by Jasmine Bourgeois with editing assistance from Angela Sells Photos courtesy of the artists
Annie Heffley
Tom Tom: What’s your background with drumlines?
50 TOM TOM MAGA ZI NE
Annie Heffley: I started playing marching snare at Denton High School and did that all four years I was there. I was also a member of Roots Percussion Independent, an indoor drumline group, for three years. The summer of 2017—going into my sophomore year of college—I marched River City Rhythm, an open-class drum corps based in Minnesota, and my sophomore year of college, I was on the Green Brigade snare line at the University of North Texas. Currently, I’m marching Guardians, and it’s a lot of fun!
Do you rock a drum kit, too? I wish I could play drum set! I’m going to have to take a couple semesters of drumset lessons at UNT, so I’m sure I’ll be significantly better after that. But as of now, I have very limited set experience. I can keep time but nothing fancy. Any major marching band idols? Corps-wise, I really look up to Santa Clara Vanguard. I only have one summer left after this one, but I’m going to put in a lot of work, and do my best to at least put up a fight for a spot there. People-wise, I’ve had a lot of really great teachers that have helped me immensely who I definitely look up to.
Photo by Geovani Ayala
Annie Heffley is a 20-year-old drummer from Denton, Texas, who drums with the Guardians Drum and Bugle Corps. She started playing percussion in sixth grade and hasn’t stopped since, first playing snare all four years of high school and later becoming a member of Roots Percussion Independent, the River City Rhythm Drum and Bugle Corps, and the Green Brigade snare line at the University of North Texas. What’s the coolest thing that's happened to you at an event? The coolest thing that’s happened to me in a show is probably just the whole experience of performing in Lucas Oil for the first time last summer. Everyone was super hyped, and I had actually toured the stadium with my high school a couple years before and knew that I wanted to be able to play there someday. So, performing there was kind of surreal. Plus, at the end, on all the big hits everyone was giving a ton of energy, and the guy next to me actually had his drum fall off on the last note, so that was pretty wild.
