One day in Dane Hartsell's young life, the pastor of his church looked at him and asked: "Dane, what do you want to be when you grow up?" His innocently response? "Famous." In that case, Dane Hartsell is blessed beyond belief, and he is quite aware of it. This lucky young man seems to be exactly where preparation and opportunity meet, and is travelling steadily towards actualizing his young aspirations with his contemporary rock music.
Growing up in Woodstock, Ontario, but finding a new foundation in Toronto remarkably fast for a rock vocalist seeking any status above starving artist, Dane has come a long way in a short time. His vocal training came from sessions in his hometown holy tabernacle, where so many of history's great singers are born, as well as being inspired by his older brother Clayton to pick up the guitar and play around with it, but he eventually moved to Toronto to reach higher ground. Quickly going through the phases of rock star evolution, he played in a band with high school friends, played dive bars in and out of town, toured in parent's vehicles, and then travelled to the big city to record a demo.
College introduced Dane to more musical influences; Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor, on top of his young inspirations like Supertramp, and Bob Marley. At 21, he also began exploring hard rock, metal and hip hop rhythms and ideas, taking his music to new places. After a year in music theatre school, he moved on, fortuitously meeting his current manager Cynthia Wilson, drummer Shamakah and bass player Calvin Beale. Their chemistry was instantly complementary, and Dane went from watching them jam nightly, to doing guest spots, to performing his own solo gigs, to touring with Eva Avila, the 2007 Canadian Idol winner, in remarkable time. Dane was then blessed to sing for soul diva Divine Brown at a Hurricane Katrina benefit concert, where Divine connected a few more dots, making some pivotal introductions to Dane's career.
He began working with Chris Smith Management, who are currently preparing to spread Dane's music from Toronto across the world. They are collectively deciding the shape of his debut album, as is John Levine of the Philosopher Kings, another one of Dane's heroes, now collaborating with him on his emotional ballads and energetic anthems.
Never too far in the dark to lose sight of the light of his goal, yet tested by enough difficulty to appreciate everything that sustained him to this point, Dane has been gifted with the rock and roll storybook fable of finding good fortune as he is accumulating the fame he has sought since his virtuous voice soared through the upper chambers of the church. God seems to have wonderfully blessed Dane Hartsell, an honour he's sure to return to all on his first official musical offering.
