Biography
Danny McCrum Guitar/Vocals
Matt Harvey Bass
Glen Child Drums
Liberation Music New Zealand is proud to announce the arrival of the Danny McCrum Band’s stunning new pop/rock album Say What You Mean. Auckland based the Danny McCrum Band have built an extraordinary resume as a live act, supporting international greats Eric Clapton, Bryan Ferry, Jeff Beck, John Mayer, Simple Minds, Katie Melua, Joan Armatrading, Tommy Emmanuel, and Jimmy Barnes among others.
Influenced by well-regarded groups like Dave Matthews Band, The Police and Pearl Jam, Danny McCrum Band blend a mix of rock, pop, blues and funk to achieve their own quality sound with pure listening appeal. The band’s reputation for live performances is well deserved with their shows creating a profound energy where no two performances are the same. A combination of dynamic, quality musicianship and well crafted songs means Danny McCrum Band are set to be the new class act on the New Zealand music scene. Say What You Mean was released on October 19th through Liberation Music, following the impressive 2007 debut Awake and Restless.
Matt Harvey
Matt Harvey grew up in Auckland and first started playing the bass at the age of fifteen. He initially had informal lessons on the upright bass and credits being "thrown in the deep end" in the schools Big Band, as having a profound effect on his playing. Only several months after picking up the fundementals of the bass he was performing and ad-libbing which gave him no choice but to hone his skills as a musician. He shifted to the electric bass within the year to fill in a gap in school jazz band. This developed his skills further and introduced him to the power of the electric bass. Continuing with jazz, Matt learnt how to listen and improvise, as they competed in competitions and performed in local festivals.
After he left school Matt played for a small jazz quintet called Penfold, but he was unsatisfied with the music he had been playing so far and he became more and more restless. He started taking on any opportunity to learn material from bands outside the jazz realm and started to find a insatiable affection for heavy rock and funk. His new influences included Flea from RHCP, Jeff Ament from Pearl Jam and even Tim Commerford from Rage Against the Machine. They combined elements of their jazz and funk backgrounds into the nineties rock genre, which answered Matt's frustration with the sterile approach of playing by the narrow rules, often enforced in the music world.
Matt's uncle was a seasoned bass player in the Auckland rock scene and his guidence and access to gear helped Matt progress further. He dabbled with various garage rock bands, competed at the Rock Quest and performed at parties around Auckland, constantly experimenting and looking for inspiration.
In 2000 a young Danny McCrum was drinking in a jazz club on High Street in Auckland, where Matt was performing with Penfold. Matt's bass playing stood out to Danny and he asked Matt to try out for a band he was putting together. They hit it off immediately, realizing they had uncanny similarities in their influences, desires and philosophies about music. They performed with the subsequent band Spinner for a few years until the band fell apart in true rock n roll fashion. Their partnership unfazed, they founded the Danny McCrum Band. The new band signified freedom for them both. They could finally do things properly and pursue music together with a creative and open mind. Ironically it was Matt, not Danny who named the band.
Glen Child
Glen Child is one on New Zealand's finest drummers. A passionate player who is already receiving rave reviews and solidifying a reputation as a versatile and dynamic drummer, who seamlessly balances solid ‘pocket’ playing with finesse and flare. His influences which include great players such as Steve Jordan, Levon Helm, Richie Hayward and Stewart Copeland, have 
informed and inspired his playing and his approach to music.
Glen was born and raised in Downley, Buckinghamshire, UK. He originally started learning snare drum, timpani and tuned percussion at his local music centre when he was twelve years old. He worked his way up thru the wind bands, big bands and function bands and got his first drum kit when he was fourteen. In 1996 he spent a year studying under Paul Elliot, Francis Seriau, Brian Greene & Pete Cater at Drumtech, graduating with a Drumtech Diploma and “Most improved Student”. He then went on and studied at the London College of Music, graduating with a BMus in Popular Music Performance.
He joined his first Indie band when he was sixteen and went on to play with rock/hip hop act Entropy, toured with a Limp Bizkit tribute Band, ran his own function band called Metropolis as well as working as a session drummer covering all styles from funk and jazz thru to musical theatre. He also performed for UK singer songwriters Denny Lloyd and Natalie Long and for theatre shows such as: Me & My Girl, Krazy for You and Kiss me Kate.
He toured extensively through the UK and Europe before emigrating to NZ in 2006, where he quickly gained momentum, working with Annie Crummer, Darcy Perry Band, Farmer Pimp, Billy Tk Junior and The Lady Killers. In 2007 he auditioned for the Danny McCrum Band and quickly became a prominent member. His involvement in the band has extended past drumming to helping develop the band as well as co-writing and co-producing the new album 'Say What You Mean'.
Danny McCrum
Guitarist and singer Danny McCrum didn't come from a musical background. The only musical member of his family was his uncle who had played bass in The Bluestars; a pre-punk Auckland band in the sixties. Danny grew up in the suburbs in Auckland and was always fascinated by music. He would constantly listen to the radio and sift through his parents record collection. He had piano lessons for a few years but the piano and the culture that came with it left Danny bored and uninterested. When he was eleven he picked up an old nylon string guitar that had been gathering dust in the lounge all his life and start playing by ear, working out 
the melodies and bass lines to songs he had heard on the radio. For his twelve birthday he was given guitar lessons but soon quit them for the same reasons he had quit piano. However the guitar itself had captured Danny's imagination and within three months of playing he had written his first song. Two months later he performed for the first time in a school talent quest. The other kids were brutal and ridiculed Danny for pursuing music. Since he was six years old he had suffered constant violence and emotional abuse at school and in the local neighborhood. Mostly from the other kids and sometimes even from the teachers. Danny's mother was often stepping in to try and help, even getting a teacher fired on one occasion.
As Danny entered his teenage years he faced more challenges. His family broke up, school life became even more difficult and his only escape was music. After begging his parents, he got his first electric guitar when he was thirteen and started playing in a variety of bands. When he was fifteen he entered his band in the Rock Quest and won the Auckland finals. This meant a performance at the national finals at the Auckland Town Hall in front of several thousand people, a prize of recording time at York Street Studios and a $1500 voucher for musical equipment for his school. His school ignored this achievement and never used the voucher.
Just after his sixteenth birthday, Danny finally had enough of his school and stormed out. Escape became his focus and two years later he left home and moved to the other side of Auckland. When he was seventeen and eighteen he recorded two CDs and toured the country with a short lived band that eventually imploded and almost went to court over an argument about money.
The next few years were a blur of drinking and partying while still performing and pursuing his career. Eventually he decided to put a new band together and after auditioning musicians for a few months, met Matt Harvey and completed the line up. The band Spinner lasted several years before it too, fell apart and Matt and Danny set up the Danny McCrum Band. Over the years Danny has stubbornly remained a chameleon musician, always exploring new musical territory and resisting the pressure to adopt a style. His influences cover almost every type of music; his priority being quality rather than genre. He is a seasoned performer and a genuine musician - or as he would put it... "a lifelong student of music".
See releases here
Awake & Restless 2007 (Album)
These Dirty Days 2008 (EP - acoustic duo)
Say What You Mean 2009 (Album)