Jon Coghill - Biography

Biography

Coghill attended Nambour State High School in Nambour, Queensland where his father was a Physics teacher, graduating in 1988. While in high school, Coghill's ambitions were not directed towards music, as he expressed an interest in football or surfing. Upon graduating, he moved to Queensland's state capital Brisbane and began studying Botany at the University of Queensland, however was interested in the Brisbane local music scene. Before long, Coghill had begun playing drums for local bands including side project Shock Fungus.

Coghill met Powderfinger when he attended one of their practice sessions and joked with the band, introducing himself as a drummer. Two years later, when Steven Bishop left the band, guitarist Ian Haug recognised Coghill at an audition, and signed him at that point. Previously, Coghill had been rejected in an audition for Custard. Jon spent about six months playing alongside Scott Coleman and Marc Zande in the Brisbane grunge band, Gland, before committing full-time to Powderfinger in early 1992. In December 1997, Coghill took a brief break from Powderfinger and toured with Regurgitator. Drummer Ross McLennan of Far Out Corporation and later from The Predators, took Coghill's place for a Powderfinger performance on 19 December.

Through his time in the band, Coghill has endeavoured to improve his drumming. In 1999 following the release of the band's third album Internationalist, he took up lessons with Brisbane-based drum tutor Col Gillies. Coghill has stated that he took the lessons due to being "really sore" "three quarters the way through a show".

In 2004, Coghill was named Best Drummer by Jack Daniels for their inaugural Jack Awards. To commemorate this, he joined with several other Australian musicians to form the one-shot band Superfinger Sleepychair. Composed of members of The Superjesus, Silverchair and Sleepy Jackson, along with Coghill from Powderfinger, the group's name is a portmanteau of all of the members' band's names.

Coghill has been described by Powderfinger lead singer Bernard Fanning as "psycho", stating "There's a constant battle between Cogsy and I as to who's the biggest psycho in the band" on numerous occasions. Fanning has also said of Coghill "He likes to antagonise people, and I don't mean that in a mean way", and continued to say jokingly that "It makes me want to smash him sometimes." Guitarist Darren Middleton says of Coghill "Jon likes movies with explosions in them", and has also described him as stubborn. Fellow guitarist Ian Haug says Coghill is an excellent arranger, explaining "he can listen to it all, just sort of sit back and go, 'Okay, that's a really good bit.'" Coghill himself has described himself as a "superhero". He has also stated that he shares the band's hatred of band photos. Coghill says he shares the stereotype of drummers being the most "out there" member of the band. He says this is true because "We have so much energy...We’re stuck up the back and we’re more likely to do stupid shit to get rid of it." In 2008, Coghill studied a mixture of politics and law at Griffith University.