David J

David J
David J in concert in 2006
Background information
Birth name	David John Haskins
Born	(1957-04-24) 24 April 1957 Northampton, England
Genres	Alternative rock, gothic rock, post-punk, psychedelic rock
Instruments	Vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards, harmonica
Years active	1979–present
Labels	MCA, Beggars Banquet, Glass, Plain Recordings, Heyday, Situation Two
Associated acts	Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, The Sinister Ducks, The Jazz Butcher, Three, Cabaret Oscuro

David John Haskins (born 24 April 1957), better known as David J, is a British alternative rock musician. He was the bassist for the gothic rock band Bauhaus and Love and Rockets.

He is the older brother of Kevin Haskins, also a musician and member of Bauhaus.

Life and work

David J wrote the lyrics of several Bauhaus songs (including their first single, "Bela Lugosi's Dead"). He sang backing vocals on many songs, and sang lead on "Who Killed Mr. Moonlight?". He began writing music for a solo career while still in the band, and continued after the band's breakup, releasing the dark Etiquette of Violence and Crocodile Tears and the Velvet Cosh, and played bass on two Jazz Butcher albums (A Scandal in Bohemia and Sex and Travel) and various B-sides. J was also a part of the very short-lived band The Sinister Ducks, which included saxophonist Alex Green and comics writer Alan Moore. J also released an EP that was intended as a soundtrack to Moore's graphic novel V for Vendetta. He also released a collaborative single, "Armour" / "Nothing", with artist and poet René Halkett, of the original Weimar Bauhaus school of art and design.

In 1985, J, his brother Kevin Haskins, and Daniel Ash, all former members of Bauhaus, formed Love and Rockets; J once again played bass guitar and also shared songwriting and vocal duties with guitarist Daniel Ash. His most notable lead vocal from this period was the minor hit "No New Tale to Tell". J maintained his solo career during breaks from Love and Rockets, releasing Songs from Another Season and Urban Urbane after his band's success with the single "So Alive". He also released one of the first #1 hits from the newly created Modern Rock Tracks charts, with "I'll Be Your Chauffeur". J participated in a Bauhaus reunion in 1998. Love and Rockets broke up in 1999, after seven albums. Following what was billed as a one-off performance of Bauhaus at the 2005 Coachella concert festival, the band reformed for a successful tour of the Americas in late 2005 and Europe in early 2006 as well as a final album, Go Away White.

J has also appeared on releases by Porno for Pyros and Jane's Addiction. J joined Joyce Rooks and Don Tyler to make up the instrumental ensemble Three who released their first album, Evocations in late 2005. He played bass guitar for several tracks on the electro musician Mount Sims' 2005 release Wild Light.^[1]

In 2003, J started work on the instrumental score for an independent film about Elizabeth Short directed by Ramzi Abed, entitled The Devil's Muse. The soundtrack included guest artists and singers such as Ego Plum, Johnny Dowd, Jill Tracy, Abby Travis and Nora Keyes.^[2] He has also regularly shown his art in galleries across the globe, as well as being a resident DJ at numerous Hollywood hot-spots like The Standard Hotel, Kung Pao Kitty, and Knitting Factory. In 2005, he composed the original music for a stage production of Samuel Beckett's Cascando. In 2008, J wrote and directed a play, Silver for Gold (The Odyssey of Edie Sedgwick).^[3] J also released Go Away White with his Bauhaus bandmates and reformed Love and Rockets, who played at Coachella Music & Arts Festival that same year.

In 2011, J released a new solo album that was dark cabaret-oriented, Not Long for This World, and provided bass for Voltaire's album Riding a Black Unicorn Down the Side of an Erupting Volcano While Drinking from a Chalice Filled with the Laughter of Small Children!. In 2012, he's recorded bass for the song "Melody Dean" on the album Theatre Is Evil by Amanda Palmer & the Grand Theft Orchestra. Also in 2012, he toured using his opening act Adrian H & the Wounds as a backing band.^[4]

On 9 September 2013, David J performed at The Blank Club (San Jose, California, USA),^[5] as part of a five venue mini-tour. On 17 October, SlicingUpEyeballs.com reported that David J planned to release "Undead is Forever" the following Halloween, a cinematic rework of "Bela Lugosi's Dead", with Jill Tracy.^[6] On 30 October, streaming audio for "Bela Lugosi's Dead (Undead is Forever)" was uploaded to his YouTube channel account^[7] and it was released the following day.^[8]

Discography

Studio albums

Film and Theater Scores

EPs

Singles

Compilations

See also

Book: Bauhaus

References

External links

• Official website
• David J on YouTube
• David J on Myspace
• David J discography at Discogs
• David J statistics, tagging and previews at Last.FM
• David J at AllMusic
• SuicideGirls interview with David J of Bauhaus
• LA Weekly interview
• Los Angeles Stage Times preview of The Chanteuse and the Devil's Muse
• Interview about spectacles for Kirk Originals
• Blog about Not Long For This World, The Chanteuse and the Devil's Muse, Silver for Gold, and David's living room shows
• Interview about Chanteuse
• Hybrid magazine interview about Bauhaus reunion
• Billy Corgan's Starry Records artist page
• Redcat official website page for Silver for Gold