Dominic James Howard, better known as Dom Howard, plays drums in Muse. The British trio debuted very young. Following the EPs 'Muse' (1997) and 'Muscle Museum' (1998), the first full-length album, 'Showbiz', was released in 1999. The band has steadily grown to the status of superstars since.



Dominic Howard uses quite some gear, including Balafons. These particular instruments are used for only one song: Screenager. Dom also employs such exotic percussion pieces as Rythmtech ribbon crashers (used in songs like Apocalypse Please, Time Is Running Out and Megalomania)



Early days

Dominic Howard was born in Stockport, not far from Manchester on 7 December, 1977. 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 began 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 didn't have 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, only Dom and Matt remained - apparently the others gave up because of the latter two. Chris Wolstenholme then entered the scene, who played drums in Fixed Penalty, and with a great "spirit of sacrifice" he began to play bass.



Dominic is inspired by drummers like Stewart Copeland, Roger Taylor, Dave Grohl and Buddy Rich. Grohl can be outlined as a significant influence to Dominic. His taste in music is wide: he loves as much Jimi Hendrix, Pavement, Radiohead, Queen (band), dEUS and The Smashing Pumpkins, as Primus, Rage Against the Machine and 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 family 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 and died. 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 their tour.