Mike Noga, locally revered musician and former drummer for The Drones, has passed away

Mike Noga, singer-songwriter, The Drones drummer, and beloved local musician, has died at the age of 43.

Adored Australian singer-songwriter and former The Drones drummer Mike Noga has passed away aged 43.

A member of Noga’s family informed of his passing on Facebook, writing “We are absolutely devastated to inform you of the passing of our beloved brother, son, uncle and dearest friend Mike. We know how much he and his music meant to so many of you and there’s nothing we can say to make this hurt any less.”

Noga played with The Drones between 2004 and 2014, contributing to I See Seaweed and Havilah, two of the band’s most acclaimed albums.

 

Outside of the band, Noga released three solo records and made music with the stoner rock group, Legends of Motorsport. His latest solo record, King, was loosely based on Woyzeck, an unfinished play by German playwright Georg Büchner, and the album was narrated by actor Noah Taylor.

King producer and Something For Kate frontman, Paul Dempsey, posted footage of the pair performing together along with a heartfelt tribute to Noga on his Instagram.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Mike Noga was one of the funniest people I have ever known. He was also a ridiculously great all-rounder musician and songwriter and as well as watching him blow my mind with The Drones, I had the great pleasure of working with him both in my solo band, as a touring buddy and as producer on his ‘KING’ album. But whatever we were doing, mostly we were just laughing like idiots. By the time we finished recording KING in my spare room we could virtually hold entire conversations in a ‘private joke’ language that no one else would understand. I am going to miss those conversations. Our love and thoughts go out to his family and friends. xo

A post shared by Paul Dempsey (@pauldempseymusic) on Aug 27, 2020 at 4:03am PDT

Open Fire, Noga’s fourth solo album, was completed before his death and is scheduled for release next year.