Danny Brown
Danny Brown got his first drumset when he was 16 years old. He started out jamming with his friends, playing metal music to the likes of Metallica, Slayer, and Death. Since he lived in an apartment, he was forced to learn all his favorite Metallica songs on pillows, leaving stains on the couches from the bass drum beaters and sticks. The only place he could play was at his friend’s house in Modesto, CA, which was a far drive from Hayward, CA. Every weekend his parents were supportive enough to drop him off to allow him to continue his passion for drums. After about two years, college started coming up and his parents were getting tired of the drive, so Danny was forced to give up the drums and he decided to pick up jazz piano. He studied at Chabot College in Hayward, CA for two years and it is here where he began to learn music theory. It seemed as though Danny’s career path was changing from drums to jazz piano, but this was only a turn in his road in life.
At the beginning of 2007, his old friends from high school had a band that happened to have needed a drummer. Offering his help he began to help the band, but it didn’t take long for him to remember the passion he had for drums. After numerous gigs, Danny became a full time member of Hayward based band Fighting the Villain.
Fighting the Villain lead vocalist Caitlyn Mae Luning describes her lyrics as being about “following your dreams and not settling for everyday life, and the band’s career could not reflect that more accurately. The band consider their true beginning to be when the front woman joined the band after hearing about them through a mutual friend in 2007. The band immediately began recording and playing local shows. Early on, Live 105 programmer Aaron Axelsen got a hold of the band’s EP and hooked them up with PopSmear records which eventually released their latest EP, First Impression. Since its release they have been gigging regularly around the Bay Area, as well as having recently played their first tour which took them from California to Oregon, Washington, Idaho and to the famed Knitting Factory in Reno, Nevada.
Fighting the Villain defines their sound as Progressive Pop, citing Coheed and Cambria and Circa Survive as their biggest influences. Since their inception, they have played Live 105’s BFD, a stop on Warped tour, and a sold out show at the Knitting Factory in Reno. The band has shared the stage with high profile acts such as Confide, The Higher, The Audition, MC Lars, Taking Back Sunday, Authority Zero and many more. Their singles "What's Left" and "Empty Handshakes" have been played on radio stations in California, New York, Ohio, North and South Carolina and have just recently started gaining an international fanbase by being featured promptly on the Spanish music blog, younggunsmusic.com. Their third single “Last Goodbye” produced by Andrew Wade (A Day to Remember, Versa Emerge) will be released before the end of 2010 followed by a music video.
Danny also performs/records for other bands whenever the chance arrives. Recently he’s recorded for metal band Inheritance, which can be heard on his youtube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/FTVbayarea
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/FIGHTING-THE-VILLAIN/115360285142089
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