BIOGRAPHY
Fed up with vacuous pop aimed at kids and garbage from Saturday night TV shows dominating the airways? dropout are a proper rock band based in Oxford, UK. With their heavy rock/grunge inspired sound and feel that will make you turn it up to all the way up to 11
The origins of dropout date back to 2002. Only one original member has stood the test of time....
Ian - Guitar
Originally from Ashford, Kent, growing up on a diet of Led Zeppelin, Rollings Stones, ZZ Top, Tom Jones and the Sounds of the Sixties, Ian’s world was turned upside down when he was 14 and was lent Metallica’s ‘... And Justice For All”. After discovering metal and grunge life would never be quite the same again and Ian was soon jamming out riffs on the guitar with like-minded souls.
The need to find a ‘real job’ beckoned following the hedonistic days at South Kent College, when Ian moved to Oxford to study Publishing at Oxford Brookes in 1997. More interested in designing album covers than publishing books, Ian spent most of his spare time in the Student Union as part of the Ents crew working with and watching the popular bands of the late 90s play. In 2004, Dropout graced the stage at Brookes SU, but sadly this was to become one of the parting gigs for the band. Life had yet again got in the way...
But then, in October 2011, there was a chink of light was at the end of the tunnel in the form of Oxjam. In the space of 8 weeks two new band members, Anouska and Alex, were recruited and guitarist and drummer reunited...
Dan - Drums
Dan accepted a loan of a CD from a girl he fancied at school... only to discover he liked the CD more than the girl. It was 'Kill 'Em All' by Metallica and Lars Ulrich had just become Dan's first drum idol, leading to his incessant tapping on anything he could find, his Mum finally caving and buying him a kit for his 19th birthday.
Since then, Dan's played with a few bands, the dropout gig coming after 'blowing the roof off the Coldroom audition in 2003'. Seven years after going their separate ways, Dan readily agreed to reunite for charidee, and the rest is the future....
Robin – Vocals
Following in the footsteps of her mum and gran, Robin grew up singing in school, church and community theatre in California. What her mother didn’t know was that at the tender age of 9 when she was supposed to be enjoying ‘quiet time’ with her Linda Ronstadt album, Robin was actually broadening her musical horizons to the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Doors, and The Kinks (not to mention her brother’s collection of The Clash) - records her parents had unwittingly left on the shelf to gather dust.
Robin has performed in a variety of projects over the years, from fronting a funk/ska band at Uni to rounding out the 4-part harmony in a Motown tribute act, but her vocal journey had yet to reach the darker side of the musical spectrum until March 2012.
Having been in the UK for 6 months, Robin feared she was doomed the wander the island in silence when she stumbled across an ad for a singer on Daily Info. After a totally rad jam session at The Warehouse Studios, Robin joined the band and dropout was re-born yet again, this time with a bit of an American spin.
Alex - Bass
Growing up in the midlands Alex was influenced by Punk, New Wave Of British Heavy Metal and classic old school rock. Raiding his piggy bank he bought an electric guitar and (cheap) amp and created a rock band with a few friends to play lead and rhythm guitar on covers and original tracks.
This early wannabe rock-star apprenticeship would have been cut short by Alex's move to London as a student had he not met up with a bunch of fellow minded students….and a band was duly put together. Gigs followed but not much money and fame and reluctantly the band members had to concentrate on finishing their studies and ‘work’.
Not to be outdone by life, Alex once again formed a band with fellow work colleagues and for a while the music continued until once again reality intervened and the vision faded. However a chance meeting with Ian, together with Oxjam acting as a catalyst, made Alex ‘embrace the bass’ to play once again and so the dream lives on….
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