Band

D.P. Holmes

Instrument: Guitar

Guitar player David “D.P.” Holmes is a founding member of the aggressively experimental New York based band Dub Trio. Performing and recording with a diverse collection of artists including Lady Gaga, Snoop Dog, Mike Patton, Young Buck, Common, Z Trip, Simply Red, DJ Hi Tek, Trik Daddy, Keri Hilson, Macy Gray, Lloyd Banks and Producer Joel Hamilton. D.P. and Dub Trio are currently touring the world as the backing band for Hassidic reggae / rap star Matisyahu. In addition to many international live concert performances, D.P.’s adventure with Matisyahu has also included performances on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, The Late Show with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

With Dub Trio D.P. has released four albums (Exploring The Dangers Of, Another Sound Is Dying, New Heavy, and Cool Our and Coexist - released on the ROIR and Ipecac labels), and toured the world many times over with band-mates Stu Brooks and Joe Tomino. The band’s unhinged mix of instrumental metal, reggae and dub, with electronic experimentation has created a genre unto itself. Revered by the band’s strong fan base and fellow musicians alike, the intuitive connection between the band members and the power and intensity of their playing makes every Dub Trio performance an awe inspiring event.

Born in Ontario, Canada D.P. began playing guitar at age 8, and formed his first band with his brother at age 9. A former student of The Berklee College of Music, D.P. is famous for creating original and strikingly innovative guitar melodies and sound-scapes. He has forged a unique identity as a session player who is both versatile in his ability to assume almost all popular styles, as well as a creative writer who stretches the bounds of his instrument to the farthest reaches of the imagination.

Stu Brooks

Instrument: Bass

At age 15, Stu Brooks traded prep school for art school in order to pursue his calling – music. Soon thereafter, he had a fortuitous meeting with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and distinguished bassist Prakash John, who instantly recognized his innate talent. John acted as a mentor for the budding musician, and it was under his guidance that Brooks truly blossomed. Influenced by a spectrum of rock, metal, jazz, funk, R&B and pop, the wide-eyed Canadian moved to Boston in 1997 to attend Berklee College of Music, where he joined forces with guitarist Dave Holmes. In 2000, the inseparable pair moved to New York City, where they united with drummer Joe Tomino, and eventually formed the rhythm section Dub Trio.

With Dub Trio, Brooks recorded three studio albums (Exploring the Dangers of, New Heavy and Another Sound Is Dying); recorded as Lady Gaga’s backing band; and worked on recordings with Faith No More’s Mike Patton as the Peeping Tom rhythm section. Always cultivating his talent, Brooks also collaborated with Eric Krasno and The Adam Deitch Project, and built a reputation for himself as a session player, working with 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, Mobb Deep, Mary J. Blige and Tupac Shakur, just to name a few.

In 2006, Brooks met reggae vocalist Matisyahu at an underground hip-hop show in NYC’s Lower East Side. Their connection was palpable. Two years later, Matisyahu asked Dub Trio to collaborate with him in the studio and Brooks eventually recorded a track for the MC, which was featured on his 2009 album Light. In early 2009, Dub Trio were invited to perform as Matisyahu’s backing band at The Bell House in Brooklyn, and have been a part of the singer’s touring troupe ever since.

Joe Tomino

Instrument: Drums

Joe Tomino is NYC-based musician living in Brooklyn. Joe is endorsed by Pearl Drums, Sabian Cymbals, and Vic Firth Sticks.

Joe grew up playing professionally in many genres such as jazz, rock, hip-hop, reggae, classical and electronic. After graduating high school, from his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, Joe attended Cleveland State University studying classical percussion with members of the Cleveland Orchestra. It was around this time that Joe started playing and touring with the internationally acclaimed avant-acoustic-electric trio, birth. After leaving home, Joe moved up east to study composition and jazz performance at the New England Conservatory.

Since relocating to New York City in 2000, Joe has had the opportunity to play, tour and record with such artists as The Fugees, Lady Gaga, Mike Patton, Wyclef Jean, Matisyahu, Leela James, Rahzel, Del Amitri, Lauren Hill, Joe Maneri, Simply Red, Ying Yang Twins, Maxi Priest, Wayne Krantz, Meshell Ndegeocollo, and other notable names in the music industry. Joe has also written, produced, and played for producers/songwriters such as David Khane(Sublime, Regina Spektor), Gordon Williams(Lauren Hill, Santana), Tom Morello(Rage Against the Machine), Warren Riker(Michael Jackson, Fugees), Joel Hamilton(Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Lou Reed), Jamie Segal(Taking Back Sunday, Lauren Hill), Jim Scott(Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty), Rob Fusari(Lady Gaga, Destiny’s Child, Will Smith), and others.

Joe currently spends several months out of the year touring the world with Dub Trio (an original dub/metal instrumental band).  Dub Trio is currently the backing band for Matisyahu and has toured the world, made several TV appearances, and recorded behind the release, ‘Light.’  Outside of playing with Dub Trio, Joe keeps busy recording/touring as a session musician, composing music for tv/film, producing/remixing, teaching, and designing multimedia (audio/visual) art. Joe also played drums for Mike Patton’s (ex-Faith No More/Mr. Bungle vocalist) project, Peeping Tom. The bands touring credits include Dour Festival, Lollapalooza, The Who and Gnarls Barkley, Late Night w/Conan O’Brien and The Henry Rollins Show. The NYC collective, Battle of Mice, also features Joe’s drumming. BOM’s debut album was included in the top ten records of 2006/2007 in both Decibel and Revolver magazines. Joe also held down the drum chair for The Fugees’ international reunion tour. In 2003, Joe was the recipient of an American Music Award and performed live on national television for the awards ceremony.

“. . . has sharp attack that fills the music with punchy life” “Tomino uses digital delay on parts of his kit…its an amazing thing to see.”   
- Modern Drummer

“. . . valued as on innovator of drums, mostly for shifting his ability of mixing styles and his intense propulsive spur.” 
- Jazzer

“. . . after seeing what Joe Tomino does with a drum kit, a pair of sticks and effected mic, you will give up playing drums.” 
- Sentimentalist

“Joe Tomino is plain ridiculous, the way he knocks the beat backward and forward like some kind of 5D table tennis match.”
- Metal Jazz

“. . . in a whirling dervish who simply must be heard to be believed.”
- jazzweekly.com

Matisyahu

Instrument: Vocals, Beat-Box
Listening to: Go Nad Go's greatest hits

In April of 2005 a fresh voice announced his arrival on the international stage with a stunningly inventive document titled Live at Stubb’s. Six years later, Matisyahu returns to the renowned Austin venue that helped to launch his career with Live at Stubb’s Vol. II, a new CD-DVD package that demonstrates the continued originality and increasing depth of this longtime New Yorker’s craft.

Inspired by the runaway success of the original record, which spawned the hit single “King Without a Crown” and has to date sold nearly 700,000 copies in the United States, Matisyahu says he always knew he wanted to make another live album. “Performing is such a big part of what I do,” he says, “and there’s a lot about that live energy that you just can’t catch in the studio.  So for me it was simply a matter of figuring out the right time to do it.”

He chose well: Last year Matisyahu released Light, a David Kahne-produced studio disc on which he jumped boldly from hard-edged dancehall and ska-inflected New Wave to laidback pop-rock and acoustic folk-soul. The album took Matisyahu well beyond his stylistic comfort zone and charted the growth of his vocals from traditional reggae toasting to a more dynamic, emotional place. But it didn’t necessarily show off his onstage evolution.

“I’ve played so many shows and gone through so many metamorphoses as a performer,” he says. Especially valuable was the opportunity to showcase that evolution at the very club where his career really took off. “It was kind of a return-to-roots occasion,” he says—albeit one where we see how far he’s come, as well.

Part of that transformation has been fueled by Matisyahu’s new band: Brooklyn’s acclaimed Dub Trio, which includes guitarist D.P. Holmes, bassist Stu Brooks and drummer Joe Tomino. The singer first came across the group—as fate would have it—while in Austin recording the first Stubb’s record. “I remember seeing their name at a record signing and being intrigued,” he says. “So I got one of their records while I was on tour, and there was this one song I couldn’t stop playing.”

Shortly thereafter, Matisyahu spent an entire day walking around Boston writing lyrics to the tune. “I love the way they bounce back and forth between really beautiful music and heavier, harder-edged stuff,” he says. “I knew right then that I wanted to work with them.” Last year he booked a show with Dub Trio at a small club in Brooklyn. “We just did an improv set after maybe one rehearsal,” he recalls. “It felt so right.”

That improvisational spirit looms large throughout Live at Stubb’s Vol. II, which pulls primarily from Light and Youth, Matisyahu’s 2006 full-length. “Dub Trio understand the concept of space,” he says, “which for a vocalist is great, because that leaves a lot of room for me to really get into my lyrics in new ways.” Here Matisyahu uses that room to dig deeper into his sound than ever before, shedding new light on its hip-hop, rock and reggae dimensions to the vocal delight of the enthusiastic (and demographically varied) Stubb’s crowd.

That audience was central to what Matisyahu set out to accomplish with Live at Stubb’s Vol. II.  After all, the fans were the ones who enabled his return to the venue in the first place, affording Matisyahu the opportunity to extend the legacy Stubb’s represents. In fact, one crowd member made a lasting contribution.

“The night before the show I took a picture of my tour bus in the hotel parking lot and posted it on Twitter,” Matisyahu remembers. “Someone sent back a tweet saying they’d figured out which hotel it was and asked if they could come say hi. I said sure and a couple of kids showed up; we hung out for a few minutes on the bus. Then the next night at the show I’m pulling people up onstage during ‘King Without a Crown’ and one of them is the kid from Twitter!” The singer laughs. “So the last clip on the DVD is actually me giving him a high-five.”

The appreciation, no doubt, was mutual.

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