David J, is a British alternative rock musician. He was the bassist for the gothic rock band Bauhaus and Love and Rockets.
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). J was also a part of the very short-lived band The Sinister Ducks, which included saxophonist Alex Green and comics writer Alan Moore. He also released a collaborative single, “Armour” / “Nothing” with artist and poet Rene Halkett, of the original Weimar Bauhaus school of art and design.
In 1985, J, his brother Kevin Haskins, and Daniel Ash 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.
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.
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, Abby Travis and Nora Keyes. 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). 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.
Currently David J is working on The Chanteuse and the Devil’s Muse, a play with live music by David J, collaborating with Ego Plum (Ebola Music Orchestra). David J’s album “Not Long For This World” will be released in fall of 2011 on Starry and St. Rose records. (for more info: davidjonline )