DRUM ROLL

ALBUQUERQUE — Belen High School graduate Ricardo Sanchez said one of his goals after committing to being a musician was to tour Europe.

That dream almost didn’t come true — ironically, due to his own success.

In 2018, Sanchez, 42, was one of the most in-demand drummers in Albuquerque. One day, he said he got a call from Jadd Shickler, the co-founder of Albuquerque-based MeteorCity Records, a foundational record label in the Desert Rock/Doom metal music scene in the 1990s.

“He says, ‘I just moved back into town and me and my guitar player are looking for a drummer,” he remembers. “‘We heard you’re the guy to talk to.’ I was like, I feel bad because he brings this up all the time – but, I said, ‘Yeah, I play drums …’ That’s how I responded.”

Sanchez soon realized he’d made a mistake.

“As soon as I Googled his name and I realized he was the dude from MeteorCity, I was like, ‘Oh (crap), this is the guy! This is the dude!’

“Because I remember when I discovered this music, I bought a couple of Meteor City CDs … When he told me who he was and everything, I was like, ‘Oh, OK, cool! Let’s do it. I’m down. Sorry,’ he explained with a laugh, remembering that he was really busy at the time, playing in a funk band and with popular Duke City blues band Felix y Los Gatos while also picking up gigs almost nightly.

Cut to this year, and Sanchez is still pretty busy. In October 2025, Blue Heron, his band with Shickler, toured Europe, playing two festival dates and several club shows in Belgium and Germany. A month earlier, his other band, Violet Rising, recorded a set for the Emmy-winning local music TV series, “Bands of Enchantment” at the KiMo Theater in Downtown Albuquerque. That episode is set to premiere on New Mexico PBS, KNME-TV at 4:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 28.

Violet Rising’s lead singer/guitarist is Christi Sanchez, the younger sister of Keith and Todd Sanchez, Belenites who started the seminal ABQ rock band Stoic Frame in the 1990s. Christi is also Ricardo’s fiancé and a music collaborator.

These days, he still gigs with Felix y Los Gatos, as well as another popular Albuquerque funk band, Merican Slang. All told, Sanchez counted 13 groups he’s been part of, playing music ranging from Spanish-language New Mexican to funk to hard rock and desert rock.

The European tour with Blue Heron was very eye-opening, Sanchez said.

“It was a dream come true, man,” he said enthusiastically. “It was exciting, and I will say that I would say the biggest difference between playing here and playing there is that they really love their rock music. They like it heavy, and pretty much every show that we played was like packed, standing room only kind of thing.

“I wasn’t expecting that many people, to be honest with you, because we are one of the newer bands on this, like on the scene,” Sanchez said. “We were the first band to play at both festivals. I didn’t think there was going to be a lot of people for our sets, but they were both packed out. It almost seemed like it worked out better that we were first because it’s like they got there early and they were just waiting for it.”

Germany and Belgium are a long way from Sanchez’s youth in Belen and Tomé. He knew pretty early on that he wanted to play drums. At age 11, he asked his parents for a drum set.

“(My parents) were like, ‘We don’t have money for a drum set,” he said with a chuckle. “And so then, the next day, I get a call from my godfather — (he) used to spoil me a little bit, and here in my head, I’m like, ‘He’s going to buy me a drum set!’

“Then he said, ‘Cool. You can come work on the farm tomorrow. Be here at eight.”

He worked at his uncle’s farm for a year, saving up for the drum set, but then something happened after he got the drums. He lost interest.

“I got my drum set, and I messed around on it for a while,” he said. “Then it started collecting dust. I remember looking at my drum set one day with the (drum heads) all dusty. I was like, ‘Oh man, I spent a year of my life earning this. Like I’m going to get some fun out of this stupid thing.’ So that’s kind of when I started taking it more seriously.”

Around the same time, Ricardo met the late Ragon Espinoza at school. That friendship would set them both on a great journey of friendship and music.

“It wasn’t until I met Ragon that my playing leveled up and I got a lot more serious about it,” he said. “Cause he, right away, he knew — he knew I could play. Ragon was so good. We both knew that we were good. So we hung out a lot, and we learned off each other.

“Like if I did something cool, he’d be like, ‘How the hell did you do that? Show me how you did that.’ And vice versa. I really think that was the key — having a friend to bounce ideas off of, learn from, and, like, have fun. We were almost inseparable. We were like best friends.”

Aubrey Tucker, who was the Belen High School band director at the time, was also a big influence at the time for Sanchez.

“What was cool about Aubrey Tucker was he was all about us having fun,” he related. “As soon as he left, I got out of there. We got another band instructor. He was very militant and very strict. I was like, ‘I’m out. I’m done. I’m here to have fun, dude. I’m not here to just get barked at.’”

That experience shaped his approach to being a drum teacher, his latest endeavor. Sanchez started teaching a year ago at J Music in Los Lunas. After his European shows, he started instructing at Rock 101 in Albuquerque.

“It’s going good. I got a few students over there now,” he said, referring to Rock 101. “It’s definitely made me a better drummer, and I like it when they figure something out, ‘cause then they get excited. Then I get excited too, because I saw it all happen. Seeing them get excited is even cooler.”

Sanchez likens his approach to an experience he had recently, presenting at La Merced Elementary School, and relates the mixed reactions when he asked who wanted to play the drums.

“I said, ‘Who wants to play now?’ And they’d all raise their hands. And they’d get back there, and some of them get shy, and they didn’t know what to do,” he said. “Others just started hitting all the drums, going to town.

“So with my students, I figured as long as they’re having fun and learning, that’s my goal. I want them to have fun, and that’s been kind of one of my themes, too, in teaching.”

Working as a full-time musician now, Sanchez reflects on the decision to stop working and devote himself to music, something he said he’s grateful to have the opportunity to do.

“(In 2006), I was doing flooring, and I used to ask him for time off to play shows all the time,” he remembers. “It kind of came to a head. My boss was like, ‘Look, Rick, you’re going to have to decide what’s more important. I was like, ‘All right, later, man.’” Off I went.”

COVID put a dent in his career as a musician, and he had to take up jobs to pay the bills. Once he could, Ricardo was back working full-time as a drummer.

“I really feel like that’s how my whole life has been. It’s just like one thing to the next, which is cool,” he said. “I really always did. If I’m honest with myself, I kind of always thought I’d be in this role. To go from the stage to teaching, you know.

“I do like where I’m at right now ʼcause I get to spend time behind the drum set more than I was before, and that’s great.”