Daniel Adair

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Daniel Patrick Adair (born February 19, 1975) is a Canadian-born drummer best known as the current drummer for Canadian rock band Nickelback and his previous work with American rock band 3 Doors Down. He also works with the Canadian band Suspect and the instrumental fusion band Martone, among others.

Daniel often uses the quote "The harder you work, the luckier you get.",^[1] coined by Gary Player,^[2] to describe his career.

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 didn't 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." ^[1]

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. 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.^[3]

In 2008, Adair wrote on his website that he had switched to Drum Workshop drums after five years with Pearl drums.

Equipment

Drums^[4]

• Drum Workshop VLT and X Series Maple Black Ice Finish with Satin Hardware (Live)
  • 10X8 VLT Tom Tom
  • 12X9 VLT Tom Tom
  • 16X14 X Floor Tom
  • 23X18 X Bass Drum
  • 14X6 Edge Snare Drum
  • 12X5 Edge Snare Drum
• Drum Workshop Collector's Maple Drums in African Chechen Vertical Grain Exotic and Satin Chrome Hardware (Studio/Home)
  • 10X8 VLT Tom Tom
  • 12X9 VLT Tom Tom
  • 16X14 X Floor Tom
  • 18X14 X Floor Tom
  • 23X18 X Bass Drum
  • 14X6 Edge Snare Drum
  • 12X7 Edge Snare Drum

Pedals^[4]

• DW 5002 Turbo (TD3) Double Kick Pedal
• DW 5500 TD Delta Hi Hat Pedal

Hardware^[4]

• Drum Workshop (DW)
  • DW Drum Rack System
  • 9100 Standard Drum Throne

Cymbals^[5]

• SABIAN Cymbals
  • 14" HHX Groove Hats
  • 18" HHX X-Plosion Crash
  • 10" HHX Evolution Splash
  • 18" AAX X-Plosion Crash
  • 22" HHX Prototype Ride
  • 10" HHX Prototype Mini Hats (13" AAX studio hats in studio/home)
  • 18" HHX Evolution O-Zone Crash (Left of hi-hat)
  • 19" Paragon Chinese and 8" paragon splash left of hi-hat

Sticks

• Regal Tip Daniel Adair signature model with Hockey Stick Tape wrapped on the handle

Drum Heads^[6]

• Remo
  • Toms
    • Batter - Clear Emperor
    • Resonant - Clear Ambassador
  • Snare
    • Batter - Coated Controlled Sound (CS) Dot
    • Resonant - Clear Ambassador
  • Bass Drum
    • Batter - Clear Powerstroke 3
    • Resonant - Ebony Ambassador

Drum Mics

• Shure
  • Main Snare - Beta 57 Top/Beta56 Bottom
  • Auxiliary Snare - Beta 56 Top
  • Toms -Shure 98
  • Kick Drum - Shure Beta 52 and 91
  • Overheads - Shure KSM 32
  • Hi Hats and Ride- KSM 32

Endorsements

A list of endorsements that Daniel has received are

• DW Drums
• Sabian Cymbals
• Regal Tip Drumsticks
• Remo Drumheads
• Ahead Metronomes
• Shure Microphones

Discography

External links

• Daniel's Official WebSite
• Daniels's Space

References