David's Bio
Instrument:
Keyboards / Synths / Flutes / Harmonica (Kind of)
Full Name:
David Thorpe
Nickname:
Dave, davzie
Date of Birth:
25th February 1988
Gender:
Undecided
About Me:
I’m a tea-powered keyboard playing machine and most of the time I’m screwing around like a little kid just having a good time. I’m generally a nice natured young man, you know, the type of guy you’d like to take home to your mum as I make excellent tea (earl grey, jasmine, green tea to name just a few) and can comment sincerely on their choice of clothing for the day insisting that their dress does not make them look fat etc.
Aside from making tea for the most part of a day I also spend my time practising piano and synth and when I get time attending Kung Fu class as it’s a fun physical workout!
What I’m Doing Now:
Drinking tea (brewed for 1 minute and 45 seconds with a dash of milk after the teabag has been taken out and three taps with the spoon on the rim of the cup), keeping the cat away from my mixer and also preparing for tonight’s rehearsal which should be fun indeed!
Individuals Site:
http://www.facebook.com/davzie
http://www.twitter.com/davzie
Bio:
I’ve been playing music since the age of 6 and started out with keyboards. I then went to learn Trumpet whilst at school however I don’t really enjoy this instrument so much. I went on to be in a band “Split Decision” which was a 7 – 8 piece covers band where I met Ryan. We later moved to form the band “covalent” with singer Shannon Williams and Zak came into the fray to make some magic happen on the drums.
From there we all went our own way for a year and I spent the most part of said year working in London as a Linux System Administrator knowing deep-down that it’s music that I want to be doing really and so I was fortunate enough to join the Apes in November of 2009 and am now enjoying making music with three other legendary guys!
Influences:
As a keyboard player I’ve been heavily influenced by a lot of jazz music when I was younger. A result of the parents boring it into my skull coupled with Cliff Richard. Unfortunately as a toddler you realised how bad Cliff was but you couldn’t do too much about it. I learnt in a very jazzy style and my playing style is somewhat unorthodox which does limit my playing in that I haven’t followed “the rules” when learning certain runs / fingering. So kids, remember, your scales are important and the fingering even more so!
When I had listened to a lot of jazz I decided to venture outwards to see what other music there was. I started listening to classical soundtracks as I find them quite relaxing and started to discover neo-classical metal with the likes of Yngwie Malmsteen etc. Although he pretty much plays arpeggios it was impressive to hear classical music scales and ideas being put into metal music and this opened my eyes eventually to Dream Theater who are my idols in the music world. I’m heavily inspired by keyboard player Jordan Rudess, check out both his piano and synth playing, he’s like lightning. So in a nutshell:
- Dream Theater
- Symphony X
- Paramore
- Evanescence
- Crazy Jazz Guys
