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Dominic James "Dom" Howard (born 7 December 1977), is the drummer for the English rock band Muse.

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.

Howard's first band was named 'Carnage Mayhem' ^[1], 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.

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.^[2]

Equipment

Drum kits

Howard was an endorser of Tama Drums. It appears now he is using Drum Workshop. All of his recent appearances in support of the new album "Resistance", Howard can be seen using Drum Workshop kits. The one used for the US MTV VMA's, looked like a custom kit from DW. He has had several kits, many of which have been destroyed during performances. Up until he switched to DW he used Tama's now discontinued Starclassic Mirage acrylic sets. 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.

It is possible that during 2005, Howard's endorsement contract with Tama Drums expired as a set of orange and red Ludwig Vistalites (acrylic drums) were used in the USA cut of the Stockholm Syndrome video clip (and another character in the talk show was using Pearl drums). As video clips receive much public exposure it is usually against the terms of a contract to use a competitors product. This would tend to suggest that the Tama contract had reached its conclusion.

A clear set of Vistalites (with a shallower rack tom, 12x8 most likely) is seen on one of the background images of Muse's official site, suggesting that they were used for the recording of Black Holes And Revelations.

As of 2006, he uses Tama Drums' new Starclassic Mirage line [2](acrylic drums) in live situations. These three data would suggest that the contract briefly lapsed in 2005 and during that time Howard developed a taste for acrylic drums. When Tama released Mirage he renewed his endorsement. (Courtesy of http://musewiki.org/Drums)

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, 14x12 and 16x13 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"x12" and 16"x14" 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.

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).

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" FX Oriental Crash of Doom, hung above his hi-hats, and 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 8" 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).

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
• 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.

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.

Left-handed

As Dom is left-handed he sets his drums up with the hi-hats on his right and floor toms on the left. This is basically the mirrored version of a right-handed kit.

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.

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.

Trivia

• Around the time that Absolution was released Howard was on several occasions seen sporting a black shirt with ruffles down the front. Wearing said shirt he famously stated, when questioned by Zane Lowe on MTV2's Gonzo, that his favourite type of cheese was Brie, squashing internet rumours that he likes Roulé.

• According to Howard, the song which he would like played at his funeral is 'Don't Stop Me Now' by Queen, mainly due to him being a big fan of Queen.

• Howard would like to have a drink with Jimi Hendrix - "He was just such a cool guy; the way he played, how he seemed to be in his personal life or whenever he was being interviewed, he just seemed like a really cool cat", and the first thing Howard wanted to say to Hendrix is - "Good riff, man!".

• At the band's 14 November 2006 arena show at the Birmingham NEC, Howard told a fan that he disliked playing Knights of Cydonia at the end of the set, because it leaves him "knackered". However he did state that the riff at the end is chilling.

• In the 2nd disc of the Hullabaloo DVD, Howard can be seen in a Slipknot mask making Bellamy laugh uncontrollably by repeatedly yelling, in a mock Slipknot 'vocal' fashion, "Sit the fuck down!". Contrary to popular belief, Howard did not steal the mask, but was given it by a female fan when Muse played with Slipknot at Metalfest in Spain some years ago. Howard says he still has the mask and thinks it is probably in a box hidden underneath his bed somewhere. He chuckles: "I'll dig it out one of these days and put it on again."

• Bellamy said in an interview that he and Wolstenholme are messy people but that Howard is a very clean person. Bellamy also applauds Howard's cooking skills as well as his driving and snowboarding skills. "Great snowboarder. I wish I could snowboard. I can't snowboard at all. I'm trying to learn but I keep falling over."

• Howard has stated that he would be keen for the band to try their hand at a James Bond theme tune, noting however that their independent streak would require them to find "the right director".

• During a 2009 Q feature on the then upcoming album "The Resistance" he stated that the band did not take their music (which has frequently been lambasted for its often over-the-top nature) too seriously, saying "Not everyone gets the Monty Python aspect to our music, but it's there ... we're often laughing as we record." He also seemed amused by Bellamy's commentary on the studio in Italy, as the singer explained that various composers and allegedly Winston Churchill had visited it in the past. He later said "with a snigger", "Yeah, nice lake, nice house ... so it's a good place to imagine a 1984 style catastrophe."

External links

• Dominic Howard Fansite
• Dominic Howard on MuseWiki

References