PHOTO: CHRIS SIKICH
Hello! Welcome to my website! It’s the number one source on the internet for all your Patrick Berkery needs. Please, make yourself comfortable. Not that comfortable — get your damn feet off my coffee table!
About me: I’m a Philadelphia-based freelance drummer and writer. I have toured and recorded with many artists including the War on Drugs (that’s me on the last three studio records: 2021’s I Don’t Live Here Anymore, the Grammy-winning 2017 album A Deeper Understanding, and 2014’s Lost in the Dream), Strand of Oaks, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Pernice Brothers, Wesley Stace (aka John Wesley Harding), Danielson, Pat Finnerty and the Full Band, Toby Leaman (Dr. Dog), Robyn Hitchcock, Peter Matthew Bauer (ex-Walkmen), Bird Streets, the Bigger Lovers, Mazarin, the Photon Band, I Was a King, New Radiant Storm King, Cliff Hillis, and Eliza Hardy Jones, to name more than a dozen.
By day, I am the senior community editor for the Pennsylvania-centrc news website The Keystone, where our mission is muting disinformation and calling attention to the impacts of policy and political action at the state level.
By night, and sometimes during the day, I play drums. I’ve played everywhere from Tallahassee to Tokyo, at rooms so rancid that G.G. Allin would’ve thought twice about using the facilities, along with venues I actually tell my family about like Carnegie Hall. I’ve headlined, I’ve played last. I’ve played to thousands, I’ve played to single digits as though I’m playing to thousands (I adhere to that old showbiz adage ‘Play to 8 the same way you’d play to 13.’) I’ve played internationally renowned music festivals like All Tomorrow's Parties, Austin City Limits, Australia's traveling Harvest Festival, and Spain's Benicassim festival, and I’ve played strip mall sports bars.
I’m also the house drummer for Wesley Stace's long-running, New York-based variety show the Cabinet of Wonders. This very enjoyable assignment has seen me playing Stranglers covers behind comedian Fred Armisen, Velvet Underground and Dylan covers with actor Michael Shannon, and two of the greatest songs ever written, “Local Girls” and “Whole Wide World,” with the artists who authored and recorded them, Graham Parker and Wreckless Eric, respectively. Other towering talents I’ve backed at the Cabinet include Tony-award winning playwright/musician Anais Mitchell, author Rick Moody, and musicians Ted Leo, G.E. Smith, Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies, Dan Zanes, Juliana Hatfield, Rhett Miller, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Kat Edmonson, Steve Forbert, and Ethan Iverson of the Bad Plus.
Back to the writing thing: I was a contributing writer at Modern Drummer magazine for 15 years, writing cover stories and features on many of my drumming heroes like Stan Lynch, Hal Blaine, Mick Fleetwood, James Gadson, Martin Chambers, Pete Thomas, Alex Van Halen, Jay Bellerose, Max Weinberg, and more. My writing has also appeared on Salon, RollingStone.com, Philadelphia Weekly, and in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
I’ve included everything you might want to know about me on this website: upcoming shows I’m playing, records I’ve appeared on, writing samples, random musings, photos, videos, my “professional resume,” and information on how to book me for lessons and sessions (I’m available and my rates are reasonable). If there’s anything I missed, email me.
Enjoy!
