Default

By Josh Hammerstedt

Touring with Nickelback is
a piece of cake for Default, a
Vancouver band that’s begin-
ning to make its mark on the
Canadian music scene.

- Comprised of vocalist Dallas
Smith, guitarist Jeremy Hora,
drummer Danny Craig, and
bassist Dave Benedict, this
band is making waves with
their hit singles “Wasting My
Time” and “Deny,” both from
their new album The Fallout.
Their honest song-writing
and impassioned vocals
make Default a musical force
to be reckoned with. -

The Default saga began
with a vision: a vision to form
a band that would play music
the way they wanted it
played. They wanted a gui-
tar-driven rock band, no
bones about it. They wanted
to play original music, written
themselves; in Dave’s own
words, “If you make the
songs yourself, they’re hon-
est, and that’s what we’re
looking for.” With this in their
minds, and a few years of the
Vancouver music scene
already under their belts,
Jeremy and Danny decided
that the summer of 1999 was
the time for them to start a
serious band.

Hey, when you’ve gotta
start a band, you’ve gotta
start a band. Joining forces
with their longtime friend
Dallas on vocals, they first
formed the band under the
name The Fallout. With
Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger
producing them, the band
spent the fall of 1999 in the

studio, as well as playing
around Vancouver. After an
appearance on the
Vancouver Seeds 2000 com-
pilation, legal issues resulted
in the name change to
Default, and their first inde-
pendent release, The Fallout,
sold over 2000 copies.
Record labels began to volley
for Default’s attentions, with
TVT records eventually win-
ning out. After adding bassist
Dave and switching produc-
ers, they finally released their
first major-label record, also
titled The Fallout. Now that
they've made their major-
label debut, they are on tour
to show North American audi-
ences what Default is all
about.

The members of Default
have known both each other
and Nickelback for years, so
touring together is one big
fun musical adventure. It’s
like The Sound of Music, only
without the Nazis. For exam-
ple, during one visit to play at
a university campus, mem-
bers of the band and one of
their techies were bombing
around on_ motorcycles
despite warnings from securi-
ty. The biking was just too
fun, though, so they kept
doing it until their techie got
caught, and the band was
booted from the venue for
life. Did this incident perma-
nently scar the band’s ego?
Not really. “We got, like, an
eviction notice, and we were
keeping it on our bus. We
were going to have it
framed.”

(Continued on 14)

By Dana Schwehit

From left to right: Jeremy Hora (guitar), Danny Craig (drums),
Dave Benedict (bass).

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