The Music Never Stops: Dan Stark 

In the three semesters that I’ve written this column, I’ve had the opportunity to interview some wonderful people around the Connecticut music scene. But as my time at The Daily Campus comes to an end, there’s one more musician I want to talk about – and that’s me.  

For those who don’t know me, I live a “double life” as my friend Sara once said, as a drummer in here in Connecticut and back home on the East End of Long Island. I’m currently the drummer of Storrs-based indie punk band Overlöded and have played drums in my hometown band The Water Boys since 2019, as well as filling in with other bands when I can.  

I started playing drums in 2013 when I was 9-years-old, which I decided to do when my elementary school band teacher, Ms. Russo, held an assembly at the end of third grade where she told us students that we could start learning instruments for the school band next year. I still don’t know what compelled me, but I went home and told my parents I wanted to play drums. They thought I was nuts, but went along with it.  

I started taking drum lessons from a local high schooler in my neighborhood, Nick Arpino, who happened to be a NYSSMA All-State level jazz drummer. I had a few more drum teachers after that, all of whom greatly shaped my playing and helped me develop into a passable wielder of the sticks.  

My first experience on stage came in 2016 when I enrolled at School of Rock Port Jefferson, a live music performance program. Joining their seasonal shows meant I could also take lessons there, and since I was already taking drum lessons elsewhere, I decided to start taking keyboard lessons.  

For the first show I took part in, British Invasion, I played both drums and keyboards. After that, I had to make a choice which would be my main instrument there. Since there were already so many drummers, I decided to focus on keyboards there. This decision payed off, as I got to play way more songs playing keyboards than drums. Over my five years there, I became a more well-rounded musician, learned how to run a rehearsal, met some of my best friends and, most importantly, became confident playing on stage.  

But the real story here starts in April 2019 when I got a fateful Instagram message on a random Saturday from George Niflis, the bassist of a band from my high school called The Water Boys. He asked me if I would be down to jam with them and I was ecstatic for the opportunity.  

It was that June that I got to play in our local Battle of the Bands for the first time, a night that still stands as one of my favorite shows I’ve played. We didn’t win, but I can still picture the way the crowd jumped and cheered for us. 

We did some more shows over the rest of the year and had big plans going into summer 2020, which, like many other bands, were snatched away thanks to the pandemic. But as that band went dormant, I joined another group, En Fuego, that I was part of during my junior and senior years. From winning our local battle of the bands twice to getting to perform during halftime at our school’s Homecoming game, being in that band was the defining experience of my life coming out of COVID.  

But as En Fuego was coming to an end the summer before I came to the University of Connecticut, something unexpected happened. To fill an En Fuego show that we couldn’t play, I called up some of my old bandmates from The Water Boys to help me host an open jam, along with one of the members of En Fuego. When we were talking about what to call ourselves, our lead singer James Puccio suggested we bring back our old band name and we all agreed.  

Over the past three years, this new era of The Water Boys has easily become my favorite musical project I’ve ever been part of. With each summer of shows we played while home from college, our musical chemistry blossomed, our setlist expanded to over 40 songs and we played more and more shows each year. The last two years have been especially amazing after we added Vinny Palermo, a friend of mine from my School of Rock days, on bass, creating the best lineup of musicians I’ve ever worked with.  

This past summer marked the high point for the band. We played 11 shows across the East End, including a magical night at the legendary Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, N.Y. No matter where we played, the energy was high and the jams were blazing.  

But I’ve also become more involved in the Connecticut music scene during my time at UConn. At the start of my junior year, I followed Aiden Bonilla, the frontman of Overlöded, on Instagram in hopes of interviewing him for this column. Before I had the chance to reach out, he messaged me first asking if I would be interested in filling in on drums for a few shows that fall. I was thrilled by the offer, as this was the first time in college that I had the chance to play shows consistently.  

Playing shows that fall was a blast, especially when we played at the Great Lawn during Moon Club. I became an official member of the group in the winter and we’ve played some great shows since, especially our three appearances at The Dog P0und in Storrs this semester. It’s tough to match the lineup of The Water Boys, but this current iteration Overlöded also ranks highly among groups I’ve been a part of.  

Playing shows at UConn and across the Nutmeg state has been an unreal experience. The crowd energy is always amazing and I’ve met some wonderful people, many of whom I’ve had the pleasure of featuring in this column. Getting to tell the stories of the wonderful people in this scene has been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had as a writer and I’m thankful to have done so.  

Though this column may be ending, there’s still plenty of stories to be told and shows to go to, because the music never stops.