Drum heroes week: Dan Flint on Travis Barker

As sticksman for arena-filling pop rockers You Me At Six, Dan Flint is one of the most influential players of his post-Millennium generation.

Flint has hoards of fans thanks to his clever, and unmistakably his own, style.

So, it comes as little surprise that the man that the Weybridge tub thumper calls his drumming idol is a man cut from a similar cloth - Travis Barker.

"He's someone I grew up admiring," Flint says of the Blink-182 man, "Everyone needs that kind of idol when you're 14 or 15 to make you want to sit down and play drums every day. He was that for me. I think there's a lot of drummers out there that don't give him the credit he deserves.

"He gets a lot of praise, but I think people are snobby about it and don't appreciate how good the guy is. They think that just because you're popular, but you see that all the time with bands. He was always a huge influence on me and I think that's why it shows in my playing.

"Obviously because he has his own sound I'm trying to get away from that as well. I watch a lot of Jojo Mayer stuff. If you want to have your own sound you can't just look at someone else, you have to do what you do."

Flint added that Barker's achievements at the kit are the benchmark that he is striving for. "It would be a hard thing for me to do anything like Travis has, but I'll keep trying. It would be great for people to listen to one of our songs and know that it's me playing.

"One of the ways I'd like to do that is by branching out and to play with other musicians or guest on someone's album. If I had the time that would really excite me. If I go into the studio with You Me At Six it's being back in the studio with You Me At Six, whereas if I had to do something for someone else it would be such a nerve-wracking experience.

"That would be a really exciting way of challenging myself, to see if at the end of if it still sounded like me even though I was playing with someone else."