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The Drums are an American
indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and su ...
band from
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
.


Formation

Founding members Jonathan (Jonny) Pierce and Jacob Graham became friends as children, having met at Bible camp at age 11 or 12. Some years later, they formed a short-lived electro-pop group initially named Goat Explosion, eventually renamed Elkland. They released one album, ''Golden'', in 2005 and garnered interest with the single "Apart". In 2008, Pierce and Graham came up with the concept for The Drums, and Pierce moved to
Kissimmee, Florida Kissimmee ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Osceola County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 79,226. It is a Principal City of the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area, wh ...
, where Graham resided at the time, so that they could more readily collaborate. They then moved to
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...
, in the spring of 2009, where drummer Connor Hanwick and former Elkland guitarist Adam Kessler joined the band to complete their live sound. The band had their first gig within a week of arriving in Brooklyn at Cake Shop NYC as part of the NYC Pop Fest. In October 2009, the band released their first EP, ''
Summertime! ''Summertime!'' is an EP released by American indie pop band The Drums in 2009 on the Moshi Moshi record label. Two of the tracks from the EP, "Let's Go Surfing" and "Down By the Water" later appeared on the band's debut album ''The Drums T ...
''.


Career

In December 2009 the band was shortlisted as one of the 15 music acts for the BBC Sound of 2010. Subsequently, they placed at No. 5 in this list on 4 January 2010. In '' NME'''s first issue of 2010 they were named number 1 in the magazine's top tips for the year as well as in ''Clash Magazines Tips for 2010. The Drums were also voted "Best Hope for 2010" in ''
Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
''s 2009 Readers' Poll. They won the Hall Radar Award for 2010 and were the most Shazamed band of 2009. In February 2010, the band played venues around the UK on the 2010 NME Awards Tour alongside The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club and The Big Pink, going on to play support band for
Florence and the Machine Florence and the Machine (stylised as Florence + the Machine) are an English indie rock band that formed in London in 2007, consisting of lead vocalist Florence Welch, keyboardist Isabella Summers, guitarist Rob Ackroyd, harpist Tom Monger, an ...
's 2010 ''Cosmic Love'' tour. In June 2010 they played as one of the support bands for
Kings of Leon Kings of Leon is an American rock band formed in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1999. The band is composed of brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared Followill, and their cousin Matthew Followill. The band's early music was a blend of Southern rock and ...
in
Hyde Park, London Hyde Park is a Grade I-listed major park in Westminster, Greater London, the largest of the four Royal Parks that form a chain from the entrance to Kensington Palace through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, via Hyde Park Corner and Gre ...
. On May 7, 2010, they appeared on ''
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'' is a British chat show presented by Jonathan Ross and broadcast on BBC One between 2001 and 2010. The programme features Ross' take on current topics of conversation, guest interviews (usually three per show ...
'', where they performed "Best Friend". Their debut album was officially released on June 7, 2010, on Moshi Moshi and Island Records. The album contained the singles "Let's Go Surfing", "Best Friend," "Me and the Moon" and "Forever and Ever, Amen" as well as "Down By The Water", which had previously been released as part of the band's ''Summertime!'' EP. On September 16, 2010, it was announced on the band's Facebook page and website that guitarist Adam Kessler had left the band. The Drums released the single "The New World" on April 11, 2011, with proceeds going to Japan disaster relief efforts. For their second LP, the band recorded quickly, again self-producing, often laying down tracks spontaneously in singer Jonny Pierce’s kitchen. They released ''
Portamento In music, portamento (plural: ''portamenti'', from old it, portamento, meaning "carriage" or "carrying") is a pitch sliding from one note to another. The term originated from the Italian expression "''portamento della voce''" ("carriage of the ...
'' on September 5, 2011. The album title has a deeper meaning for Pierce, as he describes, “Jacob and I meeting as young boys with a shared love for Kraftwerk and Anything Box and Wendy Carlos, and these were all synth pioneers, and a common feature on old analogue systems was ‘Portamento’. The band almost split at the end of June due to stylistic disagreements. Jacob explained, "I think our band is kind of fragile and probably on the verge of breaking up pretty constantly and I say that seriously and jokingly at the same time." In 2011, Jonny Pierce co-wrote "In The Middle (I Met You There)" with Brooklyn artist Matthew Dear for his EP ''Headcage''. His writing credits also include "You Gave Me Nothing" and "Lose It (In the End)" which are included on Mark Ronson's album ''Record Collection''. After Portamento's world tour ended in late 2012, founding member Connor Hanwick left the group. In November 2012, Jonny Pierce announced he would be releasing a solo album in 2013. The Drums continued on with members Jonny Pierce and Jacob Graham. The Drums made their American television debut on ''
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by comedian Jimmy Fallon. About pag ...
'' on February 15, 2012. MTV gave the band a ''celebrity chart'' special on MTV HD channel in May 2012, where Pierce and Graham introduced their favorite videos and bands as well as some of their own videos. On July 17, 2014, The Drums announced that their third studio album would be called ''Encyclopedia'' and would be released September 23, 2014. In an interview with ''Billboard'' Magazine, they stated that he and Graham were ready to come back together and give The Drums another try. They holed up in a lakeside cabin in upstate New York and "went crazy", says Graham. "That's when it occurred to me that we can have fun with this and make a record that's interesting and bizarre.' "The resulting cathartic collection of tracks departs from the Drums' signature "tonal palette," as Graham calls it. With taut, spindly guitar lines, liberal sprinklings of tambourine, and uptempo kick drums that belie the brooding, thoughtful content matter of songs like "Best Friend". On August 20, 2014, they released the single "I Can't Pretend". On March 1, 2017, they released the debut single, "Blood Under My Belt," from their 2017 album ''
Abysmal Thoughts ''Abysmal Thoughts'' is the fourth studio album by New York City surf rock band The Drums. The album was released on June 16, 2017, through ANTI- Anti- is an American record label founded in 1999 as a sister label to Epitaph Records. While ...
''. It was announced via a Facebook post in which frontman Jonny Pierce took full credit for the writing and producing of the album. Longstanding member Jacob Graham later announced on Instagram that he had left The Drums. In his statement, he said, "It's actually been over a year now since I left the band but it's just now coming to light with today's press. There are no hard feelings whatsoever, I wish Jonny and the band the best of luck. I'd been with the band for almost ten years and I wanted to focus on my puppetry and my work with my new band Sound of Ceres." Their fourth album was released on June 16 on ANTI-. On April 5, 2019, The Drums released their fifth album, ''Brutalism''. On December 11, 2020 The Drums released a 3 track titled "Ambulance" with Jonny Pierce appearing as a single artist.


Influences

The band cite their major influences as The Wake,
The Smiths The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. They comprised the singer Morrissey, the guitarist Johnny Marr, the bassist Andy Rourke and the drummer Mike Joyce. They are regarded as one of the most important acts to em ...
,
Joy Division Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after att ...
/ New Order,
The Tough Alliance The Tough Alliance, or ''TTA'', was an electronic pop music duo from Gothenburg, Sweden. The duo first came together in 2003 and consisted of childhood friends Henning Fürst and Eric Berglund. Previously on Swedish record label Service, in 2006 ...
, The Legends, The Shangri-las, Starflyer 59, Joy Electric, The Embassy and
Orange Juice Orange juice is a liquid extract of the orange tree fruit, produced by squeezing or reaming oranges. It comes in several different varieties, including blood orange, navel oranges, valencia orange, clementine, and tangerine. As well as var ...
. Graham also mentions that
reverb Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abs ...
in general has played a major role in their sound: "...If reverb didn't exist we wouldn't have bothered trying to start a band."


Solo projects

Both members of The Drums have announced solo records in the works for release in 2013. Jonathan under the name Jonny Pierce, and Jacob as Cascading Slopes. In December, Pierce said in an interview with NME "I wanted to be as self-indulgent as possible with this album. This is pop done the way I think it should be done." The album was never completed however. Instead, Jonny Pierce announced that The Drums had entered the studio and wanted to release a Drums record instead. Cascading Slopes completed the album ''Towards a Quaker View of Synthesizers'' in 2013 and it was released in the fall through Plastiq Musiq. Graham described the musical approach on that album, saying "The concept is to write very simple, personal, folk songs but to do it with only old, analog synthesizers".


Band members

;Current members * Jonathan Pierce – lead vocals, keyboards, drum programming, drums, guitar, bass guitar (2008–present) ;Current touring members * Johnny Aries – guitar, bass (2012–present) * Tom Haslow – guitar, bass (2010, 2014, 2017–present) * Bryan de Leon – drums (2017–present) * Drew Auscherman ;Former members *Adam Kessler – guitar, bass (2008–2010) *Connor Hanwick – drums, percussion (2008-2011; touring member: 2011-2012, 2016) *Jacob Graham – guitar, synthesizer (2008-2016) ;Former touring members * Chris Stein – drums (2011) * Myles Matheny – bass, guitar, backing vocals (2011–2012) * Connor Hanwick - guitar (2011-2012, 2016) * Danny Lee Allen – drums (2011–2017) * Charles Russell Narwold – guitar, bass (2012–2013) * Rene Perez – guitar (2014–2016) * Randy Delgado – Triangle, tambourine(2012–2013) ;Timeline ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:25 PlotArea = left:110 bottom:120 top:0 right:30 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:01/01/2008 till:12/31/2019 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:2 ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:01/01/2011 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:01/01/2012 Colors = id:vocals value:red legend:Vocals id:guitar value:green legend:Guitar id:synth value:purple legend:Keyboards id:bass value:blue legend:Bass id:drums value:orange legend:Drums id:All value:yellow legend:All_instruments LineData = at:06/07/2010 color:black layer:back at:09/02/2011 color:black layer:back at:09/23/2014 color:black layer:back at:06/16/2017 color:black layer:back at:04/05/2019 color:black layer:back BarData = bar:Jonathan text:Jonathan Pierce bar:Jacob text:Jacob Graham bar:Adam text:Adam Kessler bar:Connor text:Connor Hanwick PlotData= width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:Jonathan from:01/01/2008 till:end color:vocals bar:Jonathan from:01/01/2008 till:01/01/2016 color:synth width:3 bar:Jonathan from:09/17/2010 till:01/01/2016 color:drums width:7 bar:Jonathan from:01/01/2016 till:end color:all width:3 bar:Jacob from:01/01/2008 till:09/17/2010 color:guitar bar:Jacob from:09/17/2010 till:01/01/2016 color:synth bar:Jacob from:09/17/2010 till:01/01/2016 color:guitar width:3 bar:Connor from:01/01/2008 till:09/17/2010 color:drums bar:Connor from:09/17/2010 till:01/05/2012 color:guitar bar:Adam from:01/01/2008 till:09/17/2010 color:guitar bar:Adam from:01/01/2008 till:09/17/2010 color:bass width:3


Discography


Studio albums


Extended plays


Singles


Compilations


Guest appearances

''Notes'':


Music videos


References


External links


The Drums official WebsiteJonny Pierce official websiteCascading Slopes official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drums Musical groups established in 2006 Musical groups from Brooklyn Indie pop groups from New York (state) NME Awards winners LGBT-themed musical groups Frenchkiss Records artists Moshi Moshi Records artists Island Records artists Anti- (record label) artists 2008 establishments in New York City