GEARED braves the torrential rain and flooded streets to interviews one of Brisbane’s hardest-working drummers and regular Tara Simmons/Asa Broomhall/Jac Stone sidekick CHRIS O’NEILL.

GEARED: Can you give us a brief scope of what you do, Chris?

CHRIS O’NEILL: I’ve been drumming for thirteen years and I finished the Bachelor of Music in 2004. At uni, I’ve been in a lot of bands and I still play with a bunch of them now. The main people I play for are singer-songwriters Tara Simmons, Asa Broomhall and Jac Stone and I just did a record with Liam Griffin that’s not out yet. I also did some work with Lucy Star Satellite, which is another band that I play for, but not regularly, and I play in a metal band called Preference. That keeps me busy on top of working full-time at APRA and I teach as well at The Drum Cartel.

G: Sounds like you don’t get a lot of downtime.

CON: Last weekend was my first gig-free one in seventeen weeks, so I ... practiced [laughs]. 

G: How did you initially come across Metro drums?

CON: Metro made a drum kit for Tony McCall from Resin Dogs – who also plays for everyone. I spoke to him, told him I was getting a new kit and I couldn’t decide what, and he suggested that I play his Metro kit, so I took it for a recording with James Grehan – another artist I play for regularly – and I fell in love with it. I was tossing up between a few different drum kit brands, but after thinking about Metro ... it’s Queensland wood, Queensland-made. It was custom-made to my specs, it’s my size, my paint and wood selection – you don’t really have those options with international drum companies. Paul [Warry, Metro Drums owner] gave me photo updates – he sent me photos of the wood before it was a drum kit. That’s what led me to Metro Drums. He made my drum kit at the same time – the first thing I got from him was a snare drum and after that, I picked up the whole kit. The snare drum is NSW brushbox timber and the kit is Queensland rosegum. Paul uses Australian woods and he’s an absolute craftsman; if you look at that kit, it’s the epitome of attention to detail. He gives it 110 per cent every time.

G: What other kits have you got?

CON: I have a Mapex, which I won in 1999 for being the best drummer in a high school rock competition. I sold my Pearl Export – my first drum kit – which I just got back. It belonged to my first drum teacher – I bought it from him and I was learning from him for about four years. He died and I had already sold that drum kit I bought from him [but I] managed to get it back about two weeks ago, so it’s back in my possession. So I had the Pearl Export, the Mapex and I bought the Metro. I have since bought a Rogers, which is 1976 vintage kit and I’ve got that to take out for really important gigs or recording sessions. The Mapex is for bush-bashing and if I’m sharing a drum kit, I’ll take that.

G: Who are your biggest playing influences?

CON: To begin with, I was brought up with Mitch Mitchell and John Bonham – two of my major influences as a kid. Then I got into Danny Carey from Tool and a few funk people like David Garibaldi from Tower Of Power, and from there I went into heavier stuff: Tomas Haake from Meshuggah, Chris Pennie and Gil Sharone – two [former] drummers from Dillinger Escape Plan. Recently, it’s actually been more Peter Luscombe, who drums for Paul Kelly, and Terepai Richmond, who was the drummer of d.i.g., but also plays for Guy Sebastian, Missy Higgins and Delta Goodrem. It’s fairly versatile, but I started with Buddy Rich, Mitch Mitchell and John Bonham.

G: You said you play live almost every weekend – what gigs have you got coming up?

CON: I’ll have to look, to be honest – it’s actually a bit of a down period at the moment. Asa’s currently in Seattle for a month gigging solo – we just did a week of supporting Hoodoo Gurus in Queensland. In August, I did something like thirteen or fourteen shows, including a Powderfinger support, the Hoodoo Gurus tour and Splendour In The Grass, so that was a really big month. At the moment, I’m waiting for a few people to release the recordings that we’ve done and the next show I’m doing is a launch for Jac Stone’s new album, which is on October 28 at The Troubadour.

For more photos of Chris’s Metro kit head to www.myspace.com/oneillchris. For more info on Metro drums check out www.metrodrums.com.

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