We recently welcomed David, our new Senior Data Analyst to the Omnisis team. 

What were you doing before you joined Omnisis?

I worked at Which? Magazine for eight years. Whilst I was there, I did mostly survey scripting and bits of journalism and policy. I also used to work with Mike (Omnisis Mike!) at Join The Dots, then I later worked at C_Space and Kantar World Panel. Before I started my career, I went to the University of Manchester and studied a degree in Maths. I fell into market research – it was 2010, we were in a recession and one of my friends who worked in Market Research suggested that I should give it a go, and here we are! It’s really satisfying when I get to nail a complex technical survey. Some aspects of that aren’t too different to the logic I did in my maths degree.

If you were stuck on a desert island and you could bring three people to join you, dead or alive, real or fictional, who would you pick?

I love the band Mastodon (Yes Mike, I’m still obsessed with them), so I’d choose the three surviving original members – Troy Sanders, Brann Dailor and Bill Kelliher. They’ve just released their latest album, which is the first since their lead guitarist Brent Hinds sadly died last year. They seem like they’d be chill guys to speak to, so I could really nerd out and ask them how they created certain tracks on the new album. I also play guitar, so theoretically we could have a jam!

Describe your ideal weekend

I haven’t been abroad since 2019, so I’d love to jump on the Eurostar and go to Paris, or maybe Bruges or fly to Spain. There’s a famous French metal band called Gojira (you’re probably sensing a theme here) and they played the Olympic opening ceremony in Paris – I’d love to go and see the venue, visit the Louvre, the Arc De Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. It’s weird, I live in London and so I could get to Paris in two hours on the Eurostar but I just haven’t done it yet!

Favourite film, book and podcast?

My favourite film is The Dark Knight. I think my favourite book is Soul Music by Terry Pratchett – it’s a love letter to 50s and 60s rock and pop music. My favourite podcast is The Downbeat Podcast – it’s mainly about metal music (no surprises there). The host is a drummer, and he interviews musicians. The guests seem to enjoy it because typically, if they’re getting interviewed about albums by the music press, that’s all they get to talk about – whereas this podcast is just an informal chat on random topics instead of promoting an album.

And lastly, what’s your favourite place that you’ve travelled to?

I went to Seattle and Vancouver in 2018. In Seattle, we did the grunge tour. Our Tour Guide was around at the start of the 90s and she drove us around Seattle to show us famous sights like Kurt Cobain’s house. She was very chaotic and a real character, but in a good way. In Vancouver, I went to visit one of my friends and her new dog but we also found time for some brewery tours and BBQ restaurants. I used to do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, so her partner took me to his gym where we were able to burn off a few holiday beers!