|
Darron
Burke Darron Burke grew up in Gloucester,
Massachusetts, a not-so-quiet fishing town. At the age of 11, "just
after Star Wars" as he remembers it, Darron moved to Gulfport,
Mississippi (birthplace of his mom) with his sister and mother. There he
found good friends and good times, but always kept a trained Yankee eye
on gettin' outta there as soon as the chance presented itself. Darron
hated schoolwork and often felt a bit on the outside of the junior high
"in-crowd", until the day he met fellow musician Mark Dedeaux. Mark had
heard a cassette of Darron playing drums and said: "I'm gonna make you a
star!" In some ways, he did. During a school dance at which Mark was the
DJ, Darron "went crazy" dancing to "Rock Lobster" and "Turning Japanese"
and cleared the floor.
"A few days later people were coming up to me and asking if I took dance
lessons. I couldn't believe that they were talking to me," says Darron.
A new-found popularity helped fuel the notion that through music he
would find the key to a successful future.
Always an aspiring drummer, he and Dedeaux, a bass player, were the core
of many Gulf Coast punk rock bands like The Exploding Hairs, Legion of
Decency, and No Rules. Not to mention, a white funk experimental band
called Plexus ("Please don't mention this" - Darron). Darron finally
moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1985 to pursue his dream of becoming a
famous rock drummer. "I got kinda close a couple of times," says
Darron. "Dickie Barrett asked me to start a band after his earliest
incarnation of the Bosstones broke up around 1986, but I said no." At
the urging of Dave Gibbs from the band Gigolo Aunts, Darron also spoke
with the Lemonheads who needed a drummer around 1987.
"I never followed through because I thought they were 'too punk' and I
was trying to get away from that sort of music. I didn't realize that
they were just about to become pop stars ha ha ha".
Darron was in plenty of Boston bands, among them Cardinal with Richard Davies, and Kam Lung
with Dave Derby from the Dambuilders. In 1987, he hooked up with Geoff
Chisholm (later bassplayer for San Francisco's Creeper Lagoon) and
formed Paris 22 with guitarist David Flammia. Darron's recording
experiences with Paris 22 left him wanting more control over his future,
so he turned to the idea of recording his own music. With guitar in one
hand and tape deck in the other, he started laying tracks onto a 4-track
tape machine.
"I was learning guitar and recording at the same time. Eventually I
dropped the guitar and took off running with the tape deck. My first
tape machine was a Tascam 4-track cassette which was hooked up to a
massive 16-channel Biamp mixing board. Some people from work asked me to
record some of their songs, so I set up a studio in my loft space and
started tracking. Somebody brought over a half inch 8-track and I
started using that to record bands. Soon I was getting quite a few calls
to make singles for local bands, vinyl 45's were really popular at that
time."
After working at record label Rounder Records for five years, Darron
finally "quit his day job" in 1994 and went into recording full time.
He's been recording ever since and also getting further into electronics
and repairing his own gear. "I've amassed an extensive collection of
gear, including solid state vintage mic preamps that I custom rack and
sell."
"I think the reason that it's worked for me is that I don't overspend on
equipment or operating costs. I've made enough to put back into the
studio, get some really cool gear and just keep the studio
going."
-D. Burke 2002
Back to
Top
|
