Making it to the world stage as a musician can be one of the most difficult things to do. Despite the challenge, there is a common theme among those who have successfully reached for the stars and landed. Hard work, perseverance, and determination are traits that few possess and put into action along their entire journey. Hayley Brownell arms herself with these traits and has broken into the spotlight. Currently on a massive tour and playing with three-time Grammy winner Olivia Rodrigo, Hayley Brownell is on fire. Performing and playing shows such as the Grammys, and SNL is no easy feat and does not come without hard work. Hayley has truly reached her moment. Previously playing with singers Calin Russo and Conan Gray, Brownell has truly earned her stripes. I had the opportunity to sit down with Hayley and learn how a wonderful person began her musical career and overcame numerous challenges to get to where she is today.

MD: How did you begin your musical journey?

HB: I grew up in Fresno, California. My mom heard about a youth percussion program that was happening in the city and my sister and I joined. I was exposed to all the different percussion instruments. I played marimba, xylophone, drums, congas, and other world percussion instruments. I knew I wanted to be a drummer when I was eight years old. Brenda Meyers, the leader of group, taught us all the different types of music and styles, and made the art of drumming so enjoyable. She made me fall in love with music and drumming. Brenda would pride herself in us being able to play everything. That helped me become well rounded and curious about other instruments. We would take trips to perform in Sacramento which paved the way for me to perform and play at a young age. In the beginning, I played everything. We played hour-long sets of music. In that span of time, I would play a drum kit, vibraphone, xylophone, marimba, and bongos. I even had solos on the xylophone on some songs. We played classic jazz standards in different ways, songs like “Watermelon Man,” and some Carlos Santana tunes.

I learned how to read music when I started playing in school. Meyers taught us to read by using words: 16th notes were alligators, triplets were pineapples. That’s how I learned my rudiments during my 4th grade year which paved the way to learn to read sheet music. My parents wanted to wait and see if I was fully committed to playing drums. I played on pots and pans and anything that I could beat on. In middle school I was still playing in the youth percussion group, and I started playing at my church. Then, I ventured further into music through school and jazz band. In high school I got serious about jazz drumming, playing in combos, and I started writing my own music. I ended up pursuing my passion at Cal State Northridge and joined the jazz program. Going to Cal State Northridge was an eye-opening experience because I started out in a small city and climbed up to the big city. I graduated after four years and started doing the whole freelancing thing. That’s a vicious ladder that you try to climb. The only way to have success in that process is to just be nice and meet people. I love being a drummer because I love to play with others, and I enjoy collaborating. Eventually I moved myself from the jazz world into the indie/pop arena and became a singer songwriter. All these important events have led from one thing to another and now we’re here. Advertisement

MD: As time passed, what music were you listening to?

HB: My dad listened to bands like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin (to name a few.) I was exposed to music, but I did not dive into the full spectrum of music during those times. I felt like I wasn’t well-versed in understanding music when I was younger. It wasn’t until high school that I really started to explore more music. As I said previously, I grew up in a church with worship music. That helped shape how I heard music and how I developed musically. Today, I can see myself understanding the structures of songs because the worship music I played was not based on reading sheet music. It was based on feeling and intuition. I was forced to use my ears. The youth percussion program helped pave the way, because it helped me learn music by ear. That has helped a lot.

MD: You took your drumming career to a new level by heading to college in Los Angeles.

HB: My first semester of college hit me hard. I felt like I might be in over my head. I did not realize it was going to be as hard as it was, and how good everybody was going to be. I was surrounded by many amazing musicians which (in the end,) made it the best experience. There was a huge pivotal moment during my first semester. I was leaving a rehearsal, feeling depressed about myself, when I got to my dorm I started crying and saying, “I can’t do this, I’m not good enough for this.” Then I said to myself, “You know what, I am going to be awesome.” I went on to make the decision to work even harder and thrive at what I enjoyed doing. I needed that push to challenge myself.

MD: What was your plan after you graduated from college?

HB: I didn’t have a plan. I just kept going. When I was kid, I did not stop to think about what was going to be my next move. I was lucky to have that mentality because it was a part of my personality. When I graduated, I was in a band with some close friends of mine, we played house shows and venues all around Los Angeles. This was my introduction into the scene with venues like The Echo and The Bootleg. My bass player at the time hit me up and said, “I started playing with this singer-songwriter named Leah Capelle and she’s looking for a drummer. Is it cool if she comes to your senior recital?” After the recital, Leah came up to me and was impressed with my performance and asked me to play drums for her. It was my first job playing for an artist and getting paid for rehearsing and playing shows. I was 21 at the time. It’s funny because Leah used to be my employer, and now she has become one of my best friends. We lived together for four years and had a nice connection. I started meeting more people in Los Angeles and became surrounded by people that were playing pop music. I was excited to get that exposure and see this new world. I started doing random auditions for other local bands while I worked in a music store teaching private lessons and even worked at a yogurt shop. Advertisement

I did those odd jobs just to make a living so I could afford being in Los Angeles. It was a stressful time, but I look back at those years as some of the most exciting parts of my life. I would play four to five shows a week with all these various artists.

MD: When you were playing with Leah, was it challenging to learn the arrangements of new songs at rehearsals and then play those arrangements for live shows? Was that a new experience for you, or was this something you did while you were going to school?

HB: It was not my first time doing that, because I had to orchestrate drum parts while I was in church. I am not a member of the church anymore; but playing in church helped the process of hearing a song and understanding how it builds and decrescendos while determining what parts of the song need more or less support. I was doing more than just being a drummer or just being a part of a band. I was lifting up the music. I never saw myself as a drummer I saw myself more as an artist. Advertisement

In college I was in a band called Ruby Throated. The singer of the band was the most prolific writer. I always loved her music and the way she wrote her lyrics. I became attracted to her style of songwriting. She would send me voicemails of her singing. In her mind, she would have the full song idea. This meant I had to write the drum part based only on the vocal melodies and lyrics. This was how we built out a song. I would write drum parts that were not just four on floor, they were intricate, weird, and different. My influences for how I went through this process were Mark Giuliana, Nate Wood, and Darren Criss. I took a lot of different types of sounds and feelings and brought them into the singer songwriter style. It wasn’t new for me to hear songs and create beats. I felt that this process was engraved in me from the beginning. When I started playing with Leah, I stepped into it feeling great and confident about myself. I liked her music which made the experience even more fun and enjoyable. It was an absolute pleasure to create music with other people and make their vision come to life.

MD: You were working and doing gigs. How did your career keep building, what happened next?

HB: I was around 21 and doing my own thing for a while. I started doing A&R for TRX cymbals. The owner, David Levine, took me on as his protégé and he became one of my business and marketing mentors. He introduced me to other drummers and the faces of the industry. Levine took me to shows and became one of my great friends. This was happening while I was still playing gigs five days a week.

MD: Was it because of TRX that you received more calls and had more contact with drummers in other bands?

HB: Yes, it was a combination of everything. Brenda Meyers helped me get on the right path for success. Brenda set up a meeting with David to help me navigate through the world of Los Angeles. When I was in college, they really did not teach students how to navigate the freelance music world. You basically had to get out there on your own and figure it out. In school you spend a lot of time working on music, but you don’t get help figuring out how to be out in the world and getting people to advocate for you. That is how I met David. Advertisement

MD: You have played with three notable artists: Cailin Russo, Conan Gray, and now Olivia Rodrigo. Cailin Russo was your first big gig, how did that come together?

HB: Yes, it was really wild because it was a random audition and I just decided to go and try out. It went really well, and then everything went dead silent for an entire year. After that year of doing other things to keep busy, I got another email that said they were having another audition for Cailin. I auditioned again and I got the gig. She wanted to put together a band and call it Russo. They had a lot of money backing them, this was considered a big project for Cailin. It was my first taste of being in a band for a big face in the music industry. My roommate became the bass player so I started off having some good friends in the band. Tyler, the guitarist in the band, and I became great friends as well. We were just a bunch of young kids playing Cailin’s music. It was so much fun, we toured the world on an official tour bus, did all these photoshoots, and went to a lot of other events. It was one of my most eye-opening experiences because (at that point) I had only done tours in vans. There were a lot of brand-new things to take in, I was just living in a whole new world.

MD: That must have been an amazing experience. What happened after it all ended?

HB: After that, I had six months of dead silence. That’s how the freelance world goes, I had a few jobs playing one-off gigs. I think every musician is waiting for something that’s semi-stable or has a trajectory of at least a year of work. That’s hard to come by. After a couple of months, I thought to myself, “Am I ever going to do that again?” Everybody gets so down on themselves when things aren’t happening, it sucked. So, I started writing a bunch of music myself and working on my own solo project called Changeling.

MD: You play all the instruments on your records, specifically what else do you play?

HB: Piano, guitar, and I can figure out a bass, but I’m not a bass player.

MD: Do you do all the production on your computer or DAW?

HB: Yeah, I did that EP with a friend named Elliot Glasser, we kind of co-produced that together. That was my first hands-on producing experience. I learned a lot; we made that record in about a year or so. I had a lot of time off, I was just trying to figure out my “next thing,” and just kind of “waiting.” Advertisement

MD: In that year, you went from a career high to having a lot of time off. How did you land the Conan Gray gig?

HB: In between Russo and Conan there was six or seven months off. I just had on and off work. Then I got a call for Conan for a bunch of dates including a full US tour and Australia. I met Conan and had a little interview with him and his management team. I did the Conan gig for about a year. In January of 2020, we were supposed to go to Australia and Asia, but we heard about a “sickness.” So we went to Australia, came back home, and started rehearsing for Jimmy Fallon. While we were rehearsing in the studio the manager told us they weren’t filming anymore and to go home because everything is getting shut down. That was the beginning of COVID. It was so wild because Conan was just about to put his debut album out and we were going to go on a massive US and European tour. We were stuck at home and that was that. It just was done.

MD: What were some differences or challenges between playing with Russo and Conan?

HB: I think a big challenge for me was that the music had a lot of electronic drums and weird sounds that were harder to translate to actual acoustic drums. I love playing a hybrid setup to a certain extent. I had an SPD and I really had to try to figure out how to mix the two and not get in the way of the music.

MD: You go from another career high gig playing the world, you come back, COVID strikes, then what happens?

HB: So, just like everybody else, I found myself drinking a lot of wine, watching a lot of movies, and finding random little projects to work on. I actually got really into clothing and painting clothes. I love fashion. That’s another aspect of life that I really enjoy. I just dove into other different areas of artistry that weren’t necessarily music and wasn’t necessarily drums. I’m not kidding when I say I didn’t play the drums probably for about year and a half. Advertisement

MD: That’s crazy, why no drums?

HB: I don’t know. It was just something about it. I think it was the break that I needed. I was getting a little tired of thinking what do I really want in life? What do I really find interesting? What am I curious about? What stimulates me? You know? I was just finding myself and thinking, do I want to play other people’s music for the rest of my life? There’s an aspect of that that is really beautiful. I love doing it, but there is another part of me that thinks I don’t want to just play for other people. I want things of my own. So, it was a journey of figuring those things out. I spent a lot of time producing and writing random instrumentals and little lyrical ideas. I set up a studio in the second room of my apartment and just made it a little oasis. I tried to just really dive into that kind of world. Then, I did things such as tie dying, painting and poetry. It was a time when I thought what if nothing else happens for me? But everybody was in the same boat. Music was dead and who knew when or if it was going to come back. At some point I thought that I wanted to move out of LA. So I moved to Baltimore, Maryland in May of 2021. That is a massive change. However, I kid you not, literally two weeks before I moved, I got a call to play for Olivia Rodrigo.

MD: Who called?

HB: My homie Aron Forbes. I hadn’t heard from him in a really long time. I was packing up my apartment and saw his name pop up on my phone. I thought this could be something important. He asked me if I wanted to come play with Olivia and I immediately said yes. He’s an amazing songwriter, producer, and musical director. He directed Conan Gray when I was doing it, and we also have some mutual friends. He is the one that brought me on for Olivia Rodrigo.

MD: How did you meet her and how did you start playing together?

HB: Aron told me to just be ready and that it was probably going to be in the next two weeks. I had actually met Olivia before back when she was 16 when she was doing High School Musical. I can’t remember what year this was, but I got called for a random gig. They wanted to do a live studio session of all the kids in the show singing some of their songs. They hired a band, a small orchestra and flew us out to Utah. She was a baby nobody knew what she was going to be at the time. Fast forward to today, she puts out the single “Driver’s License.” We were already following each other on Instagram from the High School Musical thing, and I thought this song really slaps. I thought that I would really love to play her music. I remember thinking I could totally see myself playing this music and really believing in it. It felt like something really fell into place for me. I have so much gratitude for being where I am now. I just couldn’t be happier. Advertisement

MD: You did Saturday Night Live with her, and you even got to play on Seth Meyers as a sit in drummer. What was that experience like?

HB: That was a very surreal moment for me. It was one of those moments where I got to do something because of me and my name. I was being recognized for myself and not necessarily just a supporter of somebody else. I love being that for her. I could never do what Olivia does, but Seth Meyers was really exciting, and his band was just very kind and fun.

MD: You’re playing SNL, you’re playing the Grammy’s, and doing your sit in on late night TV. How does that feel? How has it been and what’s that experience been like compared to the journey that brought you here?

HB: It’s surreal. It’s so nice to have this conversation in such a sequential way because it’s always really important to go back and think about my “child self.” That kid would have never dreamed about this, or maybe didn’t know how to really conceptualize doing this, and now here I am. I just feel so grateful to be here. I’m just so excited and so thrilled about everything that I get to do. Playing the Grammy’s was one of those childhood dreams. I don’t have a bucket list necessarily, I just kind of want to do everything that I want to do, when I want to do it. But that was definitely one thing on my things “to do list.” I feel so grateful for that. It was so much fun. There were all of these other amazing artists in the same room watching you play and then you’re seeing them play, it just felt so surreal. It was incredible. Advertisement

MD: What’s the challenge working with a musical director at this level. How do you interpret Olivia’s songs?

HB: Well, we actually have a different music director now, it’s Stacy Jones. He plays drums for Miley Cyrus and has been her musical director for her entire career. Coming into this situation, the stakes are pretty high in terms of being the best that you can be, while also being a team player. For me, I had already been listening to the album on repeat. I really knew and internalized the music, which really helped. I also wanted to have a setup that I’ve never had before. I wanted something massive. I wanted everything to just be elevated. The specific sound of the drums on the record is very different than an acoustic set or even electronics, it’s somewhere in the middle. The drum sound is very crushed and sort of dirty.

MD: How do you achieve that sound live?

HB: It is different. For an example, in the beginning of “Good 4 U” there are a snare hits that I play for four bars and then I never touch it again. “Traitor” is one of my favorite songs to orchestrate because it’s carried by the drums. The song is electronic and does not have a prominent groove. It is more of just a kick and verbed out snare. I was going for a march type of feel which includes me playing a massive 8” deep auxiliary snare drum to the side. That accomplished the dirty and low sound I was looking for. Then the song opens-up to this massive bridge section which includes huge toms, and it becomes a huge, emotional, and impactful musical moment. It was cool to approach all of the songs like this. I was just thinking about what happens on the record and how that translates into how I would play it. It feels like a making of my own.

MD: Did you have the freedom to express the ideas that you wanted to incorporate into the songs?

HB: Yes, Aron and Stacy trust me and my ideas. I am really lucky to be able to have both of them believe in me and my suggestions. I love orchestrating, hearing lyrics, and hearing how a song moves, on singer-songwriter jobs. That is what I see as my specialty, I really like making songs come to life. Advertisement

MD: I watched Driving Home 2 U, and I noticed in certain songs that you play with an almost punk rock approach, creating a heavy sound to these songs.

HB: That was definitely an attribute that took time to develop. When we started playing together with Olivia, we were really hearing the feeling that she was looking for, but not all of the songs on the album are heavy. Most of the songs on the album are tender and heartbreaking. Finding the right sound was a long process. In the movie, we did a whole arrangement of “Jealousy, Jealousy” which turns into a pop punk type of song. That style basically revealed itself and we said, let’s just go for it.

MD: How is the chemistry between all of your bandmates and Olivia, was it a challenge to come together or did it come naturally?

HB: I had already known some people in the band before, which meant we formed a relationship amongst ourselves, but we did go through a couple of iterations in the last year. At the moment, we have come to the point where we know and trust each other through our playing together. It takes time get used to people and I am sure it took time for Olivia, because she has never played with a band before. The process was seamless and smooth for Olivia.

MD: Which drum kit are you currently using on tour?

HB: I signed with Ludwig last year and been using one of their oak drum kits. It is crazy, you can find it on my Instagram, it has a slime green finish. It is the coolest thing I’ve ever owned, and I love Ludwig so much. I’ve played Ludwig’s for most of my life and to be a part of their roster is just amazing. If we are getting technical, I have a 6.5×14 Supraphonic as my main snare drum. My toms are 13, 16, and 18. My kick is a 20, and I have an 8×14 auxiliary snare. I use some pads and TRX cymbals, which includes three crashes and one crash-ride. I have 12″ vented high hats underneath my main hats, which are 15s. Advertisement

MD: How has it been playing live with Olivia?

HB: Olivia is an amazing performer and singer. She knows how to connect with people which creates a cool environment for the time we are playing. I am having so much fun and the fans are crazy, obviously. However, half of the time, I cannot even hear what is in my in-ears, it is just so loud. I just get stoked when I am surrounded by all that good energy while I perform.

June 2022 Issue