Dave Tweedie
Encyclopedia
Dave Tweedie (born David Russell Tweedie, VI on November 27, 1968, in Richmond, California) is an American composer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Tweedie’s compositions have appeared on Fox
’s So You Think You Can Dance
, The Bernie Mac Show
, and others.
, Northern Ireland
, and grew up in Glasgow, Scotland before moving to Richmond in 1960. Dave’s mother is from Richmond, California. He has one older sister. Living in the small, working-middle class town of Crockett, California, Dave Tweedie grew up with Billy Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt
of the rock
band Green Day
, as well as Scott Holderby of pioneering heavy funk metal band Mordred
. His first instrument was trumpet, which he played first chair in the school band, and it took his teacher a few years to realize he was learning the music by ear rather than reading it. This teacher noted Dave’s aptitude and demonstrated interest in music, and made the band room available to Dave when he was otherwise being sent to the library for an inability to sit still. At age ten Dave began playing drums, picking up guitar and keys as a teenager.
Dave served as Drum Captain for two years at Pinole Valley High School, and received a second-hand drum kit from a high school music teacher; incidentally, Dave still plays the kick drum from this sparkly blue 1960s Ludwig kit. By the time he graduated Dave was playing in bands around the Bay Area. He cut his first record in 1989 at The Record Plant in Sausalito, California, drumming for Chris Loiter and the Hangouts.
) play drums at the Kazake Lounge in the Fillmore District of San Francisco, and approached him after the gig, offering to do anything in exchange for his tutelage. For the next two years, Tweedie ferried Smith to jazz, pop and gospel gigs all over the Bay Area, serving as his roadie, absorbing everything he could. He walked away from the experience with more than music theory, but a spiritual and metaphysical commitment to time as informed by Joel Smith. To this day, Dave Tweedie is known for his distinctive and committed drumming style.
Tweedie's first forays into recording were as a teenager, on a borrowed Tascam four-track. He recorded his own and his friends' music, and received a positive response. When his band had the opportunity to record with Jim Gaines (Stevie Ray Vaughan
, Huey Lewis and the News
, Journey
), Dave noted the vast contributions Gaines made with a few simple comments. This informed Dave's ambition to produce records, to "make things sound how I heard in my head".
Dave says: "I was at every single mixing session I was ever involved with, just to be there, to learn." Opportunities followed, and friends Desmond Shea and Scott Stoltier offered the use of their studio, Division Hi-Fi, for Dave to produce his first full-length record for The Stolen Bibles. Another friend, Mike Busbee, became Eric Valentine
's first engineer, and shared information that led to Tweedie buying his initial gear and setting up his own recording studio.
and Norwood Fisher
of Fishbone
, David Immerglück
of Counting Crows
, Karl Perazzo of Santana
, Les Claypool
of Primus
, Eric Martin of Mr. Big
, Michael Manring
and Alex Skolnick
.
In 1997, Dave Tweedie, alongside Stephen Bradley (vocals), joined The Good Life, a band that would open for Smash Mouth
in Conocti, CA and No Doubt
at The Ventura Theater in 1999. When The Good Life disbanded later that year, Tweedie and Bradley continued to songwrite together, pursuing a partnership that has given rise to hundreds of songs and dozens of television placements.
In 2002 Tweedie and Bradley formed Chocolate O’Brian Productions, producing records for local bands such as BLVD and tracks for international artists such as Boolfight
. Their achievements include remixes for Flipsyde
's "Someday" (2004) and No Doubt
’s “It’s My Life” (2004). Their production reel, 2004’s eponymous Chocolate O’Brian, is available on iTunes and has been featured on various network television programs. They also performed as a live band. Dave Tweedie produced Motive for Movement
, the sophomore effort from Hellcat band Static Thought
.
show Nash Bridges
. Solo, he wrote a new score for foreign release of Roger Corman
's Velocity (see also Jack Nicolson in The Wild Ride).
In 2006 a request came from music supervisors in Hollywood to write some music for The Bernie Mac Show
, which led to work on MTV
's short-lived Celebrity Rap Superstar
, and finally to writing original music for Fox
’s So You Think You Can Dance
, where Dave Tweedie has found professional success, as well as a dedicated fan base in the show's many online forums.
in their soul-rock/pop band OONA
, producing, co-writing, and music directing, and playing drums live. OONA was named one of MTV2’s Bay Area Breakout Bands in August, 2009.
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
’s So You Think You Can Dance
So You Think You Can Dance (U.S. TV series)
So You Think You Can Dance is an American dance competition and reality show that airs on Fox in the United States.The series first premiered on July 20, 2005, and was created by American Idol producers Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe and is produced by 19 Entertainment and Dick Clark Productions...
, The Bernie Mac Show
The Bernie Mac Show
The Bernie Mac Show is an American sitcom featuring comic actor Bernie Mac and his wife Wanda raising his sister's three kids: Jordan, Bryana and Vanessa. The show aired for five seasons , concluding with a half-hour series finale on Fox....
, and others.
Early life
Dave Tweedie’s father was born in BelfastBelfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, and grew up in Glasgow, Scotland before moving to Richmond in 1960. Dave’s mother is from Richmond, California. He has one older sister. Living in the small, working-middle class town of Crockett, California, Dave Tweedie grew up with Billy Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt
Mike Dirnt
Michael Ryan Pritchard is an American musician, best known as the bassist, backing vocalist and co-founder of the American Rock band Green Day. While at school, he would play "air-bass." While pretending to pluck the strings, he made the noise, "dirnt, dirnt, dirnt"...
of the rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band Green Day
Green Day
Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool...
, as well as Scott Holderby of pioneering heavy funk metal band Mordred
Mordred
Mordred or Modred is a character in the Arthurian legend, known as a notorious traitor who fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, where he was killed and Arthur fatally wounded. Tradition varies on his relationship to Arthur, but he is best known today as Arthur's illegitimate son by his...
. His first instrument was trumpet, which he played first chair in the school band, and it took his teacher a few years to realize he was learning the music by ear rather than reading it. This teacher noted Dave’s aptitude and demonstrated interest in music, and made the band room available to Dave when he was otherwise being sent to the library for an inability to sit still. At age ten Dave began playing drums, picking up guitar and keys as a teenager.
Dave served as Drum Captain for two years at Pinole Valley High School, and received a second-hand drum kit from a high school music teacher; incidentally, Dave still plays the kick drum from this sparkly blue 1960s Ludwig kit. By the time he graduated Dave was playing in bands around the Bay Area. He cut his first record in 1989 at The Record Plant in Sausalito, California, drumming for Chris Loiter and the Hangouts.
Professional development
In 1994, Dave Tweedie heard Joel Smith (bass and drums, Edwin HawkinsEdwin Hawkins
Edwin Hawkins is a Grammy Award-winning American gospel and R&B musician, pianist, choir master, composer and arranger. He is one of the originators of the urban contemporary gospel sound. He are best known for his arrangement of "Oh Happy Day" , which was included on the Songs of the Century list...
) play drums at the Kazake Lounge in the Fillmore District of San Francisco, and approached him after the gig, offering to do anything in exchange for his tutelage. For the next two years, Tweedie ferried Smith to jazz, pop and gospel gigs all over the Bay Area, serving as his roadie, absorbing everything he could. He walked away from the experience with more than music theory, but a spiritual and metaphysical commitment to time as informed by Joel Smith. To this day, Dave Tweedie is known for his distinctive and committed drumming style.
Tweedie's first forays into recording were as a teenager, on a borrowed Tascam four-track. He recorded his own and his friends' music, and received a positive response. When his band had the opportunity to record with Jim Gaines (Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
, Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California. They had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually scoring a total of 19 top-ten singles across the Billboard Hot 100, Adult Contemporary and Mainstream Rock charts...
, Journey
Journey (band)
Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...
), Dave noted the vast contributions Gaines made with a few simple comments. This informed Dave's ambition to produce records, to "make things sound how I heard in my head".
Dave says: "I was at every single mixing session I was ever involved with, just to be there, to learn." Opportunities followed, and friends Desmond Shea and Scott Stoltier offered the use of their studio, Division Hi-Fi, for Dave to produce his first full-length record for The Stolen Bibles. Another friend, Mike Busbee, became Eric Valentine
Eric Valentine
Eric Valentine is an American record producer, who began his career as drummer and producer in the heavy metal band T-Ride and has subsequently produced albums for artists such as Good Charlotte, Lostprophets, Taking Back Sunday, Nickel Creek, Queens of the Stone Age, Third Eye Blind, Smash Mouth,...
's first engineer, and shared information that led to Tweedie buying his initial gear and setting up his own recording studio.
Musical career
As an in-demand drummer, Dave Tweedie became a fixture of the San Francisco music scene, playing with the likes of Angelo MooreAngelo Moore
Angelo Christoper Moore is an American musician, best known for his work as the founding member, lead singer and saxophonist for the Los Angeles alternative rock band Fishbone. Moore also performs and records spoken word poetry under the stage name of Dr. Madd Vibe.-Biography:In 1993 he released a...
and Norwood Fisher
John Norwood Fisher
John Norwood Fisher is the bass player and founder for the band Fishbone. Fisher has played bass in the band throughout its history, even as other members have departed and returned...
of Fishbone
Fishbone
Fishbone is a U.S. alternative rock band formed in 1979 in Los Angeles, California, which plays a fusion of ska, punk rock, funk, hard rock and soul. Critics have noted of the band: "Fishbone was one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative rock bands of the late '80s...
, David Immerglück
David Immerglück
David Immerglück is an American multi-instrumentalist who is best known as a guitarist in the alternative rock bands Counting Crows, Camper Van Beethoven and the Monks of Doom...
of Counting Crows
Counting Crows
Counting Crows is an American rock band originating from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1991, the group gained popularity following the release of its debut album in 1993, August and Everything After, which featured the hit single "Mr. Jones"...
, Karl Perazzo of Santana
Santana (band)
Santana is a rock band based around guitarist Carlos Santana and founded in the late 1960s. It first came to public attention after their performing the song "Soul Sacrifice" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when their Latin rock provided a contrast to other acts on the bill...
, Les Claypool
Les Claypool
Leslie Edward "Les" Claypool is an American musician and writer, best known as the lead vocalist and bassist in the band Primus. Claypool's playing style on the electric bass mixes tapping, flamenco-like strumming, whammy bar bends and slapping.Claypool has also self produced and engineered his...
of Primus
Primus (band)
Primus is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, currently composed of bassist/vocalist Les Claypool, guitarist Larry "Ler" LaLonde and drummer Jay Lane. Primus originally formed in 1984 with Claypool and guitarist Todd Huth, later joined by Lane, though the latter two departed...
, Eric Martin of Mr. Big
Mr. Big (band)
Mr. Big is an American rock supergroup, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1988. The band is a quartet composed of Eric Martin , Paul Gilbert , Billy Sheehan , and Pat Torpey ; Mr. Big also included Richie Kotzen, a reputable blues-based guitarist who replaced Gilbert in 1999...
, Michael Manring
Michael Manring
Michael Manring is an American electric bassist from the San Francisco Bay Area, .-Biography:...
and Alex Skolnick
Alex Skolnick
Alexander Nathan Skolnick is an American jazz and metal guitarist. He was a member of the San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal band Testament from 1983 until his departure in 1993...
.
In 1997, Dave Tweedie, alongside Stephen Bradley (vocals), joined The Good Life, a band that would open for Smash Mouth
Smash Mouth
Smash Mouth is an American rock band from San Jose, California. The band was formed in 1994, and was originally composed of Steve Harwell, Greg Camp, Paul De Lisle and Kevin Coleman as lead vocals, guitar, bass and drums respectively...
in Conocti, CA and No Doubt
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California that formed in 1986. The ska-pop sound of their first album No Doubt , failed to make an impact...
at The Ventura Theater in 1999. When The Good Life disbanded later that year, Tweedie and Bradley continued to songwrite together, pursuing a partnership that has given rise to hundreds of songs and dozens of television placements.
In 2002 Tweedie and Bradley formed Chocolate O’Brian Productions, producing records for local bands such as BLVD and tracks for international artists such as Boolfight
Boolfight
Boolfight is an indie rock band from Paris, France. The frenchies surfaced in 2006 after the release of a single, a collaboration with Dave Tweedie and Stephen Bradley . A string of live shows followed, in various venues in Europe....
. Their achievements include remixes for Flipsyde
Flipsyde
Flipsyde is a rap/R&B/rock band from Oakland, California. Flipsyde consists of singer/guitarist Steve Knight, guitarist Dave Lopez, rapper Jinho "the Piper" Ferreira, and for a short while Chantelle Paige. They have toured extensively with Fort Minor, The Black Eyed Peas, Snoop Dogg and on the...
's "Someday" (2004) and No Doubt
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California that formed in 1986. The ska-pop sound of their first album No Doubt , failed to make an impact...
’s “It’s My Life” (2004). Their production reel, 2004’s eponymous Chocolate O’Brian, is available on iTunes and has been featured on various network television programs. They also performed as a live band. Dave Tweedie produced Motive for Movement
Motive for Movement
Motive for Movement is a Tulsa, Oklahoma indie rock band that formed in 2005. The band consists of singer and guitarist Deric Williams, guitarist Tobie Munroe, bassist Chris Davis, and drummer Daniel Clark. Their name is often shortened to just "Motive" by their fans...
, the sophomore effort from Hellcat band Static Thought
Static Thought
Static Thought is a Progressive Punk band that was formed in 2000 in Richmond, California, by Travis Davant, Eric Urbach, and Charlie Vincent.Static Thought includes Urbach on guitar and vocals, Johaan Hill on bass and vocals, Aaron Younce on guitar and vocals, and Drew Cueva on drums...
.
Music for film and television
Since the mid-‘90s, Dave Tweedie’s songwriting and multi-instrumental proficiency have been in demand: he has been called on to write fresh music for TV shows. As drummer and co-founder of the BAMMIE-Award winning group, Los Angelitos, he wrote queues for CBSCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
show Nash Bridges
Nash Bridges
Nash Bridges is an American television police drama created by Carlton Cuse. The show starred Don Johnson and Cheech Marin as two Inspectors with the San Francisco Police Department's Special Investigations Unit. The show ran for six seasons on CBS from March 29, 1996 to May 4, 2001 with a total of...
. Solo, he wrote a new score for foreign release of Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
's Velocity (see also Jack Nicolson in The Wild Ride).
In 2006 a request came from music supervisors in Hollywood to write some music for The Bernie Mac Show
The Bernie Mac Show
The Bernie Mac Show is an American sitcom featuring comic actor Bernie Mac and his wife Wanda raising his sister's three kids: Jordan, Bryana and Vanessa. The show aired for five seasons , concluding with a half-hour series finale on Fox....
, which led to work on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's short-lived Celebrity Rap Superstar
Celebrity Rap Superstar
Celebrity Rap Superstar is an American reality show which premiered on MTV on August 30, 2007. The series was hosted by Kevin Hart and Liz Hernandez.-Overview:...
, and finally to writing original music for Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
’s So You Think You Can Dance
So You Think You Can Dance (U.S. TV series)
So You Think You Can Dance is an American dance competition and reality show that airs on Fox in the United States.The series first premiered on July 20, 2005, and was created by American Idol producers Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe and is produced by 19 Entertainment and Dick Clark Productions...
, where Dave Tweedie has found professional success, as well as a dedicated fan base in the show's many online forums.
Current projects
Dave Tweedie currently writes with two projects: Jet Stream, with Stephen Bradley and Bijou Choder, a pop / dance / rap group that has found commercial success in DirecTV ads, and various TV placements such as MTV’s Paris Hilton’s New BFF. He also works with Oakland-based singer/songwriter Oona GarthwaiteOona Garthwaite
Oona Garthwaite is an American singer-songwriter. She was born in California to a musical family, niece of Terry Garthwaite and daughter of David Garthwaite, founding members of the Joy of Cooking . Oona's co-writing project with Oakland-based producer Dave Tweedie is listed under the bandname "OONA"...
in their soul-rock/pop band OONA
Oona
Oona is a feminine given name. It is an Anglicisation of the Irish-language name Úna. A variant spelling of Oona is Oonagh.-People with the name :*Oona Castilla Chaplin*Oona Garthwaite*Oona Hart*Oona King*Oona Louhivaara*Oona O'Neill...
, producing, co-writing, and music directing, and playing drums live. OONA was named one of MTV2’s Bay Area Breakout Bands in August, 2009.