ILL NINO Drummer Is A First-Time Father

ILL NINO drummer Dave Chavarri became the proud father of a daughter, Tiana Lee Chavarri, who was born on January 22, 2010 at 9:24 a.m., weighing in at 7 pounds (see photo below).

"I have been wanting to be a dad for a while, and I am ready," Chavarri told AOL's Noisecreep. "Becoming a father makes you more focused on being a better person and more keen to what your child's needs. People do change and you don't think of yourself, but for the child 24/7 for the next several years.

"I noticed me and my girl speak about it. You appreciate your parents more when you are going to be a parent. You think, 'This is what my mom went through for nine months before I was born? These mood swings and discomfort?' As you become a parent, you see what is going to happen. My parents went through a lot of shit to raise me, so it becomes a different bond with your parents later in life."

ILL NINO is once again seeking a new label home following the band's split with Cement Shoes Records, which released 2008's "Enigma". According to Chavarri, the group has "three offers on the table" and is "seeing what is best for the band" after selling 80,000 copies worldwide of its last CD "with no backup in America."

ILL NINO is scheduled to spend the next couple of months in pre-production in New Jersey. "We will be there until the end of April," Chavarri told Noisecreep. "We will jam, add some tunes. We're starting with 20 songs and will write 20 more and then take the best 15 so we have variety."

Professionally filmed video footage of ILL NINO performing the song "If You Still Hate Me" in Ekaterinburg, Russia in March 2009 can be viewed below (note: the footage was shot for, and aired on, MTV Russia during the second leg of ILL NINO's "Enigma" world tour).

ILL NINO parted ways with Roadrunner Records in 2006 — less than a year after the release of ILL NINO's third album, "One Nation Underground".