In the middle of last year, an online fund was launched to raise money to buy a drum kit for Deden Noy, an Indonesian drummer whose covers of songs by the likes of Dream Theater and Rush, performed on a ramshackle homemade kit, had gone viral.
"I came across Deden on Facebook a few days ago," wrote the fund's creator, Renan Sanchez. "As a musician and a huge fan of Dream Theater, I was completely blown away by Deden’s perseverance and skills. He is the proof that human beings are capable of beautiful things even when the situation isn’t the most favourable.
"In the video, he plays Dance Of Eternity, which is arguably one of the most difficult songs to play considering technique and time signature changes.
"Deden lives in Western Indonesia and the closest music store is 20-hour drive to Jakarta. We were able to arrange someone to take him there, but I really want to give him an awesome drum kit."
Great idea, right? Well, the fund-raising effort fell short of the target of $1000, and the campaign lost momentum.
Until now. Until Mike Portnoy.
The former Dream Theater and current Neal Morse Band/Flying Colors/Transatlantic/Winery Dogs/Liquid Tension Experiment/Metal Allegiance and Sons of Apollo drummer has taken to social media to say that a new kit will be shortly on its way to Indonesia.
"I’ve recently gotten hundreds of messages with links to Deden Noy playing my songs on a homemade kit," tweeted Portnoy. "His talents are indeed incredible and I’m in the process of getting him a new kit and cymbals with the incredible support from Tama and Sabian."
After being deluged with praise, Portnoy tweeted a second message, saying, "While I appreciate all the happy comments, just as much credit needs to go to the great people at Tama and Sabian [Portnoy's drum and cymbal sponsors] for supporting my idea. In fact, it’s them that will have to deal with the “heavy lifting”. And now everybody can stop sending me the links too!"
You can watch Deden Noy performing The Dance Of Eternity below.
