Rocking Drummer Boy Big Hit On YouTube

Sean Quigley, from Winnipeg, Manitoba, performed and filmed his own version of the classic Christmas song, “Little Drummer Boy” and posted it on YouTube. To his shock, the video has had over a million hits. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Quigley about the viral phenomenon.

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Marco Werman: Here’s another fixture around this time of year, the little drummer boy. When you think about who that boy could be you might imagine a six year old innocent kid gently tapping his toy military drum. Then there’s an alternative scenario, the kid is actually 16, he’s got a grunge look about him and he’s rocking out on a full drum set. That’s Sean Quigley, from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and he is the drummer boy, or shall we say, the young man on a video that’s gone viral on YouTube. Sean, how many views does your video have now?

Sean Quigley: Uh, I don’t know an exact number, but it hit a million this morning, so that was a big one.

Werman: Okay, round figures is about a million. That’s pretty good. Why cover this classic song? Why did you choose it?

Quigley: I don’t know, it just speaks to me so much. Like you said, I guess, I connect with the song because of me playing drums, and my faith and I just chose to do that song.

Werman: And you say your faith, explain that a little bit more.

Quigley: Well, I’m a Christian and the song is about a little boy finding Jesus and not having anything to give him. And that’s me, so I can play my drum just like in the song. So that’s my gift I guess.

Werman: And we should say that you’re not just a drummer. I mean you play all the instruments on this track. It’s not that hard these days, you can do it with overdubbing, but you’re really good at all of them. What do you play?

Quigley: Well, on this particular one I played the drums, the guitars, the bass and then the vocals, and then just added some piano stuff over top just for a little icing on the cake per se.

Werman: And the video is pretty cinematic. Who shot it?

Quigley: I did actually.

Werman: No way, really?

Quigley: Yeah, I did with the help of my sister, yeah, I shot it.

Werman: I mean there are close-ups, there are cutaways, there are B-roll, C-roll, D-roll, I mean you’re pretty talented.

Quigley: Thank you.

Werman: You know, there’s another famous YouTube sensation or at least he got is start on YouTube, Justin Bieber. Did he kind of open up this whole world for you? Did he give you license to go ahead and do all this stuff singlehandedly?

Quigley: Not really, I mean he’s a talented kid, he’s from Canada, which is awesome. He’s doing what he loves to do, but I don’t really see a correlation, no.

Werman: What about a career in music, would you like to go down that path?

Quigley: Absolutely, yeah.

Werman: So what is next for you?

Quigley: Right now I’m not sure. I’m dealing with like a management firm out of Los Angeles, which is helping me out with a lot of the business side, stuff that I can’t really do on my own right now. And hopefully, to record more original music.

Werman: Aside from Christmas songs, which you obviously know how to nail pretty well, who do you like to listen to? What music turns you on these days?

Quigley: I like a lot of Hillsong United, it’s a band from Australia, a rapper name Lecrae, he’s amazing. I like all genres of music from the classical stuff, to jazz, to rock, hip hop, I love it all.

Werman: You know, you’re so talented I bet you could drum out a little roll on your lap right now? You think you could give us an a cappella drum roll?

Quigley: If that’s what you want to do.

Werman: Take us out with an a cappella drum roll.

Quigley: How’s that?

Werman: Pretty good, little drummer boy.

Quigley: Thank you, sir.

Werman: Sean Quigley, thanks a lot for your time.

Quigley: Thank you.

Werman: If you want to see Sean’s version of little drummer boy it’s on our website, theworld.org.

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