Howard was born in Stockport, Greater Manchester, in England. When he was around 8 years old he moved with his family to Teignmouth, a small town in Devon. He began playing drums at about the age of 12, when he was inspired by a jazz band performing at school.
Birth name : Dominic James Howard
Born : 7 December 1977 (1977-12-07) (age 32)
Stockport, England
Genres : New prog, alternative rock, progressive rock
Occupations : Musician, songwriter
Instruments : Drums, percussion, synthesiser
Years active : 1988–present
Associated acts : Muse
Howard's first band was named 'Carnage Mayhem'[, which he was in at school. Meanwhile, he befriended Matt Bellamy, who played guitar but didn't have a stable band. Not long after, Bellamy was faced with the chance of entering Howard's band. After two years of drop-outs after Bellamy suggested that they write their own songs, only Howard and Bellamy remained. Chris Wolstenholme, who played drums in "Fixed Penalty", then entered the scene and with a great "spirit of sacrifice" he began to play bass.
In the first months of 1994 Gothic Plague was born, followed by Rocket Baby Dolls and then finally Muse. From then on, things got more serious for Howard and the others. Howard is the oldest member of the band, followed by Bellamy, then Wolstenholme.
In 2004, Howard's father, William Howard, came to watch Muse's performance at Glastonbury 2004, a concert which Bellamy described as "the best gig of our lives". Just after their performance finished, William died from a heart attack. Through support from his family and fellow band members, Dominic recovered, and Muse managed to continue their tour.
The song Howard wants played at his funeral is "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen.
In a session where he and Bellamy answered questions from fans, Howard stated that the celebrity, alive or dead, he'd most like to meet is Jimi Hendrix.
On 26 September 2008, Howard, along with Bellamy and Wolstenholme, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of Plymouth.
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Equipment
Drum kits
Howard is known to be an endorser of DW Drums, and uses a custom finished kit by the brand. However, he has used a set of orange and red Ludwig Vistalites in the USA cut of the Stockholm Syndrome music video, while a clear set of Vistalites is seen on one of the background images of Muse's official site. As of 2009, Dominic appears to be using DW Drums. His new kit is maple with VLT (Vertical Low Timbre) shells and reinforcement rings in a custom finish. All of his recent appearances in support of the new album "Resistance", Howard can be seen using Drum Workshop kits.
Some of his past drum sets include:
• British racing green Starclassic Maple kit with chrome hardware.
• Brown fade Starclassic Maple kit with chrome hardware.
• Blue sparkle Starclassic Maple kit with chrome hardware (destroyed at the conclusion of the 2001 Origin of Symmetry / Dead Star/In Your World EP support tour, as seen on "Hullabaloo" DVD).
• Grey kit (unknown composition) with chrome hardware (as seen on the "Top Of the Pops" live performance and recording of Origin Of Symmetry). Its fate is unknown.
• Blue sparkle Starclassic Maple kit with chrome hardware (used during 2002 tour and Absolution recording). Its fate is unknown. At least one rack tom survived until 2003 as it was used at the Grouse Lodge sessions of the Absolution recordings.
• Silver sparkle Starclassic maple kit with chrome hardware (as seen in music videos for Hyper Music, Feeling Good, Plug In Baby and Dead Star).
• Custom chrome finished Starclassic Maple kit with black nickel hardware (as seen on the Absolution Tour DVD). At least four different instances of this kit have been acquired and subsequently destroyed by the band at the end of live shows, at the conclusion of the Earls Court 2004 performance, at the 2004 Glastonbury Festival and on two other occasions.
• Crystal ice (transparent) Starclassic Mirage kit with white powder-coated hardware. This Kit was donated to Oxfam in help of the 2010 haiti earthquake. (During the last show of the Black Holes and Revelations tour, at V festival, Howard used this kit but with the standard chrome hardware).
• He has also played a Starclassic Bubinga kit supporting My Chemical Romance in Williamsburg USA.
• For recording he has used a blue DW kit.
• During 3 songs (Soldier's Poem, Unintended, Blackout) at the band's performance at Wembley Stadium he used a Vintage Gretsch Jazz Kit in a Champagne Sparkle Finish.
Drum sizes
• Dom recently started endorsing with the Resistance album tour DW Drums Pedals and Hardware and has been seen using two different kits: a Gold Sparkle with Gold hardware and a Black Lacquer and Silver custom logo rebase finish with chrome hardware kits and the sizes for both kits are:12x10 tom,14x14 floor tom,16x16 floor tom,22x20 bass drum, 21x16 gong drum and 14x6,5 DW aluminium snare drum shell or Ludwig Black Beauty with the same size. However Dom is still using the same cymbal brand
• He previously used a 22x16" bass drum, 12x10" rack tom and 14x14" and 16x16" floor toms.
• His new chrome kits have a 22x18 bass drum, 12x8 rack tom, 14x14 and 16x16 floor toms with the last being a custom size.
• His newer still acrylic kits has a 24"x18" bass drum, 12"x8" rack tom, 14"x14" and 16"x16" floor toms. Also he uses a matching 14"x6" snare, sometimes a 14"x6.5" Ludwig Black Beauty Brass Snare, a 20"x14" gong bass drum.
• His Gretsch USA Custom Vintage Champagne Sparkle that he used during 3 songs at Wembley Stadium (Soldier's Poem, Unintended and Black Out) has a 18x16 bass drum, 12x8 tom, 14x14 and a 14x5,5 matching snare.
• His new DW kit has a 20"x22" Kick drum, 10"x12" rack tom, 14"x14" and 16"x16" floor toms and a 16"x21" gong drum. He also uses a 6.5"x14" snare.
Snare drums
As well as alternating between using mainly Tama Starclassic Maple 14x6.5", to match his chrome kit and Ludwig LB417 Black Beauty 14x6.5" snare drums, he has a number of less prominent snares used for recording and video clips (for example the shallow snare used for recording Fury, the Starclassic Maple 14x5.5" that matched his silver sparkle kit used for the recording of Ruled By Secrecy, the brass snare in the Time Is Running Out video clip) . He also uses a 6.5"x14" DW Aluminum snare.
Cymbals
Howard uses a selection of Zildjian cymbals. Over the years his tastes in cymbals have changed - for example, on the Hullabaloo DVD he uses 13" A Custom Projection hi-hats, 8" A Custom splash, 11" FX Oriental "Trash" Splash, 18" and 19" A Custom Crashes, 18" FX Oriental China Trash and a 22" K Custom Ride, whereas more recent performances have seen the addition of a 20" Escalade Rim as a cymbal, hung above his hi-hats, and the discontinued (some how he manages to still get them) 14" K Custom Special Dry Hi-Hats replace - and contrast - the A Customs. Lately the A Custom splash has been changed out in favour of an 9" A Splash. He has discontinued using the Crash Of Doom as of the Black Holes period, and now uses a 22" K Custom Ride in live situations (and for recording). Also in 2006 at the Quart festival he is seen in a picture at www.muse.mu using an 24" Escalade rim as a Cymbal on his right stand.
For recording he uses darker K Custom Zildjian Fast and Dark crashes while he often uses the brighter A Customs in live performances for their increased "cut" (K Customs were used at Live 8, Abbey Road Session, Royal Abert Hall, and so on).
Current Cymbals
Howard is currently using:
• Zildjian K Custom Special Dry 14" Hi-Hats (discontinued)
• Zildjian A Custom 18" and 19" crashes
• Zildjian K Custom 18" Fast crash
• Zildjian K Thin 19" Dark Crash
• Zildjian 11" FX Oriental Trash Splash
• Zildjian 8" A Splash
• Zildjian K Custom 22" Medium Ride
• Zildjian A Custom 22" Medium Ride
• Zildjian 18" FX Oriental Trash China
Howard has not been known to use all of these cymbals at the same time on his kit. He incorporates cymbals into his kit that are appropriate to the tour and songs being played on the setlist.
Hardware
• He uses Tama Roadpro hardware.
• His drum throne is a Tama First Chair with back-rest
• He uses the limited Chrome Tama Iron Cobra single pedal.
• He also uses the Tama Iron Cobra Lever-Glide Hi-Hat Stand.
• He now uses all DW 9000 series hardware, including a 9000 series bass drum pedal and hi-hat stand.
Percussion
Howard states in the January 2010 issue of ModernDrummer Magazine that he uses a rhythm tech ribbon crasher to the left of his rack tom.
Sticks
• Howard uses the Pro-Mark Dominic Howard Autograph Series American Hickory TX101 with Wood-tip.
Drum heads
Howard uses an assortment of Remo and Aquarian drum heads. At Hullabaloo his toms have clear Remo Emperor batter heads while the Black Beauty snare has an Aquarian Hi-energy batter head. His Ayotte kick has a Remo Powerstroke 3 batter and the Starclassic snare usually has either coated Emperor or coated CS dot heads.
Singing
Recalling Re:Covered where Muse performed Can't Take My Eyes Off You, Bellamy explained how Howard wanted to do this song because he could sing the "Ba DA" bits. After performing at BBC Re:Covered and a few other performances, Howard didn't sing live again, until Supermassive Black Hole became part of the band's set, when he sang through a vocoder at the end of each repetition of the chorus. During The Resistance Tour, Dom adds vocals during Uprising and Unnatural Selection, he adds the 'oi' parts.
While recording Absolution, he demonstrated his inability to sing in tune when the whole band had to perform vocals in Blackout together (Thomas Kirk could have been singing too). The sound techs pointed out that someone was out of tune. After a couple of attempts the results were the same. To find out and solve who was singing out of tune, one person was taken out at a time and the recording was tested again, resulting in Howard not being used for vocals.
External links
• Dominic Howard Fansite
• Dominic Howard on MuseWiki
References
1. ^ "1999 Muse Documentary". Microcuts.net. 1999. http://www.microcuts.net/uk/musetv.php. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
2. ^ http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/EXCLUSIVE-University-honour-rock-stars-Muse/article-356162-detail/article.html
v • d • e
Muse
Matthew Bellamy • Christopher Wolstenholme • Dominic Howard
Touring members: Morgan Nicholls • Dan Newell • Alessandro Cortini
Studio albums Showbiz • Origin of Symmetry • Absolution • Black Holes and Revelations • The Resistance
Live albums Hullabaloo Soundtrack • HAARP
Compilations Hullabaloo Soundtrack
Extended plays Muse • Muscle Museum • Random 1–8
Videos Hullabaloo: Live at Le Zenith, Paris • Absolution Tour • HAARP
Singles "Uno" • "Cave" • "Muscle Museum" • "Sunburn" • "Unintended" • "Plug In Baby" • "New Born" • "Bliss" • "Hyper Music/Feeling Good" • "Dead Star/In Your World" • "Stockholm Syndrome" • "Time Is Running Out" • "Hysteria" • "Sing for Absolution" • "Apocalypse Please" • "Butterflies and Hurricanes" • "Supermassive Black Hole" • "Starlight" • "Knights of Cydonia" • "Invincible" • "Map of the Problematique" • "Uprising" • "Undisclosed Desires" • "Resistance" • "Exogenesis: Symphony" • "Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)"
Other songs "Citizen Erased" • "Who Knows Who" • "United States of Eurasia"
Concert tours Showbiz Tour • Origin of Symmetry Tour • Absolution Tour • US Campus Invasion Tour 2005 • Black Holes and Revelations Tour • A Seaside Rendezvous • The Resistance Tour
Related articles Awards • Discography • Songs • Sawmills Studio • Taste Media • Mushroom Records • A&E Records • Warner Bros. Records • Helium 3 • MuseWiki
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