Brian Doherty is an American drummer, singer-songwriter, composer, music producer, educator, and podcaster based in New York City. After starting his career working with various jazz musicians, he worked with rock bands and artists such as The Silos, Freedy Johnston, They Might Be Giants, Ben Folds, and XTC. He has also contributed to movie soundtracks. In 2000, he became a music teacher, as part of the New York City Teaching Fellows program. He has released two albums of drum tracks for songwriters in a series called Keep It Simple, and in 2012 he released his debut solo project, Treat + Release. As of 2024, he is working on writing his memoirs, and recording podcasts.

Early life Doherty was born in Brooklyn, New York. His mother and father listened to classical music and opera when he grew up.

Where he grew up in Randolph, New Jersey, southern rock bands were gaining popularity, and early on he listened avidly to bands such as the Outlaws, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Led Zeppelin. Doherty cites the fact that southern rock bands such as the Outlaws and The Allman Brothers Band had two drummers as a significant influence on him; he himself began playing drums at the age of seven. Doherty went on to play drums in his high school marching band, percussion ensemble, and a number of garage rock bands.

While he was in high school, his ambition was to attend the Manhattan School of Music for its "groundbreaking percussion program" that was taught by Paul Price; starting in 1978 his parents sent him on Saturdays for a preparatory theatre program that accepted high school students. These experiences helped Doherty to build up a network of musicians, and friends he made there introduced him to the work of Frank Zappa, and numerous session drummers in Los Angeles in the 1960s.

As other high school students who attended the preparatory Saturday program went on to become doctors and lawyers, Doherty started living in New York City and stayed with the Manhattan School of Music. He started attending as a college student in 1980 for both his undergraduate and graduate degree, studying under musicians such as Paul Price and Fred Hinger. His experience learning drums in an orchestral setting rather than the rock setting that he grew up with, as well as studying the music of avant-garde composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, and Edgard Varèse, broadened his horizons. Doherty likens this experience to being "the rock and roll kid coming to the other side".

Doherty graduated from the Manhattan School of Music in 1985 with a Master of Music degree.

Career Early years As he was just graduating college, Doherty played in a "pickup band of youngsters" called Second Nature which he now deems inconsequential; he also played with the Bob Baldwin/Al Orlo Project featuring James Robinson. What Doherty considers more important is his time playing with established and renowned jazz artists, such as Noel Pointer, Jonathan Butler, and Lonnie Liston Smith. Specifically, he considers Lonnie Liston Smith as very supportive and encouraging in being able to "play simply" and to "serve the music"; and in general, his experience playing with jazz musicians was also a way for Doherty to build up a network of musicians and collaborators.

In 1988, Doherty joined the faculty at NYC's Drummers Collective (now known as The Collective Global Vision), after having been a student there and having learned some valuable skills there during college. He remained with the Collective for thirteen years, teaching private drum lessons primarily to novice drummers.

The Silos

After Doherty started off performing with jazz artists, he started playing with singer-songwriters. In 1990, Doherty was performing in a backing band with Richard Ford, a bassist from England residing in New Jersey at the time. After one performance, Ford informed Doherty that The Silos, a New York rock band that were already established at this point, were seeking out a new bassist and drummer. Ford wasn't too familiar with The Silos but knew their manager, but he encouraged Doherty to attend the rehearsal with him.

Doherty and Ford became members of The Silos, and first contributed to their 1990 self-titled album, which peaked at #141 on the US Billboard 200 chart. Founding member Walter Salas-Humara quit the band following the release of The Silos, and relocated to Los Angeles, but Doherty stayed with The Silos for some years after that. Doherty's contributions can be heard on the albums Hasta La Victoria (1992), Susan Across The Ocean (1994), and the compilation Long Green Boat (1997).

When he was a member of The Silos, Doherty felt that "we could be so much better than what we really are". He felt that The Silos were strongest when performing live, and that their studio recordings didn't reflect that as well.

Freedy Johnston

Freedy Johnston released his first studio album The Trouble Tree in 1990 through Bar/None Records; it received generally favorable coverage upon its release, and Doherty enjoyed it. Johnston toured with The Silos as their opening act while Doherty was a member; Johnston and The Silos had the same tour manager, Mark Zoltak. At this point Ford left, but Graham Maby, at that point well known for playing with Joe Jackson, had replaced him. At one point, Johnston asked Doherty and Maby if they were interested in joining his backing band. They did, and Doherty remembers the experience working with Johnston being "1000%" more enjoyable than touring with The Silos. Doherty admired Johnston's songwriting and lyricism, and he felt that Johnston "does not shy away from playing electric guitar", in the sense that other singer-songwriters "minimize the sort of rock aspect of their music".

Doherty had a significant role in Johnston's second album Can You Fly (1992), as did Maby, who co-produced it with Knut Bohn. Doherty was especially satisfied because his drum tracks were "front and center" and were very prominent in the mix, and he also liked the fact that the songs that Graham Maby produced and the songs that Knut Bohn produced were different.

To this day, Johnston and Doherty maintain contact, and Johnston regularly sends Doherty demos of songs in progress.

They Might Be Giants and Ben Folds

Freedy Johnston switched managers from Mark Zoltak to Jamie Lincoln Kitman, who was the manager of alternative rock band They Might Be Giants, who were well-established by this point, and were making a significant shift in their live performances, from using prerecorded backing tracks to forming a backing band. Doherty joined They Might Be Giants in 1993, and he was their second live drummer following Jonathan Feinberg, and their first studio drummer.

Meanwhile, Zoltak was approached by a music publicist to establish a connection with Ben Folds, a singer-songwriter who was just starting out at this point. Folds had relocated from North Carolina to Montclair, New Jersey; by this point Zoltak was based in Hoboken, and Doherty was based in Jersey City. Zoltak had listened to Folds' demos and was impressed; Zoltak immediately turned to Doherty and had him listen to the demos. On July 10, 1993, Doherty invited Folds to a They Might Be Giants concert at the Bearsville Theatre in Bearsville, New York, where they met, and Folds gave Doherty a cassette tape of more demos. Folds, Doherty, and bassist Tom Spagnardi came together to form the Ben Folds Five. Folds was set on the name of his band being the Ben Folds Five even though there were three members, because "it sounds better than Ben Folds Three", but Doherty remembers approaching him with Spagnardi and saying, "Dude, we're a trio!" The Ben Folds Five rehearsed in Folds' apartment in Montclair, and at the basement of Doherty's house in Jersey City, where he had a home studio with a 4-track recorder; they played some industry showcases, hoping a record executive would give Folds a deal. The lineup (piano, bass, and drums), coupled with Ben Folds' more casual image, and the intense vocal harmonies, were very unusual at the time, and they were often met with mixed reception. Doherty's final show with Folds was at a club called Sin-é, and a talent manager in the audience approached Folds, immediately offering to seek out a record deal, and Folds moved back to North Carolina; Doherty fell away from Folds' career after this.

For three years, Doherty recorded several albums for TMBG, and toured internationally with them. His first release with the band was for their 1993 EP Why Does the Sun Shine?. From November 1993 to June 1994, They Might Be Giants recorded extensively at Bearsville Sound Studio; those recordings resulted in the Back to Skull EP, and TMBG's 5th studio album, John Henry (1994). John Henry was their first album to utilize a full band arrangement, rather than synthesized and programmed backing tracks. The album's name, a reference to the man versus machine fable of John Henry, is an allusion to the band's fundamental switch to more conventional instrumentation, especially the newly established use of a human drummer instead of a drum machine. The song "AKA Driver" from the album was co-written by their current lineup at the time: John Flansburgh, John Linnell, Brian Doherty, and Tony Maimone.

In 1994, Doherty contributed on 2 songs on a solo EP that John Linnell had recorded called State Songs, released through John Flansburgh's side project Hello CD of the Month Club, for June 1994. That EP was later expanded and released as a full album of the same name in 1999. The album spent four weeks on the CMJ 200 chart, peaking at #18.

By February 1996, the lineup had changed; Graham Maby replaced Tony Maimone on bass full-time, and Eric Schermerhorn joined as a guitarist. They wrote new material which they were performing during their weekly stint at the Mercury Lounge in New York City; many of the songs that were being played there were fleshed out in studios, and released as They Might Be Giants' 6th studio album, Factory Showroom (1996). In early 1997, Doherty left They Might Be Giants, mainly for personal reasons, but also due to financial reasons.

Archival TMBG recordings with Brian Doherty on drums appear on their 1998 live album Severe Tire Damage, and on the 1999 album Long Tall Weekend.

Session musician After leaving They Might Be Giants, Doherty went on to work with many groups and artists, including one single session for XTC. This session resulted in the song "Cherry In Your Tree", which was released as a one-off on the compilation soundtrack album Carmen Sandiego: Out Of This World, in 1994.

He also worked with M2M, Frank Black of The Pixies, Twyla Tharp, Freedy Johnston, Christy Thompson, Madder Rose, Simone Hardy, Chip Taylor, John Platania, Sol Seppy, Guy Davis, Gary Lucas, Haruko Nara, and Jon Langford of The Mekons, Chip Taylor, John Platania, Jon Langford, Guy Davis, P.J. Pacifico, and Sol Seppy. Doherty has also produced a number of recordings, including Ms. Lum's Airport Love Song.

In 2000, Doherty went back to graduate school at the City College of New York. After earning a Master's degree in Elementary Education, he became a classroom teacher as part of the New York City Teaching Fellows program, teaching music in the South Bronx. In addition to being a full-time music teacher, from 2000 to 2020, Doherty has also remained active as a drummer playing private events and Broadway shows. He worked on the Broadway productions of RENT, Hairspray, Little Shop of Horrors, and Waitress. He also drummed in the debut of the Broadway show The Times They Are A-Changin' in October 2006 at the Brooks Atkinson Theater in New York City.

Keep It Simple series