Meet Charlie Faragher

Today we’d like to introduce you to Charlie Faragher.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have been playing drums since I was two years old, under the mentorship of Pete Thomas, the drummer for Elvis Costello whom my dad, Davey Faragher, has been playing bass with for the past 20 years. I grew up with my dad on the road, and when he was home in L.A., I went with him to various recording sessions around the city. But my favorite times are when I join him on tour with Elvis going from city to city being one of the guys. My fortunate experiences from when I was little made it crystal clear to me early on that I wanted to be just like my dad- touring the world and doing sessions around town when not on the road. My ultimate goal is to be one of the most revered and inspiring drummers of my generation and to have a profound impact on aspiring musicians as well as respect from musical peers. I learned so much from being around Pete Thomas on the road and wouldn’t be the drummer I am today without his mentorship and friendship. He had a profound impact on the start of my musical career.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
My journey has been pretty fortunate thus far. I attended Alexander Hamilton Senior High School in Los Angeles to study jazz music and through my time there, I grew tremendously as a musician. Growing up, I was really into 60s rock like the Beatles and The Who and never really listened to jazz music. Wanting to be a professional drummer, you have to be extremely versatile in order to serve every musical situation thrown your way. Learning jazz as well as reading music were two key things I needed to learn to help become more well-rounded. It took a while for it to click, and I am definitely still learning, but I worked very hard and started getting a grip on it by the end of sophomore year.

By the end of high school, I was the top drummer at the school (drummer for top jazz combo and big band at school), I played drums in all of the pit orchestras for the musicals at school since 10th grade, I was co-section leader for the percussion section of the top classical group at our school, and was the co-music director of our student run record label MakeWavesMusic. I also played on a lot of people’s original music and gigs with students outside of school.

Can you give our readers some background on your music?
I have been gigging around Los Angeles for as long as I can remember.

In terms of school success, in my sophomore year, the big band at school was offered to go to China to play at a music festival there as part of the Sister Cities program in which it was all expenses paid for two weeks during the summer. Furthermore, my high school jazz combo won the Monterey Next Generation Jazz Competition my junior year and we got to perform at the actual Monterey Jazz Festival which was a trip. I was also apart of the Los Angeles All City Jazz Band junior and senior year and played events such as The Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl and the Century Avenue Jazz Festival.

In elementary through middle school, I was in a rock band that played venues such as Fais Do Do and The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, CA. I have shared the stage with esteemed professional musicians such as George Deoring, Dean Parks, Val McCallum, Shelby Lynne, Dan Zanes, Pete Thomas, and Neil Larsen. I was in a funk/ jazz fusion trio called “True Sole” and we played well known LA venues such as The Baked Potato, Vitello’s Jazz Club, Genghis Cohen, and The Mint. Then, this past year, I was in a band called “Unsalted Butter” formed of all USC students playing at USC as well as the Baked Potato.

While I have done a lot of jazz since high school, I feel I am slowly becoming known for being a versatile musician since I am studying and working to master a wide variety of musical genres to continue to improve as not only a drummer but a musician as a whole. I have done a good amount of live gigs for someone my age and now have a home studio and have been recording for many peers’ projects and songs. It has been very fun and a new challenge I’ve loved to tackle. Recording is a whole different beast you need and it really makes you think outside the box. I’m planning to study both Jazz Studies and Popular Music at USC.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
To me, success is getting to the point where the musicians I aspire to be are at. They have an impressive resume of artists and experiences and get to do what they love for a living and it is their main source of income. To be completely honest, my drive and passion is so strong for music that I will never truly settle nor be truly satisfied until I am someone people think of as an influential musician and important to the growth and trajectory of music as a whole. My idea of success may change as I get older and reality sets in, but I will not settle until I feel like I have truly given it my all to be the best I could be. I’ve always wanted to be one of those musicians who people actually go to see at shows (if I’m playing a show with John Mayer, they’re there to see me not just Mayer). To me, the ultimate sign of success is others being inspired by what you’ve done and wanting to make their own mark on the world because of what you’ve done.

Being able to change someone’s life like countless musicians have to me, would be the ultimate feeling of gratitude and happiness… to not only know my work is recognized and appreciated, but that others want to go for it because I did is a beautiful thing and something you can’t replace. I want to be someone who people bombard on social media about specific drums I’m using or different patterns I play because they were inspired by what I did or motivated to keep pursuing their dream, To be considered someone the next generation of people looks up to is really what it’s all about to me. I have no clue if I’ll make it as a musician but I know I’m going to give it my all and nothing short of 110%. I believe everything will work out the way it’s supposed to and that everything happens for a reason. With that in mind, I definitely feel like I’ll be satisfied no matter what the end result is, but I can’t wait to see what that turns out to be.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlie_faragher/

Image Credit:
Nikoli Partiyeli (band pic); Hunter Shepherd (drumming pics)

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