Portland Metro Pipe Band – Band Member Profile

Name: Andrew Finley - Drum Sergeant

Piper or Drummer? lead singer

How long have you been playing pipes or drums? Ripe age of 8. Didn’t have the cognizance to realize this would be all I do for the rest of my life, otherwise I probably would have asked to play soccer. Worked out to my advantage when women found out I didn’t play the flute in high school, but apparently the word "drums" seems to be a synonym for "commitment issues," so...back to square one.

Provide some info about your piping/drumming background and other bands you’ve played with: I started out with the kids band in Portland, and later played two seasons with the former Maple Ridge Pipe Band (now New Westminster Police for all you kids out there) before founding PMPB. I play drum kit in my alleged spare time with various bands; I’ve gigged around with some jazz and rock groups in Portland. Before I write the drum scores for PMPB, I listen to nothing but death metal, trance techno, and Oliver Messiaen to ensure that nothing we play makes any sense or has any redeeming musical value.

High points of your band and/or solo career, including awards or trips: Maple Ridge dominated the bejesus out of the grade 2 North American Championships in 2005. I’d say that’s a career highlight for me. The Portland kids band took 3rd in the 2003 Juvenile Worlds--a good trip, to say the least. My high school choir took second in state my senior year. I went to the state solo competition numerous times. I once played a gig where my performance was heralded as a "nice job."

Funniest band moment(s): Probably the after party in Montreal, 2005, where we somehow drunkenly proved once and for all that pipe bands are infinitely cooler than swimmers. Take that Michael Phelps.
Oh, also anything ever involving Ted McKnight, but it’s never officially funny for at least 3 months.

Misc. fact about you:
Graduating from the University of Oregon in June of 2009 with degrees in Political Science and Sociology.
I seriously listen to a lot of death metal, I wasn’t kidding earlier.

Send email to: andrew@pm-pb.org