The drummer guy

He ended up in Reno on his way to Arcadia, Calif., after spending time at a Rainbow Gathering in Idaho. So percussionist and jewelry craftsman Wesley Loreg, 24, thought, “Why not?” Maybe he could make enough money as a street musician to get by here while he waited for his ride to get fixed. But Renoites, it turns out, are pretty stingy. We talked to Wesley in Brick Park last week. “The car’s kinda iffy,” he told us, punctuating his words with a few slaps on his drum, da-da-dum. “So I’m stuck here.”

So, how do you like Reno?

I don’t. I’m starving. Reno hasn’t been the kindest town to me. You can’t make money playing music on the street, and that’s what I do. I’m a street musician.

You make more money in some towns?

I’m from Lawrence, Kan. There, I can make at least $20 a night. In Kansas City, I can make $100 a night. Late at night, people are coming out of bars, and they really like my music, da-dum. Here, I’m making zilch. People are stuck up.

Have you ever considered another line of work?

I could get a regular job. But I prefer this. This is my passion, da-dum-da, so why would I work at a job I hate when I can be doing what I love, da-da-dah.

Do you drum with others?

Yes. I was just drumming with this other guy, but he left. At Rainbow Gathering, I was drumming with 20 other drummers, and it was loud, loud.

What’s Rainbow Gathering?

It’s Hopi prophecy in the making. It’s gutter punks; it’s hippies, Hare Krishnas—everybody coming together to live in the woods for two months.

What are your plans for the future?

I want to go sleep in the Redwoods, and then go back to Colorado and live in the forest. This is the first time I’ve been in the city for more than two days, and I don’t really like it.

Explain your philosophy of life.

It’s pretty complex. I’m a Taoist, big into the mind calendar. I study a lot of healing techniques, like Reiki. I believe everything comes down to vibrational frequencies. If you can read this pattern, you can … not manipulate it … but you can use your intent to create the reality you choose. To be a healer, you need to learn those techniques.

How do you learn to read these frequencies?

I try to expand my consciousness through beats and numbers. Like, if I do these six beats, da-da-dum-da-dum-da, and do it fast, I can hit a certain meditative state, like a shaman. And different sequences have different vibrations, so they lead to different states of consciousness. The idea is to raise the vibrations to the point where you are not affected by physical sickness.

So you don’t get sick?

I get sick, but I don’t get sick. I’m not a master yet, so I still have troubles.