20 Things You Didn’t Know about Cobus Potgieter
Cobus Potgieter was born on October 23, 1986, in Carnarvon, South Africa. He was raised in a small South African town called Humansdorp. Cobus Potgieter is not his real name; he was born under the name Pieter Jacobus Potgieter and is known on YouTube as “deedlebag”. Cobus Potgieter has become an internationally recognized drummer thanks to the help of the well-known, popular website YouTube. YouTube is a website used by many around the world to share videos with others, all around the globe and was created in 2005.
Although this is an extremely popular website, just in case you have been hiding under a rock for the last ten to eleven years – the YouTube website allows its users to view others videos, upload their own videos, rate other people’s videos, as well as share videos and comment on them. The YouTube sensation that is Cobus Potgieter has earned his fame through videos of himself that he has uploaded onto the YouTube website playing his drums. He is popular and successful due to his innate talents as well as his pure love and passion for playing the drums. With well over 100 million views, he is now considered the second most subscribed to drummer on YouTube.
Here are 20 things you might not know about him:
1. The brilliant drummer, Cobus Potgieter, is a self-taught drummer.
He did not learn how to play the drums in school, from his parents, or a music teacher. He has not had any formal training at all, ever. What Cobus Potgieter possesses is a natural, raw talent when it comes to his musical prowess. As if that were not enough, he taught himself how to play the drums completely by ear, without sheet music or instructional books.
2. Cobus Potgieter did not start playing the drums until he as sixteen.
He was not a child prodigy. In late 2001, a young sixteen-year-old Cobus Potgieter attended a local church organized outreach near his home in Humansdorp. The grand finale of the outreach was what inspired Cobus Potgieter’s dream and has shaped his life and career. A drummer from a band that had performed locally performed the finale. The drummer invited and encouraged the audience members to play a basic 4/4 rock beat on the drum set. Cobus Potgieter took the challenge and right then, in that instant, his love for the drums began. All he could think about was playing the drums again.
3. Although his love for the drums blossomed at the end of 2001, he did not have a drum set or the money to go out and buy one.
it was not until sometime the following year, in 2002, that Cobus Potgieter was able to save enough money to purchase his first drum set. He was so excited about playing the drums again that he saved as much money as he could from the day of the outreach on in order to buy a set. As a teenager, that takes dedication and a strong desire.
4. While many musicians come from a long line of musically talented family members, Cobus Potgieter does not.
In fact, his parents did not play any instruments or sing in any bands. They were interested in certain genres of music and they listened to music, but they were not musically inclined. His brothers did not play any instruments or have any musical talents or interests either. He does remember having a grandmother with some musical talents, but that is the extent of it. Apparently, his musical talent is not genetic, but it is brilliant and amazing.
5. It was not until around this same time in 2002 that Cobus Potgieter developed a love for music in general.
Like most teenagers do, he discovered a great love for music bands. Bands like Blind 182, Fenix TX, and Sum 41 quickly became his favorites to listen to.
6. The one drummer that had the most influence on Cobus Potgieter was the drummer from the band Blink 182 – Travis Barker.
He spent most if practice time playing along with his drums to Blink 182 songs as he listened to them. Remember, he learned how to play completely by ear. He had never seen even a glimpse of a written musical note on a sheet of music. This is an amazing feat; to listen to a song, then be able to play it on the drums. His other drumming influences include Tony Royster Jr., Carter Beauford, Mike Portnoy, and Derico Watson.
7. Cobus Potgieter’s first band as a teenager was called “Glaskas”.
He was the drummer and co-founder of the band. They were not very successful, but he was only a teenager at the time. The band played songs they wrote themselves at school dances.
8. Not only did he teach himself how to play the drums, Cobus Potgieter went on to teach himself about music production.
After graduating high school, while living in a men’s hostel, Cobus Potgieter scoured the Internet for everything he could find concerning music and video production. He used this free content he found on the Internet to learn about audio and video production. He then was able to teach himself how to produce videos, which he incorporated into his YouTube video creations in the years to come.
9. YouTube came out in 2005.
The following year, in August of 2006, Cobus Potgieter uploaded his first video, “Quick Drum Solo”. He recorded the video in the student church he attended in Bloemfontein, Africa and instantly his viewer base started to grow. Although he had only been playing the drums for about four years, he was already an accomplished, talented musician that viewers loved.
10. Following his single video, Cobus Potgieter moved on to creating whole series’ of music videos.
His very first series “Overhead Series” came about after Cobus Potgieter recorded himself playing eleven songs in the student church. Late one night, unable to sleep, Cobus Potgieter ventured out to the student church. He then mounted the church camera in an overhead angle and recorded himself playing the eleven songs of this series. There was no production team, no camera man, nothing but Cobus and his music. The “Overhead Series” was a huge hit with many viewers from all around the world. His series was a great success.
11. Cobus Potgieter has appeared on several African television shows.
This is the result of his increasing success and popularity on YouTube. Some of these shows include Gons, Jip, and Kwela. He has also been featured in several magazines and on web pages. His increasing success and popularity on YouTube has led to many great experiences for Cobus Potgieter.
12. Cobus Potgieter has created a self-titled DVD.
The DVD was released in 2009 and was produced and written by none other than Cobus Potgieter himself. The DVD is a documentary based on Cobus, his early years, how he got his start playing the drums, as well as introductory lessons on audio and video editing for drum cover production.
13. In July of 2009, following the death of Michael Jackson, Cobus Potgieter recorded the “Mini-Tribute Series”.
This series included Michael Jackson’s top hits including “Beat It”, “Billie Jean”, and “Black or White. A mere four days after uploading this video series, it had received over 100,000 views on YouTube. This is astonishing and nearly impossible. The song “Beat It” that he recorded even ranked as the second most rated video by a YouTube musician on YouTube. This was on the song’s second day of being released. Needless to say, this series was a big hit with YouTube viewers and fans of Cobus Potgieter.
14. Cobus Potgieter has a passion for music and the drums.
Best of all, he wants to share his talents and help others learn how to play the drums. He has created an instructional learning system called “The Cobus Method”. In this educational system, he teaches others how to learn to play the drums 100% by ear; the same way he learned fourteen years ago. He teaches you how to use his strategies, how to learn to play the drums by ear without sheet music, how to make your own songs, and how to write new, unique drum parts. This fifteen DVD and five CD package set features all of these lessons as well as examples, and original play-along songs.
15. Cobus Potgieter has achieved yet another of his musical dreams.
This is something that all young artists strive to achieve, but many do not. He his playing with a live band. Cobus is not just on YouTube anymore! In 2014 he toured with musician and now roommate Tyler Ward. Now, in 2016 he has joined the Pigs Can Fly tour as the drummer for the band Busted. The tour started in April 2016 are they are still currently on tour in the UK.
16. In 2012, Corub Potgieter started the popular YouTube Band Project.
He was able to start this project due to raising upwards of $500,000 through KickStarter. The idea behind the project was to take the best musicians from YouTube and form a band. Out of four hundred fifty musicians that auditions via YouTube, only four were able to make the cut. Cobus Potgieter worked with Justin Hicks, Evans Collins, BJ Bryand, and Bear Rose to create and release an album. For this project, Cobus Potgieter had to take one year off from YouTube. His many fans were biting at the bit waiting for his much anticipated return.
17. Cobus Potgieter’s drum gear has changed quite a bit from his first drum set and his broke days trying to scrape by and create YouTube videos.
His gear now includes: a snare drum, three different size rack toms, two different size floor toms, a bass drum, a Neil Peart Signature “Snakes and Arrows” snare drum, an HH Fusion hi-hat cymbal set, an artisan hi hat set, a stack of 10-inch AAX splash and 10-incg China Kang, n HHX splash and 10-inch HH China Kang, a six inch AA splash and 8-inch chopper, a vault saturation crash, an HHX groove crash, an AAX X-plosion crash, an HHX X-treme crash, an AA splash, an HH splash, an AAX ISO ride, an HHX Legacy ride, an AAX Omni, an Artisan 3-point crash, an AA China and a Paragon China, as well as drumsticks. That’s quite a drum set!
18. In 2010 Cobus Potgier was invited to co-write and produce a song with the infamous iago Pico.
The song was called Heroes and the music video was produced by Pixar Films. He got the once in a lifetime opportunity to travel to Santiago De Compostela in Spain to carry out this magnificent task.
19. Cobus Potgieter has been invited to several interesting and fun places to attend and perform in unique events.
These are the chances of a lifetime that he never would have guessed he would receive when first starting out. In 2011, he was invited to perform at Google’s Inspiration Night in Tel Aviv. Here he recorded a music video in Jerusalem, then played live in Tel Aviv with Maria Aragon, 2Cellos, and Marina Maximilian. In 2014, he received an invitation to attend and perform at Africa connected. This took place in Nairobi, Kenya and was an inspirational experience for Cobus Potgieter. He welcomes any new opportunity or challenge that comes his way.
20. Cobus Potgieter has been listed as one of YouTube’s top 100 musicians.
With the increasing amount of musicians that join YouTube every day, this is a great award to receive. From small beginnings to live shows as an integral part of a band, Cobus Potgeiter has come a long way and is still not done. The best thing about Cobus Potgieter is that he is humble. He does not have a big head or feel that he is better than anybody else. He has a passion and love for music that he is pursuing and willing to share with the world. on his YouTube page, he puts it perfectly, “I am a normal dude and I’m just trying to pursue the things that I am passionate about”.
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