Daan (band)

Daan is a Belgian band. It is a solo project from the Belgian singer-songwriter and musician Daniël (Daan) Stuyven. When the band acts live, it is composed of:

• Daan Stuyven (guitar)
• Geoffry Burton (guitar)
• Otti Van Der Werf (bass guitar)
• Isolde Lasoen (drums)
• Jeroen Swinnen (synthesizer)
• Jo Hermans (trumpet)

History

Profools

In 1999 the first cd Profools came out. It is a hard copy of songs from Stuyven that he recorded between 1993 and 1999. The influence of Dead Man Ray, Stuyven's previous project, can clearly still be felt, even though there are some electronic plays in the tracklist.

Bridge Burner

The second cd, Bridge Burner (2002), meant the great breakthrough. Partly this is thanks to the fact that Stuyven chooses to go more into the direction of electronically flavoured dance music. The dance number Swedish Designer Drugs grows out to become a club classic and the frontman gradually gathers a live band around himself, consisting of top musicians like Isolde Lasoen (drums, vibraphone and backing vocalist), opera singer Gregory Frateur, Jeroen Swinnen (synthesizer and backing vocalist), Steven Janssens (guitar), Otti Van Der Werf (bass guitar), and Jo Hermans (trumpet and backing vocalist).

Victory

In 2004 Victory came out. Daan further continues the way it went with Bridge Burner but pushes its artistical limits by experimenting with rock and dance. Also this cd turns out to be a smash hit: Stuyven obtains gold and top of this he wins the ZAMU Award for best album of 2004.^[1] The title song Victory and the instrumental dance track Housewife as well reach the gold status and deliver him a strong live reputation. He appears on numerous festivals, among others Rock Werchter 2004 where he ascends the main stage one year later.^[2]

Film music

In the second half of 2005 Cinema makes its appearance, a compilation cd with film music that Stuyven made for the cinema and TV films Verboden te zuchten, Meisje, Un honnête commercant and Suspect.

Camera, his first DVD, appears in the spring of 2006 and contains the AB-concert of December 2005, an RTBF documentary and a couple of video clips.

The Player

In November 2006 the fourth album came out, titled The Player (PIAS), that obtained gold within a year. The single with the same name became a hit in the Ultratop 50 purely based on the number of paid downloads. In the second single Promis Q Stuyven further investigates the limits of artistical accuracy and creates a bridge between the genres dance and German schlager.

ZAMU

At the ZAMU Awards of February 2007 Daan Stuyven is the only artist that achieves five nominations and two prizes. His The Player is rewarded as best video clip (DOP Carl Rottiers); the public selects the number as the best song of 2006.^[3][4][5]

Stuyven unexpectedly brings the evergreen song De lichtjes van de Schelde together with the composer Bobbejaan Schoepen, who gets awarded a Lifetime Achievement ZAMU Award himself. In March 2007 Stuyven drags the song in the final of the VRT-programme Zo is er maar één, in which the most beautiful song in Dutch is searched. It also becomes the usual encore during a tour in 2007, his largest musical tour until then.

In the summer of 2008 an extra tour through Belgium follows, shortly afterwards followed by an amount of concerts in which Stuyven makes proper and contemporary arrangements from forgotten work from the period of Volt, Dead Man Ray, Supermarx and Running Cow.

Manhay

On 25 April 2009 the fifth, Manhay was brought out. Synthesizers have a less prominent role then in earlier work of Stuyven here. Guitar, piano and singing take the lead. At the occasion of this new disk also a club tour through Flanders had place. In that year, the album stood interruptedly in Humo's top 20 of Belgian albums since it came out.

Music Industry Awards

On 8 January 2010 Stuyven and the group Absynthe Minded were the big winners of the 2009 MIA's, receiving four prizes each. Stuyven won the important MIA for best male solo artist and was also awarded prizes for best author/composer, best video clip with Exes and best graphical design with Manhay.^[6] At the MIA's 2010 Stuyven was again among the winners. On 7 January 2011 he obtained the MIA for best male solo artist, just like the year before.^[7]

Simple

This album came out on 26 November 2010. It mainly contains restyled versions of older titles of Daan, apart from two new numbers (Protocol and I'm What You Need). All numbers are executed by Daan (zang, piano, gitaar), Isolde Lasoen (drums, song) and cellist Jean-François Assy (cello, backing vocals). The album was accompanied by a tour, albeit without the entire live band, but just with Stuyven, Lasoen and Assy.

Concert and Le Franc Belge

In 2011 the album Concert came out. In April 2013 the album Le Franc Belge follows.

Years 2010

In December 2011 Daan gave a roof concert for the last edition of the Belgian charity action Music for life.

In August 2013 an incident occurred as Stuyven stood drunk on stage at the festival Linkerwoofer. After half an hour the band members left and the concert was entirely shut down.^[8] In October 2013 the single La Crise, a song reflecting the misery of the contemporary European economic crisis containing Greek music (Greece was among the most vulnerable countries), becomes infamous in Greece as some local media perceive it as an insult against the country.^[9] To clarify that he does not criticize Greece but only ironically chants about the European crisis in general, he also adds Greek subtitles in the YouTube-video.^[10]

Discography

^[11]

Albums

Singles

References

External links

• Official website