One TikTok video of Callum Ivazes playing the drums has amassed nearly 100 million views
After jokingly putting their 14-month-old son, Callum, in the drummer’s seat, they found he had an almost natural affinity for playing.
Since then, the couple have shared videos of their now 19-months old son’s drumming skills, amassing nearly 100 million views on social media.
One toddler’s drumming skills are already capturing audiences.
This past Christmas, Cassie Ivazes decided to surprise her husband, Wesley, with a drum set. On Christmas morning, she watched as Wesley, a musician, eagerly opened the present, jumped behind the kit and began to play.
Just for fun, Cassie — who’s also a singer — and Wesley decided to place their 14-month-old son, Callum, in the seat. They didn’t expect him to do anything, but then they immediately noticed him starting to move his hands.
“We were like, ‘What?!’ ” Cassie, 30, tells PEOPLE exclusively. From there, they watched as he began keeping little beats.
“It just clicked for him,” Wesley explains. “He was like, ‘Wait, this is what that’s supposed to be.’ We have a video of him just clapping, so excited about the fact that this is a drum set. He knew what it was, even though he’d never seen one before.”
“I remember your first thought,” Cassie laughs as she speaks to Wesley. “You were like, ‘Oh, there goes my drum set.’ ”
But their son’s musical journey didn’t start there. Since Callum was just two days old, Cassie and Wesley had noticed how he moved his hands. They began air drumming with him for fun and watched as he banged on the kitchen table, eventually leading them to buy him a kids’ drum set with one stick.
For the California-based couple — both musicians who met 12 years ago when Wesley was producing Cassie’s music — music was always destined to be a part of their son’s life. Still, they were amazed by how naturally Callum, now 19 months old, took to it.
“What was going through our minds was just — our music journey, that’s how we met, through music,” Cassie says. “And now we have this baby, and clearly, he has the music in him. It’s just a full-circle moment. It’s so cool.”
@callumdrums Callum might have a new fav song @BRING ME THE HORIZON #babydrummer ♬ original sound – Callum
Two weeks after Christmas, Cassie and Wesley posted a video of Callum playing the drums on social media, not thinking much of it. But as time went on, they watched him progress, teaching himself to play with his right hand over his left, using proper form, and even keeping up with the beat of the music.
As the weeks passed, Wesley’s phone became filled with videos of Callum drumming. “We thought, let’s keep posting them — at least we’ll have a record of it,” he says, adding that they eventually made Callum his own TikTok and Instagram accounts.
But as they continued sharing, their videos started going viral. One video they posted on TikTok showed Callum drumming through the months — using crayons, banging on his highchair, and eventually playing a real drum set. They shared it on a Sunday night, thinking it was just cute. The next morning, when they woke up, it had reached 5 million views.
Since then, that video alone has amassed nearly 100 million views and more than 60,000 comments—including one from Peppa Pig, which was a huge celebrity shout-out for the family.
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“We never thought that sharing it would make this big of an impact,” Cassie adds. “I love watching other people experience his gift and his talent. Never thought it would happen at 1-and-a-half years old. We knew he had something special. But as his parents, it’s hard to know — okay, is he actually amazing at this, or are we just being partial? I don’t know.”
“Everyone always says, ‘Oh, you’re going to love your kid more than anybody. You’re going to think everything he does is the best thing in the world.’ And obviously, I do too,” Wesley adds. “But it’s definitely been wild — because a lot of people have helped us put it in perspective. They’re like, ‘Hey… 1-year-olds just don’t do this.’ ”
On a daily basis, Cassie, who’s also a stay-at-home mom, says Callum will run into the family’s music studio once or twice a day. He’ll hit the drum and say, “Hi-hat” or “snare,” or ask the family to play together. Lately, he’s especially fond of playing along to Green Day’s American Idiot.
Although it’s hard for the parents to introduce Callum to new music, since he’s still a toddler and likes to stick with what he knows, one recent highlight for the couple was when Callum couldn’t stop saying, “Dadda song, Dad’s song” while sitting at the drums. The song he was referring to was a track Wesley had recently released.
@callumdrums Our little drummer boy 🥁 #babydrummer #19monthsold #babytok ♬ original sound – Callum
“A lot of people ask, ‘Do you practice with him? Do you make him play every day?’ ” Cassie says. “And honestly, we’re just letting him lead the way. If he runs to the room and wants to play drums, then we play. But at the end of the day, he’s still a toddler. He sits up there for a few minutes, then he’s like, ‘Okay, I want to do something else.’ So we get down. It’s really not serious — it’s just every once in a while.”
“At the end of the day, when we sit down and really think about it, we’re like, ‘Oh my gosh — this is our 1-year-old baby,’ ” Cassie reflects. “He was just spitting out his green beans a second ago, and now everybody’s watching him go viral on the internet for drumming. It’s just wild. And it makes it even more fun because it brings him so much joy. He loves it so much.”
Looking ahead, the couple is excited to continue watching their son grow. With all the spotlight on them, and being first-time parents, they’re learning how to navigate everything being thrown at them.
“We’ve been chatting about it a lot,” Cassie says. “It’s like finding a balance. We want to keep this fun. We love filming and creating videos, and we want to share those moments with our family. But at the same time, it’s the internet, and the world is big and scary. So it’s about finding that balance of how far we want this to go.”
But when it comes to their son, regardless of where this journey may lead him, they plan to be there for him every step of the way. Cassie is also patiently awaiting the time when he’s able to sing.
“If he sways off and decides, ‘I want to play baseball now,’ that’s great. He can play baseball, but the drums will always be there for him whenever he’s ready to return to it,” Wesley says.
“Even if nothing comes of his drumming, it’ll be amazing to look back on all these videos,” the mom adds. “And if he decides to continue playing, it’ll be even more fun to see how far he’s come. Some people in the comments are saying it would be so cool if, when he’s older and performing, he plays his little baby video on the screen behind him at concerts. We’re musicians, so we think that would be epic. It’s like, ‘Wow, we had that moment.’ ”
“We’re just on the Callum train, so we’re following him, supporting him in everything he does.”
