JOHN COAKLEY

I've been playing drums in bands for 36 years. It's very satisfying, building a part to add life to someone else's idea for a song. I still enjoy it, and I hope to do it again someday. But for the last six years, I've been learning how to make my own songs. I started with a sample pad and loops, and now I work in LogicPro with live drums and highly sophisticated plug-ins, writing all of the parts myself. I'm still tone deaf and I still can't play piano for shit, but I have a lifetime of opinions and taste guided by all of the music that has been there for me through the years. Plus, there's always youtube videos to explain different kind of chords and how they go together. 

​

My music is mostly instrumental. My favorite sounds seem to be organs and synths from the 60s and 70's, pedal steel guitar, cello, and weird sounds that I occasionally build from scratch. The songs are sometimes moody, sometimes jaunty, sometimes about my cats and sometimes about watching the earth burn. You know - life.

​

I am extremely fortunate to be able to spend my time doing this. Thank you for taking the time to listen.

​

 

John Coakley used to live in Rochester and then New York City but now lives in San Francisco with his magnificent wife, Tessa, and their two remarkable cats, Otis and Maude.