Dan Didier, post production supervisor and editor at Milwaukee-based About Face Media, has been a musician for most of his life.
He spent his high school years touring with bands and in 1995 he joined a band called Promise Ring and spent the next seven years touring the world as a drummer.
“I started my career as a drummer. That’s the first way I sort of made a living,” Didier said. “It wasn’t until that band broke up that I started looking at other career options and how I got into video editing and production.”
Promise Ring disbanded around 2001 and shortly after that Didier joined his current band, Maritime.
“With Maritime we tour far less than I did with Promise Ring,” he said. “It gives me and the other band members a chance to focus on our work life and our families.”
Didier has a wife, Danielle, and two children. The other three band members all have day jobs and families too, Didier said.
Still, Maritime, an indie rock band, performs regularly at Turner Hall in Milwaukee and other local venues, plus locations throughout the Midwest.
“We try to stick to local shows, and we do all original music, no covers,” he said.
The band plays in Minneapolis, Rock Island, Ill., Chicago, Cincinnati and some venues in Michigan as well, he said.
“We do really well in Chicago, but we try to hit a lot of the Midwest, shows that we can get to and back in one weekend, because it’s back to work on Monday,” Didier said. “It’s not as grueling as it sounds because we all still enjoy doing it. It’s fun and it gives me a second creative outlet outside of being creative during my day job. I’m really lucky to have both.”
Didier said he enjoys every aspect of the music business including rehearsing, performing and recording albums.
“I love it, I always have,” he said. “I’ll keep doing it because it’s something I really love to do and it’s a nice balance to what I do creatively during my day job. I never
get burnt out.”
