Keenan Casanova

Take Hip-Hop, R&B, Pop, sprinkle in some rock, soak it in life experiences, throw it in a blender and flip the switch on high - These are the ingredients that produce the final mix of Keenan's debut album Based On a True Story. Keenan, who's earliest memory was performing Michael Jackson songs for family & friends at the age of three, has been penning lyrics since the age of nine. Although now-a-days, instead of scribbling songs down on a sheet of Mead paper, he's etching them into a sheet of memory. "I build songs in my head, I figure, if I don't remember it, it wasn't good enough, wasn't clever, wasn't catchy."

Keenan fell in love with music at a very young age. Making tape covers before even attempting to make music, singing Michael Jackson songs at the age of 3. He wrote his first song at the age of nine. Despite all this....he was kicked out of band for not practicing & kicked out of choir for not singing. Without the ability to read or write music he attempted to enroll in The McNally School of Music after highschool. The only thing he DID have was a rough demo in his backpocket. He went to the college to enroll, guessed on every question during the test to get in & handed in the demo. After a 2 hour drive home he had a message on the answering machine telling him that the demo was the best demo that every came through their doors.....and he was accepted. The lack of musical knowlege made his first semester a difficult one....to say the least. He dropped out after being in a bad automobile accident. He thought if this demo opened these doors, then maybe they'll open others. He was right. Keenan was later discovered by legendary producer & enginneer Don Casale, who produced the first every platinum record for Iron Butterfly. Don began mentoring him, shopping his demos to various record labels and basically being a manager. During thist time he began working with Minneapolis based Producer Ben Obi, who produced "Dance For me" "Skip The Chase" & "Movin' On". After being offered a couple recording contracts from different labels he decided to wait, polish his sound & stay independant until the right situation. He began working with another Minneapolis based Producer Chris Ho, who produced the remaining tracks on "Based On a Trust Story". "Based On a True Story" was released on iTunes on October 3rd 2011. The song "Barbie" was featured on KDWB's "Give That Band A Break". The song "Missin' You" is being considered to be used on the hit TV show "So You Think You Can Dance." In January of this year he performed with the biggest UK group The Wanted when they stopped in Minneapolis on their US Tour. Now he's scheduled to shoot his first official music video in February of this year & later taking off to tour Asia this Spring. In the meantime he's working on a new project , a mixtape entitled "XXXHALE".