In July 2026 I sat down with Anika Nilles in Chicago, the day after Rush played Moving Pictures in its entirety. I have been a Rush fan and a Neil Peart admirer my whole life, so this was a conversation I had been waiting a long time to have. It became the cover story of the September 2026 issue of Modern Drummer, a 14-page feature, along with an hour-long video interview.
Anika first appeared on the Modern Drummer cover in June 2017, when she was a popular YouTube drummer with a new record and a newly formed band. Nine years later she is sitting in one of the most closely watched drum chairs in rock. What stayed with me most was how she talked about the work of getting there.
Learning the feel
The notes were never the hard part for Anika. Her technique is well documented. The real challenge was learning what Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson meant by feel.
On the fourth day of rehearsals they worked on “Tom Sawyer,” and that session changed how she approached the whole job. She told me she had to learn very quickly, in a single session, what they needed from her in terms of feel, and that for a moment she wasn’t sure she was up to the task. She went back to her hotel that night, went over everything they had told her, and practiced on a pillow.
Every drummer who has studied Neil’s parts knows this. You can transcribe every note of “Tom Sawyer” and still miss the song. The placement, the weight and the way the parts breathe with the bass and guitar are what make it Rush. I wrote about the same idea from another angle in What Neil Peart: No One’s Disciple Shows Every Drummer.
The hardest song
When I asked which song was hardest to learn, she said “Xanadu.” The reason was the structure more than the chops. The song moves on and off playing and on and off time signatures, and she had to figure out how the band actually played it live. That is a useful lesson for any drummer learning a long-form piece: learn the map before you learn the fills.
What else we covered
The full conversation goes well beyond Rush:
- Her band Nevell and her time playing with Jeff Beck
- How she prepared for the Rush rehearsals
- Paying tribute to Neil without imitating him
- Studying with Claus Hessler
- Her warm-up routine and double bass work
- Electronics, her drums and what comes next
Where to read and watch
- The cover story: Anika Nilles: Putting in The Work and Finding the Feeling of Rush on moderndrummer.com
- The video interview: the full hour, with chapters, on the Modern Drummer YouTube channel and the Give The Drummer Some VIP page
- The collector’s edition: Modern Drummer printed a numbered Special Edition of the feature, with the complete interview, photography that isn’t in the digital issue and a numbered litho of the cover on premium paper. There are 400 copies, numbered 001 to 400, on pre-order at moderndrummer.com/anika, expected to ship by December 1, 2026. The 100 signed XL copies have sold out.
Quick facts
Interviewer: David Frangioni, publisher of Modern Drummer, in Chicago in July 2026, for the September 2026 cover story.
Hardest Rush song to learn, per Anika: “Xanadu,” because of how often it moves between playing and space and between time signatures.
Printed edition: The Anika Nilles Special Edition is limited to 400 numbered copies with a numbered cover litho, on pre-order at moderndrummer.com/anika, with shipping expected by December 1, 2026.