Dan Bosher Full Name: Daniel John Bosher Drumming, photography, listening to music, watching t.v., BBQ, Joel ... >> Bands: Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Jane's Addiction, A Perfect Circle, Journey, Guns & Roses, Motly Crue, Alice in Chains, The Hank Jones Trio, Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye, Eric Clapton, Tool, Smashing Pumpkins, Crouded House, Super Groove >> Movies: Spinal Tap, Spiderman, Enter the Dragon >> Books: I like long walks on the beach with that special someone, and listening to the soulful sounds of Journey. Nah, i obviously like drumming, but also photography, architecture, martial arts, food, money, Paul Smith (damn he make good shirts) I dislike camle-toe, baggy pants on women, Tomatoes, that crap band "A Simple Plan" (what were they thinking?!?! they actually called their first album "Still no getting any". What is that??!! Do they mean they're still virgins?? But, that's ok if they are, i'm not slagging that, more the fact that they wrote an album about it), Donald Trump's hair... I think that's about it. Oh, and George Bush (just for good measure) >> Bio (how did you get into the music scene?): I started drumming in October 1996 (I think) as a means to spite my nagging parents who wanted me to play a musical instrument. My brother played the guitar and I was into rock music, so I decide to take a couple of bass lessons and a couple of drum lessons and see which instrument I preferred. The bass was cool, but the drums seemed to have so much more going for it. You could be unnecessarily loud, there were heaps of different shinny things you could hit, chicks dig guys who are good with there hands and have good rhythm, drumming terms are filled with sexual innuendos (e.g. "in the pocket beat") which cracked me up, as a drummer you could be a rock star and not have to deal with all the crazed fans like the front man has to deal with, and I realized that as a drummer you become part of a larger community. Being a drummer is like being a part of a world wide mob, you can walk up to other drummers and have a good chat without being subjected to that annoying egoist and competitive bollix that shrouds so many guitarists, pianists, singers and so on. Drummers are generally happy to help out and learn from other drummers, irrespective of how long they've been playing, and I thought that was amazing. However I’ve lived my life in New Zealand so far and an amazing drummer my the name of Frank Gibson really got involved in the New Zealand drumming scene and pushed this “community” idea. His son Frank Gibson Jr. (who was my drum teacher for many years) perpetuates this idea, and is one of if not the most influential drummers in New Zealand. Moreover, I suppose my view of the “drumming community” can be considered a bit utopianistic because I’ve been fortunate enough to learn drums in such a great environment. Anyway, my first drum teacher was Darren King. He taught me Rock and Funk drumming for a couple of years until I realized that most of my favorite rock drummers (such as Jimmy Chamberlin) had a Jazz background. So I decided to study Jazz, and managed to get a spot in Frank Gibson Jr.’s busy schedule. Frank taught me Theory, Jazz, Latin, Afro-Cuban, Rock, Funk etc, until be got through his whole syllabus. After my first year of playing drums I got involved with various bands with my brother, and other people (including a death metal band and an improve jazz band). I played drums for some theatrical musicals including “The Little Shop of Horrors”. I was lucky enough to get open minded musical directors who let me have a bit of free range with my drum parts, because they were generally bland and boring and I HATE SIGHT READING! However, I decided this wasn’t my scene eventually and stopped doing musicals. In 2001 (or thereabouts) I started working with my brother on and off until 2004 when we become serious about getting our music out. Mean while, during my last year of school, I was asked by this dude who sat in the student common room all day playing guitar if I could help out him and his band with a gig they landed. That dude was of course Josh, and the guys in his band were Dave and Joel. My band with my brother was on hold at that time so I thought it would be good to play in another band and get some more gigging experience. Anyway, we had a jam and it was kind of weird like all first jams are, and I had a bit of trouble getting used to the schizophrenic song structures the guys had come up with, but we had a great time (or at least I did). We jammed a couple more times and things just started falling into place. My English teacher kept taking about this news paper article he had read about a hippo eating a dwarf in a circus act. During a lunch break one day, the guys and I were trying to think up a band name and eventually came across the “Hippo Eats Dwarf” news paper article that my English teacher had talked about and decided to become a tribute band to this poor dwarf called “Od” who bounced off a trampoline on a strange angle and coincidently landed into Helga’s (the circus hippo) mouth as she was yawning. Helga swallowed the poor guy as a gag reflex, and he died. So were became Hippo Eats Dwarf. Also, Hippo East Dwarf could be abbreviated to “H.E.D.” so we could have fantastic advertising slogans like “Give a little H.E.D. this Christmas” and so on. We did our first gig; it was crap! There were 4-5minute breaks between songs as we messed around. We had to call people back into the venue because they went out side for a cigarette while we farted around. I played in a blond wig and stripped down to my boxes and Josh wore a green fir coat and I think that about sums up the gig… except for Dave’s unique base playing, but he can tell you about that one. So, after that gig we did another one at a Jazz bar (obviously not the place for loud Rock, but that didn’t stop us) and played an amazing set. This Russian couple really got into it, in between banging each other with their cloths on that is. That gig was really cool, but we weren’t asked to do any more gigs there for some reason. Anyway, as 2004 rolled around were did more gigs which were really successful (some of course weren’t, but most were) and actually got paid 90% of the time. During a band practice, the manager of York St Studios (one of New Zealand’s top recording studios) heard us play “Donna” and invited us to do some free recordings there. We recorded two songs fully and did a live recording of some of the others. After this we’ve gone on to do other gigs throughout Auckland. So at the end of 2004, Josh has gone over seas for a couple of months and we’re having a bit of a break from a busy Hippo kind of year. The plan for 2005 will be getting a couple more songs finished and lots of gigging I’d say; we’ll probably do a bit of home recording too. Anyway, did that even answer the question? >> Unique Trademark: I use big words to make myself sound intelligent >> If you weren't in the band you would be a?: Well, i'm currently studying Architecture at University. So, probably an architect... or a pool cleaner, whatever works out. >> Personal Quotes: "Dave, your drunk." "I deserve an award, because i'm the best F*ck that you ever had" (Faith No More) - no that i'd have the balls to actually say that to anyone. All the rest of the quotes i can think of right now are either from the Simpsons, Chris Rock, Ace Ventura, or Wayne's World. so I think i'll stop >> Gear: I play a mixture of Zildian and Sabian cymbols and a pearl drumkit. I use: I also have a Ddrum electric drumkit that i use for home recordings and occasionally uses parts of for my kit when i play live. |