(Download a PDF version of this biog here)
I am a singer and I have written some songs. I love to perform them when and wherever I am invited to, and sometimes when I’m not.
Journalists have described me as follows:
voice: ‘could pop the cork of a champagne bottle’,
lyrics: ‘brutally honest and run sinuously close to the bone’
melodies ‘plant themselves under your skin like jumping beans in the sun’
At least one of those statements is definitely not true, and quite frankly it all makes for quite painful listening. At this point you have two options, you can either stop reading, get your free downloads, and start listening to my stuff, or you can carry on as I list further feedback from fans and foe (does jimi know its been turned into something so boring?!)
Fan 1 (Female, approx 17 years) WE LOVE YOU!!! The male taylor swift!
Fan 2 (Female, Approx 45 years) You should be a comedian (serious expression)
Fan 3 (Radio DJ) You are a catalog artist in say, the James Taylor mode
Fan 4 (Male, approx 60 years) My son passed away 10 years ago and your song brought back a lot of memories
Fan 5 (Female, approx 35 years) It’s like you got inside my head, and knew about all of my relationships
Please have a listen and make your own mind up. The Balloon The Bubble & The Box. is a collection of 21 tracks recorded between Feb 2008 and Nov 2009 with an eclectic ensemble of musicians including BJ Cole (REM, STING) Andy Bole (GONG, CAPTAIN BEEFHEART) and Carina Round (PUSCFIER, EARLY WINTERS). The project was a real labour of love (self funded!) and I carefully chose my best songs to record.
There are other bits of info that musicians usually list in these sorts of things and I have decided to organize them into a list of facts. Please note this will probably not be of interest to you unless you are writing an article or something, so don’t bother reading –go and make a cup of tea or something.
- In Feb 2010 I was commissioned by the BBC to write a funeral song for a documentary presented by Ray Gosling.
- Long before that I was commissioned to write a song for Rangers Football Club
- In recent years I have played many live shows in wonderful theatres across the UK and supported a diverse range of wonderful musicians and artists including Peter Green & Friends, Diana Vickers, The Miserable Rich, Maria Mckee, Josh Ritter, Kate Walsh, Lykke Li, Ida Maria, Kaki King, Joseph Arthur, and Gary Go.
- As a working musician I have ‘paid my dues’ playing countless pubs, weddings, bartmitzhs, boat races, restaurants and a (massive and underground and dubious) private gentlemans club
- I currently live in Birmingham, was born in Wolverhampton, and studied music at Westminster University London (fellow students were The Feeling, Olly The Octopus, Wag, Pure Reason Revolution)
- In 1993 I was 13 when my first band (Oblivion…whats yours?) played a youth club gig at Wulfrun Hall Wolverhampton and Carina Round approached me back stage and proclaimed she was a far better singer than the one we had. Without a second thought Carina and I formed Stone Scream: we wrote music to accompany poetry about global warming and broke up when I played solos for too long…or something.
- 1997 –2000 I played guitar for Naomi, a unique writer who drew comparisons with Janis Joplin and PJ Harvey, check out her album Liquid on Gut Records. I think of this as my apprenticeship in music, she inspired me a lot.
- 2000 – 2004 I formed a rock band called Sonara, we played at the Reading Festival in 2003 and released a single “(I’ve Had Too Much To) Breathe” someone told me it reached no.76 in the charts. Not sure if this is true but it hasn’t stopped me telling the story thousands of times.
Quotes
“sensational!…
what makes me really angry, is if that song had Peter Gabriel’s name on the sleeve it would be hailed as a major return to form…..deserves a lot of respect”
- TOM ROBINSON BBC
“really, really gorgeous songs”
– JANICE LONG BBC
‘Having worked with Dan on a number of musical projects I have always found him honest, open hearted, sensitive and compassionate, attributes which permeate and inhabit every aspect of his music’
- CHIP BAILEY of DUKE SPECIAL
“one of the very best releases of the year. Never disappoints. Never loses its emotional intensity. Never ceases to surprise with its musical invention.”
– STEVE MORRIS WCR FM
“magnificent…absolutely brilliant” – ALEX BAKER KERRANG!
Contact
Email: dan@dan-whitehouse.com
Website: www.dan-whitehouse.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/mrdanwhitehouse
