Liam Hogan is a Sydney-based session drummer who has worked with Canadian country-pop singer Lindsay Ell, X-Factor finalists Jess & Matt, rock and blues artist Nathan Cavaleri, local duo Seaforth and current highly acclaimed instrumental jazz band Brekky Boy. Australian Musician editor Greg Phillips spoke to Liam about his career, gear and his latest projects.
Liam Hogan’s musical journey began playing trumpet in primary school. He also took keyboard lessons but “It never really grabbed me”. Fortuitously, the primary school he was attending had a marching band program and had a vacant spot for a marching snare drummer. For someone who was known for tapping pots and pans at home, he found he had a natural affinity for percussion. In early high school he then began taking lessons on kit and never looked back.
Drum heroes? “So many,” says Liam. “I remember when I first got into kits, some of the first drummers I was introduced to by my drum teacher at the time … who I was inspired by, were the technical drummers. Dave Weckl was a huge one for me. Tommy Igoe, you know, those technical educational drummers.” From there Liam got into metal drummers and in particular, Porcupine Tree’s Gavin Harrison, due to the “musicality of his playing.” School band also introduced him to big band and jazz drummers such as Art Blakey and Philly Joe Jones.
It was clear that from an early age, Liam was acquiring a broad knowledge of drumming from many different genres of music. It’s something which has come in handy as a session drummer, being able to pick up work with various artists. Liam has been able to work with Canadian country-pop singer Lindsay Ell, X-Factor finalists Jess & Matt, rock and blues artist Nathan Cavaleri, local duo Seaforth and of course, the current highly acclaimed instrumental jazz band Brekky Boy.
“That variety for me is … pretty much what I hold most important and I think gives me the most satisfaction,” says Liam of the mix of styles he plays.
In regard to gear, the main kit that Liam uses with Brekky Boy is a Gretsch Catalina Club. “It’s quite a low cost kit compared to some other stuff that you can get but it has a really specific, unique sound,” he says. “Having a smaller 18” bass drum, 12” tom, 14” floor tom, that size configuration works really well for me.”
And Liam’s cymbal preference? “All of my cymbals are Zildjian. I love the sounds and the variety of tones they produce across their line.”
Liam’s main band at the moment is Brekky Boy, an impressive 3 piece instrumental jazz outfit, who in 2019 were selected to perform at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland … but how did the group begin?
“The pianist and lead composer for that group, Taylor Davis … we studied music together at the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney. It started as kind of an experimental project of his. He was writing this piano driven instrumental music, so he was on that train for a while. He brought the songs to me and we started workshopping them and honing them into a sound. We recorded an album at AIMS own studio that year, which was our first album. We brought on Rob Hamilton, a double bass player after that. I think the thing that has made it really enjoyable is that the three of us … we all had an affinity for that style of music from the beginning.”
Liam is also excited about a new project he and his musician friend Eric Forteleza are involved with called ‘Pitch Meeting’. As stated on the Pitch meeting website, ’The Pitch Meeting is a musical movement, breaking new ground and cultivating a vibrant songwriting community in the heart of Music City. The centerpiece of the movement is Nashville’s first “songwriter pitch night,” an event where rising songwriting talents have the opportunity to showcase their songs with the world class Pitch Meeting band backing them up and bringing their songs to life.’
“Eric is a friend, working out of Nashville, Tennessee,” explains Liam. “He has started … I guess you’d call it equally a movement as much as an organisation, called Pitch Meeting. It is essentially a non-profit organisation, an artist development organisation. What they seek to do is provide a range of services to musicians, for the benefit of musicians … The ultimate goal is to become first musician-focussed, not for profit record label.”
Liam is currently working toward joining Eric in Nashville to help out with the Pitch Meeting project. In the meantime he is also working on a new Brekky Boy album.