Background
Dawn Richardson grew up in Los Angeles and began playing the drums at the age of 13. Throughout high school and college, she played drums and percussion in all sorts of groups including rock bands, marching band, concert band, orchestra and percussion ensembles. She holds her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Percussion from Cal State Los Angeles and has studied with the principal percussionist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Raynor Carroll and with studio greats Steve Houghton and Greg Goodall. Dawn currently lives in San Francisco where she teaches and continues to perform and record with various musical projects.

Frontburner Musical Projects
In addition to playing, programming and teaching drums, Dawn has also composed soundtracks for several short independent films and has studied compostion privately in San Francisco, where her keen interest in new music led her to begin her own group in 2005 called 2Toggle. This current musical endeavor and combines Dawn’s love of drumming and percussion with the vision of visual artist Lori Nunokawa. Dawn composes and performs all of the music for the collaboration (live performances are with drums, percussion and laptop computer), while Lori is in charge of the images.

Dawn’s other current musical projects include the San Francisco rock group Dolorata and a children’s music collaboration with singer Kaitlin McGaw. Dolorata (formerly Coal Pitts Wash) has been on the local SF music scene just a short time and they’ve already played many great venues including The Fillmore and Bottom of the Hill – check out the website! The project with Kaitlin is still in the writting and recording stages, but they have been getting good feedback and input on the music from teachers and friends. The songs focus on kindergarten learning requirements. The idea is to have fun while keeping the tunes educational and useful for the classroom and teacher. We’ll be sure to let you know when that music is ready to go!

Backburner Musical Projects
Most of 2005, Dawn’s musical energies went into the bands TaB and the Perps – both of which are currently on haitus. The Perps are an instrumental power trio that combines jazz sensibility with the energy of a rock band. They play theme songs from cop and detetctive shows – mostly from the 1970’s. TaB also has a focus on that decade – but this time on funky dance tunes. Their mission is to get people up and dancing by playing the fun and groovy music popular when you had that Farrah Fawcet poster up next to your record player in your bedroom.

Books and More Background
Dawn also has three drum method books published by Mel Bay Publications and has appeared in feature articles in Modern Drummer and Drum! Magazines. As a member of the successful rock act 4 Non Blondes, she received gold and platinum records for sales in the United States along with many gold and platinum records for international sales. She toured the world with 4 Non Blondes, opening for such rock legends as Aerosmith, Neil Young, Pearl Jam, and Prince and has appeared on national and international television performing live on The Dave Letterman Show, The Late Show with Conan O'Brien, MTV's Beach House, The Billboard Music Awards, and England's Top of the Pops.

Dawn has also toured and /or recorded with Erika Luckett (Birdfish Records), Lillix (Maverick Records), Penelope Houston (Normal Records), Gus (Almo Sounds), Angel Corpus Christi (Almo Sounds), The Loud Family (Alias Records), Go Go Market (Featuring Chuck Prophet), Blame Sally, Kindness, Joe Gore, The Martinis (featuring Joey Santiago of The Pixies), and Vicki Randle (The Tonight Show). Dawn is endorsed by Pacific Drums, Zildjian Cymbals and Vic Firth Sticks.