Austin, Tx rocker Rachel Fuhrer has been one busy drummer. Most recently, she’s been juggling drum duties with her two bands: heavy indie outfit UME (pronounced OOO-may) and mathy, post-hardcore act We’ll Go Machete. She is also a co-owner and instructor at Mercury Music, offering private and group lessons in a variety of styles. When she’s not touring or teaching, Rachel has written pieces for Tom Tom magazine in the publication’s Tips and Techniques department, and also writes a blog dedicated to all things drums (www.rachelthedrummer.blogspot.com). Rachel prides herself on the desire to be a versatile musician and sits in with a variety of artists as often as possible ranging from rock, funk and psych-rock to electronic, experimental and metal. She has also been involved in a number of theater productions, operas, soundtracks, and small ensembles as a drummer, percussionist, and collaborator.

It seems that Fuhrer’s hard work is beginning to pay off. Rachel was featured in the January 2012 issue of Drum! Magazine’s New Blood column, which stated, “Rachel Fuhrer inspires just by the sweaty, go-for-broke approach behind her stripped-down kit. St. Louis’ KDHX DJ Mike Herr says “Ume’s new drummer, Rachel Fuhrer, hammers out a big, crisp rock sound, her sure and distinct kick and tom work as integral to the band’s sound as John Bonham’s was to Led Zeppelin”. Lance Higdon of Space City Review adds “The drummer (Rachel Fuhrer) is pretty much a funky, punk-rock metronome in human skin. Watching her is a lesson in itself.”

The past year and a half has been full of exciting developments for Rachel. Ume has been featured in Rolling Stone, AP, and Nylon and was featured prominently on Travel Channel’s No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. Ume has been invited to share the stage with Janes Addiction, Helmet, The Toadies, Smashing Pumpkins, and Mission of Burma to name a few. The band is heading into the studio next month with Grammy winning producer Adam Kasper (Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Cat Power) to record their next full-length record.

Rachel got her start in church, playing gospel grooves on the south shore of Long Island, NY, where her father completed the other half of the rhythm section on bass. She continued to study with fusion great Doug Morgan (Phoebe Snow, 3pm, Glassmoon) in Raleigh, NC. Fuhrer studied orchestral percussion at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with James Massie Johnson and continued her studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston where she studied privately with Rod Morgenstien (Dixie Dregs, Steve Morse Band, Winger), Jackie Santos Jr. (Tavaris, Beaver Brown) and Larry Finn (Paula Cole) among others.