Sonny Greaves
Hello I’m Sonny
I first picked up the drum sticks when my older brother Jake got his first drum kit age 10. I would have been age 3.
From that moment on, you couldn’t get me off the kit. I would study John Bonham for hours each day, watching videos, dvds etc. I just knew from a young age this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Play, entertain and make music.
As I got older, the old man used to get me up on Jam nights down local pubs like The Pelton Arms, Anchor and Hope. This helped me gain confidence on stage and learn how to play with other musicians, keeping time and so on and listening to what the other musicians were doing.
One night we had a young guitarist called Aaron Keylock come down to one of the Jam nights. He was my age and was looking for a drummer to start a band.
I toured with Aaron for 7 years playing and honing my craft, doing hundreds of gigs touring with Blackberry Smoke, Cadillac 3, Wilko Johnson, Joanne Shaw Taylor and the odd studio session. I left Aaron in 2017. I then joined up with a couple more bands and trod the circuit, sleeping rough in vans, sleeping in terrible digs and serving my apprenticeship.
I started playing with Nine below Zero on the tour with From the Jam in 2018, when Mickey had to pull out for business reason’s. From that successful tour with FTJ, the old man asked me if I would like to be the permanent drummer for NBZ.
How could I decline, I knew all the songs from being on the road with Dad when i was young . From sitting at the side of stage watching Brendan O’Neil and Mickey Burkey, I had every song etched in my head.
In January 2019 we started recording Avalanche, my first real proper, under the microscope session in a studio.
I had to play with a click track, learn that all the tracks are built from the drums up. I also played all the percussion. It was a wonderful experience. We then took the 6 piece band out on the road in October. Ben and I built a really strong backbone/foundation for the likes of Uncle Mark, Dennis, Charlie and Tom to showcase themselves. Then it was off to Italy and France in February 2020.
With the Avalanche album receiving critical acclaim, the rest of the year booked……..COVID
We are just on PAUSE!!
