Thurston Daniel

Unlike much of today’s music, which glorifies lust over love, Thurston Daniel sings about love in its intended form: Respect, Commitment, Trust and Fidelity. He states Love is about “selflessness, not selfishness”

Thurston’s songs tell of the consequences of bad choices, like in the song “Run 2 You”, but he doesn’t leave you there. In “Free” he chronicles a relationship gone bad, and the power of forgiveness. He applauds women as one of God’s most precious creations in “Can’t Top You” and the powerful ballad “100 Years” is sure to be an R&B classic.

Thurston Daniel is an accomplished singer and songwriter who has worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry such as Clive Davis (Arista Records, J Records), Kashif (Whitney, Kenny G, Everything You’d Better Know….), multi-platinum producer D-Moet (Nas/Hate Me Now, Foxy Brown) and David "Pic" Conley (Surface/Shower Me With Your Love). He sang background for and shared the stage with such stellar artist as Rueben Studdard, Kirk Franklin, Yolanda Adams, Kelly Price, Cheryl “Salt” James, James “D Train” Williams, Israel Houghton, Kirk Whalum, and BeBe Winans, just to name a few.

The road to Thurston’s highly anticipated solo project has been a long and sometimes rocky one. In the early 90’s, after singing acapella for Clive Davis, as part of TuLuce(a 5 man group) Thurston and the group were signed to a development deal with Arista records. After working with a number of producers including Kashif and David “Pic” Conley and recording between 40 to 50 songs without finding that hit that Clive was looking for, the group left Arista. In the following year and a half the group reemerged as a dedicated and powerful duo which included Thurston Daniel and Miran David, the two leaders of the group.

During the period of time between deals the group linked up with the up and coming New Jersey producer D-Moet. At the time he was hovering under the industries radar but he soon became on of the hottest producers in the game with the classic “hate me now” track for Nas as well as tracks for Foxxy Brown and others. The group and D-Moet quickly formed a bond and practically lived in the studio. For weeks the two would record through the night and leave for the nearly 2 hour drive from New Jersey to their respective 9 to 5’s.

To make a name for themselves, the group performed up and down the east coast and for a brief period they worked with the highly respected Angelo Ellerbe, owner of Double Xxposure publicity firm. The group was constantly on the grind, along with their management team headed by Ramona Harper of HP management, looking for any opportunity to create a buzz. Thurston states, “Our big break came when Ramona got one of our songs into regular rotation on one of the major NY radio stations for about a month.” Not long after that, the group was meeting with Richard Nash and Tim Rutherford of Atlantic records and was soon signed to a major recording contract.

TuLuce and D-Moet relocated to Virginia and started recording their debut album for Atlantic. Once again Thurston spent the majority of his time in the studio writing and recording. He got the opportunity to co-write 13 of the 14 tracks on the album. After some record executive changes at the label, the project was shelved and their masterpiece was unreleased. Although disappointed, Thurston was not deterred, he has spent the last few years writing, producing and singing across the country and internationally as well, including performance stints in Italy, Germany and South Africa.

Growing up in the church as the youngest of 9 children, with six older sisters, was also a major factor in molding Thurston the man and the writer. Thurston attributes his dedication and passion for his work to his faith and understanding that singing and songwriting is what he as born to do. He makes music that crosses all borders and genres…music that speaks to the heart of us all.

Thurston is on his way to becoming a household name for his songwriting prowess and vocal abilities.