Pseudo Echo Call New 19-Year-Old Drummer 'Our Saviour'

On Sunday evening, iconic Australian rockers Pseudo Echo went on social media and welcomed their new drummer, Abigail Lula.

“The Ultimate tour has been nothing short of an unstoppable adventure,” Pseudo Echo wrote in the caption accompanying a photo of the band’s new line-up. “Pseuds went through five different drummers, only for the universe to bring us this little gem, 19-year-old Abigail Lula (far right), who smashed it over the weekend.”

On her Instagram, Lula wrote that joining Pseudo Echo is a “dream come true”. She continued, “I have been listening to Pseudo Echo my entire life. I never would’ve imagined I would be meeting the legend who created so many of my all-time favourite songs, let alone drumming in his band.

“It is so surreal to say I am joining a band that I have loved for as long as I can remember. What makes it even more incredible is that the band is full of the most wonderful people. It was such an honour to play with Sammy Paul, Matty Ray, Tony Featherstone, and James Mudd. Thank you all so much for being so incredibly kind and accommodating. I can not wait to see you all again this Friday!”

Joining a band on their Ultimate tour as they chronicle a 40-year career through a two-hour set can’t be easy, but vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Brian Canham says that Lula has been “loving” the experience playing with Pseudo Echo.

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The Ultimate tour has been nothing short of an unstoppable adventure. Pseuds went through five different drummers, only...
Posted by Pseudo Echo on Saturday, September 9, 2023

“Abbie’s fantastic. She’s our saviour,” Canham tells The Music. “We think the universe delivered her to us. She’s one of us; she’s fantastic.”

The addition of Abigail means there’s a bit more feminine energy for Pseudo Echo on the road now – the band’s superb backing vocalist, Sammy Paul, and Canham’s wife and manager, Raquel, have some extra company.

“It’s a nice balance,” Canham remarks about having another woman in the band. “You know, it gets a bit boyish with bands. It’s a real male-dominated industry.”

As a unit, Pseudo Echo often keep an eye on session musicians, just in case someone in the band falls ill or can’t play one night for other reasons, which is part of how they found Abigail Lula. Raquel had her eye on a young drummer that turned out to be Lula.

“I think she [Lula] commented on one of our posts on our social media or Facebook or something, and Raquel had noticed next to her name, said something about drums,” Canham explains. After Raquel sang Lula’s praises – “She’s young, she’s really confident, she’s good on the drums”, Brian Canham looked at her Instagram videos.

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A post shared by Abbie :) (@abbiedrums)

“We sort of kept it on the back burner, and then we had our drummer pull out at the eleventh hour and got no notice,” Canham says. “We really didn’t want to cancel the show; the consequences would be dire… the crowd, the audience, the venue, the promoters, everybody is affected by it.

“Us Pseudos, we have a motto: the show must go on. We don't like to let people down, so we will pull out all stops.” After a good friend filled in on drums, the band needed someone for the show the following week.

Canham continues, “It’s a two-hour show; it’s a hell of a lot of stuff to learn – we hadn’t auditioned with her or jammed with her. We just took a punt – we said, ‘She looks really great in the videos, let’s just go with it’. So her audition was at our soundcheck, basically.

“She was pretty frazzled because it was a lot of pressure, and she was thrown into the deep end,” Canham says. “We have a beautiful family. The band is really nice. And we told her, ‘No one’s going to beat you up. If we have to stop, we stop. I’m sure the audience will love it!’ She came through with flying colours; she was fantastic.”

You can welcome Abigail Lula to the Pseudo Echo family as their tour continues. Tickets are available here.