I am proudly from Baltimore, MD. I started my journey with drums at about age 2. I grew up playing in church. I just LOVED to play along to my favorite albums. I Also gained a great amount of insight from DCI drum instructional videos. My senior year of high school, I applied to the Berklee College of Music. From there I made many friends. Faculty and Colleagues alike. My first professional gig was with Meshell Ndegeocello. Shortly after, I joined Jeremy Pelt's band. From this point I worked with Dr. Lonnie Smith, Ada Rovatti Brecker, Ravi Coltrane, Myron Walden, Marcus Strickland, Estelle Swaray, Gym Class Heroes, Jovanotti, Arika Kane, Ruben Studdard, Darren Atwater and Soulful Symphony, Esperanza Spalding, Alex Machacek, Vernon Reid among others . I am still in love with music. Composition is what makes me tick. It raises the level of maturity through which I absorb music, or even art in general.
Dana J. Hawkins'S SETUP:
1.14" HiHats - K Constantinople (top), K Custom Session (bottom) *
2.Stack - 9" FX Oriental Trash Splash (bottom), 6" Splash (top) *
3.19" K Dark Thin Crashes
4.22" K Custom High Definition Ride
5.10" FX China Trash
6.15" FX Azuka Latin Multi-Crash *
7.16" K Dark Thin Crashes
* May be prototype