David was born in London UK, and spent the first 9 years of his life totally ignoring
the great music that was happening there at the time. He has vague memories of his Dad whistling
various Beatles tunes, but there was definitely no indication of what was to come later. His Mum is
Australian and his Dad is English, and in In 1969 his parents decided to move back to Oz, to live in Sydney.
At the age of 12 he started playing his Mums pots and pans. No one knows what triggered this. There was also an
interest in reptiles that started around the same time. In a strangely backfiring attempt to shut him up,
his Dad bought him his first drum kit, and David proceeded to lock himself in his room, hook up some
headphones to the Hi-Fi, and play along with his favourite music. Early influences were Status Quo, Thin Lizzy,
Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Toto, but as the years went by he discovered the Australian music scene:
bands like INXS, Australian Crawl, Little River Band, Skyhooks, Richard Clapton, and of course, Midnight Oil.
David became more closely involved with the Australian music industry, and when he'd finished his HSC, he went and got his
electronics engineering qualifications and started work in the technical areas of the music industry, working for Roland, Phase Engineering,
Turramurra Music, and others. And all the time playing , rehearsing, learning, and evolving on the drums. To this day
he's never had a professional lesson. And, he says, tongue-in-cheek, it shows..
Several years (and bands) later, the inspiration started to change again, this time towards disco, soul, and funk,
artists like Sade, Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind and Fire, Simply Red, and George Benson, but still dabbling in rock
influences like Peter Gabriel and Crowded House.
You can catch David playing alongside Neil as part of the engine-room of Street Party, the retro-funk kings, and you'll definitely see him
enjoying the fruits of his hard-won experience.
And by the way, he's still got a thing about reptiles....
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