Lucas Gillan

I am a drummer who plays guitar and sings and writes songs. I am also the son of a pastor, which means that I am neither wayward and licentious nor saintly and sheltered but simply that I am from a wonderful family, the father of which teaches a congregation the Word of God for a living... and the mother of which plays drums at church. I am from Tucson, Arizona, having lived there since the age of six. Inspired by my mom, I began playing percussion in the fourth grade when it was time to decide which instrument I would play in the school band (there was a precedent in the family: Grady played saxophone, Cooper played trumpet, and Kelly played flute). I began drum set studies in fifth grade and a year later entered the world of jazz with the Tucson Jazz Society's Jazz Werx program. I am a jazz drummer at heart, but there has always been a huge part of me yearning for things like melody and harmony. So I have been writing songs since I was about twelve, when I helped write songs for my punk band, Lucky the Rabbit, in which I played drums. I also wrote and played guitar for a mildly outrageous hardcore band called Sanctified during my early high-school years. I guitarized, sang, and wrote for a joke punk band called Frog and Toad friends in my later high-school years, forever identifying myself with F&T's perennials such as "Interesting Pants," "Men's Club," and "Sharing is Caring"(as well as being featured in The Arizona Daily Star's Northwest edition).Influenced by people like Cat Stevens, Paul Simon, Jeff Buckley, and the fellows in Radiohead, I began writing songs intended for myself to perform with a guitar and my voice in high school. Performing very sporadically (only two performances in all of high school), I continued to write songs that I hoped would somehow expand the boundaries of what a solo singer-songwriter is expected to do. I try to take a compositional approach to writing songs, focusing less on hooks and more on musically sound combinations of melody, harmony and rhythm. Generally, my songs consist of chords that are more from the jazz vocabulary than from that of rock and roll, carefully written vocal melodies, honest lyrics about God and the world that are poetic without being impenetrable, and composed strumming patterns that act as counterpoint to my melodies.I released an EP of my original songs called On Your Knees And Kiss The Earth You Holy Fool! in 2006. You can purchase it at my website, lucasgillan.comI recently graduated from Northern Illinois University with a major in Jazz Studies - Percussion and a minor in journalism. I now teach lots of drum lessons, play lots of drums, write about music and work at an internet radio station called AccuRadio. I try to consistently play solo shows in the area; if you like what you hear, let me know and come out to a show!