Nick D'Virgilio

Spock's Beard, Tears for Fears

Web Site

NDV musical life journey

I was born in Whittier California on November 12th 1968. For some reason I began playing drums when I was 4 years old. My mom and dad being really patient people (HA!!!) or just dumb, bought me a drum set. The way it really happened is that Santa Claus brought me a drum kit. I went to the front door on Christmas Eve because some one knocked on it and when I opened the door to see who was there it was a blue sparkle Ludwig kit sitting there already set up. Did Santa carry it like that on his sleigh? I don't know but from that moment on I knew Santa was one cool cat.

I played along to whatever records I had at the time and whichever records my brother would let me use. First it was the Osmond's. Yes, the Osmond's. I used to really be into them when I was 4 and 5 years old. My dad was in the liquor business his whole life and at that time he was a pretty big fish. Or at least he made it seem that way. He used to bring me around to meetings and have me sing Osmond songs. I am not sure if it brought him any better business but I sure looked good in that purple suit :)

From there my Bro turned me on to Led Zeppelin and Genesis and the rest is history. I was a rocker from then on. I have to say I am very lucky and blessed. The drums came to me pretty easily and don't know why. I don't have any other drummers in my family.

I joined my first band around the age of 15 with my good friend Stan Ausmus. I forget what we were called but we played and PARTIED! After high school I went to the Dick Grove School of Music here in LA. It is not in business any more but back then is was a very strong school and the main competition to MI. I studied drums for a while but ended up changing to theory/songwriting/vocals instead. I got a lot more out of those classes. Even though I changed out of the drum program I still played drums for a lot of the artists there at the school. I joined a "cover" band and have been a working stiff ever since.

In 1990 I won the very 1st Guitar Center drum off.

In 1992 I met Neal and Al Morse at a blues jam in Studio City, CA. We ended up sitting in together by pure chance. Neal told me about some PROG tunes he had written and that him and Al were thinking of putting a band together. I went with my wife Tiffany to Neal's house in LA and got the demos. I liked them very much and to make a long story short, I joined the guys and we started SPOCK'S BEARD. We didn't call our selves that at first, I think we called our selves AUGUST and then ONE. We played around town a few times but didn't do that much. Spock's ended up taking off a few years later.

In late 1993 I met the guy who gave me my "big break". Kevin Gilbert. We met at a local ski resort. It is a strange story…I met this drummer at a jam session in town. I can't remember his name, but we hung out a few times. He got called to do a gig at a local ski resort with these guys who have a business putting together all the big studios in town. On the side they would do little gigs here and there just for fun. This particular gig at the ski resort didn't pay but there were free ski passes for the band. The other drummer didn't want them. He wanted to get paid. Luckily for me he gave the guys my number and they gave me a call to see if I wanted to go. I wasn't playing anywhere that weekend and I love to ski, so I said sure. The guys told me what they did for a living and that they were inviting all of these "stars" to come up to the resort and party for the weekend and maybe even sit in with the band. They invited a lot of people but the only one who showed up was Kevin. Kevin at the time was in a band called TOY MATINIEE. They were very popular here in LA at the time and I was a huge fan. When I heard that Kevin was going to show up at the gig I was very excited. He played some tunes with us and we talked about all kinds of things including being our mutual love of the band Genesis. I told him I grew up listening to them and knew just about every song they ever made. Again, making a long story short, he didn't call me for about 5 months. There was a festival called PROGFEST coming up that November and Kevin asked me if I wanted to join him in playing the Genesis record "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway". It was the 20th anniversary of the record's release and he wanted to try and put a band together for the fun of it and I eagerly said yes. We only had a week to get ready for the gig, but I knew this was going to be very important for me. I showed up to the first rehearsal and knew every song from beginning to end and nailed it. I didn't want there to be any chance of me messing this opportunity up. We did the gig and kicked ass. What a great time that was and after that Kevin asked me to play with him more and more. I ended up touring with him, working at his studio just about everyday, meeting all of the people he was working with (which were some big wigs), and just learning. He was a fantastic engineer along with being an amazing musician.

At the same time Spock's Beard had changed our name to Spock's Beard from whatever we were calling ourselves and made our first CD "The Light". Al put up the money to make the disc. He was the only one with a real job. We made the disc for fun, not really thinking of making it big. We played a few gigs and then got a slot at the next year's Progfest. That's when everything changed for the Beard. I honestly didn't know that there was even a market any more for that kind of music. But apparently there was. We had a great show and ended up meeting our future record company owner Thomas Waber at that gig. I don't even think his company Inside Out had started yet, but if it wasn't it did very soon after. We signed our little deal and went on to make a lot of great music. There will be more on that a little later because I'm trying to go in chronological order here.

I toured with Kevin for his THUD CD across the US. We did a duo thing opening up for another fantastic singer / songwriter named Jonatha Brooke and she and Kevin had the same manager. In the duo, instead of just playing tambourine or something and singing a little, I wanted to do something different so I learned Kevin's songs with my little "one man rhythm section" thing. I sit down and play kick drum and Hi Hat (with a tambourine in it) while playing bass guitar and singing. These days I now sit on a Cajon (a box drum) and play that also. From that tour Jonatha asked me to do the same for her. I ended up doing a lot of gigs for her in Europe and the US. Like I said earlier, I met a lot of great people through Kevin.

One person in particular was the drummer that played on the Toy Matinee CD along with Kevin's solo CD THUD. His name is Brian MacLeod. I didn't know it then but Brian was already a very successful drummer and was playing with all kinds of people. One of those bands was Tears For Fears. Brian is one of my favorite drummers of all time. He taught me so much about groove from just listening to him play. What a feel that guy has. He came off the road with TFF (the Elemental tour) and Brian, Kevin and I got together for a jam at Kevin's studio. There were many Tequila shots, but that night the band KAVIAR was born. I played bass, which was a total blast! We made some crazy music, but man was it fun. The band and vision for KAVIAR was pretty strong for both Brian and Kevin. TFF had recorded a new CD called "Raoul and the Kings of Spain" which Brian had played drums on. When it came time to tour Brian didn't want to go. He wanted to stay home and make KAVIAR really happen. So he recommended me!!! I had always been a big TFF fan and when Brian recommended me I was very excited to say the least. I went and met TFF's manager and she gave me all the details. I was to fly to England to go and play with TFF at Peter Gabriel's studio. OH MY GOD!!! After I composed myself I left and went and hugged Brian. I rented out a rehearsal space for a couple of days and learned every TFF song note for note. One thing I didn't want was to get all the way there just to be sent home. Roland Orzabal took Brian's word about my drumming. He had never heard my playing at all before we got to England and played the song "Raoul and the Kings of Spain" for the first time. I nailed it and got the gig.

While on the road with TFF I got a call from Kevin who said he heard from somewhere that Phil Collins had quit Genesis and they might be auditioning new drummers. I couldn't pass that up, Genesis was my favorite band as a kid and Phil was definitely my favorite drummer. Since I happened to be in London I decided to find the management offices for Genesis and go down there. I had nothing to lose, and since I was in town playing for a big name band they might take me seriously. I found the office and went in and introduced myself. The manager Tony Smith couldn't see me at that time so I gave the secretary a Spock's CD, told them I was in town playing with TFF, invited them all to the show, and said if there was any chance to get an audition that I would love it. I didn't hear anything for about 6 months. I was home from tour and on a Sunday of all days the Genesis producer Nick Davis called me and asked me to send him some other things I had played on. I sent off a DAT tape right away and they ended up bringing me over to England to audition. I freaked out! The thought of me getting an audition with my favorite band was a total trip. I ended up playing all of the new songs they were working at the time for their new CD. They ended up bringing me back a little while later to make the real recordings for what became the Genesis CD "Calling All Stations". It is amazing to have my name on a Genesis CD as the drummer! Never in my wildest dreams did I think that would ever happen, but it did.

Now I need to step back a little in time because while all of this was going on, touring with TFF and recording with Genesis, the guy and friend who gave me my big break passed away. Kevin Gilbert died by accident and it floored me as well as a lot of other people. He was a good guy and a huge talent and I still miss him very much to this day.

It took a while to get past all of that and move on, but as time went on there was healing. One thing that I made sure was going to happen was finishing and releasing of some of Kevin's music. I went to his studio and archived all of his tapes and got started finishing his rock opera entitled, "The Shaming Of The True". It would have been better if Kevin was there to finish it with me, but sadly he was not. I went through every note I could find, talked to every one that he talked to about it, found all of the songs in whatever form they were in (Some songs were done and some were not done at all) and finished the CD. Along with the great engineer John Cuniberti and Kevin's manager Jon Rubin we got the thing done. I am hugely proud of that CD.

The day that Kevin died Spock's Beard was to be finishing off the final mixes for our 2nd CD Beware of Darkness. Kevin had already mixed the first half and the guys were waiting at his studio on that day. They were wondering where he was and if he was flaking out or something. I showed up a while later and had to tell them the bad news.

After the TFF Raoul tour ended, Roland called me to record drums on his solo CD "Tomcats Screaming Outside". During that session I got a call from producer Chris Hughes who was working at Peter Gabriel's studio and asked if I could break away from Roland's project to come do a session with Peter. WHOO HOO!!! I went over there and the first thing we did was eat a meal and talk. After that we played Ping Pong (I got my ass handed to me and I'm a good Ping Pong player). The last thing we did was play music and record. What an amazing night. The song we worked on was for the Princess Diana tribute CD.

During this time Spock's kept making CD's and touring. We were really making a big splash in Europe and a little splash here in the US. We got to tour with Dream Theater a couple of times, which helped us a lot. Spock's released the CD's "Kindness of Strangers" and "Day for Night". We played on the German TV show Rockpalast, and then came our next CD "V". Spock's was really hitting our stride and it culminated with a gig in the big room at the London Astoria. Usually we played the small room downstairs which is a cool room also, but the big room upstairs was where all the big acts played and we had finally made it big enough to play up there. There were about 1000 people at that show and we all had a great time. Little did I know at the time that it would be the last concert with that version of Spock's Beard.

Next we went on to make our CD "SNOW". Snow turned out great and we were all excited about where we were going. That all changed when our lead singer and leader of the band Neal Morse decided it was his time to leave. It was kind of hard to take at the time. We didn't really know where we were going after that. We just knew we didn't want to stop as a band. We had come all that way and worked our asses off. After the smoke cleared a little I told the guys I wanted to step out and become lead singer of SB. I'd still play drums on the CD's, but live we would have to bring on another drummer and do that Genesis thing where I would be out front singing and then go back and play drums on certain things. We hired a great drummer friend of mine Jimmy Keegan to cover the drum chair on tour. Our first CD post Neal was "Feel Euphoria", and then came our 8th CD "Octane", followed by a live CD called "Gluttons For Punishment", then our 9th CD "Spock's Beard" and most recently our first live DVD with this version of the band simply called "Live"

In my spare (HA!) time I was lucky enough to join the Mike Keneally band. Mike is one of the most amazing musicians on the planet. He can do things that just boggle the mind while being very musical at the same time. One of my best friends Rick Musallam had been playing guitar in Mike's band for a while and when they were looking for someone to fill the drum chair I jumped at the chance. We did a couple of tours and made a CD called "DOG". It was a great experience, and I still get to jam with MKB every once in a while and I am always very glad to play with them.

Throughout 2004 and 2005 I got to go back out on the road with Tears For Fears. Roland reunited with Curt Smith and they made a new CD called "Everybody Loves A Happy Ending". TFF played some really great gigs along with lots of promo shows on TV and at radio stations. As always there was great food and drink along with the playing. Roland and Curt are both really great musicians and songwriters. I got such a smile on my face every night when we played the song "Woman In Chains", just to hear Roland sing that song live is awesome. We played a really big gig in France for a festival and from that gig was released the live DVD/CD called "Secret World"

Now at the time of writing this very long bio the latest project is Rewiring Genesis a tribute to "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway".

I don't have every single project I have worked on in this bio because I have been extremely blessed to play with a lot of different artists and this page would be even longer. Click over to the JAMS page and you can see a complete discography of all of the CD's I have fortunate enough to play on. There are links and audio samples there.

All the best, NDV