Dominic "Tourettes" Hoey

aka Tourettes


Dominic Hoey has taken many roles during his time in the local creative scene, starting out as a punk drummer, before starting his rap career as Tourettes, then moving into spoken word, poetry, and writing a novel. He began rapping at eight years old, joining his friends in rhyming along to NWA and Ice T records. Hip hop didn’t seem a realistic pursuit though, and by high school he had switched to drumming.

“I was about 14 and my mates were already playing music. There was already a guitarist and bass player so I started playing drums. I got lessons, but it was off a dude who is an amazing drummer but it was all marching shit. So it wasn’t really that applicable to playing punk beats. We would’ve been 16 or 17 when we started playing punk shows with Balance and Nothing At All!. I was in bands called Pink Youth and Scrumptious, plus a few others where we only played a few shows. Then Witness – we did a lot of shows. I was rapping the whole time, but it wasn’t until Witness broke up that I started doing that more seriously.”

Tourettes - The New New Zealand
Tourettes - No Losers @ Winz
Ra and Dominic Hoey, high school days.
Dominic Hoey.
Photo credit: Paul Taylor
Tourettes - Out Of Water feat. Anna Coddington
Cyphanetik and Tourettes.
Cyphanetik and Tourettes.
Tourettes, Bishop, Tyson Tyler
J1 and Tek Swift from R.E.S with Tourettes, Bishop and DJ Substance on the Breakin Wreck tour of Australia.
Kase, Saia, Louie Knuxx, Bishop, Tourettes, Cyphanetic, Al, Res.
Tourettes performing live on Top of the Pops NZ with Deus and Fiasco.
Tourettes' debut album, The Misadventures of Johnny Favourite.
Dominic Hoey on arts show The Gravy (2008)
Tourettes performing John Key's Son Is A DJ, Splore, 2015
Labels:

Breakin Wreckwordz


Shock


Rhythmethod


Round Trip Mars

Trivia:

Dominic Hoey's book, Iceland, is featured on the longlist in fiction category for the 2018 Ockham New Zealand National Book Awards.

In 2012, Tourettes rapped on the Home Brew track, 'Listen To Us', which attacked the National government of the day (Matthew Crawley and Esther Williams also featured on the song).

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