Dan is here to discuss his world of music and travels.

Norm:

When did your passion for music begin? What keeps you going?

Dan: I can't quite remember when my passion began. It seems to have been an inborn appreciation. My earliest memories are of listening to old records and 8-track recordings that my parents had kicking around house - anything from Kenny Rogers to Neil Diamond sparked my interest at time. My father played piano, and I always loved listening to his romantic, albeit, slightly schmaltzy touch. I'd press my ear against soundboard to get most out of vibrations.

Norm:

Who were musicians that influenced you?

Dan:

There are too many to mention; but if I had to narrow it down, I'd say, in order of appearance: The Beatles, The Who, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, my uncle Issac, Classical guitar repertoire including Bach and most of Spanish composers, Joni Mitchell, Jim Hall, Bill Frisell and on and on.I'm currently into Wilco, Joanna Newsom, Lisa Germano, to name a few.

Norm:

When on tour, do you notice any differences in audiences from one city to next, and if so, would you say that this may due to their geographical location. For example, how would you compare audiences in Vancouver to those in Toronto or Montreal insofar as your music is concerned?

Dan: Yes, I'd say main difference lies in how saturated market is. In Calgary, for instance, where there isn't as much traffic in terms of touring bands, I tend to get a warmer and more appreciative reception than in Toronto, where, although I play plenty of great gigs, audiences are somewhat numbed by sheer volume of musicians around. Then again, performances are always different and anything I think is rule is always put into question as soon as I play an unexpectedly great gig in least likely situation.

Norm:

What challenges or obstacles do you encounter while traveling and performing? How did you overcome these challenges?

Dan: I get nervous a lot. I'm fine when I'm actually performing, but I generally get stressed a couple of hours before show. It's really important for me to eat and rest appropriately so that stress doesn't take a toll on my performances. I generally try to put aside a certain amount of time every day that I'm on tour to warming up or to my sitting (meditation) practice.

Norm:

Which is your favorite city to perform in? Why?

Dan: I can't say that I have one. Anywhere where people are receptive and supportive becomes best city.

Norm

How do you get inspiration for your song and music writing?

In not-so-distant future TV as we know it, will cease to exist. This is going to have huge ramifications on whole of human society, or at least so-called 'wealthy' countries that sit in front of 'magic-story-box' religiously everyday. I say 'so-called' because we obviously measure wealth in terms of material gain and not internal peace or gratitude for life. When television first appeared, like telephone (see last article on changing world of voice-communication: 'Internet nerds are actually secret prophets who change way our world works. Check out Skype, a type of future communication technology.') TV was an incredible addition to our collective reality. However, we are in 'Information Age' and this means that ways we do things as a species are changing faster than you can say, "Humans humorously hunt for humble hints at how to have more happiness."

The coming of Internet spells end of television era, and this could also mean end of years of walking around with mindless advertising jingles in your head. The other day when I was washing dishes I absent-mindedly started to sing slogan from one of my local TV channels, "Bringing it home to you." If these silly songs are what they bring home to me, I am going to quite happy when they're gone. Thankfully, as TV shows are already putting episodes on-line these hard-core advertising techniques may soon disappear altogether. TV on Internet means many things for viewer. As show is coming straight to you instead of through old channel medium, you can have more control of show, with elements of video, like pause and rewind coming into play. Watching a show straight through without commercials sounds like a godsend indeed. TV websites will still need corporate sponsorship for promotion elsewhere, so concept of 'product placement' that has already come into play will most probably evolve further, especially in case of International companies whose products are available universally. Hopefully these 'placements' don't go too far from reality thus taking us metaphorically back to times of 'canned' laughter and obviously contrived dialogue.