Daniel Adair - Biography

Biography

Born and raised in Vancouver, Daniel Adair began playing drums at the age of 13. His father was also a drummer and had a set of 1967 Ludwigs in storage, which Daniel decided to set up one day. Later that day after watching some drummers in music videos and listening to Hemispheres by Rush, he heard music differently for the first time and decided that he had to learn how to drum like that. He soon became obsessed with drums, air drumming in his room all night and playing along to albums all day. He continued to self teach himself until the age of 22 influenced by Neil Peart, John Bonham, Tim 'Herb' Alexander, Lars Ulrich, and Vinnie Paul Abbott, among many others. Contrary to popular belief he was not self-taught, included in the thank you's on the first album are the Hodgsons, who are Norm Hodgson from Brisbane, Australia who actually taught him to play the drums. Through his late teenage years he regrettably did not play much but was soon hired by a music store in Vancouver. Not long after this he started to put his heart and soul into his renewed passion for drumming. Soon his musical taste began to change and was newly influenced by Jazz drummers such as Dennis Chambers, Vinnie Colaiuta, Dave Weckl and Virgil Donati. He also began playing with many local original bands and cover bands, basically playing with anyone, anytime and anyplace. At this time he also began to play the bass guitar and learn new drumming styles and techniques from different teachers, most notably John Fisher, becoming very disciplined with his practice routine.

Daniel soon established himself in Vancouver as a reputable studio and live drummer after spending many years performing for local bands in the nastiest bars in East Vancouver to 5-Star Resorts in Whistler. During this time he also spent lots of late nights in studios, often with little or no sleep, acquiring the valuable asset of singing both lead and backup while drumming all while playing with 3-4 working bands, teaching 15 drum students a week and managing a music store full-time.

During this busy time Daniel auditioned for a guitarist by the name of David Martone, a Berklee College of Music graduate, who was looking to start an instrumental fusion band. Soon this new band by the name 'Martone' began to record its first album in 1999. Daniel says that, "David was and still is the greatest guitarist I've ever worked with. Since then we've created lots of exciting, challenging instrumental fusion music together. David's music helped me push the limit with my playing, and he's been a large influence and inspiration to me. My playing had matured, and I quickly jumped into some great gigs in town."

In the Summer of 2002, Daniel had the opportunity to audition for and secure the job as the touring and studio drummer for the multi-platinum, Mississippi based band 3 Doors Down. During his time with the band he recorded the studio album 'Seventeen Days' and live album 'Another 700 Miles', toured 14 countries and had multiple TV appearances.

In January 2005, Daniel left 3 Doors Down to join the Canadian band Nickelback, most widely known for their ear-grating, repetitive music. Seven months later they released the album 'All the Right Reasons' which has been his biggest success as it debuted at #1 on the Billboard and they continue to support a world tour after multiple successful singles. During his time with Nickelback, Daniel has also appeared on albums and performed with Theory of a Deadman, Bo Bice, Martone, Thornley, Faber Drive and Lynyrd Skynyrd. He is currently touring with Dave Martone. The follow-up album to Nickelback's multi-platinum All the Right Reasons is called Dark Horse. The first single, "Gotta Be Somebody", was released on September 29 in North America, while the album's release is currently set to November 18, 2008. The album is produced by famed producer, Mutt Lange.

On October 21, 2007, James Stephen Hart (former frontman of Eighteen Visions) announced that Adair was recording drum tracks for his new band, Burn Halo.

In 2011 Adair along with the other band members of Nickelback released Here and Now on November 21. This album has singles including This Means War and Bottoms Up.