biography commentary discography links photos reviews Dave Newhouse Biography I was born in 1953 in Hawaii. My dad was in the Navy. I have no memories of living there, we moved to Maryland shortly after I was born. I grew up in the Maryland suburbs spending most of my summer months with my grandparents in a little town in West Virginia called Romney. Like Tom, I was a band kid. I started playing clarinet when I was 9 years old, in the 4th-Grade, as part of the beginning band and orchestra line-up. I wanted to follow in my father's footsteps - he had played alto saxophone in his high school band. (In fact, it was his old Conn alto that Tom later refurbished for me so that I could play it!) My dad's grandfather had played flute (a beautiful ebony one that I still own) in the local town band. I actually played clarinet 'backwards' for the first year until my band teacher noticed it one day during rehearsal. My hands were reversed, right hand on the top keys, left hand on the bottom keys. (Hmmm.) Later, in Jr. High School, I switched over to tenor sax. It was in High School that I joined the marching band (I still like to watch marching bands - such a great sound!). There was a jazz band that I wasn't good enough to get into, but I remember hearing about how good the legendary Langley Jazz band was. This was the same band that Tom played in! Little did I know... As far as keyboards go, I'm self-taught. My parents bought an upright piano, which was in our living room for years. I used to pick out the melodies to Henry Mancini songs ("Baby Elephant Walk", in particular) and some R & B hits. I think I fell in love with music as composition during the summers of 1962, 63 and 64. My parents had purchased season tickets to Shady Grove, which was a theater in the round. Every summer the theater would put on a series of musicals. I have distinct memories of seeing "Guys and Dolls", "Camelot", "South Pacific", "My Fair Lady", "The King and I", "The Sound of Music", etc. and driving home in the dark of the car just taking in all of that luscious sound - those Rodgers and Hammerstein and Lerner and Loewe songs! I fell in love with those show tune melodies. It was also around that time that I saw a production of "H.M.S. Pinafore" by Gilbert and Sullivan. I remember loving the music and thinking that the lyrics were very clever. I think it was the first time that I realized that 'serious' music could be funny. One of my favorite pastimes was watching old black and white movies on Sunday afternoons. I began to listen very carefully to the soundtracks. I remember seeing "To Kill a Mockingbird" and really liking Elmer Bernstein's score, as well as Bernard Herrmann's music for Alfred Hitchcock's films. The first albums I ever owned were a copy of Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony", "The Best of Henry Mancini Volume I" (I'm still a Henry Mancini fan - "Days of Wine and Roses" and "Moon River" are gorgeous compositions.), "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, Dave Brubeck "Take Five", and a Booker T. and the MG's album, the title of which I can't remember. There was a DJ in the Washington, DC area named Felix Grant. He was on weeknights between 7:00 and 10:00, I think, and I used to stay up and listen to him while I did my homework. He introduced me to so much good jazz in those days. And then rock and roll hit me and the world was never the same. I did like The Beatles when they first played on the Ed Sullivan Show (I ran out and bought the 45 of "Twist and Shout" which I played till it became white!), but then I got sidetracked, getting pretty heavily into Motown (The Four Tops were it for a long time!). I rediscovered The Beatles in High School with "The White Album" and began working my Beatle-way backwards. (I seem to have done a lot of things backwards. Hmmm.) Albums that changed my life from that point on - King Crimson "In The Court of the Crimson King", Yes "Fragile", Soft Machine "Volume II" and "Third" (A friend of ours, Dave Cason, used to say that he had two record collections; Soft Machine and then everything else. I felt the same way.), Aaron Copland "Appalachian Spring", Gentle Giant "Octopus", Stravinsky "The Rite of Spring", Frank Zappa "We're Only In It For The Money", "Hot Rats", "Uncle Meat" (I can remember exactly where I was at home one night when I heard Zappa's "Peaches En Regalia" on the radio - it was like hearing from an old friend again! It sounded so familiar. For a long time after that, Zappa and Ian Underwood were my idols.), Captain Beefheart "Trout Mask Replica", John McLaughlin "Inner Mounting Flame", Ornette Coleman "The Skies of America", Miles Davis "Bitches Brew", Eric Dolphy "Out To Lunch", Charles Mingus "Town Hall Concert", etc. When I heard these records, I knew that that's what I wanted to do. The first band I played with was a country-rock band called Sledge. I played acoustic piano. I remember trying to play so loud at rehearsals that my fingers bled all over the keys. I think I fancied myself a Nicky Hopkins wannabe. (This eventually would evolve into a Mike Ratledge wannabe.) Later, I formed a band called Tunc with Michael Zentner and Tom Fenwick (one of the original Random Radar founders - Tom, get in touch with us if you're reading this. I'd love to hear from you!). It was Michael who introduced me to Billy after Tunc broke up. I was impressed that Billy had heard of all the same bands that I had. He was also an old horror movie fan - we both admitted to owning several copies of the magazine "Famous Monsters of Filmland"! Billy later moved away to play with a country-rock band, but he mailed me a letter telling me that he had enjoyed playing music with me, that he was planning on moving back, and was I interested in getting a band together? Around this same time, I was becoming a big fan of a Washington area band called Grits. Rick Barse wrote the music for the band, and I thought he was one of the best rock composers around (Rick's music is still influencing me - he left us with some wonderful stuff!) I remember seeing them at Fort Reno Park, a show that, I later found out, Paul was at! Little did I know... When I finally moved into the Muffin house in Gaithersburg, Maryland (Ahhhh, that old Victorian house…those were the days!), I didn't have a stereo. Billy had four speakers, so he hooked two of them up in my room. I was subjected to Billy's quirky tastes in music until I had saved up enough money to buy my own record player. It was like having the Billy Swann show on the radio all the time! It was, actually, a great way to listen to music - every album was a surprise. Billy played me stuff I had never heard before. I think that was the first time I heard Sun Ra and The Last Poets. It was around this time that Virgin Records in London began to produce those incredibly original early albums that later went on to characterize the "Canterbury" sound. Paul worked at a record store just down the street from the Muffin house (He could walk to work, the lucky duck!), and between him ordering the latest releases for his store and us just ordering at home by mail, we were picking up on some music-changing groups - Henry Cow, Hatfield and the North, Lol Coxhill, etc. It was also around this same time that WGTB, from Georgetown University in Washington, DC, was broadcasting some incredible shows. One show in particular was hosted by John Paige. We were introduced to a lot of good music through John. (Thank you, John.) WGTB was also a rallying point for Canterbury music fans. The Muffins were given some premier exposure thanks to the people who worked at that station. In the meantime, The Muffins were busy rehearsing (we rehearsed 4 nights a week, every week for many, many years!) and recording - a few of us were buying Teac 4-track recorders and making our own low-fi recordings at home. We would borrow each other's machines and make reel-to-reel copies of our tapes and pass them around, complete with covers, pictures, and credits. These recordings later went on to become the first Random Radar records as well as the set of 3 "Secret Signals" cassettes that I produced after we disbanded. Our group house backed up to an elementary school baseball field. One of our musical outlets was to put on free Saturday summer shows in our 'backyard'. These self-promoting gigs gave us an opportunity to try out our new stuff and stretch out a bit with other players. We spent a lot of time designing fliers for these shows. Billy still owns the entire set of them! These were some very lean years. I remember being so poor that I couldn't afford to buy a copy of a local arts newspaper that featured a very nice (and rare!) article about one of our recent shows down at the Pipeline Coffee House (Paul managed and booked this nice playing space.) We would also periodically run out of money to buy oil to heat the house, resorting to us all pulling up chairs around the open oven door of our electric stove. I seem to recall eating a lot of cheese and rice back then. So now I'm a 5th-Grade teacher living in Frederick, Maryland. I'm married and have two boys, Sam and George, who seem to be showing some musical talent. (They are threatening to start a band called Mummy Box. I ask everyone out there reading this to not take the name Mummy Box for a while till Sam and George have a shot at it.) Like the other Muffins, I'm glad that we're playing together again. I guess I didn't really know how much a part of my soul this music was. And I'm an only child - the other 3 guys are the closet thing to brothers that I've ever had. These last few years rehearsing together and playing live and now recording this new CD, "Bandwidth", has been incredibly fulfilling. We thank you all for sticking with us. And there's lots more to come. © 2006-2008 ProgScape Entertainment.