Damian Cowell

Damian Joseph Cowell is an Australian musician, artist and occasional animator who has been active in Melbourne, Victoria since the late 1970s. He is best known as a vocalist and drummer in the bands TISM, Root!, The DC3 and Damian Cowell's Disco Machine.
Cowell released his first solo album (backed by The DC3), Damian Cowell Vs Art, in December 2010; it was exclusively available with the book Monanisms from the Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania. In 2023, he released a self-titled compilation featuring selections from his post-TISM career.
Although it is widely accepted that Cowell is the man behind the persona of TISM's drummer and vocalist Humphrey B. Flaubert, Cowell himself has stressed that, officially, there is no member of TISM named Damian Cowell.
==Background==
Damian Cowell was born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria. In the 1970s he was a student at St. Joseph's College in Ferntree Gully with his future bandmates Sean Kelly and Eugene Cester; all three were active in various high school bands and the college football team. Their first original song, titled "Omphaloskepsis", was composed in late 1973. 
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Cowell was a member of a little-known post-punk group, I Can Run (later known as The Go Code), which also featured Kelly and Cester, as well as future TISM member Jack Holt.
===Humphrey B. Flaubert and TISM===
In December 1982, Cowell and Cester formed This Is Serious Mum, with Cowell adopting the pseudonym "Humphrey B. Flaubert" (a play on Australian children's television character Humphrey B. Bear and French author Gustave Flaubert). TISM enjoyed underground success in the late 1980s, later reaching the ARIA top 10 with their album Machiavelli and the Four Seasons in 1995.
TISM have remained largely anonymous throughout their career; following their break up in 2004, Cowell began to publicly acknowledge his role in TISM, most notably with the release of the debut single by his band The DC3, "I Was the Guy in TISM". Cowell rejoined TISM for their reunion in 2022, once again assuming the persona of Humphrey B. Flaubert.
Even though much of Cowell's work uses programmed drums, he has played live drums at times, most notably during some songs in TISM's performance at Homebake 1998.
===Outside TISM===
In 2007, Cowell returned to the stage with a new band, Root!, which he fronted under the moniker DC Root. During this period Cowell was commissioned by David Walsh to create a musical work for his Museum of Old and New Art, which was preparing to open just outside Hobart. The album, titled, Damian Cowell Vs Art, was released in December 2010 exclusively with copies of the book Monanisms.
In 2010, Root! disbanded and quickly reformed as The DC3. The DC3 released two albums, The Future Sound of Nostalgia in 2011 and May Contain Traces of Nut in 2013.
In 2015, Cowell premiered his new band, Damian Cowell's Disco Machine, who released their self-titled debut album that year. In 2017, they released a second album, Get Your Dag On!, followed by an ambitious serialized "animated graphic novel" and concept album titled Only the Shit You Love in 2021.
On Sunday afternoons in December 2015 and January 2016, Cowell and Tony Martin (occasional collaborator with Damian Cowell's Disco Machine) hosted Arseless Chaps on Melbourne independent radio station 3RRR, as a temporary fill-in for The Downlow.Arseless Chaps at Champagne Comedy On 11th August 2024, the duo played their first live gig as the Arseless Chaps at the S Club in Brisbane.
==Discography==
===Solo===
====Studio albums====
*Damian Cowell Vs Art (2010) - with The DC3
====Compilation albums====
*Damian Cowell (2023)
===With This Is Serious Mum/TISM (as Humphrey B. Flaubert)===
*See main article: TISM discography
===With Root! (as DC Root)===
*See main article: Root!#Discography
===With The DC3===
*See main article: The DC3#Discography
===With Damian Cowell's Disco Machine===
*See main article: Damian Cowell's Disco Machine#Discography
==See also==
*Humphrey B. Flaubert
*DC Root
*Arseless Chaps
*I Can Run
==External links and references==
*Damian Cowell on Bandcamp
*Official Facebook page
*Damian Cowell on Instagram
*Damian Cowell on Twitter/X
*Damian Cowell at Wikipedia
Category:Damian Cowell
Category:Humphrey B. Flaubert
Category:I Can Run
Category:Root!
Category:The DC3
Category:Damian Cowell's Disco Machine
Category:Arseless Chaps
Category:People associated with TISM