This week’s guest on the podcast is Niko Schauble, an award-winning drummer, composer, producer and audio engineer.

Full of incredible experiences, Niko sits down with us and reminisces on an incredible 40+ year career as a musician, composer and recording engineer/producer. Niko recalls memories from growing up in Germany, the joy and challenges of recording reel-to-reel on tape, playing with incredible musicians, moving to Australia, exploring sounds on the drums, writing music and building his recording studio in Thornbury - Pughouse Studios. We also chat about being a contemporary jazz drummer in the Melbourne scene, touch on the business and experience of building his recording studio and have a laugh too!

With a practice spanning the full range of contemporary notated and improvised music, Niko Schauble has many long lists of awards, recording and composition credits. He has performed with many of the world's leading artists including Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Sam Rivers, Lee Konitz, Dewey Redman, Enrico Rava, Greg Osby, Arthur Blythe, Palle Mikkelborg, Paul Grabowsky, Trilok Gurtu, Karaikudi R. Mani, Deborah Conway and Archie Roach. His work as a musician and composer is documented on over 60 albums. Niko’s compositions span film and television scores, ballet, interdisciplinary works, chamber and symphonic music, with major commissions from the Australian Art Orchestra, West Australian Ballet, Radiosinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Queensland Festival, the Berlin Jazz Composers Orchestra and the University Orchestra Ulm.  Niko was commissioned by the University of Ulm in Germany to create his work, ‘Clear Waters’, for Jazz Trio and large Symphony Orchestra. This work premiered in 2023.

Niko has held teaching positions in jazz and film music at Melbourne and Monash Universities,  University of Melbourne, Monash University, Melbourne Polytechnic and has been a guest lecturer at ANU, UTAS, WAAPA, Universities of Adelaide and Queensland, JIB (Jazz Institut Berlin) and the Sommerakademie der Landesmusikschule Berlin.

In 2012 Niko opened Pughouse Studios, a professional recording studio in Melbourne, Australia, producing more than 160 albums to date.

Join us as we discuss his journey with music, being born into a family of musicians, travelling the world, and establishing a special space for artists at Pughouse Studios in Thornbury.

The conversation is now available on all streaming platforms, YouTube and our website.

For more info and links to music, visit our website:

aredrummersmusicians.com/conversations/nikoschauble