Cavanagh grew up in
Deniliquin,
New South Wales and was drawn to drumming at an early age. Cavanagh became the drummer for a band called
The Houses which was formed in 2005 and by 2010 consisted of him,
Lucas Skinner,
Blaise Adamson, and
Stu Mackenzie. However, despite this, he was not an original member of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, which was formed by Mackenzie,
Joey Walker, and
Eric Moore in 2010, rather, he joined the band via an audition.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard . Cavanagh would join the band as their dedicated drummer, with Eric Moore as the band's manager. Besides their
highly prolific discography, King Gizzard was also known due to their novelty of having two drummers. In 2022, while touring in
Greece, Cavanagh would come down with
COVID-19 and would be replaced for two shows by a
drum machine.
Solo career On June 8, 2021, Cavanagh announced that he would release a solo album of some of his drum solos under the pseudonym CAVS. Alongside this announcement came a video of a ten-minute solo dubbed
T2JD, directed by John Stewart (who made other Gizzard music videos, including the video for "
Some of Us"). The self-titled album
CAVS would be released on July 9. He would release another single,
Gun Point on August 28 of that year. On February 24, 2026, a second CAVS solo album was announced, titled
Sojourn. The album was produced by
Mildlife drummer Jim Rindfleish alongside collaborations from other Melbourne-based musicians, and was described as a "journey through Cavs' rythmic imagination". The album was announced alongside a lead single,
Candiru. ==Discography==