David Lovering
David Sullivan Lovering (born December 6, 1961) is an American musician and magician. He is best known as the drummer for the alternative rock band Pixies, which he joined in 1986. After the band's breakup in 1993, Lovering drummed with several other acts, including The Martinis, Cracker, Nitzer Ebb and Tanya Donelly. He also pursued a magic career as the Scientific Phenomenalist, performing scientific and physics-based experiments on stage. When the Pixies reunited in 2004, Lovering returned as the band's drummer.
David Lovering
David Sullivan Lovering
The Scientific Phenomenalist
December 6, 1961
Winchester, Massachusetts, U.S.
Drummer
Drums, guitar, bass guitar, vocals
1986–present
As a drummer Lovering was inspired by bands from a variety of genres, including Rush and Steely Dan.
Biography[edit]
Youth and college[edit]
David Lovering was born in Winchester, Massachusetts and grew up in Burlington, Massachusetts.[1] He learned to play drums during his teenage years and joined his high school's marching band.[2] According to his friend John Murphy, Lovering was always very "drum oriented" in his musical taste.[3] In his high school yearbook entry, Lovering stated his three main ambitions: to be in a rock band, to be an electrical engineer, and to tour with Rush, his favorite band.[4]
After graduating from high school, Lovering studied electronic engineering at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. He got a job at a Radio Shack store with Murphy,[3] and the pair often played practical jokes while at work. One such incident involved Lovering wiring the store toilet to a fire alarm.[5] After graduating from Wentworth with an associate degree in 1985, he took a job building lasers, and continued to drum in local bands such as Iz Wizard and Riff Raff.[2] A number of different genres of music have influenced him, including bands Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin, and Devo.[6]
Personal life[edit]
Lovering is a practicing magician, and during the COVID-19 lockdown when the Pixies were unable to perform, began posting videos of his magic tricks on the Pixies’ Instagram account.[24] The first video was posted on April 1, 2021[25] and became a weekly occurrence called “Magic Mondays”. That September, Lovering announced that he was switching the videos to once a month instead of weekly, rebranding them “Magic Monthly”.[26]
Lovering has been metal detecting since the age of 11, when he purchased his first metal detector, a Bounty Hunter VLF 840. [27] He began metal detecting in his backyard in Burlington, Massachusetts, finding many colonial era coins.[28] Lovering often metal detects in the hills near his home in Southern California.[29]
Media related to David Lovering at Wikimedia Commons