Anika Nilles has been announced as RUSH’s drummer for their upcoming reunion tour, which will mark the band’s first shows in 11 years, and first concerts since the passing of the legendary Neil Peart in 2020.
Rather than tap a well-known name to fill Peart’s shoes, RUSH opted for a relative unknown in Nilles, a 42-year-old German virtuoso who comes from a family of drummers.
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The RUSH gig is undoubtedly her most notable professional drumming endeavor to date, following a stint in Jeff Beck’s live band for his European tour in 2022.
Meanwhile, Nilles has been a prolific YouTuber since the early 2010s, garnering millions of plays on her content, which includes clinical instructional videos, as well as her own original music with her backing band Nevell. She has released two full-length albums, Pikalar (2017) and For a Colorful Soul (2020), appearing on the cover of Modern Drummer in June 2017 to promote the former.
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Nilles has also taught drumming at Nexus ICA, Drumeo, and at Popakademie Baden-Württemberg. Since 2021, she heads the drums department at the latter institution.
For more on Nilles, you can visit her YouTube channel and check out a couple of her most popular clips below.