Kevin Gallagher debuted as a drummer in a variety show while a fourth-grader at North Grafton Elementary School. Now a band member of Grafton, MA-based group Whiskey Church, he was voted Favorite Local Drummer in the 2015 Local Music Awards presented by WMRC Radio.



Kevin Gallagher: "I was a hyperactive kid, always banging on everything. Mom and dad thought it would be best to channel the energy. I was completely self-taught to play drums with my mom's influence."



Kevin Gallagher's parents didn’t realize their young son snuck downstairs at night to watch MTV. He became fascinated by Motley Crue’s music video of “Wild Side” in which Tommy Lee plays drums in a suspended, rotating cage over the audience.



"I wanted to be that man", Kevin Gallagher recalls.



Soon after receiving a drum set as a birthday gift, he reenacted his idol’s drum solo onstage at his elementary school. Then he became active playing snare drums in the Grafton Public Schools’ music programs. Gallagher attended 11th and 12th grades at the Corwin-Russell School in Sudbury, where he graduated in 2000.



A couple years later, a chance meeting while working at a music store led him to join a progressive rock band seeking a drummer. The band, September Twilight, was comprised of four musicians, each an alum of Algonquin Regional High School.



September Twilight performed regularly at Boston clubs, throughout New England, and toured to North Carolina and back. Kevin Gallagher cites his several years working with them as a valuable learning experience. Kevin Gallagher notes: "They helped me learn the proper dynamics of a band. I learned that when a guitar solo comes, the drummer should lay back a little bit and help that person shine. It's a lot of give and take. It was a fresh breath of reality that learning never stops – especially with music."



Kevin Gallagher's musical education and experience continued about two years ago when he met another four musicians seeking a drummer for their 1980s cover band Chyldz Play. When Kevin Gallagher was invited to join the band, it was renamed Whiskey Church and other genres were added to its '80s repertoire.