So here I am sitting in the world of dnash (friends can call him
‘nash’) on a Monday night at around 9:00 p.m. in his dimly lit
apartment, surrounded by equipment, a bachelor pad decorated in true
musician fashion – from celebrated album covers which double as
wallpaper to musical instruments hanging as décor. The phone begins to
ring off the hook and it takes us a while to settle in to our
“interview”.
If
I had to describe this dude in one word, it would be ‘genius.’ At 33,
this gifted musician has lived quite a life – growing up overseas,
spending his childhood in Europe, and began to play the drums at the age
of 2. At age 6, he knew he was destined to be a drummer and with
the exception of a few sporadic drum lessons and a summer at National
Music Camp, “where he played Dungeons & Dragons and majored in Pizza”,
he is self taught. dnash lived in Indonesia during his
early teen years where he got his hands on his first four albums – a
pirated version of Queens Greatest Hits, Kiss Unmasked, Meet the Beatles
and an Elvis album. His family then moved back to the
States, and settled in the quaint town of Weston where he attended
Weston High School. Having been bit by the music bug and vagabond
roots running through his bloodstream, dnash left school and
traveled to Alaska, Canada and Los Angeles trying to put together a band
and somewhere along his travels, made his way back to Connecticut.
Recently back from
touring the mid-west in the fall, dnash is a busy guy and is
involved in several projects; playing drums in a local blues-based band,
Hybrid Blue; promoting himself as a solo performer; playing guitar in
The Doug Wahlberg Band; and playing drums for Freewill, a Rush tribute
band.
With his roots in writing, he has arranged and written lyrics while also
playing drums, keyboards, guitar and bass. During his career
in music, he has fought his way in and, more often, OUT of bands hoping
for “an equal right in a band”. He doesn’t want to be told “just play
the drums.” We talked a bit about where the current state of the
music scene is right now in the U.S. and he feels that “if CBGB’s leaves
New York, the East Coast doesn’t have a chance.” dnash “is still
searching out the brass ring” and it’s discouraging to him that “a lot
of musicians in our area don’t really have as much of an interest in
making it as they say they do.”
There is also a full length CD in the works, a demo of which I have had
the privilege of hearing. dnash has complete musical
control and his outstanding ability has allowed him to write, record,
and produce all of the songs on the CD as well as playing all of the
instruments.
Currently, dnash feels as though he “has fallen back into writing
during the last few weeks” and has a screenplay in the works for a rock
opera.
Consequently, this self-proclaimed, “jack of all trades” is also a world
renowned fang maker. Yes, that’s right folks, on top of playing
virtually every instrument known to man, he makes fangs, and has a
national as well as international following. dnash began
his fang making while living in Vancouver in 1994 during the whole
“Interview With The Vampire” explosion. dnash recently
finished work on a film project, Soul’s Midnight, making fangs for
Armand Assante and the rest of the cast. The soundtrack will also
include some of
dnash’s original music.
You can next catch dnash playing with The Doug Wahlberg Band on
February 3 at Ziggy’s in Fairfield and February 17 at The
Georgetown Saloon.
dnash is about to
embark on his Fang Tour 2006 in Europe and for all of you fellow
vampires, he will be doing fangs at the Melbourne Tattoo Convention in
Australia on May 5th.
For more information, check out his website:
www.dnash.com
