Dean Haitani

Dean Haitani Bio….
“A prolific artist”, “an exquisitely polished musician of depth & craft”, A musical craftsman & performer”, “Dean is one the the true talents of the Australian music scene”.
These are words that have been used to describe world-class musician, Dean Haitani.
Born ..Sept, 15, 1974.., Dean was born to parents of Japanese/Hawaiian & Australian/German decent.
Being closely related to musically to Van,Morrison, Dave Matthews, Jonathan Butler, Amos Lee, Albert Collins & Dallas Green is a broad-minded person who is not afraid to cross musical genres.
Dean draws heavily from his parents talents. His father being a piano, piano accordion, harmonica player & an articulate poet,
& his mothers voice, “Having a voice of an angel” as Dean describes her.
As a child, Dean was exposed to the music of the 1920’s onwards through his father’s record & reel to reel collections. He listened many artists of country,classical,jazz, & folk music- he could also not help being exposed to Japanese music that his mother would sing around the house as well.
Even before Dean was a musician he had a solid grounding for all types of music.
Dean started singing at the age of four (to his parents surprise) & at 5 began to learn to play guitar & piano. At the age of 8 got his first guitar( a battered nylon string that was almost impossible to tune).
At the age of 13 a guitar teacher(Steve Brown) became available-Dean’s career as a musician was born.
The first point of guitar influence & introduction to blues music(one of the most prominent styles of Dean’s versatile guitar style) was B.B.Kings “Live In Cook County” Album(1971-Geffen).
Practicing 10 hours a day, Dean Submerged himself in any music he could get his hands on.
Major music influences include: Mark Knofler, Stevie Ray Vaughan,Tommy Emmanuel, Jonathan Butler(No not John Butler), Albert Collins, Johnny Winter, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Billy Joel, Les Paul, Charlie Christian, Miles Davis, George Benson, James Peterson, Goanna, Colin Haye, Skunkhour, Lightning Hopkins,Van Morrison, Metallica, Paca Delucia, Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Michael Jackson, Paul Carrack, Stevie Wonder, Ani Defranco, Angelique Kidjo, Paul Brady, The Gypsie Kings, The Bondi Cigars etc etc.
Modern day influences include Ben Harper, Dave Matthews, Amos Lee, Michael Franti, Dougie Maclean, Scott Henderson, Katchafire, Andrea Bocelli, Dallas Green, Jazon Mraz etc etc.
In 2008, Dean hones the craft of both acoustic & electric guitars, “in the nature of this business & the limited size of music listening audience in this country you need to be versatile & adaptive”
Dean’s solo acoustic shows comprise of foot percussion, a variety of guitars(running octave, delay, distortion, phaser & wah effects) vocals & harmonica.
Dean’s band shows range from raw 3 piece to full band(Keys, backup vocals, horn sections, Cello & the list goes on).
Stylistically, Dean’s music is Roots Music (a melting pot of funky rhythms, jazzy influenced progressions, folk subtleties, country flavours & blues grit.)
His music is contemporary, forever pushing the musical envelope, his stories are from his heart & mind with compassion for humanity “I always try to look at the world in a positive way with all it’s marvels & flaws”