Dommin


One can hear nods to Depeche Mode, Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry, even the Doors and Elvis Presley in bits and pieces of Dommin's brooding intense rock music and frontman Kristofer Dommin's vocals. Just one mention to the singer of the single 'Tonight' from his L.A. band's Roadrunner Records debut, 'Love Is Gone,' and the first thing he says is, "I don't know if anybody can tell. I'm a huge Depeche Mode fan. They really influenced that song tremendously.I think we get a lot of metalheads and headbangers on the site who don't like us too much because they're expecting heavier stuff to come out of Roadrunner," Dommin guesses.

In fact, he was tracking people down online so they could be served with lawsuits -- "very un-rock 'n' roll," he laughs -- when he received a phone call on his lunch break from someone who got his demo. "I was like, 'Who are you and how did you get my demo?' It was completely unexpected, out of left field, a twist of fate," he recounts.

Dommin formed his namesake band in 2000 and has seen many players come and go. Bassist Billy James has been with him since 2002; one-named keyboardist Konstantine came on board in 2006, and drummer Cameron Morris in 2007. For Dommin, though, he does consider the band a decade old.

"Absolutely. In some ways it's almost as if I'm playing catch up or rather as far as putting the music out there, I'm hoping every body else can catch up," he says. "I know a lot of bands that have very similar stories where they've been working really really hard for all their lives and finally something happens and it's like, 'Oh, new band.'

"So I started joining other bands and every band that I would join I'd be like, 'Hey, this is what I do on the side; check it out.' And it happened that one of the bands I was in the guitar player knew Lucas [Banker], and six months after that band had broken up he passed along the CD, and I get a random call on my lunch break at work.

"So this guy [Banker] comes from the same musical taste that I do and he heard what I was doing and understood it."

Banker and production partner Logan Mader, who was the guitarist in Roadrunner act Machine Head and also played in Soulfly, started working with Dommin. They released an indie album, 'Mend Your Misery,' in 2006 that was made available digitally in 2007.

"It was such a small release and all these songs are my little babies, I didn't want them to die an obscure death," Dommin explains. "We plan to have them all come out on future albums, because I think they are all good and important to me."

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