Johnny Lex and the Allies

David Merritt’s approach to percussion began with a three-sided metal school desk and a trip to the hallway. Getting expelled from the classroom for drumming on it became a habit, and the hallway became a practice room. He waited out the period, often until the next bell, and it suited him fine until report cards came home. He was learning something in the process: the more books inside the desk, the smaller the sound chamber, and the duller the tone. He was already cataloging the colors he could pull out of a single surface. Growing up in Portsmouth, Virginia, he absorbed the hard rock of his era alongside the evolving rhythms of Earth, Wind & Fire, Rick James, and Grandmaster Flash. Other early influences run long: Fleetwood Mac, Aerosmith, Kansas, Bob Seger, Steely Dan, and Alan Parsons, then the Police, English Beat, Sade, Talking Heads, and UB40.

Completely self-taught, David tried trap set and stick playing before discovering what hand drums could do, and he never looked back. His setup is unusual enough that brushes are the only implements he reaches for when his hands come off the heads, and he describes the kit as looking like it came from the Island of Misfit Toys. With JLA, those influences found a home. He says he is humbled that musicians this educated and formally trained let him hold down the foundation, and that the process feels seamless and syncopated enough that he leaves every rehearsal on a high.