much she blew up the sound.
And possibly some neighbourly goodwill with it. Now Maia’s got her own big, black boom box with disco lights. It even looks loud.
The sound factory is heaving once more.
Maia’s dad probably has the biggest issues. He sometimes works from home, making the important phone calls, bringing in the bucks.
But being smashed by 85 decibels of Green Day, again and again and again, and a daughter doing “loud” on the skins, probably doesn’t help his day.
How does an 8-year-old connect with drumming? Blame her savvy mother.
“I saw she had some beats,” Belinda says.
“So I’d put a heap of pots on the floor and gave her a chopstick. She loved the different sounds they made.”
She got a mini drum kit which went “ding, ding, ding” at 6am.
“So Mum threw it away.”
The replacement electronic kit didn’t “make a real noise” and so she graduated to a full acoustic kit. Next minute, she had cartwheeled into drum class.
“Literally cartwheeled,” Andre Hood says.
Hook took up drums about the same age as Maia and 12 years later is her drum tutor at Upton Music School.
“Extraordinary energy, always dancing and jumping around.”
Apparently a lot of kids will show initial enthusiasm then lose interest.
“But Maia is full of enthusiasm, dedication and commitment. She’s so cool, such a pleasure.”
Is it just a coincidence that in Māori, Maia translates to courageous and confident? She seems to wear her name well.
“She lights up on the kit, brave, full of energy and expression, and self-assured,” Hood says.
And if drummers are characterised by extroversion, impulsiveness and movement, if they are risk-takers, adaptable and assertive with a work ethic, perhaps this dynamic wee 8-year-old was born a drummer.
She screws up that little nose at mention of brothers Dylan and TK.
“Annoying!”
But after they took time to watch little sister perform live at the Upton mid-year concert and reported back that she was “very cool” and none of the others were as good as her, they suddenly weren’t so annoying.
She had new respect.
The little creative who loves art and hates maths, who can tinker on a piano and wants to be a complete singer/drummer like Karen Carpenter, who plays any sport involving a ball, dabbles in kapa haka and swimming, who likes Bruno Mars and Katy Perry but is “not a Swifty”, writes her own report card.
And it’s a pass.
“I’m doing 11-year-old stuff,” the 8-year-old matter-of-factly says.
Mum hoots again. “Better not put that in the story.” No! we don’t want her appearing precocious. Fair enough. Anyhow, the tutor says it all for Maia.
“Exceptional for her age. But what really impresses is her dedication. You need dedication to grow because natural talent only gets you so far.”
And friends think it’s cool.
“It shows girls can do anything.”
Like drumming and back flips.
“Sure.”
That’s the message an 8-old-year old insisted be in the story. And while many parents probably harbour dreams of their kids becoming prima ballerinas or concert pianists and watching them from the box at Covent Garden, Belinda Roddick might have to watch her “prodigy” from the mosh pit at a heavy metal or punk rock concert.
“Absolutely fine. I’ve always said: ‘Do what makes you happy! It might not make you rich, but you will be a happier person’.”