Detectorist, magician, and minimalist drummer, Dave Lovering is gearing up to bring himself, along with the Pixies, for an Aussie tour.
As the Pixies gear up for their highly anticipated Australian tour in November 2025, drummer and magician, Dave Lovering sat down with HAPPY to talk all things music, magic, and metal detecting.
With their new album, The Night The Zombies Came, already making waves and a two-night concert series planned for each stop, the Pixies are set to celebrate their storied legacy.
In this candid conversation, Dave opens up about his Boston roots, the evolution of his minimalist drumming style, and what makes Australian crowds so unforgettable.
From colonial coins to zen-like moments on stage, this is a drummer who finds rhythm and joy both on and off the kit.
Join us as we dive into the creative mind of the Pixies’ percussion powerhouse and uncover the secrets behind his unique style and unwavering passion for life’s hidden treasures. Pixies forever, indeed!
HAPPY: We have got a few quick questions if that’s okay. We know that you’re from Boston, can you tell us what you love about it?
DAVE: Oh, gosh. I mean, I’m being biased because it’s my hometown in a way, but it’s a small town. It’s a small city. I mean, I could walk across the entire city in maybe 40 minutes, I think, around that time. It’s got a great subway system.
I like the food there. I like the people. Again, the people, because, you know, I grew up with that attitude or whatever it may be there. Boston is one of my favourite cities, and it’s just not because I’m from there.
It’s just I I love the city. I love the history in it. And I love the food, especially. There’s not many places you can get a certain seafood, the seafood there as well as there was a there’s a local thing called a Superbeef. It’s a roast beef sandwich with barbecue sauce and cheese.
And it’s only right in the Boston area, and it’s it’s wonderful. And, yeah, that and pizza, the best pizza. So I look forward to going back all the time. It’s always about the food. I love it.
HAPPY: You’ve been to Australia a few times. They say the lights in every single country that you go to is different. So the light in Spain is different to the light in New Zealand.
DAVE: Oh, interesting. Yeah.
HAPPY: I don’t know if you’ve noticed that.
DAVE: I haven’t. No.
HAPPY: Apparently, it’s a thing, but I’m wondering how the Aussie crowds compare to other places.
DAVE: Oh, wonderful. I mean, we’re in a position now where we never, in fact, in the day, would never hit Australia. We would always just do Europe. This is back in the heyday before we broke up. So we we never got a chance to go down here.
I’ll never forget when we first the opportunity come down. It was wonderful because it was almost like it was was depressing, because we would hit everywhere, never here. And then finally, we have the opportunity. And I think since then, the opportunity is coming. We built an audience.
I think that people our shows have helped us along with the music. It’s a wonderful audience. I mean, I would compare with most audiences everywhere else right now. Everyone’s very happy to see us, and it’s a love, which is which is fantastic.
HAPPY: Would you mind sharing a little bit about the band dynamic on tour? How do you all stay grounded and connected together?
DAVE: We’re at a stage in our lives, I think, now that we love doing what we do. Since 2011, we started doing new albums, and it’s just a joy. They say you get older and wiser. I think that you don’t get wiser. You just learn how to put up with stuff easier.
I think that’s really what it is. So we’re putting up with each other a lot better than we did, and we’re enjoying what we’re doing. And, it’s fun to do. It’s just something we’re enjoying as we’re enjoying and having fun.
HAPPY: I think I think you might bring the the zen factor to the band.
DAVE: Possibly. I mean, Yeah. I think that we’re all in a certain place. And if I if I can do a magic trick to quell everyone, so it it helps.
HAPPY: I was obsessing a little bit about your drumming style. I guess minimalist comes to mind. It’s precise, but you also seem to know how to give space, which is really fucking cool. Ddoes that kinda sum up your personality?
The way that you drum, is that who you are?
DAVE: Oh, very, very good question. It’s funny because, you know, when the pixies first started, I was into rushing. And the pixies, our first songs were really busy. There was a lot of all around it.
Over time, I’ve got less is more. That’s what’s happened. Less is more. It’s been every album is getting less less is more. I think it’s kind of a mantra.
I mean, for me, I don’t think I’m complicated if anything. But, hopefully, that conveys in the German in me, and maybe that’s why it is less is more.
HAPPY: Is is that kinda like your spiritual philosophy as well?
DAVE: Yeah. I’m pretty, what do you call it? I’m pretty happy. I’m very happy with happy or clueless. That’s the 2 the 2 things. I’m just clueless and just going on a tangent. But, yeah.
Yeah. I’m not complicated. It’s very, very, very, very simple to me.
HAPPY: What makes you happy?
DAVE: I have a lot of hobbies. Magic and metal detecting and food, like I said, with Boston. So it’s it’s we’re very fortunate to be in a band. We get to travel to different places and try the different cuisines. So that’s that’s wonderful. That that gives me that’s something that I look forward to a lot being on tour.
So that that all makes me happy and just, you know, family and, everything’s good. You know? There’s no strife.
HAPPY: So metal detecting. Where do you do that?
DAVE: I started doing it when I was 13 years old, like, when I grew up in New England. So a lot of the places there were, you know, colonial. And I found a lot of coins from 17/26 and dating up. Then I got into beach hunting because I moved to, Los Angeles. So I’d hunt in the water, and I have probably 3 handfuls of gold rings.
It’s a great hobby. It’s there’s no other hobby where you can be usually be in an idealistic place with a slight threshold giving you, like, a zen kind of experience, and then you get to say Eureka once in a while.
So yeah. In fact, right now, I’m looking out my window and I can see the beaches, the beach right there of the Gold Coast. And I don’t have a metal detector, and I feel so jealous.
It’s just like if anybody’s out there, but I wish I was.
HAPPY: That’s really cool. And you and you bring such a a zen approach to it as well. Like, the whole thing is like almost like, I wouldn’t call it a meditation, but it just feels I don’t know. Maybe it’s your meditation. I’m not sure.
DAVE: It is. I mean, I can’t think of any other place or any other thing that I do where your mind can just be at ease or think or or whatever. Because that little tone in your head is just it’s very, very inaudible almost.
And like I say, you’re in a really nice environment, and it’s just a place to wander. It’s very, very calming for me.
HAPPY: What’s probably the coolest thing you’ve found?
DAVE: I think oh gosh. That’s tough. I mean, I have really nice rings. I have sapphire rings.
I have, like I said, the oldest coin is from 17/26.
HAPPY: Is that is that worth is that worth anything?
DAVE: It’s not. They’re called the colonial copper. They’re they’re worth a couple hundred.
But I gotta say, where I grew up in my parents’ house, there was a pond, back of the house in the woods. And during a certain time of the year, the drought or it was just a lot less rain.
The pond had low lowered down, and I was able to get to a depth in the pond that I’d never got to. And I found a a dime, a 10¢ dime from 1822. And when I pulled it out of the ground, I couldn’t tell what it was because it was so corroded because of the water and all the elements in it.
So I did electrolysis on it. I used an eraser. I got until I could see exactly what it was and get it to a nice condition. And then I sent it out to a pneumatic grading place. Now an 1822 dime is worth $30,000 because they only minted 100,000 of them.
It’s a very low low mintage. So I sent this, I’m thinking, oh, I got the I got the jackpot. I got the jackpot.
And when it came back, it was in a planchette, and it said corroded and cleaned, which meant the value’s down. It’s probably about it’s probably about $10,000 now compared to what it what it could have been. But still, I mean, awesome.
HAPPY: Awesome. That’s really cool. We have to wrap this up, but, I thank you so much for your time today. We look forward to having you in Australia. We’re coming to the show. Pixies forever.
DAVE: Thank you so much.
Head here for more info on the Pixies forthcoming Aus Tour.
