JAMES DOMMEK, JR.

“I was born and raised in Kotzebue. I lived there until I was 14, a very subsistence life style, lots of basket ball, snow machines, village stuff. Then my dad got job transfer to Anchorage in 1996. That’s when I swapped my passion from basketball for music and drums. I have always loved music. I started playing jazz and drums at church. In the seventh or eighth grade, I started playing drums in the school’s band room. The teacher put me on drums because I couldn’t play a saxophone or a trumpet. I was just making awful sounds; it sounded like something dying. So the teacher put me on drums, and he didn’t know how to play drums. So, he hired this guy who used to play in bar bands in Nome to come and teach me how to play. I got my first drum set in my junior year of high school. My dad got it for me from this guy in Girdwood. It was a Pearl Export; I thought it was amazing.
In 2001, I joined the Whipsaws and been in that band since. It’s taken me all over the place. I am also playing drums for Pamyua. That has been a lot of fun. As of June 2016, I started working for Koahanic Broadcast Corporation as a Web Streaming Producer and Content Manager. They have asked me to build a web stream that caters to Alaska Native Millennial. It’s coming along pretty good.
Next month, I will be going to Spain with Tim Easton. We are going to tour Spain for ten days, and have nine shows. I am looking forward to playing drums with Tim over there.
One other thing I like to tell people is, I am the great grandson of the last great Inupiaq Story Teller. His name is Paul Monroe. He is from Noatak, and he has got a book out called ‘The Eskimo Story Teller.’" [Laughs] — James Dommek, Jr. is Inupiaq and lives in Anchorage, Alaska.