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Heath Cooley: banging the drums and banging around California
From The Hooligans to the Hep-Tights
Heath Cooley, still snapping that snare.
Heath Cooley’s took his first stab at playing the drums when he was around 10 years old. He requested a full set — and got a snare and mandatory lessons instead. “I hated it,” he says. “It was just very sterile for a ten or eleven year-old. So I threw the drum in the closet, and I was mad.” He circled back to the instrument when he was around 15. “My mom gives me shit to this day. She's like, ‘See, if you stuck with it when you were ten, you'd be that much better now.’ She's right. I wish I did.” Once Cooley embraced the instrument, he did find some small-scale success in his home state of Arizona, playing gigs at local Mesa bars and even clubs in Phoenix. “It was rad as a kid, because it was just kind of a glimpse. I felt like I was part of an elite club.”
Once he finished high school, “I tried to get out of Arizona as fast as I could. I think I was like 18 or 19. My buddy in high school, he and his mom and dad were moving back to Cali, and he was like, ‘Do you want to join me?’ I loaded up my Ludwigs, a bicycle, my skateboard, a mattress, and that was it. I didn't even have a car. There was no going back.” The initial landing spot was San Juan Capistrano, but Cooley would head south to San Diego about a year and half later, and it was here that he linked up with a local act known as The Hooligans. “The Hooligans were probably the highlight of any band I've ever been in,” he explains. “As dysfunctional as it was, it was the most functioning band as a unit. We could go weeks or months without playing or practicing. We'd go on a little hiatus, and then we'd get a show booked, and we would just go in and crush it. We were such a well-oiled machine and just had so much energy.”
During his five-year run with The Hooligans, the band did two west coast tours, performed with national acts such as The Reverend Horton Heat and The Cramps, and released an album, Last Call. “We actually did a second full-length album. We began mixing it down. I think we even did a master, and it just never got released. I don't know what happened. It was going to be called One Hit Wonderland. It was pretty far out. You know, we never fit into that traditional rockabilly crowd. They kind of hated us, but loved us. We kind of fell more into the psychobilly punk rock scene. Which is fine. We kind of always wanted to do our own thing.”
By the 2000s, Cooley was living in Los Angeles, manning the drums for a dark indie outfit called Solarcade, and serving as one half of a duo called The Killbirds. After leaving LA, he spent close to a decade in California’s wine country, where he played in a Stevie Ray Vaughan cover band called The Sticky Notes. But San Diego called, and he returned in 2022, eager to start playing again. A chance encounter at Wong’s Dragon Room with an old acquaintance, local saxophonist Ed Croft, proved to be his ticket. The two exchanged numbers and, even though it took north of a year, Croft came through with a gig opportunity for him: playing drums for the Fire Brothers. Cooley got busy with the band, playing once or twice a month and doing sets that incorporated a rotating batch of '50s-'80s covers and originals. “They have just a huge catalog of music,” Cooley says.
Later on, Croft reconnected with Cooley after the former released his recent album of instrumental covers, Have Mersey. This time, he was looking for a drummer to perform the songs from that album in a live setting. Cooley was game, and joined Croft in his new four-piece band, The Hep-Tights. “The Hep-Tights are all covers right now, there's no originals,” Cooley explains. “But we're trying to think outside the box. 'Let's grab a Cars tune that's pretty popular and has a very memorable melody but then make it our own. Let's do it like a blues shuffle. Let's get outside the box here.'”
Here's something you might be interested in.
Heath Cooley: banging the drums and banging around California
From The Hooligans to the Hep-Tights
Heath Cooley: banging the drums and banging around California
From The Hooligans to the Hep-Tights
Heath Cooley, still snapping that snare.
Heath Cooley’s took his first stab at playing the drums when he was around 10 years old. He requested a full set — and got a snare and mandatory lessons instead. “I hated it,” he says. “It was just very sterile for a ten or eleven year-old. So I threw the drum in the closet, and I was mad.” He circled back to the instrument when he was around 15. “My mom gives me shit to this day. She's like, ‘See, if you stuck with it when you were ten, you'd be that much better now.’ She's right. I wish I did.” Once Cooley embraced the instrument, he did find some small-scale success in his home state of Arizona, playing gigs at local Mesa bars and even clubs in Phoenix. “It was rad as a kid, because it was just kind of a glimpse. I felt like I was part of an elite club.”
Once he finished high school, “I tried to get out of Arizona as fast as I could. I think I was like 18 or 19. My buddy in high school, he and his mom and dad were moving back to Cali, and he was like, ‘Do you want to join me?’ I loaded up my Ludwigs, a bicycle, my skateboard, a mattress, and that was it. I didn't even have a car. There was no going back.” The initial landing spot was San Juan Capistrano, but Cooley would head south to San Diego about a year and half later, and it was here that he linked up with a local act known as The Hooligans. “The Hooligans were probably the highlight of any band I've ever been in,” he explains. “As dysfunctional as it was, it was the most functioning band as a unit. We could go weeks or months without playing or practicing. We'd go on a little hiatus, and then we'd get a show booked, and we would just go in and crush it. We were such a well-oiled machine and just had so much energy.”
During his five-year run with The Hooligans, the band did two west coast tours, performed with national acts such as The Reverend Horton Heat and The Cramps, and released an album, Last Call. “We actually did a second full-length album. We began mixing it down. I think we even did a master, and it just never got released. I don't know what happened. It was going to be called One Hit Wonderland. It was pretty far out. You know, we never fit into that traditional rockabilly crowd. They kind of hated us, but loved us. We kind of fell more into the psychobilly punk rock scene. Which is fine. We kind of always wanted to do our own thing.”
By the 2000s, Cooley was living in Los Angeles, manning the drums for a dark indie outfit called Solarcade, and serving as one half of a duo called The Killbirds. After leaving LA, he spent close to a decade in California’s wine country, where he played in a Stevie Ray Vaughan cover band called The Sticky Notes. But San Diego called, and he returned in 2022, eager to start playing again. A chance encounter at Wong’s Dragon Room with an old acquaintance, local saxophonist Ed Croft, proved to be his ticket. The two exchanged numbers and, even though it took north of a year, Croft came through with a gig opportunity for him: playing drums for the Fire Brothers. Cooley got busy with the band, playing once or twice a month and doing sets that incorporated a rotating batch of '50s-'80s covers and originals. “They have just a huge catalog of music,” Cooley says.
Later on, Croft reconnected with Cooley after the former released his recent album of instrumental covers, Have Mersey. This time, he was looking for a drummer to perform the songs from that album in a live setting. Cooley was game, and joined Croft in his new four-piece band, The Hep-Tights. “The Hep-Tights are all covers right now, there's no originals,” Cooley explains. “But we're trying to think outside the box. 'Let's grab a Cars tune that's pretty popular and has a very memorable melody but then make it our own. Let's do it like a blues shuffle. Let's get outside the box here.'”
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