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Daniel Mangan (born April 28, 1983) is a Canadian musician. He has won two Juno Award and has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and Australia, having released 5 studio LPs and numerous EPs and singles. He has scored for feature film, as well as television for Netflix and AMC. He is also a co-founder of Side Door, a marketplace platform connecting artists with alternative venue spaces for in-person & online shows.
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 the United States and Europe (via City Slang). The album was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize. Nice, Nice, Very Nice was also awarded "iTunes Album Of The Year" for the Singer/Songwriter category and won three Western Canadian Music Awards for "Independent Album Of The Year", "Roots/Solo Album Of The Year" and "Songwriter Of The Year". "Robots" was named "Best Song" by the CBC Radio 3 BUCKY Awards.
On November 15, 2019, Dan Mangan and Arts & Crafts released the 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Nice, Nice, Very Nice. The 2-LP vinyl collection features previously unreleased demos and b-sides. The package includes an essay by Mangan about making the album and its commercial success.
Oh Fortune was recorded over six months throughout the 2010-11 winter with producer Colin Stewart (Black Mountain, Ladyhawk, Yukon Blonde), the band recorded in short spurts at The Hive Creative Labs between tours and at Mangan's own home, coined "National Park Studios". It was released in September, 2011 in North America by Arts & Crafts, with releases in the following months in Europe by City Slang and in Australia via ABC Records. The album received extensive critical acclaim internationally and demonstrated the beginning of a new, more experimental era in Mangan's musical career.
In November 2011, Mangan was the subject of the CBC documentary What Happens Next?, directed and produced by Brent Hodge and Jon Siddall. It follows Mangan in the lead up to his sold-out show at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver.
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 and Video of the Year for the music video for "Rows of Houses", directed by Jon Busby.
Oh Fortune was also long-listed for the 2012 Polaris Music Prize and received three Western Canadian Music Awards for "Rock Album of the Year", "Independent Album of the Year", and "Songwriter of the Year". To boot, "Rows of Houses" was named "Best Song" by the CBC Radio 3 Bucky Awards. Mangan has won six Buckys to date, the most winning artist in the award's history, and is the only artist to win "Best Song" more than once.
Club Meds was met with a wildly positive critical reception but a less overall popular one than Oh Fortune. The album received 4 Stars from The Guardian, The Observer & Q, and 8/10 from Drowned In Sound & Uncut, leading to a Metacritic score of 79. Alexis Petridis featured the LP as a must-hear album and Guitarist says of Club Meds, "Just 13 days into 2015, Dan Mangan + Blacksmith fired a compelling early salvo in the album of the year stakes." and one Canadian blogger writes, "Club Meds is singlehandedly proving that the LP format is not only alive, but worth fighting for. It is proof that a well crafted record is more than a collection of well crafted songs. Club Meds is a unified whole, tackling some of the most important problems in our collective lives. It is not simply the best album of 2015, but one of the most emotionally compelling albums of the last decade."
Adam Feibel wrote for Exclaim! Magazine, "In stark contrast with the intricate, full-bodied arrangements of Mangan's last couple records, More or Less is so deliberately soft, warm, cozy and minimal that it makes even Nice, Nice, Very Nice sound loud and busy." Feibel goes on to say, "The sleeper hit here is "Lay Low," a song about taking time for yourself that, fittingly, features almost nothing but Mangan's own voice — and even then it's barely more than a whisper. It could be chilling if it wasn't so comforting. And while "Troubled Mind" is undoubtedly boisterous, it's the outlier." About "Troubled Mind" Mangan has said "...it’s funny. It’s pretty upbeat, but the lyrical content is not exactly sunny, shiny or lovey-dovey, so at first you never know how it’s gonna be received...it’s really cool to see people gravitate towards it."
About the album as a whole, Mangan says, "“witnessing birth, and in some ways rebirth. It’s about feeling disconnected from a popular identity and becoming acclimated to a new one. It’s about raising kids in a turbulent world. It’s about unanswerable questions and kindness and friendship and fear.”
In April 2019, Mangan, "the man known as the nicest guy on the Vancouver music scene" performed two songs ("Troubled Mind" and "Just Fear") from the album on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Both songs were eventually announced as part of the tracklisting for his seventh studio album, Being Somewhere.Scott Lewis, "Dan Mangan announces new LP, shares single ‘Just Know It’". CIND-FM, September 14, 2022. The album was released in 2022, and was shortlisted for the 2023 Polaris Music Prize. "Polaris Music Prize short list: Feist, Daniel Caesar, Debby Friday among contenders". Toronto Star, July 13, 2023.
In 2024 he released Being Elsewhere Mix, an album inspired by which blended rerecorded acoustic versions of some songs from Being Somewhere with several songs he had already released as standalone singles, including "Say When", "Sleep on the Floor" and "Find New Ways".Sydney Brasil, "Dan Mangan Announces 'Being Elsewhere Mix CD'". Exclaim!, July 30, 2024.
Between the Club Meds and More or Less album cycles, Mangan scored the music for the Netflix animated show, Hilda, including the ending theme, as well as the CBC Television/AMC mini-series, Unspeakable.
Mangan and his business partner Laura Simpson appeared in a Season 17 episode of Dragons' Den, pitching for an investment in his online concert platform Side Door.Courtney Dickinson, "Juno Award winner Dan Mangan took his Side Door project to the Dragons — and got an offer". CBC News British Columbia, November 10, 2022. They secured a deal from Arlene Dickinson.
On Canada Day in 2011 Mangan performed for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Dan Mangan (or Dan Mangan + Blacksmith) have been invited to perform at many international music festivals including:
Mangan's March 13, 2020 show at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, Ontario was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, Mangan and his band played a half-hour set to the empty hall, which Mangan streamed on YouTube the following Monday as "Show to Nobody".Richard Trapunski, "Dan Mangan livestreams his cancelled Danforth Music Hall show". Now, March 16, 2020.
In December 2021 he announced his first significant national tour since the pandemic shutdown, with Georgia Harmer as the opening act.Allie Gregory, "Dan Mangan Maps Out 2022 Canadian Tour". Exclaim!, December 6, 2021.
Mangan studied at the University of British Columbia, earning a BA in English Literature.
He lives in Vancouver with his wife Kirsten Slenning and two children.
Touring
With various collections of musicians, Mangan has toured extensively throughout Europe, North America and Australia. They've shared stages with Father John Misty, The Walkmen, Japandroids, Jeff Mangum, Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Missy Elliott, Kendrick Lamar, Lucinda Williams, Broken Social Scene, Tune-Yards, Arlo Guthrie, José González, Junip, Stars, Marina And The Diamonds, Phox, Sharon Van Etten, Run The Jewels, Hot Chip, Cake, Metric, The Decemberists, Julian Casablancas, Timber Timbre, Sarah Harmer, The Broken Family Band, Elliott Brood, The Acorn, Alison Krauss, Howe Gelb, Jackson Browne, Bowerbirds, The head and the heart, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Blind Pilot, Patrick Watson, Jenn Grant, Brett Dennen, KD Lang, Mother Mother, Great Lake Swimmers, Basia Bulat, Veda Hille, Hannah Georgas, Charlie Parr, Bear's Den, Hey Rosetta!, The Shins, Sam Roberts Band, Jason Collett, Bahamas, Rich Aucoin, Zeus, Macklemore, Vampire Weekend, City & Colour, Yukon Blonde, Sondre Lerche, Warpaint, Other Lives, Suuns, Spoon, Tegan and Sara, Lucius.
Personal life
Mangan's family moved often, residing in both the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia, but primarily in his current residence of Vancouver. 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 classmates and played gigs at local community centres. Though his family had returned to Vancouver by age two, he was born in Smithers, British Columbia.
Discography
Studio albums
2005 Postcards & Daydreaming
2009 Nice, Nice, Very Nice
2011 Oh Fortune
2015 Club Meds (credited as Dan Mangan + Blacksmith)
2018 More or Less
2020 Thief
2022 Being Somewhere
2024 Being Elsewhere Mix
2025 Natural Light
EPs
2003 All At Once
2009 Roboteering
2012 Radicals
2016 Unmake
Appearances
2015 Astral Swans with Dan Mangan "You Are A Runner & I Am My Father's Son" (Wolf Parade cover) Good People Rock 2018 Astral Swans "Controls" Strange Prison
See also
External links
Categories: 1983 Births, Arts & Crafts Productions Artists, Canadian Folk Rock Musicians, Canadian Folk Singer-songwriters, Canadian Indie Rock Musicians, Canadian Male Singer-songwriters, Canadian Rock Singers, Living People, Musicians From British Columbia, People From Smithers, British Columbia, Canadian Film Score Composers, Canadian Male Film Score Composers, Juno Award For Alternative Album Of The Year Winners, Canadian Indie Folk Musicians, Juno Award For Breakthrough Artist Of The Year Winners, City Slang Artists, 21st-century Canadian Male Singers, 21st-century Canadian Singer-songwriters
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