Days No Different settle into their sound
Twenty-seven-year-old bassist Tony Kasper, 21-year-old lead guitarist Dan Johnson and 25-year-old guitarist Jeff DePaoli are University of Nevada, Reno students.
The five members came together when lead guitarist Dan Johnson played an acoustic set at an open-mic night before Gray, DePaoli and 27-year-old drummer Brian Walden played.
“He played one song, when you usually play three,” Gray said of Johnson’s set. But Gray liked Johnson’s style enough to introduce himself after the show.
DND plays rock with catchy beats, heavy on the drums. DePaoli occasionally switches his guitar for a keyboard.
“We all have the same goal,” Walden said. “We don’t want to be a band that sounds like our favorite band. We want to make music that’s easy to listen to. That’s fun to dance to.”
The other members have played in other bands and done solo work before, but this is Johnson’s first band.
“I’m definitely digging it,” Johnson said.
The band laughed and teased Johnson about “the devil horns story.” Johnson, embarrassed, refused to tell the story.
Gray admitted he wasn’t there and then launched into it.
When Johnson was around 13, he was hanging out outside a grocery store with his skater friends when they saw James Hetfield of Metallica go into the store.
Johnson tore through the store, caught up to Hetfield and tried to throw him the iconic rock gesture – a fist with the pointer and pinkie finger out. Instead, he tucked in his pointer finger and put out his thumb.
Gray pauses to let the band laugh before finishing the story.
Hetfield then taught Johnson the proper way to throw up the devil horns.
“It would only be cooler if Dio had showed you,” DePaoli said. Dio is an ‘80s metal mega-star.
“I don’t know who Dio is,” Johnson said.
They shook their heads, but didn’t seem surprised.
They’re still trying to figure out their dynamics, but one of the things the band members equally agree on is the differences in their music tastes.
“If you caught us in our cars, we all have completely different stuff in our stereos,” Gray said.
Even the amount of music they own is across the board.
“Walden and I combined probably have more music than all of Reno,” DePaoli said.
Johnson only owns four CDs – Incubus, The Mars Volta, Voltroid and Circa Survive.
Gray quickly points out that Circa Survive sounds so similar to Mars Volta, it might as well be the same band.
As they cart their instruments in for practice, Gray and DePaoli discuss the merits of Justin Timberlake.
Gray is a closet Timberlake fan. DePaoli is out. The rest of the band members aren’t entirely convinced.
The band practices in a refurbished storage shed in Sparks. There’s carpet, sound proofing and white boards that display set lists, chords and doodles.
When someone mentions Heart is playing in Reno, they launch into the opening riffs of “Barracuda.”
They laugh, then get down to business.
“I love it,” Walden said. “It’s really tough, but that’s the only way you’re going to do it, is if you like it.”
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September 13th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Great article. I always enjoy finding something out about DND I didn’t know before, especially if the new info brings a smile to my face. Learning Dan chased down James Hetfield in the store is something I hadn’t heard of. His skating friends kept it quiet. He was probably in 8th grade then. Maybe Dan was a bit too shook up about throwing the rock sign wrong.
Thanks for the article….great band…..good group of guys.