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 Singer songwriter Daniel Powter grew up in Vernon,
in the Okanagan Valley
region of British Columbia.
With few local musical influences, he credits his early exposure to music to
his mother, who is a pianist, “My mom’s a great piano player; she started me
when I was four years old. I would love to back and work with her.”
Daniel Powter's first
piano pop single, "Bad Day" debuted not in his home country of
Canada, but rather in Europe in mid-2005, “I have no idea where I got
inspiration for this song; it kind of did its own thing when I put my fingers
to the keyboard. It wasn’t even a bad day!” "Bad Day" has become the
most downloaded song in the States which he never predicted, “When I wrote the
record I was with my friends in a small apartment making music, I wasn’t really
thinking that it should be the biggest downloaded record.” It was chosen by
Warner Brothers as a submission for commercial production and was subsequently
chosen by Coca-Cola as the theme song for an ad campaign in Europe.
Additionally, "Bad Day" was used extensively by American Idol in its
fifth season. Powter sang the song live at the end of the penultimate show of
that season on May 23, 2006.
The song achieved heavy airplay in most European countries, and made it as high
as number three on the overall European airplay chart. It did best in Germany, where it peaked at number one in
national airplay, Ireland
where it peaked at #1 on the Singles Chart and #2 in the UK. Daniel has written songs for
years and although he is dyslexic it has not hindered his talent at all, “My
dyslexia hasn’t affected my music, reading music and dyslexia don’t really
relate. Many people play music without knowing how to read it anyway.” Being
quite a humble artist when asked about how he feels to be a talented writer his
comment is simple, “Less is more. I’ve had a lot of time to grow and I’m not
really a great writer I still need to improve but I’m working at it.”
Being an artist with
almost two million hits on his MySpace he says, “I don’t care if I would have
made it without my deal. I made the record before I got signed and that’s
different.” He believes the deal got him to the right places to be seen but he
is relying on his music to keep him around, not his record deal. There are
certain things Daniel finds difficult about being a celebrity, “I get
desperately lonely all the time. But I get paid to be in the airports and
hotels so I’m happy really” and his family life has been affected due to his
success, “I never see my f*cking family ever! I haven’t seen my parents in
about a year, seriously.” Apart from the loneliness issue, he’s had a great
time being a performer and he certainly gets around, “Live 8 has definitely
been my most memorable performance to date, it was amazing and very fulfilling.
Somebody just asked me to do it and I had to.” Daniel can be shy and timid and
his new-found celebrity is something that he still has to come to terms with,
“Wearing hats was a way for me to hide and run away from everything. Now I
think it’s the thing that people recognise the most, don’t worry about the
music just look at the hat.”
“Bad Day” may have
been a Pop/Rock song but Daniel has had a far from easy path that he has had to
travel and has learned from many mistakes on the way, “Being in rehab (for cocaine addiction) was a place for me to go and get right with the
world, it was great. I needed to do it to survive. Being addicted takes a lot
out of you and the music I do now is something I’ve replaced it with. I’m
exhausted but I’m happy to finally be sober. For me it was life or death and it
was a dark time.” With that dark period gone but not forgotten he is ready for
more successes in the music world with his light grooves and his
singer/songwriter double threat.
On a different note, he
thinks it would be an absurd idea for him to become involved with hip hop and
wants to stick to what he does best, “I’ve never thought of doing a hip hop
influenced track but I think that would be interesting for me – some white guy
from Canada. That’s the best question I’ve been asked!”
The single Jimmy is released on 21st August and Daniel Powter also performs at V Festival this weekend.
Official website:www.danielpowter.com
www.myspace.com/danielpowter
Words:Rashmi Shastri
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