Dominic Howard

Dominic Howard, better known as Dom Howard is drummer for the British band Muse.

He was born Dominic James Howard on the 7 December 1977 in Stockport, not far from Manchester. When 8-9 years old he moved with his family to Teignmouth, a small town on the Devon 'riviera'. He plays just

one instrument within the band's music: the drums. He begun at about 11, when he was struck by a jazz band performing at school. He can also play a little bit of guitar. He also tried his elder sister's electronic keyboard at the age of 5. Through his sister, who was attending a School of Arts, he begun to have his first contacts with the world of art, although it wasn't at all related with his future job. As he says in an interview, "When I was a boy, music was something I heard on TV." Dom's first band was named "...'Carnage Mayhem' and this is a Michael Jackson song", at school. Meanwhile he befriended Matt Bellamy, who played guitar but hadn't a stable band. Not long after, when the old guitarist gave up, Matt was faced with the chance of entering Dom's band. After two years of drop outs, remained only Dom and Matt... Apparently the others gave up because of the latter two... At that time entered the scene Chris Wolstenholme, who played drums in Fixed Penalty, and with a great 'spirit of sacrifice' he begun to play bass..

Muse work Dominic is inspired by drummers like Stewart Copeland, David Grohl and Buddy Rich. His taste in music is wide: he loves as much Jimi Hendrix, Pavement, Radiohead, Deus and Smashing Pumpkins, as Primus, Rage Against The Machine or Limp Bizkit.

In the first months of 1994 "Gothic Plague" were born, followed by "Rocket Baby Dolls" (Dom: "They all had death metal names but we all played cheesy pop!"), and then finally Muse. From then on, things got more serious for Dominic and the others. See Muse for further details on the band's history. Tragedy struck Dom's in 2004. His father Bill, being one of the band's greatest fans came to watch their performance at Glastonbury 2004, a concert which lead-singer Matt Bellamy described as "The best gig of our lives!". Just after their performance finished, Bill Howard collapsed from a heart attack. This pushed the band to the verge of breakup, but through support from his family and fellow bandmembers, Dominic recovered, and Muse managed to continue its tour. Dom Howard has been repeatdly voted the happiest drummer in rock. He uses Tama Starclassic Maple drums, finished in blue sparkle and (more recently) titanium silver, and Zildjian cymbals.