Art & Creativity Quote by Pat Mastelotto

There’s a sly humility baked into “Not really, drums found me,” the kind musicians use to dodge the ego-trap of origin stories. Mastelotto isn’t selling the myth of the chosen virtuoso grinding in a garage; he’s flipping the script into something more believable: a life steered by appetite and accident. The phrasing matters. “Found me” grants the instrument agency, as if rhythm is less a skill he pursued than a current he stepped into and couldn’t quite get out of. It’s casual, but it’s also a way of reframing talent as receptivity.

The second clause sharpens the point: “I just liked music, all kinds of music.” That “just” is doing quiet work, insisting the motivation wasn’t purity, prestige, or even a drummer’s tribal identity. It’s an argument for curiosity over category, a subtle pushback against the way scenes and instruments become personality types. Coming from a player associated with prog and experimental rock worlds that can fetishize technique, the line reads like a refusal to be trapped by virtuosity as a brand. He positions drumming not as a specialization but as a service role inside a larger hunger: sound, texture, the whole ecosystem.

Contextually, it’s also a nod to how musicians actually develop: less through destiny than through proximity, gigs, and the practical question of what’s needed. Someone has to sit at the kit. Sometimes the kit chooses you because you said yes first.