Biography
The D4 were formed in Auckland in 1998 when guitarists Dion Palmer and Jimmy Christmas met at a mutual friend’s 21st birthday party. Palmer had been playing bass in punk outfit Nothing At All! while Christmas was a member of A Bit Off. Settling a core lineup with Vaughan Williams on bass and Daniel “Beaver” Pooley on drums, the band developed their sound at the Frisbee Leisure Lounge before signing to Flying Nun Records and releasing their debut single “Girl” in 2000.
Their debut album 6Twenty (2001) quickly generated international buzz, with NME nominating the band for single of the week and describing the record as “primordial and fun… one of the great, grubby milestones of the current garage renaissance.” Rolling Stone listed it among the best releases of the quarter. Lead single “Rock ‘N’ Roll Motherfucker” received substantial airplay across the US and UK and appeared in a Bacardi Rum television campaign. The D4 were swept up in the early 2000s garage rock revival alongside fellow New Zealanders The Datsuns, and spent the following years touring relentlessly across the US, UK, Europe, Japan, and Australia — performing at Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds, SXSW, Fuji Rock, and Big Day Out, and appearing on The Late Show with David Letterman in 2003.
Their second album Out of My Head (2005) peaked at number 17 on the New Zealand charts and earned a Rock Album of the Year nomination at the NZ Music Awards, but its creation was fraught. Palmer later reflected that the band spent “18 months or two years of struggle” with producers who rejected songs deemed too raw, and that “maybe we should’ve gone down that path” of making the record more abrasive rather than chasing radio friendliness. Unable to envision a third album, the band entered an indefinite hiatus in 2006.
A 2018 reunion was sparked when Palmer — by then living in New York and playing bass in noise-rock outfit A Place to Bury Strangers — learned that Auckland’s Kings Arms venue was closing. The band played reunion shows determined to deliver performances more intense than their original run. In 2025, Out of My Head received its first-ever vinyl pressing via Warner Music, accompanied by an Aotearoa summer tour.
Members
- Dion Palmer (Vocals/Guitar, A Place to Bury Strangers, Dion Lunadon, Nothing At All!, The D4, The Rainy Days, True Lovers)
- Jimmy Christmas (vocals / guitar, A Bit Off, Luger Boa, The D4)
- Vaughan Williams (bass, Shocking Pinks, The D4)
- Daniel Beaver Pooley (drums, The D4)
Discography
- Girl (single, Flying Nun Records, 2000)
- 6Twenty (Flying Nun Records / Infectious Records, 2001)
- Party (single, Infectious Records, 2002)
- Out of My Head (Flying Nun Records, 2005; vinyl reissue Warner Music, 2025)