Dominic Howard

Dominic Howard

Muse member
Name	Dominic James Howard
Born	7th December 1977 (Age 46)
Hometown	Stockport, England
Plays	Drums, percussion, human bones
Band members	Matthew Bellamy and Christopher Wolstenholme
Associated acts	Carnage Mayhem, Gothic Plague, Rocket Baby Dolls, Vicky Cryer and Muse

Childhood

Howard was born 7th December 1977 in Stockport, and moved to Devon at 8 years old. He and his family had no interest in music until he went to high school where he became interested in a jazz band, and as a result started playing drums.

One of Dom's earliest memories is of catching a fish and hitting its head on the ground until its eye popped out, an event about which he feels no little shame. (Mark Beaumont, Out of This World: The Story of Muse)

Dom's first memory was sitting on a dingy (a sort of inflatable boat) on a beach in Spain. The dingy was ashore and, without any noticeable cause, popped and deflated with Dom still seated within.

He became friends with Matt through sharing his Amiga computer with him.

Previous jobs

• School canteen assistant
• Factory worker (Packing Spice Girls t-shirts)

Anecdote for Dominic Howard's singing

Recalling Re:Covered where Muse performed Can't Take My Eyes Off You, Matthew Bellamy explained how Howard wanted to do this song because he could sing the "Ba DA" bits. After doing so, Howard didn't sing live again until Supermassive Black Hole became part of the band's set. He is also doing vocals during the heavy part of The Globalist.

Whilst 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.

These are song that Dom sing as backing vocal in live performance:

• Can't Take My Eyes Off You
• Supermassive Black Hole
• The Globalist
• Uprising

Break it To Me is the first track where Dom made the backing vocals in-studio.

Trivia

• In 2004, his father, William Howard, came to watch Muse's performance at Glastonbury 2004; a concert which Matthew 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.

• Around the time that Absolution was released, he was on several occasions seen wearing 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, quashing 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.

• He 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 he wanted to say to Hendrix is - "Good riff, man!"

• At the band's 14th 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, he 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. He says that 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."

• He downloads music through the internet, presumably using peer to peer software.

• Bellamy once filmed Howard having sex with someone. Bellamy managed to catch the money shot during climax, and joked that he should upload it some day.

• Bellamy said in an interview that he and Christopher Wolstenholme were messy people but that Dom was a very clean person. Bellamy also applauded 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."

• He often keeps fans up to date on everything using sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter.

• He is left handed.

• He lives in Nice, France.

• He was the last member of the band to create a Twitter account. The reason for finally signing up probably has something to do with his tweet: "Hello. Tom [Kirk] decided to sign me up to Twitsville.."

• He passed his driving test the first time, though he thought he'd failed because he "nearly ran over someone on a bike".[source?]

• His favourite car is the 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 from the movie Back to the Future. (even if Dom says it's the 1984 DeLorean, this car was manufactured from 1981)

• For the Drones tour, Dom dyed his hair black.

• He likes vintage Volkswagen Golf GTIs

• According to Chris, Dom has got a phobia of getting injured in sports. When he was 14 years old he broke his arm throwing a tennis ball.

• Dom played drums on a Frank Turner song called "The Gathering", released in 2021, produced by Rich Costey. He's also an occasional collaborator of Matt's supergroup, The Jaded Hearts Club Band, and he played drums in a synth-pop supergroup, Vicky Cryer.

Miscellany

• Drums
• Cheers
• Brie
• Dom's love of pink
• Dom's baldness
• Dom's faff bag
• Dom fishing
• Dom's perfect girlfriend
• Dom's injuries
• Dom's fashion sense
• Dom likes Spiderman
• The Buke of Dom's Cockminster Is Sacked

See also

• Archived interviews with Dominic Howard

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