Johnny Boyle’s Biography

Johnny began drumming at age 12 in 1986 after spotting a Striker drum kit in a shop window in Dublin. He parents bought him the kit for Christmas that year and from there on he didn’t look back.

After a chance encounter with PictureHouse founder Dave Browne in 1989 Johnny joined the band Hidden Faces and within a year was playing to 15,000 people in Tokyo, Japan at the Sumitomo One ’90 festival. After signing to Chrysalis publishing at only 18 years old the band finally called it a day in 1996 with Johnny joining Belfast singer songwriter Andy White’s band with Robbie Malone (David Gray, Lir) and Thomas Walsh (Pugwash, The Duckworth Lewis Method). With Andy they toured Europe and the U.S extensively during 1996/97 playing festivals such as Glastonbury, The Fleadh in New York and headlining the Mean Fiddler London on St Patricks Day 1997.

During that period in ’97 Johnny joined Dublin bands Lir and Picturehouse.
Picturehouse had considerable success in Ireland and across Europe with 7 hit singles and 3 albums that went top 5 in Ireland and most recently the number 1 album Live at the Olympia released in 2022. Their hit single ‘Sunburst’ was the most played song on Irish radio in 1998.

They toured with Meatloaf, The Corrs, Marillion and Fish playing to thousands of people across Europe.

In 2002 Johnny left Picturehouse to join Marianne Faithfull’s band and tour the ‘Kissin Time’ album. The album featured incredible artists such as Beck, Blur, Pulp, Dave Stewart and John Brion.

On the tour he got to perform with Bill Frisell, Will Oldham and Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan. The band played the The Late Show with David Letterman on September 10th, 2002, with Johnny taking up backing vocal duties for this performance.

Following the Marianne Faithfull tour Johnny joined one of Irelands most celebrated bands The Frames for an Irish tour in December 2003. This was only supposed to be for a 2-week period, but the band kept him on for 4 years until December 2007 where Glen Hansard was on the cusp of winning the Oscar for best original song for the movie Once.

With The Frames they headlined the Oxygen festival to 80,000 people, Marley Park to 20,000 and sold out the Point in Dublin. They toured with Bob Dylan in Australia and New Zealand in September 2007 and doing their final Irish and U.S dates late that year.

Johnny rejoined the band in 2022 for their 32nd anniversary show at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham to 20,000 people and also the Galway Arts festival that summer.

Since 1996 Johnny has worked with a number of bands and artists in TV and in film such as:

Marianne Faithfull
The Montreaux Years -2022

In 2002 Johnny performed at The Montreux Jazz festival with Marianne. In 2022 a live album was released with a collection of tracks recorded over a number of performances from this prestigious festival. He features on the tracks ‘Song for Nico’ and ‘Times Square’. The album also features one of the U.K’s finest drummers Ash Soan.

The Once Soundtrack
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova won the Oscar for best original song in 2008 with the song ‘Falling Slowly’. Johnny played on the tracks ‘Once’ and ‘If You Want Me’ on this highly celebrated album for the film.

Pugwash
Almond Tea – 1999
Almanac – 2001
Earworm – 2002
Jollity – 2005
11 Modern Antiquities – 2008

The Pugwash albums featured featuring Jason Falkner(Air, Paul Mc Cartney, Jellyfish, Beck, St. Vincent), Dave Gregory and Andy Partridge from XTC, Michael Penn, Nelson Bragg(Brian Wilson Band) and Neil Hannon.

Picturehouse
Karmarama – 1998
Bring The House Down – 200
Madness Sadness Gladness – 2002
Live at The Olympia 2000(Released in 2022)

Lir
Live album – 2008
Lir released a live album in 2008 following Magico Magico in 1994 and Nest in 1995. In 2010 a documentary about the band called ‘Good Cake Bad Cake’ was released by director Shimmy Marcus charting the difficulties of a band trying to make it and the many challenges bands can face.

The Duckworth Lewis Method
This album was a collaborative effort between two of Ireland’s finest songwriters Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy) and Pugwash founder Thomas Walsh.
Hannon and Walsh have described their album as “a kaleidoscopic musical adventure through the beautiful and rather silly world of cricket. It also features cameos from comedy actors Matt Berry, Phil Jupitus and Alexander Armstrong. The song ‘Jiggery Pokery’ was nominated for the Ivor Novello award in 2009.

John Murry
In 2019 Johnny collaborated with Murry and John Parish(PJ Harvey) on the album ‘The Stars Are God’s Bulletholes’. Recorded at the legendary Rockfield Studios, Wales and mastered at Abbey Road the album went Top 10 in the Americana charts in the UK.

Other notable works:
Scott Maher – Cartoon Moon 2004
Dara – Dog Eared memories 2004
Rob Bochnik (The Frames) – An Old Acquaintance 2007
Colm Querney – The World Is Not Round 2000
Colm MacCon Iomaire (The Frames) – The Hare’s Corner 2008
Q – Root To The Fruit 2010
Rory Faithfield – Songs For Sooner 2010
Fran King – My Sweet Elixir 2010
Fran King – Beautification 2004
Brendan Tallon – Love in These Times 2022
Celtic Woman – Postcards from Ireland 2021

T.V appearances
Elton John, Ronan Keating, Westlife, Atomic Kitten, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Shayne Ward.

Other Live/Recording Work
Mundy, The Classic Beatles, Damien Rice, Paul Brady, A House, The Fat Lady Sings, Whole Lotta Zep and Andrew Strong.
Resident drummer with leading 80s tribute band Springbreak. Johnny has played over 2,000 shows with the band since 2006.

Movie Soundtrack Work
Lenny Abrahamson’s ‘Frank’ – Preproduction House band

Soundtrack
The Runway (Damian Bichir)
The Most Fertile Man in Ireland (Kris Marshall)
Pride and Glory (Edward Norton,Colin Farrell)
Headrush(Dir. Shimmy Marcus)
Lir ‘Good Cake Bad Cake’(Dir. Shimmy Marcus)
Michael Inside (Dir. Frank Berry) – Winner of Best Film at the IFTA’s TV