Davey Oberlin is an American musician. He is best known as the onstage

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instr ...

for the

nu metal Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, sometimes called aggro-metal) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, industrial, and grunge. Nu met ...

band

Korn Korn (stylized as KoЯn, or occasionally KoRn) is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The band is notable for pioneering the nu metal genre and bringing it into the mainstream. Originally formed in 1993 ...

. Oberlin is also known for his work in symphonic

deathcore Deathcore is an extreme metal subgenre that combines death metal with metalcore. The genre consists of death metal guitar riffs, blast beats, and metalcore breakdowns. While there are some precursors to the concept of death metal fused with met ...

group

Winds of Plague Winds of Plague is an American deathcore band from Upland, California. Formed in 2002, the band is known for being one of the few deathcore bands to incorporate symphonic elements into their music. The band's name is derived from a section of ...

Background

At sixteen, Oberlin drew animation in-betweens at

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

for animated television series

The Powerpuff Girls ''The Powerpuff Girls'' is an American superhero animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera (later Cartoon Network Studios) for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Televi ...

. Between 2003 and 2009, Oberlin worked as a

game tester Game testing, a subset of game development, is a software testing process for quality control of video games. Moore, Novak 2010, p. 95 Oxland 2004, p. 301-302 The primary function of game testing is the discovery and documentation of software d ...

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

, testing popular video game titles including

Call of Duty ''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter video game Media franchise, franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold W ...

, Call of Duty: World at War,

Guitar Hero World Tour ''Guitar Hero World Tour'' (initially referred to as ''Guitar Hero IV'' or ''Guitar Hero IV: World Tour'') is a music rhythm video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' ...

X-Men Legends ''X-Men Legends'' is an action role-playing video game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. It was released on the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles in 2004. Barking Lizards Technologies developed the N-Gage port of ...

, 007: Quantum of Solace, and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. Oberlin also provided the score and sound design for the

mobile game A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...

hits ''GraveStompers'' and

Avenged Sevenfold Avenged Sevenfold (abbreviated as A7X) is an American heavy metal band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1999. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist M. Shadows, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Zacky Vengeance, ...

's ''Hail to the King: Deathbat'', where Oberlin voiced a majority of the characters and produced several ambient themes.

Musical career

Early career

Between 2003 and 2005, Oberlin joined rocker

Jennifer Finch Jennifer Finch (born August 5, 1966) is an American musician, designer, and photographer most notable for being the primary bass player of the punk rock band L7. Active in L7 from 1986 to 1996, Finch also wrote music and performed with her band ...

's band The Shocker touring Europe and the United States as lead guitar and second vocals. Following his exit from the band, Oberlin formed the

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...

based band Perish. With Perish, Oberlin released a record produced by

Paul Miner Paul Miner (born December 4, 1976) is the bassist for Death by Stereo, who left the band early 2005 (right before the band's fourth album '' Death for Life''), to produce, engineer, master, and mix music full-time. Previously he produced and engin ...

Death By Stereo Death by Stereo (also referred to as D.B.S.) is an American hardcore punk band formed in Orange County, California circa 1998 by frontman Efrem Schulz. They are well known for their energetic performances and intricate guitar work. Their name ...

fame. Several years later, Oberlin, along with Perish, released an album exclusively in Japan. The album included the song "The Hammer," which featured guest vocals from

Dave Peters David Peters is an American musician. He was the original guitarist for the band Eighteen Visions, guitarist for the band Throwdown, and, as of 2002, the vocalist for Throwdown. He did guest vocals for the song " Unleash" by groove metal band ...

of Throwdown fame. In 2009, Oberlin joined the

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

band Dawn of Ashes. Oberlin co-wrote the band's album Genocide Chapters for

Metal Blade Records Metal Blade Records is an American independent record label founded by Brian Slagel in 1982. The US office for Metal Blade is located in Agoura Hills, California. It also has offices in Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK. The label is distrib ...

under the stage name Volkar Kael. The band toured as opening act for

Dimmu Borgir Dimmu Borgir () is a Norwegian symphonic black metal band from Jessheim, formed in 1993. The name is derived from Dimmuborgir, a volcanic formation in Iceland, the name of which means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic, ...

across the United States and Canada. Following his time with Dawn of Ashes, Oberlin joined the band

Stolen Babies Stolen Babies are an American experimental rock band consisting of vocalist/accordionist Dominique Lenore Persi, bassist/guitarist Rani Sharone, and drummer Gil Sharone. History Stolen Babies formed from a 12+ member high school performance tr ...

featuring

Gil Sharone Gil Sharone is an American drummer and member of the rock bands Stolen Babies, Team Sleep, and formerly The Dillinger Escape Plan and Marilyn Manson. He was also a fill in for the punk rock band +44. His twin brother is Rani Sharone, also o ...

Marilyn Manson Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician. He came to prominence as the lead singer of the band which shares his name, of which he remains the only constant member since it ...

The Dillinger Escape Plan The Dillinger Escape Plan was an American metalcore band. The band was formed in 1997 in Morris Plains, New Jersey by guitarist Ben Weinman, bassist Adam Doll, vocalist Dimitri Minakakis, and drummer Chris Pennie. The band's use of odd time sign ...

fame. Oberlin played drums and lead guitar for the band while touring with bands including

Katatonia Katatonia are a Swedish heavy metal band formed in Stockholm in 1991 by Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström. The band started as a studio-only project for the duo, as an outlet for the band's love of death metal. Increasing popularity led them to ...

Sevendust Sevendust is an American rock band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 1994 by bassist Vince Hornsby, drummer Morgan Rose and rhythm guitarist John Connolly. After their first demo, lead vocalist Lajon Witherspoon and lead guitarist Clint Lowery ...

, and

The Devin Townsend Project Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also h ...

Winds of Plague

In 2015, Oberlin joined symphonic

band

. Oberlin played lead guitar and performed on several tours with the band before being asked to join the band

Korn

While Oberlin was working as a guitar technician for heavy metal band

, Oberlin met

Jonathan Davis Jonathan Howsmon Davis (born January 18, 1971), also known as JD or JDevil, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman of nu metal band Korn, who are considered a pioneering act of the ...

and his bandmates from

. When keyboardist

Zac Baird Zachary Baird (born February 16, 1971) is an American keyboardist known for collaborating with the nu metal band Korn.http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1051801/korn-goes-experimental-vents-anger-on-new-album ''Korn Goes Experimental, Vents ...

left Korn after a ten-year stint with the band, guitarist

Brian Welch Brian Philip Welch (born June 19, 1970), also known by his stage name Head, is an American musician. He is one of the guitarists and founding member of the nu metal band Korn and his solo project Love and Death, where he also provides vocals. ...

recommended Oberlin to take over as keyboardist in the band. In 2017, Oberlin officially joined the live band as Baird's replacement.

All the Damn Vampires

In 2019, Oberlin created his solo

synthwave Synthwave (also called outrun, retrowave, or futuresynth) is an electronic music microgenre that is based predominantly on the music associated with action, science-fiction, and horror film soundtracks of the 1980s. Other influences are drawn fr ...

project "All the Damn Vampires." On March 30, 2020, the video for his single "Saturday" was officially released.

Artwork

In addition to his music career, Oberlin is an artist and enjoys painting. He created the pop art character line the "Boneheads" and has painted pieces for attorney

Bobby Samini Babak "Bobby" Samini (born October 12, 1970) is an Iranian-American trial attorney and the managing partner of the Samini Firm. Samini has been described as a "celebrity attorney". He has represented many high-profile clients, including serving a ...

, Bobby Schubenski, and

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

winning musician

Zedd Anton Zaslavski (russian: Антон Заславский; born 2 September 1989), known professionally as Zedd (), is a Russian-born German disc jockey, DJ, record producer, and songwriter. Zedd grew up and began his musical journey in Kaise ...

References

External links

Korn
Official Website
All The Damn Vampires
Spotify Page {{DEFAULTSORT:Oberlin, Davey Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Living people Korn members 21st-century American keyboardists Musicians from Burbank, California American heavy metal musicians