Davide Combusti, a.k.a. The Niro, was born in Rome in 1978. His father was a drummer and right from a very early age instilled in him a love for music and the drums, which was actually the first instrument the young Davide learned to play. With the passing of time Davide became a multi-instrumentalist as he added guitar, bass and much more besides to his passion for playing percussion. He then started collaborating with a number of bands as a drummer. In 2002 he decided to pursue a more personal path and formed his own band called “The Niro”, writing lyrics and music to all their songs. After this experience, Davide decided to go it alone as a singer-songwriter and kept the name of the band for his new solo career.
In 2005 he opened for the Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche in Rome and subsequently received scores of invitations to share the stage with international artists such as Tom Hingley, leader of the Inspiral Carpets and Lou Barlow of Dinosaur jr, who as a result had nothing but words of praise for him ! He also opened for the Zephyrs, Okkervill River, Isobel Campbell, TKO and in 2006 went to Tucson, Arizona where he played The Red Room two nights running (the same Red Room where Howe Gelb often performs) with Tom Walbank, named best Arizona bluesman 2005 and Pearl Handed Pistol.
Upon his return to Italy offers for live work kept pouring in and The Niro gave a guitar and vocals solo performance as support act for Deep Purple in Rome and then for the English band Circulus.
In 2006 Boston University Radio invited The Niro to take part in a tribute concert in honour of Elliott Smith, where he performed his own rendition of ‘Everything reminds me of her’. That summer he opened for Carmen Consoli in London and toured Europe: playing the Tunnel and the Café Carina in Vienna, and the "Fléche d'Or" in Paris.
Meanwhile a tribute album to Belle and Sebastian was released, a compilation called "A Century of Covers", in which The Niro’s cover track was a lo-fi rendition of "I fought in a War".
Towards the end of 2006 The Niro was contacted by Chris Hufford, Radiohead’s manager, and asked to take part in a project called Anti Atlas which Hufford was producing with Ned Bigham. Davide wrote the lyrics and a new arrangement to part of the instrumental track "Coro". From this came "The Travellers", which was included in the album ‘Between Voices 2’, and released in August 2007 on the British label One little Indian. Meanwhile The Niro continued working the live circuit opening for artists such as Badly Drawn Boy, Mirah, Isobel Campbell and Chris Leo.
In 2007 he returned to London to perform at The Fly and The George Tavern. Next stop was New York where at the end of August and the beginning of September he performed for five nights running in clubs like the Pianos and the Sidewalk, which were ground–breaking for artists such as Regina Spektor and Adam Green. Later on in October that same year he opened for Amy Winehouse in Milan.
In January 2008 Davide released a 5 track EP called “An Ordinary Man” (1. About Love and Indifference. 2. Mistake. 3. Just For A Bit. 4. On Our Hill. 5. About Love and Indifference –street video) .
The Ep was just a taste of what was to follow, for mid April a full 13 track album called quite simply ‘The Niro’ was released – lyrics and music for all tracks by Davide Combusti, produced by Gianluca Vaccaro (of Carmen Consoli fame) and Roberto Procaccini, keyboard player with a well-known Italian band. The album came in two versions: cd and limited edition lp. Front cover artwork of the limited edition vinyl version is courtesy of Mark Kostabi, the well known American artist, the same Mark Kostabi who did the cover artwork of “Use Your Illusion” Guns’N’Roses and “Adios Amigos” the Ramones. What is remarkable is the fact that after listening to the album Mark offered Davide one of his paintings of his own accord.
The first single from the album, ‘Liar’, is still being played on the radio 2 years on, while reactions from the press continue to be staggering with numerous articles and reviews bearing testimony to the fact that he is considered to be in a class of his own.
From 2008 to 2010 Davide’s workload multiplied : in 2008 he performed at the 1st May Concert, a live, televised event held in San Giovanni Square, Rome and was given an important evening slot. He then played the Cavea Auditorium, also in Rome. That same year he won an MEI (Indie Meeting) award for best new artist of the year. He went on to play in the same line-up as Gabriella Cilmi, One Republic, Afterhours, Caparezza, Gloria Cycles and dozens of others. He took part in the 2009 Italia Wave Festival (Woodstock 40 years on), where besides performing the songs on his regular set-list, he also gave his own unique and emotional rendition of ‘Summertime’ which was then included in XL magazine’s covermount compilation (XL belongs to one of the two top publishing groups in Italy). ‘Liar’ was used in the first Virgin Radio compilation release along with songs from Radiohead and the Editors while ‘So Different’ was used in the Mtv Brand New compilation, with Iggy Pop on the same tracklist. Davide then played Hit Week, the Italian Music Week Event held in Los Angeles, at the Fonda Theatre, as well as playing the famed ‘On the Rox’ venue on Sunset Boulevard. A run of 6 gigs in London was followed by an extended UK tour (Glasgow, Brighton, Leeds and again London), a gig in Brussels and two in Paris. He played at TIME, the Indie Music Event in Paris, and left his mark there as the only artist asked to give an encore ! He also performed at the European Music Fest in Lausanne and played a number of festivals such as Villa Arconati, San Severino Blues, Controfestival… not to mention collecting magazine covers on the way. He has also found the time to connect with various film producers, on his tail to get music penned by him for their film soundtracks, which is another exciting new chapter opening up to exploit the talents of the young, eclectic Davide.
Whilst his new album “Best Wishes” is set for release on 16th April, the young singer-songwriter is getting ready to perform at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, an international event which has for years been an important way for new, and not so new artists, to showcase their talent. Just in case anybody needs further convincing!