Brendan Buckley was born and raised in the New Jersey areas of Morristown and Mount Arlington. His high school drum teacher was Tommy Igoe. At the age of 18, Brendan packed his car and moved to Florida to attend the University of Miami’s School of Music. In 2004, Brendan relocated to Los Angeles. Throughout his career, he has worked with artists either as a drummer, percussionist, music producer, and/or songwriter. He is also a faculty member at Musician’s Institute, Hollywood.
Brendan Buckley was born and raised in the New Jersey areas of Morristown and Mount Arlington. The accessibility to New York City during his childhood and high school years provided valuable musical inspiration.
At the age of 18, Brendan packed his car and moved to Florida to attend the University of Miami’s School of Music. There, he became immersed in the city’s diverse rock, Latin, and jazz scenes. While in school, he released an album with the rock band Fulano De Tal (bmg), featuring the artist Elsten Torres. A year later, he played drums with Julio Iglesias for his “Tango” world tour. Brendan finished this tour and recorded an album for the Colombian popstar Shakira; “Dónde Están Los Ladrones”. That quickly led to Shakira’s “MTV Unplugged”, “Anfíbio Tour”, “Tour of the Mongoose”, and co-writing/co-producing her album “Laundry Service”. Also during these Miami years, Brendan spent time recording/performing with DMX, Spam All-Stars, Nil Lara, Gloria Estefan, Alejandra Guzman, Julio Iglesias Jr, Lauren Hill, Pedro Suarez Vertiz, Natalia Oriero, Alicastro, Popvert, The Kind, Alih Jey, Zach Zisken, Monterosa, BD Lenz, María Bestar, Mariana Ochoa, Diane Ward, Raw B Jae, Clambake, Maria, and Sixo.
In 2004, Brendan moved west to Los Angeles where he immediately joined the experimental rock band Pedestrian. Their work together can be heard on the album “Ghostly Life”. At the same time, Brendan began touring with the actress Minnie Driver for her “Pocket” tour. Brendan continued his work both in the studio and live with Shakira (Oral Fixation, Sale El Sol), while also producing records for Fulano (*grammy-nominated), Michael Miller, Volumen Cero, and The Kind.
“Anyone who thinks they know enough that they can just coast for the rest of their career isn’t taking it seriously enough or they don’t have the correct artistic aspirations. Over time, I hear a new drummer playing cool stuff, it makes me want to practice.” –Brandon Buckley