User:Elias Marshall/sandbox

=Dave Virago=

Dave Virago (born David Michael Hirschheimer) is a metal drummer, guitarist, vocalist and the creator of the rock/metal band Daken.

Personal Life
Virago was born in Surrey, United Kingdom, in 1978 and is the youngest of two children. He married his wife Phoenix Virago in August 2012. He has a son from a previous relationship called Dexter. Virago and his wife currently live in London and are due to launch their own company Virago Art, where they will sell original acrylic paintings created by them both.

Career
Virago's present and primary band is Daken. His previous bands include Cradle Of Filth, Hangnail, Infestation, Obsidian and an acoustic solo project called DMH. He sites Pantera, Slayer, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Morbid Angel, Radiohead as some of his key musical inspirations and influences.

Virago began his journey into music at a young age, starting with the piano at 8 years old. He achieved grade 2 before realising that conforming to grades and theory wasn't for him. After finding a love for live rock bands and watching U2's Rattle & Hum he took up drum lessons in 1992 and continued being taught for two more years until he felt comfortable to uncover his talent alone. He focused on the rock style and techniques to build his skills. At the same time he began teaching himself the electric guitar. Learning riffs from various influential bands and building his skills alongside the drums.

In 1998 he found work behind mixing desks in pubs/small venues around the Brixton area. After being thrown in at the deep end with no sound engineering experience, he quickly discovered a skill for controlling sound which would carry through his musical journey into recording studios and home recordings for himself and Daken.

Virago concentrated on the death metal drumming style, copying influences from the US/Florida death metal scene and bands such as; Morbid Angel, Death, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse and Obituary. He quickly became renown as a fast and powerful metal drummer in the UK.

The black metal band Cradle Of Filth recruited him briefly in 1999. Vriago featured in the bands debut video 'From The Cradle To Enslave' and also performed with the band for their main stage slot at Dynamo Festival 99 in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

His skills were then sought after by the chart topping UK dance-pop act Basement Jaxx when they recruited Virago to drum on the performance of 'Where's Your Head At', at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2001 in Frankfurt, Germany to millions of viewers around the world. This was quickly followed by a performance on the BBC television programme Top Of The Pops.

With a low in drumming around 2004 he decided a challenge was in order and a change of direction. He looked to artists such as Jeff Buckley and Elliot Smith for guidance and began a journey into singer songwriter territory. Having no singing experience he quickly learnt via self teaching methods correct techniques and began writing and recording basic songs with just an acoustic guitar and his voice. This would later lead to the formation of Daken.

In 2005 Virago was approached by a London band called Fuckshovel. He quickly found a love for their humour and style of playing and accepted the drumming role being offered. He is currently still drumming in Fuckshovel.

Dizzee Rascal in 2007 was invited to perform a live track on the BBC music television programme Later With Jools Holland. Virago was selected as the drummer to take part in what would be Dizzee's first ever public performance with a live band. Accompanied by former Massive Attack bass player Winston Blisset, the trio performed a live rendition of the album track 'Excuse Me Please'. After the success of the first live performance, Dizzee requested Virago to join him on two more television performances; The Mercury Prize Awards in 2007 playing the track 'Flex' and The Jonathan Ross Show in 2009, playing the number one hit 'Bonkers'.

Daken
Virago began writing what would become music for Daken mid 2009, under his acoustic stage name DMH. Wanting to expand on the singer songwriting he had become, he wrote and recorded songs that were designed for a full live band to play. Purely for his own amusement he quickly put together a 5 track demo, playing all the instruments. This would then become his main vision. After receiving praise from people within the music industry on the demo, he pursued his idea further recruiting local musicians for live and video performances.

The style of the music addressed many of Virago's influences, utilising tight mechanical metal styles of riffing and drumming, powerful vocal ranges with broad harmonies and well formed song structures. Blending the knowledge learnt from performing in extreme metal bands with the more softer, dynamic approach of singer songwriting, resulted in the unique sound that is Daken. He has so far written and demoed over 35 tracks.

In 2011 a four track EP Apocalypse Of The Decemvir was released worldwide digitally, which included the single 'Zero '.

Zero received radio plays on Ian Camfield's XFM Rock Show and Kerrang Radio, alongside plays on Scuzz and Kerrang TV for the video, Daken's first.

In 2012 Daken released a second single Fool For Suffering, which also included a video.

The live band were invited to perform a live acoustic set at Download Festival 2012, playing alongside great acts such as Back Sabbath, Soundgarden and Metallica. They were greatly received.

Obsidian

 * On The Path Of Others We Feed 2000 - Rage Of Achilles Records ILIAD010 CD, EP

Fuckshovel

 * Long Time Dead - 2007 IC Records FUS001 - 7" Ltd Edition Picture Disc
 * This Is What We Are - 2013 BIAS Media BiASCD04 - CD, digital

Daken

 * Apocalypse Of The Decemvir - 2011 self release digital EP
 * Fool For Suffering 2012 - self release - digital single

Live/Television

 * Cradle Of Filth - 1999 - Dynamo Festival
 * Basement Jaxx - 2001 - MTV Europe Music Awards
 * Basement Jaxx - 2001 - Top Of The Pops
 * Cat Power - 2006 - Later With Jools (sound check only)
 * Electrelane - 2007 - European Tour (one date)
 * Dizzee Rascal - 2007 - Later With Jools..
 * Dizzee Rascal - 2007 - Mercury Music Awards
 * Cranes - 2008 - European Tour
 * Dizzee Rascall - 2009 - Jonathan Ross Show BBC1
 * Ramesses - 2012 - UK Tour (guitar only)