Today we’d like to introduce you to Tamara “TamTam Go BamBam” Williams.
Tamara “TamTam Go BamBam”, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up in Conroe, Texas, and started playing drums around 11 or 12 years old. Music was already in my blood. My parents’ love story is basically the plot of Drumline before Hollywood got to it. My dad was the drumline captain, my mom was a Rangerette. My sister followed my mom’s path into dance and eventually became a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader for three seasons. I followed my dad straight to the drumline.
As a kid, I watched my father play drums in church. After services, I’d sneak behind the kit and try to figure out what he was doing. It just looked fun. The musicians always seemed locked in, smiling, laughing, connected in a way that felt like they were sharing inside jokes only they understood. One Sunday, while I was messing around on the drums, my dad looked at me with a sly grin and said, “Girls aren’t supposed to play drums.” He absolutely knew what he was doing. I’ve been making him eat those words ever since.
In high school, I was blessed with something that changed my life: my percussion teacher and mentor, Dawn Martinez. She was the first female drummer I had ever met. She didn’t just teach. She played. She gigged. She lived the life. She was cool, confident, respected, and excellent at her craft. I remember telling her, “I want to be like you… but better.” We still laugh about that, but the truth is, she gave me a vision of what was possible. Representation matters. Seeing a woman do it at a high level made me believe I could too.
I played in band all through school, and when it came time for college, I knew one thing for sure: I wanted to play for a living. But I didn’t buy into the starving artist fantasy. I wanted sustainability. Stability. A real life. So I chose music education as my foundation while building my performance career alongside it.
I attended Sam Houston State University, and I was everywhere. Symphony orchestra, marching band, wind ensemble, pep band, percussion ensemble, plus running a private lesson studio with 20+ students across the region. Looking back, I was chaotic, but focused. Busy, but intentional.
Then a professor offered me a performance opportunity that changed everything. I won an audition that took me to Japan for six months. That experience shifted my entire trajectory. It showed me what excellence really looks like on a global level and what’s possible when preparation meets opportunity. I came back hungry. Hungry to grow. Hungry to build something real.
So I doubled down. More classes. More ensembles. More opportunities. Graduate school. More gigs. More grind.
For the past 12 years, I’ve lived two full careers at once: public school band director and professional percussionist. There were moments when those worlds literally collided. Once, I left my school band mid-UIL contest (one of the most important contest of the year) to sprint to Toyota Center to play a halftime show for the Houston Rockets. There was a season where I was playing in five blues bands, two symphonies, and holding down a church gig. It was exhausting. It was chaotic. And it was beautiful. I don’t regret any of it. I was living fully, not safely.
But the deeper purpose always lived in education. In students. In impact. In legacy. I’ve spent my career showing young musicians that you don’t have to choose between passion and stability, between artistry and responsibility, between creativity and structure. You can build both. I care deeply about representation, especially for young girls who don’t see themselves in musical spaces. I want them to see possibility before they ever feel limitation.
Now I’m entering a new chapter. This is my final year as a full-time band director. I stayed long enough to honor my commitments, close that chapter with integrity, and finish what I started (…and get my student loans forgiven, cough cough, lol). And now I’m stepping fully into my next season. My main gig is drumming at Two Tones Dueling Piano Bar. I do contract work through a few dueling piano agencies, I sub with community symphonies, perform in musical productions for prominent high schools, and attempt to stay connected to Houston’s vast and awesomely diverse music scene.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Not at all. Three moments shaped everything.
First, my mental health.
During grad school, I let someone I respected get in my head about my playing, and that voice became my inner critic. I struggled with depression and anxiety until I accepted myself as a neurodivergent person and stopped trying to fit into systems that weren’t built for how my mind works. That shift changed everything. I stopped seeing myself as broken and started seeing myself as wired differently.
Second, STOMP.
While I was just starting out as a band director, I advanced through multiple audition rounds for STOMP, made the final callback, quit my job, moved to New York, and got cut within a week. It was my first real leap of faith towards being a full-time performer, and it didn’t land. That loss taught me a hard truth: you can do everything right and still not get the outcome. Sometimes it’s not failure. It’s redirection.
Third, learning how to stand out without shrinking.
For most of my career, I was the only woman, the only openly queer person, the only Black person, and often the youngest person on stage. Sometimes all at once. I felt like I wasn’t just representing myself, but every identity I carry. Every mistake felt heavier. It took a lot of therapy and unlearning to realize I’m allowed to be human before I’m symbolic. A musician before a representative.
Those moments didn’t break me. They refined me. They taught me how to bet on myself without losing myself. The journey hasn’t been smooth. But it’s been honest. And it’s been mine.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My work is literally different types of playing. I honestly feel like a kid on a playground. I’m a band director that moonlights as a performer. I’m sorta like a dorky unassuming Clark Kent during the day; and a Rockstar Superman at night. I love both sides of that life. One keeps me grounded, the other keeps me inspired.
What sets me apart isn’t just my playful joyous performance style. It’s how I engage with people on and off the stage. I’m big on connection, engagement, and energy. I try to make spaces feel safe, genuine, and memorable. I don’t walk into rooms trying to prove anything. I just try to do good work and treat people well, and that tends to open doors on its own.
In my head, I’m still that awkward kid from Conroe who’s just happy to be here, so I’m always a little surprised by the rooms I end up in and the musicians I get to work with.
What are you most proud of in your professional life? What stands out about your career?
Some of my proudest wins are the quiet ones, but a few of them deserve to be said out loud.
Being invited to become the resident drummer at Two Tones Dueling Piano Bar is a huge deal to me. Not just the gig; the belonging. I have a recurring home with incredible humans, real community, real trust, and real relationships. My picture is literally on the wall, and I low-key love that more than I probably should, lol. It feels like home. It feels like family.
Being personally asked by the musicians of Ravenwood Brass to drum with them at the Texas Renaissance Festival means a lot. These are world-class players, y’all. Symphony musicians. Serious SYMPHONY MUSICIANS. And they invited me into their space, like seriously how did I land here haha. I get to add some spice their rendition of classical and cinematic hits, it’s beyond awesome!
Honestly, anytime I get asked back to play somewhere again that is a huge success in my book!
One of my proudest educator moments was being invited to take my Title I middle school percussion ensemble to a national stage to perform college-level music. On my first attempt, my students were selected to perform at the Sandy Feldstein National Percussion Festival in 2017 and were named Mark of Excellence Middle School National Percussion Ensemble Winner. These kids were some of the most inspiring children I have ever taught, they made me want to be a better person everyday, they deserved to see what hard work can earn them!
And I’m also a member of the Grammy Recording Academy: Texas Chapter. I don’t even talk about that much yet, because I’m still processing what it means and what I want to do with it. It feels less like an achievement and more like a responsibility I’m still growing into.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Happiness for me is waking up inside a life I built on purpose. My family, my community, the musicians I work with, the students I teach, it all feels aligned. Nothing feels accidental anymore.
I feel blessed to have found my place in the vast Houston music scene with not only incredible musicians like Sugar Joiko and Sara Van Buskirk but also incredible souls. I feel blessed to have purpose, I get to raise the next generation during the day and help people escape into joy and celebration at night. I get to teach, perform, engage, and create spaces where people feel safe, seen, welcome, and free.
You know that saying “everyone’s alive but not everyone is living.” I’m happy because I feel like I am, in fact, living.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tamtamgobambam.com
- Instagram: @tamtamgobambam
Image Credits
stank face big blues bender photo – Marilyn Stringer
white background pro shots – Duy Ta
Grinning in Red glasses – The Mighty Ghengis Orq
