David Anthony Pirner (born April 16, 1964) is an American songwriter, singer, and producer best known as the lead vocalist and

frontman The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

for the

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band

Soul Asylum Soul Asylum is an American rock band formed in 1981 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their 1993 hit " Runaway Train" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. The band was originally called Loud Fast Rules, with a lineup consisting of Dave Pirner ...

Early life and work

Pirner was born in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

and graduated from Minneapolis West High School in 1982. He taught himself how to play the drums. By age 20, Pirner started his career drumming with a punk band called Loud Fast Rules as part of the Minneapolis scene, together with

Karl Mueller Karl Mueller (July 27, 1963 – June 17, 2005)
- accessed February 2011 was an American

(bass) and Dan Murphy (guitar). When Pirner switched to singing and playing rhythm guitar, Pat Morley joined on drums. Morley was later replaced by Grant Young, and the band changed their name to Soul Asylum. After touring the United States for a number of years they gathered a cult following of fans, but did not quite reach commercial visibility. Pirner at the time was the band's songwriter and he produced the album, ''Coup De Grace,'' by the Minneapolis

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

band the Coup de Grace in 1990.

Commercial success

The band achieved commercial success and visibility on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

and

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

with the 1993 single "

Runaway Train A runaway train is a type of railroad incident in which unattended rolling stock is accidentally allowed to roll onto the main line, a moving train loses enough braking power to be unable to stop in safety, or a train operates at unsafe speeds d ...

", followed by another hit song, " Black Gold"; both from their album ''

Grave Dancers Union ''Grave Dancers Union'' is the sixth studio album by American alternative rock band Soul Asylum and was released in 1992. The album features the single " Runaway Train", which reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the biggest hit ...

''. As Soul Asylum grew in popularity, Pirner was seen guesting on albums of differing

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

s, including artists like

Paul Westerberg Paul Harold Westerberg (born December 31, 1959) is an American musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the Replacements. Following the breakup of the Replacements, Westerberg launched a solo career that saw him r ...

Jason Karaban Jason Karaban is an American singer-songwriter and musician living in Los Angeles, California. Karaban first began his career fronting the Philadelphia-based indie rock band ''Dragstrip Courage'' in 1997, and ''Grand'' in 2000. He emerged as a ...

Mike Watt Michael David Watt (born December 20, 1957) is an American bassist, vocalist and songwriter. He co-founded and played bass guitar for the rock bands Minutemen (1980–1985), Dos (1985–present), and Firehose (1986–1994). He began a solo ca ...

The Autumn Defense The Autumn Defense is an American band composed of multi-instrumentalists John Stirratt and Pat Sansone. History The Autumn Defense began as a side project for John Stirratt, best known for his work as bassist for alt-country bands Wilco and ...

and

Victoria Williams Victoria Williams (born December 23, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter and musician, originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, although she has resided in Southern California throughout her musical career. Diagnosed with multi ...

. His disheveled appearance and blonde matted dreadlocks made an unmistakable impression on fans and critics alike, making Pirner easily recognized and associating the band with the grunge scene. 2016DavePirner

By 1999, Soul Asylum went into hiatus after making their eighth album ''

Candy from a Stranger ''Candy from a Stranger'' is Soul Asylum's eighth studio album. It was released on May 12, 1998 (see 1998 in music). It follows 1995's ''Let Your Dim Light Shine''. The band had originally planned to release an album entitled ''Creatures of Hab ...

'' (1998). After four years, the band reunited and started writing songs in the studio. Bassist Karl Mueller died on June 17, 2005, at the age of 42 from

esophageal cancer Esophageal cancer (American English) or oesophageal cancer (British English) is cancer arising from the esophagus—the food pipe that runs between the throat and the stomach. Symptoms often include dysphagia, difficulty in swallowing and weigh ...

. About a year after his death, Soul Asylum released '' The Silver Lining'' on

Legacy Recordings Legacy Recordings is an American record label that is a division of Sony Music. Formed in 1990 after Sony's acquisition of CBS Records, Legacy originally handled the archives of Sony Music-owned labels Columbia Records and Epic Records. In 2 ...

, which was dedicated to Mueller. Soul Asylum toured with their new line-up, which consisted of Pirner on guitar and vocals, Dan Murphy on lead guitar,

Michael Bland Michael Bland (born March 14, 1969) is an American musician best known as a drummer for Prince starting in 1989. He was with Prince during The New Power Generation era and played with him live and on albums for seven years. From 1995 to 1997, B ...

on drums and

Tommy Stinson Thomas Eugene Stinson (born October 6, 1966) is an American rock musician. He came to prominence in the 1980s as the bass guitarist for The Replacements, one of the definitive American alternative rock groups. After their breakup in 1991, Stins ...

on bass (as well as John Fields standing in on bass and piano for Mueller). A few years later, on July 17, 2012, Soul Asylum released an album titled Delayed Reaction. In 2016, the band released Change Of Fortune and in 2020 released Hurry Up And Wait. Pirner had a small role in the film ''

Reality Bites ''Reality Bites'' is a 1994 American romantic comedy-drama film written by Helen Childress and directed by Ben Stiller in his feature directorial debut. It stars Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, and Stiller, with supporting roles by Janeane Garofa ...

'' in 1994. He was also part of the all-star band assembled for the soundtrack of the 1994 film ''

Backbeat In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse (regularly repeating event), of the ''mensural level'' (or ''beat level''). The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a pi ...

''. Pirner also contributed to the soundtrack of

Kevin Smith Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. He came to prominence with the low-budget buddy comedy film ''Clerks (film), Clerks'' (1994), which he wrote, directed, co-produced, and acted i ...

's 1997 film ''

Chasing Amy ''Chasing Amy'' is a 1997 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Kevin Smith and starring Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams and Jason Lee. The third film in Smith's View Askewniverse series, the film is about a male comic a ...

'' with an instrumental song called "Tube Of Wonderful". There are two songs by the band Soul Asylum featured in the film: "Lucky One" and "We 3". Pirner also composed the incidental music for the film. The song "Can't Even Tell" is featured in Smith's ''

Clerks A clerk is someone who works in an office. A retail clerk works in a store. Office holder Clerk(s) may also refer to a person who holds an office, most commonly in a local unit of government, or a court. *Barristers' clerk, a manager and administ ...

'', and Smith used "Misery" in the sequel, ''

Clerks II ''Clerks II'' is a 2006 American black comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith, the sequel to his 1994 film ''Clerks'', and his sixth feature film to be set in the View Askewniverse. The film stars Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Rosa ...

''. In 2002 Pirner released his first solo album entitled '' Faces & Names'' on Ultimatum Music. He also contributed guest vocals on the song "Chillout Tent" in

The Hold Steady The Hold Steady is an American rock band formed in Brooklyn, New York, in 2003. The band consists of Craig Finn (vocals, guitar), Tad Kubler (guitar), Galen Polivka (bass), Bobby Drake (drums), Franz Nicolay (keyboards) and Steve Selvidge (g ...

's 2006 release, ''

Boys and Girls in America ''Boys and Girls in America'' is the third studio album by the Hold Steady, released on October 3, 2006 on Vagrant Records. The album was produced by John Agnello and preceded by the single, "Chips Ahoy!" On August 18, 2006, first single "Chips A ...

''. In 2020 he released the book Loud Fast Words: Soul Asylum Collected Lyrics and when the pandemic stopped the tour Soul Asylum was making for their new album, Pirner and the band's guitar player Ryan Smith played 100 original songs on weekly Facebook streams that were called The Quarantine Sessions.

Personal life

Pirner started dating actress

Winona Ryder Winona Laura Horowitz (born ), known professionally as Winona Ryder, is an American actress. Having come to attention playing quirky characters in the late 1980s, she achieved success with her more dramatic performances in the 1990s. Ryder's L ...

after the pair were introduced at Soul Asylum's performance on ''

MTV Unplugged ''MTV Unplugged'' is an American television series on MTV. It showcases recorded live performances of popular music artists playing acoustic instrument, acoustic or "unplugged" variations of songs. The show aired regularly from 1989 to 1999. F ...

'' in 1993. They broke up three years later. Pirner lived in Carrollton,

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, Louisiana for a time and still maintains a residence and recording studio in New Orleans. He also maintains a residence in Minneapolis. He has a son, Eli, with his ex-wife.

Discography

Solo

*2002: '' Faces & Names'' (Ultimatum Music)

Guest appearances

*2006:

– "Chillout Tent" (''

'') *2014:

Within Temptation Within Temptation is a Dutch symphonic metal band founded in April 1996 by vocalist Sharon den Adel and guitarist Robert Westerholt. They have been classified by critics as gothic metal and symphonic metal, although each album contains other infl ...

– " Whole World Is Watching" ('' Hydra'')

References

Bibliography

External links

*
Dave Pirner at MinneWiki
* The Soul Asylu
Band Files
are available for research use at th
Minnesota Historical Society.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pirner, Dave 1964 births Living people American male singers American rock drummers Grammy Award winners Drummers from Minneapolis Columbia Records artists Singers from Minnesota 20th-century American drummers American male drummers Soul Asylum members 20th-century American male musicians American baritones