Dan Mangan

Wikipedia:

Daniel Mangan (born April 28, 1983) is a Canadian indie folk-rock singer-songwriter.

Early life

Mangan was born in Smithers, British Columbia. His family moved often, residing in both the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia, but primarily in his current home town of Vancouver. Raised in a household where instruments were always available, music became an obvious pastime for Mangan and his two siblings. He was influenced by his parents' record collection, especially the music of Nick Drake and The Beatles. At sixteen, Mangan started a band called Basement Suite with some fellow classmates and played gigs at local community centres.

Recording career

In 2003, at 20 years old, Mangan completed his first set of recordings: an EP of simply recorded acoustic songs called All at Once. Five hundred copies were pressed and sold or given away throughout the Vancouver area while Mangan was attending the University of British Columbia, where he was a member of Phi Gamma Delta. With a bank loan and a small community of musicians who would offer cheap or free sessions, Mangan recorded Postcards & Daydreaming in the summer of 2005 with local British ex-pat Daniel Elmes and good friend Simon Kelly. Mangan released the album independently at first, selling the album online and at live shows. In July 2007, Vancouver-based independent record label File Under: Music picked up the LP and re-released the album with new artwork and an extra track, "Ash Babe". The following March, the record was released in Australia by ABC/Warner.

In March 2009, File Under: Music released another short-play recording called Roboteering EP, containing songs from Mangan's forthcoming album Nice, Nice, Very Nice. The album was recorded in Toronto at Green Door Studios with producer John Critchley, and featured an assortment of other Canadian artists such as Veda Hille, Justin Rutledge, Mark Berube, Hannah Georgas and members of Said The Whale, Major Maker, and Elliott Brood. Five months later, Nice, Nice, Very Nice was released in Canada. After years of steady touring, and with his second full-length release, Mangan was starting to get noticed across his home country. The first two singles from his second full-length, "Robots" and "Road Regrets" earned airplay on local Vancouver radio stations, as well as on satellite radio stations such as The Verge and CBC Radio 3. The album name was inspired by a line from American novelist Kurt Vonnegut's book Cat's Cradle, while musically Nice, Nice, Very Nice has been compared to Chad VanGaalen and Bon Iver.

In September 2009, Mangan was awarded "Artist of the Year" at the Verge Music Awards. In 2010, Nice, Nice, Very Nice was licensed and released by Toronto based independent record label Arts & Crafts in Europe and the United States, garnering a larger international presence for Mangan's music. In September 2010, the album was shortlisted by a jury of 200 Canadian journalists, music critics and media personnel for the Polaris Music Prize, which seeks to award the "best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label". Other shortlisted nominees included Karkwa (winner of the prize), Broken Social Scene, Caribou, Owen Pallett, The Besnard Lakes, Tegan and Sara, Shad, The Sadies and Radio Radio.

Mangan and his band have been recording with Vancouver based producer/engineer Colin Stewart, working toward a third full-length album. On May 28, 2011, Mangan officially announced the title of the new album as being Oh Fortune to his audience at the Sasquatch! Music Festival. He has been playing several songs from the forthcoming album live, including the title track, "Post-War Blues" and "Rows of Houses", which was inspired by the film Stand By Me. The album was released on September 27 in North America.

At the 2012 Juno Awards, Mangan was awarded New Artist of the Year and Alternative Album of the Year for Oh Fortune, and was also nominated for Songwriter of the Year for "About as Helpful As You Can Be Without Being Any Help at All", "Post-War Blues" and "Oh Fortune" and Video of the Year for the music video for "Rows of Houses", directed by Jon Busby.

Touring

After years of touring solo internationally, Mangan now generally tours with a band composed of a collection of musicians from Vancouver and Toronto, including guitarist Gord Grdina (Gord Grdina Trio), drummer Kenton Loewen (The Crackling), bassists John Walsh (Brasstronaut) and Colin Cowan (Analog Bell Service), and brass players Shaun Brodie (The Hidden Cameras), Bryden Baird (Feist), and JP Carter (Fond of Tigers). Mangan has also toured with Australian musicians Cameron Potts and Lee Carey, playing lead guitar and drums respectively, both from the Sydney band Dead Letter Chorus. Aidan Knight also has appeared as Mangan's guitarist in the past.

The band often plays in Canada, USA, Europe and Australia, and has shared stages with a wide array of artists such as The Walkmen, Japandroids, Broken Social Scene, Holy Fuck, Julian Casablancas, Timber Timbre, Sarah Harmer, The Broken Family Band, Elliott Brood, The Acorn, Patrick Watson, Jenn Grant, Brett Dennen, Mother Mother, Geoff Berner, Great Lake Swimmers, Basia Bulat, Veda Hille, Hannah Georgas, Charlie Parr and Hey Rosetta!.

Mangan has been invited to perform at many international music festivals including: