Soundpost is a party band serving the greater Dallas Fort Worth metroplitan area of Texas. The band, comprised of full-time cast of six members, performs regularly at weddings, parties, dances, and other social gatherings. Soundpost is able to play a wide variety of songs of varying styles in order to meet the specific musical requirements of an event. Read on to learn about the band members.

Dave West, lead singer for Soundpost, couldn't imagine what it would be like to not have music in his life. In addition to singing, he enjoys playing the violin, guitar and piano. His musical journey began at the age of 10 when he started playing the violin with the school string program in Tupelo, Mississippi. After a couple of years playing Brahms, Beethoven, and Bach, he was introduced to fiddle by one of his fellow orchestra students and another world of music opened up. Before going to college, Dave was playing violin professionally to pick up some much needed spending money. A full music scholarship to Sewanee was available but he felt that a career in music wouldn't "pay the bills," so he packed his suitcase and headed off to Los Angeles for college. It was during college that Dave joined a performance group named the "Young Ambassadors" that really helped him shape his singing skills. Performing for the Queen of Thailand was one of the highlights of his stint with the group.

After college Dave helped form a L.A. cover/party band named "Secret Spice." Dave was the lead singer for the group and performed with them until just before he and his wife and new daughter moved from California to Kentucky. It was in Lexington that he was able to break out his fiddle and join in with the locals playing bluegrass. In 1995, the West family (including a second daughter born in KY) moved to Fort Worth. A few short years later Dave received his MBA and was finally in a position to do something he really loved, perform with a live band again.

Oliver Hooser
Oliver, vocalist for Soundpost, has been singing everywhere from Cowtown to Carnegie. At Kennedale High School, his musical endeavors included everything from singing in the choir, playing french horn in band, to performing lead in musicals. While in high school, he traveled with the choir to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York.

While attending Ambassador University, he joined the Young Ambassadors and took part in several performance tours for churches across the country. He also studied music at Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth while getting his Bachelors of Business Administration in Marketing. At TCU, Oliver sang with the Concert Chorale and performed with the TCU Opera. However, he didn't totally convert to the operatic style, but also used his golden cords to sing show tunes and jazz while working as a singing waiter at the Italian Inn Ridglea during college. Today, in addition to singing with Soundpost, Oliver enjoys performing with the Plano Civic Chorus and is the choir director at the United Church of God Dallas congregation.

David Whitlark
David Whitlark, guitarist for Soundpost, whose career-defining musical achievement was "a delightfully painful improvisation" of three measures of Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" at a 6th grade piano recital, brings a wealth of musical skills and abilities to Soundpost, including "the ability to lose newly printed sheet music in under 30 seconds." While Mr. Whitlark certainly appreciates participating with Soundpost in their fleeting dreams of rock 'n roll stardom, he is contented at the current time to wear black leather pants, spike his hair, and play on the weekends, while still working in the "real world" as a network engineer, database administrator, web designer, computer graphics artist etc. at a Metroplex-based media development company.

When not practicing the never-ending torrent of new cover songs assigned to him, David can most likely be found playing X-Box for hours on end while sampling only the "finest" beers that, to the average Coors Light drinker, resemble and taste like dirty motor oil.

Mike Whitlark
Mike, bass guitarist for Soundpost, claims that he was forced as a young child to take piano lessons for what he quotes as "four long years." He hated pretty much every minute of it, but credits the piano lessons as having taught him the basics of music. This musical background allowed him to pick up other instruments quickly, like the trumpet and trombone, which he played in junior high school. His next musical conquest was the bass guitar, which he taught himself to play in two weeks. He played his five-stringed bass for two years in the Northwest High School Jazz Band.

College and working to pay for it didn't leave Mike with much time for bass guitar and the pursuit of a band, so he stuck with playing at church on occasion. Now that he has graduated from UNT with a B.A. in Biochemistry, he finally has the time and a great group to jam with. Mike plans to pursue a Doctorate of Pharmacy at University of Texas in Austin beginning in the Fall 2003 semester. Needless to say, he and his wife (the keyboardist) will be making a lot of trips back up to the Metroplex for band practice on the weekends.

Davina Whitlark
Davina, keyboardist for Soundpost, begged her parents for a piano from the time she was 8. Whenever she would go to anyone's house that had a piano, she would sit down and pretend to play. Perhaps playing the flute in the school band starting in 5th grade should have knocked the yearning for piano out of her, but it never really did. When Davina was 12, her parents secretly purchased their minister's old piano for $300, and surprised her with it when she came home from a friend's house one weekend. She would like to say that it was beautiful, but it was missing some of the ivories in the extreme high and low registers and generally looked rough. But it didn't matter that she had to dodge splinters from the bare keys because her dream had come true: she had a piano!

She has been playing ever since and loving it. During her time pursuing a BS in Music Therapy from Texas Woman's University, she picked up playing the guitar. Davina graduated with honors from TWU in December 2002 and is returning once again to the university grind in January 2003 to pursue a teaching certificate in Music Education. In addition to being a student, Davina is also a teacher, currently instructing 16 piano students. She actively accompanies soloists, choirs, and instrumentalists at her local church congregation, as well as plays for banquets, weddings, and other functions.

Jose Rodriguez
Jose, drummer for Soundpost, was very young when music began to make an impact on him. He remembers playing records on his dad's phonograph, listening to everything from Tchaikovsky to Tejano. He first started to beat a drum at age 4, when his mom bought an old snare drum at a garage sale. He enthusiastically beat the skin to a pulp, but shied away from playing in front of a crowd, now proclaiming himself to be a recovering "closet drummer." He recalls his first "drum set" as consisting of an aluminum trashcan (snare), several plastic plant pots (toms), and the lids of the trashcans (cymbals), but even playing on this rudimentary drum set did wonders for his timing and rhythm.

Jose credits his dad, Ray Rodriguez, accordionist who on occasion plays with Soundpost, as having a major influence on him and instilling in him an overall love for music, along with Adam Garza, drummer for a well-known Tejano band. Outside of music, he enjoys the outdoors, baseball, basketball, "his" Dallas Cowboys, golf, golf, and golf! His wife and three kids are his pride and joy and his biggest fans.

Song List