Joshua Kinser is a Pensacola-raised professional drummer, educator, and author with more than 34 years performing, recording, touring, and teaching. He lives in Gulf Breeze, Florida, with his wife and two kids, owns Gulf Breeze Drum Lessons, and teaches students of all ages in person and online.

His family has been in Gulf Breeze since 1960, when his grandfather, Charles Carney, bought a home in Gulf Breeze proper and later served as the city’s volunteer fire chief. After years of work and travel, Joshua moved back to that same community.

He started playing drums with local rock, funk, jazz, pop, and world music groups and played drums in the Pensacola State College Jazz Band. He opened his first private teaching studio while touring and performing with original groups. That period also included an Armed Forces Entertainment tour of Europe for U.S. troops. He then spent five years drumming aboard Carnival and Princess cruise ships—in jazz trios, club bands, and the orchestra—on international itineraries. After the ships, he spent several years playing professionally in the Asheville, North Carolina area.

Across the Southeast he has performed with top wedding and private-event bands, including Emerald Empire Band, Bay Kings Band, and The Chris Crosby Group in Charleston, South Carolina, and as a member of the International Musicians League. He spent a year as the house band drummer at AJ’s in Destin, and has drummed for large churches. He still enjoys incorporating worship drumming into his music life.

That range of stage, studio, and ensemble work shapes how he performs, records, and teaches. Lessons emphasize healthy technique, timing, reading, coordination, and the practical skills that hold up on stage—school band, worship team, popular styles, or the student’s own music. He now focuses on Gulf Breeze Drum Lessons, with in-person studio instruction, live online lessons, and remote drum-track recording from his home studio.

Outside of music, he is the author of more than twenty books, including titles with Hachette Book Group, and has written for Gulf Breeze News, the Pensacola News Journal, and Pensacola Magazine. He is also a licensed residential contractor who built his own home from the ground up and owns KINSER BUILT LLC, a residential construction and home-repair company serving the local area.