Kris Dane

Kris Dane has built up an impressive musical carreer over the past 15 years as a unique singers/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. In the 90's he played with bands such as dEUS and Manic Depression (with Stef Kamil Carlens, currently the lead singer of Zita Swoon), and a few other side projects of his own. In 1997 he released his first solo album, ended up in the finals of the national Humo's Rock Rally contest and started touring Europe and the UK with his band. At the same time he was asked to host a series of very popular jam session nights in a hip Brussels' bar called "l'Archiduc". The success of these nights was overwhelming. He also composed for an opera ("A Winter's Tales by Shakespeare and rearranged by Philippe Boesmans) and toured Europe with this piece, accompanied by a symphonic orchestra and the jazz trio Aka Moon. Many experiences richer, and having gained notoriety and respect in different genres he was asked by the contemporary music group Ictus to sing two operas composed by Tom Waits ("The Black Rider" and "Frank's Wild Years"), and rearranged with the blessing of the man himself. He kept touring the entire world from Scandinavia to Asia with this very prestigious and ambitious project for a few years. Meanwhile he had released his second solo album and some time later also a conceptual double electro album called "Private Lee-The Alphabet" with 26 songs and available only on vinyl. In 2003 he joined the rock band Ghinzu as an additional member to work on their breakthrough album "Blow" and to tour intensively during three years. With Ghinzu he played in front of huge crowds, visited most big European festivals and supported artists such as Iggy Pop and Marilyn Manson on several occasions. After this experience and after having produced the album of his friend Jef Mercelis he decided to fully dedicate himself to his solo career by recording the first album of a -Brooklyn bound- trilogy. The first album of the trilogy ("Songs of Crime and Passion"), released in 2007 was a very personal, introspective collection of mainly accoustic songs with great arrangements and beautiful backing vocals by the De Biasio sisters. This album further reveals him as an amazing singer/songwriter with a broad musical repertoir and multiple vocal possibilities. He received large recognition with this work and formed his own band ("The Banned") to bring the songs live. That same year, after a tour he went back in the studio with The Banned and recorded the second album of the trilogy ("Rise and Down of the Black Stallion") released in 2008. This one has a real different live sound to it since it was recorded in single takes with The Banned, with no monitoring and on a 50 years old broadcasting desk in the mythical ICP studios in Brussels. The songs on this album have a darker side to them and this time contain drums, bass, vintage keyboards and electric guitars too. They could be described as pop/rock songs, but still with very personal lyrics and with a variety of different moods and roots. Besides continuing to tour, 2009 will see the release of the third album of the trilogy, and as the man says: "Be prepared to hear something very different again but still in the continuity of the trilogy!"