Brendan Johnston: On the Drums...
I have been playing drums for the past 20(!) years and have been in
bands for the past 10 years. I've also been a drum instructor for the past
five years. Although I only have one student, he is getting to be better
than me. Not sure if that means I am a good teacher or a bad drummer...

My current gig is with the original rock band
Diminishing Jim. We've been
playing in Connecticut over the past year at clubs including
Toad's Place in
New Haven, The Corner Pocket in Orange, and four times at
Schmedley's
Pub in Storrs. We've had some great shows playing with bands including
The Unforgettable Fire, Stormbringer, Pie, Donut Kings, Bill Carleton, Big
Ed, and more. Apart from gigs, we are currently recording our first
full-length CD. Some songs in the demo phase are available on our
Web
site, as well as our MySpace page.
Before Diminishing Jim I was in a band called 3-Eyed Fish for five years.
With
3-Eyed Fish, we played at some of the most popular bars and clubs in
the state including Rookies in Cromwell, Sunset Ribs in Waterford, Webster
Underground in Hartford, Brickyard Cafe in Hartford, Toad's Place in New
Haven, Murphy and Scarletti's in Farmington, Billy Wilson's in Norwich, and
more. We had a 3-year stint playing Sailfest in New London, and filmed a
show for Cox Cable in Cheshire, CT. We even did a Senior Prom! We also
did some recording, and have a 4-song CD floating around.
With 3-Eyed Fish bass player and best friend "G", I also played along with
the legendary Jeff Mainville for a show at
Schmedley's Pub on my birthday as
The Mlow Mlows
. "G" and I also sat in with Jill Towers and her awesome band
Anita Drink when they did a short tour of the Northeast that I helped put
together.
Prior to all that I was in a band called Deep, again for about five years. Lesley Shelton
on guitar and vocals and I were the mainstays, and we had several bass players
including some familiar faces in the form of "G", Yet-to-be Diminished Jim, and Ted
Petrie.  We played some pretty big clubs throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, and New York City. The photo to the right is from the
Webster Theater
in Hartford, where we played on numerous occasions. This photo was from a gig
opening up for the band
Aztek Trip, who were getting played on local radio. Other big
gigs were at Toad's Place in New Haven, CT, Met Cafe in Providence, RI, and Lion's
Den, in New York, NY. On the recording front, Deep did 4-song demo as well as a
full-length CD.