NICK D’VIRGILIO – BIOGRAPHY

Nick D’Virgilio started playing drums aged 4 and was self-taught until attending the Dick Grove School of Music in Los Angeles at age 17. As a child Nick also sang as well as playing guitar and trumpet. By the time he was in 8th grade at school, he could play every brass instrument in the school band and read music. 

Aged 15 Nick joined his first band, playing cover versions at parties and other functions, while simultaneously spreading his musical wings beyond Genesis, Rush, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and many more, developing a love for fusion jazz, Latin music and ‘anything funky’. But one key formative influence stands out:

“I realised that I love a good groove more than chops and flash, and I found my style courtesy of Phil Collins,” Nick says. “He was like a Motown drummer playing progressive rock. Sure, I loved – and still love – Tony Williams, Vinnie Colaiuta, Buddy Rich, Steve Gadd and so many other amazing players. But Phil’s feel, sound, and style still inspire me.”

At the Dick Grove School of Music, Nick was soon underwhelmed by the drum program and therefore changed direction and studied songwriting and singing. In tandem he joined a number of bands and networked extensively. After leaving music school, Nick joined the massed ranks of working musicians in LA.

“I took every gig I could get, and when I was not playing, I was hustling other gigs. I went to jam sessions all over town and tried to meet anyone and everyone I could. My first steady gig was in a covers band called The Neighborhood that played anywhere and everywhere.” Subsequently Nick spent five years in another covers band called Susie & the Knockouts. During this time he was invited to play a weekend gig in winter 1994 at the Mountain High ski resort close to LA, which proved very fortuitous.

“The band was a group of guys who had a business in LA that prepared and installed the wiring for a lot of the major recording studios in town. The music was something they did for fun once in a while and they invited a lot of ‘name’ players to come and sit in. The only ‘names’ that showed up that weekend were Kevin Gilbert and his then girlfriend Sheryl Crow. I was a huge fan of Kevin’s earlier band Toy Matinee, so I was excited to meet him. We played and talked about all things music and then exchanged numbers.”

Five months later Gilbert invited Nick to join his band to play Genesis’s The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway at the LA progressive rock festival Progfest. Following a successful show, Gilbert asked Nick to join his band THUD.

“Meeting Kevin Gilbert was my big break in the music biz. Everything else I did, even certain things with Spock’s Beard, stemmed from that one weekend. All of a sudden, I was hanging out with people who were part of much bigger things than I’d ever been involved with. Kevin took me under his wing and taught me how to record and treated me like a brother. I lived close to his studio and went there every day. He even gave me keys to the studio and I came and went all the time.”

Gilbert’s THUD album had already been released and Nick went on the road to help to promote it, playing gigs both as a full band and as a duo with Gilbert and also opening for singer songwriter Jonatha Brooke. Nick has worked with Brooke ever since.

Subsequent to promoting THUD, Nick played with Gilbert and fellow drummer Brian MacLeod in Kaviar. MacLeod had previously recorded and toured with Tears For Fears. On deciding that he did not wish to tour with TFF to promote the Raoul And The Kings Of Spain album, McLeod recommended Nick to Roland Orzabal, resulting in Nick performing with TFF from 1995 to 2010.

While in London on the RATKOS tour Kevin Gilbert told Nick that Phil Collins had left Genesis and that they might be auditioning drummers for a new record. Having made contact with Genesis’s management, six months later Nick was invited to Genesis’s studio, The Farm in the UK, to audition.

“It’s a major understatement to say that it was very surreal walking into the studio and meeting Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks,” Nick recalls. “In my wildest dreams, I’d never thought of making music with those guys. Genesis was a major inspiration to me as a kid. For a period of time, I listened to their music literally every day. I knew every song in the catalogue. But I soon realised that they were normal, everyday gentlemen ready to move on with their careers and keep making music, and here I was in England auditioning for them.”

Subsequently Nick played drums on four songs on Genesis’s final studio album, 1997’s Calling All Stations. “It was one of the highlight moments of my career. I didn’t care that I was not the only drummer on the record. My name is there and that is amazing in my eyes.”

Nick was also a member of leading progressive rock band Spock’s Beard for almost two decades. In the early 1990s Nick met brothers Neal and Alan Morse at a blues jam at the Universal Bar and Grill in Studio City, California, which ultimately led to the formation of the band.

“Neal had a lot of music already written. I was a prog head from way back and at the time progressive rock was dead, especially in LA. That’s what intrigued me about it all. I knew Neal and Alan were great musicians from the jams we had, so I thought why not check it out?” On hearing the demos for what would become Spock’s Beard debut album The Light, Nick was on board. 

Following a show at Progfest in 1995, Spock’s Beard signed to the Inside Out record label and toured Europe for the first time in 1998 to support the band’s third album The Kindness of Strangers. “It was so much fun because we soon realised that there was a whole continent of people who were into progressive rock, came out to see shows, and supported their favourite bands. So Spock’s kept making records and did more and more tours of Europe and the States, building our fan base. We were really gaining momentum after our fifth record V.”

However, following the recording in 2002 of Spock’s sixth album, Snow, and with the band on the cusp of a major breakthrough, their singer and songwriter Neal Morse announced his departure. The four remaining members chose to continue, with Nick taking on the lead vocalist role. “We made four studio albums with me as the singer – Feel Euphoria, Octane, Spock’s Beard and X. I am very proud of that time in Spock’s Beard history and the music we made. We got to spread our wings as writers and performers and it felt great.” Nick chose to step down from Spock’s in 2011.

Having first met sound engineer Rob Aubrey when he handled front of house sound on the first Spock’s Beard European tour in 1998 resulted in Aubrey recommending Nick to Big Big Train almost a decade later. Nick first recorded with Big Big Train for 2007’s The Difference Machine. Having recorded 2009’s The Underfall Yard, Nick was asked to join BBT officially and remains a member of this award winning progressive rock band to date. Nick has now recorded eight studio albums with BBT. He has been performing live with BBT since their return to the stage in 2015, including headlining the Night Of The Prog festival in Germany in 2018 and the band’s first ever UK tour in autumn 2019. 

Nick has also played with a diverse array of other artists during his 30 plus year career. “I always seem to have 10 things going on at once, but that’s the life of a working musician!” Nick deepened his relationship with Roland Orzabal for the Tears For Fears frontman’s 2001 solo album Tomcats Screaming Outside album. During the making of that album Nick was invited to Peter Gabriel’s to play drums on a song. 

“I was so excited to drive over to Real World. First, I sat down and ate dinner with Peter and the producer Chris Hughes. Then we went into Peter’s game room and played table tennis. I have always thought of myself as a pretty decent ping-pong player, but I got my ass handed to me by not only Peter, but also by the chef who made us dinner too! The song we worked on later that evening was for a Princess Diana tribute record. The song that ended up on the record was way different to what we played in the studio, but that doesn’t change the fact that I was in the studio with Peter Gabriel, who played the Rhodes and sang as we jammed! It was very cool to look out of the drum room window and see Peter there singing.”

During his career Nick has released some other solo records, most notably 2001’s Karma album and the 2011 five song EP Pieces. Additionally Nick worked with engineer/producer John Cuniberti to complete Kevin Gilbert’s rock opera The Shaming of the True which was released in 2000. He has also recorded and toured with numerous other artists including the Mike Keneally Band, Martin Orford (ex IQ), Jerusalem, Steve Thorne, Robin Armstrong and many others. 

Nick also spent five years between 2009 and 2014 working as part of Cirque Du Soleil in the TOTEM show as drummer, singer and assistant bandleader, performing more than 1400 times and never missing a show. “We lived in Europe for a time and played at the Royal Albert Hall in London on two separate occasions; for almost six months, my kids’ schoolhouse was the hall!  We experienced every corner of the US and a very big chunk of Canada, too. It was an amazing experience for all of us.”

Nick met engineer/producer Mark Hornsby in the late 1990s and recorded a number of sessions with Hornsby in Nashville at Java Jive Studios, including recreating the Genesis album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, replacing almost all of the keyboard parts with real strings and a wide array of instruments like accordion and clarinet. “It was a lot of fun and turned out great! We even did a couple of gigs with it, a small one in Nashville with a fairly normal sized band and a full-on show in LA with a huge ensemble.” 

Nick continued to work with Hornsby together throughout the 2000s. In 2012 Hornsby became the recording studios director at Sweetwater Sound in Fort Wayne, Indiana. With a brief to build a team of top quality players and make Sweetwater a destination facility, Nick moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana in August 2014 and remains based there. 

“Sweetwater’s drum division has exploded and I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of very interesting people while building some new life-long relationships. I’ve also had the chance to play on so much great drum gear – it really is Disneyland in that regard! While I have been here, Sweetwater Studios has been growing like crazy and a lot of fun, creative, great sounding projects are happening there. It is a world class facility that I get to be a part of.  Many of my old bands and music compatriots have been there to record or do workshops, which is icing on the cake. Sweetwater rocks!”

Now the release of Invisible commences another fascinating chapter in Nick D’Virgilio’s multi-faceted career. “My career has taken many twists and turns. I have been able to live out some major musical fantasies. I have seen some of the highest highs as well as some of the lowest lows. It has been a wild ride that is not over yet!”

April 2020