Few drummers command both the pocket and the spotlight like The Pocket Queen. With a signature groove that effortlessly blends funk, jazz, hip-hop, Caribbean, and various Afro-cuban sensibilities, she has carved out a unique space in the music world—not just as a drummer but as a producer, songwriter, and creative force. From her early days in New Orleans, to her blow-up on social media, featured appearance on Late Night With Stephen Colbert, and collaboration with multi-Grammy-award winning artist, PJ Morton—her journey is one of passion, patience, and pure feel. In this interview, The Pocket Queen shares insights on her rhythmic philosophy, industry experiences, and how her latest projects embody her musical and spiritual essence.

A Conversation With The Pocket Queen

Musical Background & Influences

Splice: Tell us about the defining moment when you knew drumming would be your career.

Pocket Queen: To be quite honest with you, I never really... well, let me be honest, probably in high school when I knew that it was sticking. You know, it was something that was really sticking to me. It was a passion point that I just couldn't really shake or get rid of. I had tried a bunch of different things to find my passion points and I'm grateful to my parents for that, but drums just seemed to be the thing that wasn't going anywhere. And even when I tried to stop and I didn't want it as a career anymore it still followed me everywhere. It's still following me to this day so that's how I knew.

S: How did growing up in New Orleans influence your approach to rhythm and feel?

PQ: I think people would definitely note that I have a somewhat jazzy style or influence to my playing. It’s very relaxed, and I guess that could also be inspired by jazz... like the jazz drummers of, you know, I want to say the '60s and '70s, like the relaxed wrists. And then also just melodically how I think of things, the things that excite me, the chord changes, it’s all influenced around jazz. But even more than just jazz, I don’t want my New Orleans to just be painted as jazz, as it is a very big influence. But, you know, I mostly grew up playing in church. And just the culture around it, the culture around family and connection, those are the things that greatly concerned me, which means it’s just like, "Is it connecting? Is it making people feel something?" So I think that was a huge influence.

Drumming & Production

S: You’re regarded in the music community for having a deep, locked-in pocket. Why do you think “pocket and groove” became the emphasis of your sound as opposed to some other style — like developing a crazy vocabulary of chops?

PQ: Pocket is fundamental. It’s the foundation of music... It is the universal thing that we can all connect to and understand. As I said, connection is a very strong value for me in what I do, and we can all connect to a solid beat that we can move to. So I think that’s why. And then it’s just what really fascinated me and what made me love music, so it’s what I chose to hold on to.

S: As you’ve expanded from playing drums to music production and songwriting, how has your approach changed?

PQ: First, I would say, music production and songwriting greatly changed the way that I approach the drum set and my musical choices. But now as I pivot back to music production and songwriting, I’m taking those things that I love about the drums and kind of accenting them in my music and making them the forefront—making rhythmic melodies the forefront of my style. Yeah, I hope that makes sense.

S: What challenges did you face breaking into the industry as a female drummer in a traditionally male-dominated space? What helped you overcome those challenges?

Career & the Industry

PQ: If I’m being honest with you, it wasn’t that much of a challenge to break into the industry as a female drummer. If anything, I was widely embraced, and I immediately got support from some of the greatest drummers on the planet at the time. If anything, you can make it about being an equal and having a chip on your shoulder, but I don’t know... I just really feel like if you’re good at what you do, you are treated as an equal. If you do use your gender to try and get ahead, your looks, and all of these things, then maybe there will be some strife. You know? But the thing about me is, like, I have both. I’m charismatic and beautiful, and I also have the skills to back it up. So those things work greatly in my favor. Thus, it hasn’t made it very hard. I hope that doesn’t sound pompous. I mean, it is, but it’s the truth.

S: You were the house drummer for a late night TV show for a week — which puts you in some pretty rare air alongside drummers like Questlove, Louis Cato, Shawn Pelton, James Gadsen, and Steve Jordan. How did playing on a late-night TV show compare with other live performance experiences?

PQ: "Yeah, you don’t realize a lot of times that there’s a lot of checks and balances that are going on to film a TV show. Like, people often think that when we go to commercial break and we’re playing, that we’re playing the whole song, when truthfully, we probably play like 30 seconds of the song and stop. But let me just put out there, it is a place that I hope I end up — back on the air playing in a house band for a late-night show. That is actually my dream job. Just putting that out there for anyone reading, anybody who knows somebody, that’s what I want to do."

Future & Vision

S: How do you see the role of drummers evolving in modern music production?

PQ: Well, the thing about drummers... I know many drummers like me are multi-talented, and they just have a very strong understanding of music and what makes music great—what makes people want to listen to music. So I often see drummers diving into the space of music production, songwriting, musical directing, and the big picture spaces. But that’s always been the case a little bit, you know?" "[Drummers] Lay down the fundamental. Drums have always determined the genre. If we really think about it, if we did not have drums in most songs, or the style of the drums in most songs, we wouldn’t be able to differentiate the genre from one genre to another. Because those same 12 notes are the same in every genre, but the drums, the sounds, the sonics of them can really determine a song’s crossover appeal.

S: What legacy do you hope to leave in both drumming and music culture?

PQ: First and foremost, I aim to live a very balanced lifestyle. I aim to not put my identity in what I do. It’s something that I do, it’s not who I am. And I hope that can be seen through my story. And also, I hope people have patience with the journey and take the time to enjoy every part of the process. And I hope, yeah, they just have like a paper trail to let them know like, you know, everything that she turned into, everything that happened for it, didn’t happen overnight, and it also didn’t happen by her own strength. You know, like, there’s so many things. Most of the great things that happened in my career were not things that I auditioned for, were not things that I thought were going to happen. You just gotta trust God, and you just gotta be down for the ride. Put yourself out there, do the best work that you can, and just trust the process.

The Pocket Queen: Groove Essentials Sample Pack

S: Your pack, The Pocket Queen: Groove Essentials is out now on the label Discotheque. What role has disco played in your unique sound and approach to drumming?

PQ: Disco is probably one of the most acoustic universal genres there is. The four-in-the-floor beat, it’s something that everyone can understand and everyone loves. And then the usage of real live instruments and the feeling that it brings and the connection that it brings, I think that is all very valuable to me. It has influenced a lot of my sound in my newest project band project, introducing The Pocket Queen and the Royal Flush.

S: Did you approach these grooves with a particular type of producer or musician in mind?

PQ: Not particularly. I'm influenced by a lot. Let me just say that. I feel it's a nice big gumo of a lot of different things. But no one in particular.

S: Which sound or loop in this pack has you the most excited?

PQ: I think it’s honestly Night Out. I recently made a post about it. I recreated it, and made content out of it because it’s just one of those funky loops that has a lot of influences going on. If you listen closely, it has a bit of a Cuban influence, some Latin elements, but it’s also funk, you know? So I think that’s a great one. I also like my notorious like drum tom groove. It’s something that I feel like has created a huge voice for me in drumming, that sort of style.

S: For producers sitting down with this pack for the first time, where should they start?

PQ: I don't know... maybe start with the dry grooves because there's different variations of all different ways of how the drums can be mixed. And then just have fun with it because even the way that I play it doesn't have to be exactly how you use it. That's the beautiful thing about music.

S: How do you see this sample pack fitting into the broader landscape of modern beat-making and production?

PQ: I think versus like programming these grooves and everything, there’s now personality inside of them. There’s now real feeling inside of the beat, you know? It’ll add like a certain level of realness to the groove and a real approach by a real musician.

S: You get two words to describe this pack — what are they?

PQ: I would definitely say groovy, of course, and classic. Classic groovy.

New Single, "Hope & Love" with PJ Morton

S: You recently put out a new song called "Hope & Love" with PJ Morton. It’s a beautiful song. It has such a warm, uplifting energy while still carrying emotional depth—what was the inspiration behind the song?

PQ: There are many different inspirations behind the song. Musically, the most obvious is Marvin Gaye. His music has brought great social awareness to the world. Add to that, his compositions and how they made you feel. It's almost like you felt the exact words he was saying, and I wanted to do that with this song. I also love the use of strings. There are modern bands that really inspired this sound, like Kindred and the Family Soul. But more broadly, it would be Marvin Gaye. He's definitely one of the biggest inspirations behind it.

Also just the times we're all going through right now—what I thought would reflect those times as an artist and what I felt like we really needed to focus on. There are so many ways to be negative and there are so many things that can distract us from joy and just being present for your fellow man. And that doesn't always mean finding solutions, but it means having a listening ear and truly being present and showing people that you're there through all this hardship.

S: How did the collaboration with PJ Morton come about, and what was it like working with him?

PQ: Honestly, I just reached out to him via email. The first thing that led me to reach out was I was trying to sing the song myself and I just felt the energy falling by the time I got to verse two. And it just made me feeli like maybe someone else was supposed to help me convey this message. I thought it would be cool to make this a duet—especially stylistically, with the strings. My mind immediately went to PJ Morton. He's always been a great supporter of what I do and so I just thought to reach out to him. He's a very busy man, but he eventually got back to me and there he is on the song.

S: In a recent post, you mentioned almost not writing the song. What helped you push past this initial resistance?

PQ: If I'm being honest, from spiritual sense, it was somewhat of an obedience to God to follow through with making this song. I felt like it was something that was beyond my understanding of why it needed to exist in the world... and I still feel that way. I think that's really what helped me push through. This isn't just some hobby for you. This is something you've been given and you can either say yes or no and it wouldn't be the most gratifying to say no.

S: What was the most fulfilling part of this process?

PQ: I would definitely say recording the strings and commissioning Maurice Heard to write the arrangement for the song. He really brought life back into the song. It was always something I felt unsure about... but when I brought it to him, he created new life for the song with his arrangement. It regenerated excitement in me for the song, its beauty, and how it made me feel. It was something really special.

S: How does this song fit into the larger narrative of your music and artistic journey?

PQ: It's literally everything. It's what I hope to bring into the world because I'm centered around positivity and joy. It's the energy I aim to carry and share. That’s what this EP is about—escapism and really putting all your problems away... or at least putting them into perspective. The hope is that anyone who puts on this music would immediately have their energy shifted into joy and positivity.

S: Can we expect more collaborations like this in the future?

PQ: I'm not sure! I’m a free spirit—on this journey just like you. I guess we'll see.