Hailing from the icy shores of Michigan, Derek developed his passion for drumming at an early age. Born to music loving hippies, he taught himself to drum at the age of 12 listening to his parent’s vinyl records. By seventeen Derek was playing with bands throughout the Mid-Michigan area. Since that time he has been touring the music underground in metal, rock, and punk bands for over two decades. He drew inspiration from the infectious grooves of Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Gene Krupa and The Stooges. From these early inspirations he developed a style that blends the pocket presence of rock, intensity and timing of metal, and the technical feel of jazz. Derek can currently be found playing in his two major projects—Ommnus and Radian—or touring as a hired gun with bands including 20 Watt Tombstone. In addition to drumming he writes lyrics, music, and performs vocals in Detroit’s Doom N’ Roll duo Ommnus. Ommnus draws inspiration from classic literature and historical figures to develop their concept driven metal. When not playing with Ommnus Derek is the newest member of Radian, Akron Ohio’s “grungiest sludge purveyor’s,” and hailed by Decibel Magazine as “thunderous, groovy, ear-catch[ing].” His other active projects include: A Damn Shame, Wormfoot, Kingdom of Ends, Villains as Kings, Repent, and Powder Burns. He spends his free time with his wife Sam, watching horror movies, reading classic literature, and hiking the deep woods of the mitten with their dog Jack Burton.

“Working with Soultone has been an amazing and positive experience. The tone of their
cymbals has a richness to them that is unparalleled, and they manage to balance that with
extreme durability; something that is hard to come by with other cymbals. Soultone truly cares
about their artists and their craft, which is a breath of fresh air in the drum world.” 

Website:
https://ommnus.com
Facebook:
https://facebook.com/ommnus
https://facebook.com/RadianAkron
Instagram: @radian_akron // @ommnus
Bandcamp:
https://ommnus.bandcamp.com
https://radianakron.bandcamp.com
Linktree:
https://linktr.ee/ommnus
https://linktr.ee/radian_akron