darling one year
photos courtesy of Daniel Gannaway
source AllAboutSurf.com
by Steve Ackerman
posted 2004-11-15
Daniel Gannaway revisited...
When it comes to music I usually tend to lean towards the harder side for my musical enjoyment. Since the late 70's I have consistently enjoyed hard rock, alternative and heavy metal. The 80's and 90's were no different. I have noticed that lately, mainstream American and UK music have become stale these last 5-10 years leaving me wanting something more. Last year, it was in the July '03 article in ProMusicNews that I heard Xavier Rudd, and I was blown away. Here was a young Australian musician with an energetic sound and style that sparked an evolution in my life.
I had never heard or wanted to hear anything I wasn't already accustomed to. Kind of like a kid who doesn't eat vegetables. It wasn't because they tried it and didn't like it but because it wasn't meat. Where is the beef? I realize now that I had been ignorant and closed-minded. That was then and this is now!
I have been blown away recently by all of the great new sounds I'm hearing. Stuff from the furthest reaches of the world. I still can't believe how much I had been missing all these years. Lately, I have been looking closely at alot of independent artists out there, and man, there is alot of great sounds coming at me. With the advancements of the Internet and the electronic frontier, the web has become an immense new vehicle for the spread of fresh and innovative ear candy just waiting to be heard...
This brings me to Daniel Gannaway. I first heard of Daniel when we were putting together the June '04 article in ProMusicNews earlier this year. I had the privilege of chatting with him and listening to all of his albums during our production. I found him to be a gifted, down-to-earth individual with an extraordinary talent for songwriting. He has a genuine ability to pour his thoughts, his views and his feelings deep into his music and it is simply inspirational. His music has an intense indie folk/rock melodic harmony and is written in a way that makes you think about the message he is sending rather than cramming it down your throat. Daniel's songs are written about concepts that affect the world that surrounds all of us including love, people, politics, the environment and much, much more... His music, as I said is truly ear candy at it's finest.
Photo by Glen Reeves - MaoriBay
Daniel Gannaway grew up in Gisborne, Auckland and Aotearoa [New Zealand]. Growing up in New Zealand, Daniel and his friends were into many different genres of music. From the Stones to Led Zep, Pink Floyd to Dylan, Cat Stevens to Joni Mitchell, he enjoyed just about anything that played.
During the '90s Daniel spent much of his time traveling to many places around the globe. "I lived in the UK and Amsterdam back before any musical inclination. I've traveled a bunch, though not always for music. Now when I look at the influence that all the travel has had on my music, it has permeated into the way in which I view the world, I see that things have a way of coming around."
When he decided to pick up the guitar, he was living with friends in Upstate New York. He was learning to play to music from bands like U2, Dave Mathews, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains... Daniel was quick to note, "It was hopeless, I was just ruining peoples ears, I gave that up and started junking around with my own writing, little ditties. I mean I'd been writing stuff, y'know train of thought stuff for a while by then."
Photo by Kat Raven - Temple Set List
"It was my friend Richard that dragged me from my room in Sydney, pushing me to play anywhere I could, even in front of people in living rooms. FINE BY ME [1998] came out of those experiences really."
One of Daniel's first public appearance was at the Temple Bar in Auckland, NZ, almost at the same time FINE BY ME was released. He remembers the event vividly, "I was nervous, I was sick beforehand. I have to thank Myles for pushing me into that first Temple gig, and Karen [owner of now closed down Temple Bar] who asked me to play again. It was a shame that the Temple had to close due to Noise Control. I wrote a song called 'Inner City Temples' in protest [a free download on my website]."
"When I last returned to Europe, it was because I had a graphic design job in Amsterdam. This tied in wonderfully with me wanting a change of scene for inspiration and for playing live again after kind of disappearing pre Bound and Suburban [2001]."
