From Marching Bands to the Kraken: Benny Drawbars’ Unlikely Path to NHL Organist
Benny Drawbars joins Greazy Keyz on Local Music Somewhere to talk about the road from Chicago marching bands and jazz gigs to building pipe organs — and eventually playing organ for the Seattle Kraken. With an engineering degree and a music minor, Benny shares how craftsmanship, curiosity, and a love for live performance shaped a career that blends precision and passion. From organ building to NHL game-day crowds, this conversation explores what it really means to follow music wherever it leads.
How Benny Drawbars Became the Organist for the Seattle Kraken
Benny Drawbars
Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, if I was at a sporting event, there’s a good chance it was because I was playing an instrument at it. Throughout school and college, I was always in the marching band or basketball band, or if I wasn’t doing that, playing gigs in a jazz combo or brass band, or if wasn’t doing *that,* trying to go listen to music wherever I could, whether that was a club or a college auditorium or a pair of headphones. After somehow managing to get through college with an engineering degree I hope to never have to use and a music minor that’s proved more relevant, I headed west to build pipe organs. After a series of events even less probable than moving across the country to build pipe organs, I am now also fortunate enough to play organ at home games of Seattle’s NHL team, the Kraken.
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