Dana Kamide _______________ Artist Biography
Dana Kamide first entered into the music business at age 13. He got his start by singing and playing keyboards in local bars and clubs in New York, where he grew up. The musicians he played with at that time were several years his senior as he recalls the privilege of being able to perform with and learn from those around him who he considered his local musical “heroes”
“I find it amazing that I got away with hanging out and performing in clubs when I barely even looked 13!” he marvels. I guess you could say I grew up fast!” Dana adds. “Also to have the opportunity to get to learn from and hang out with top-rated musicians in the area who would typically not allow a 13 year old into their circle was invaluable” says Kamide.
Dana Kamide has played piano since age 7. After his father overheard him playing the “Boogie Woogie” which he assumed Dana must have picked up by ear, he insisted he begin piano lessons and take music more serious.
At age 18 Kamide moved to Boston to study music at Berklee College. “Piano has always been the most natural instrument for me but since I started playing guitar more seriously over the last couple years I’ve been finding it more fulfilling in many ways. But my roots are still in piano.”
“My music is unique in that it’s not restricted to one style. My influences include so many different genres that it is hard to say what my favorite is, since I love them all. My Mom listened to country music as well as standards sung by her favorite crooners, while my father was more into the big band stuff like Mitch Miller and Tommy Dorsey. My five older brothers and sisters listened to literally everything else! So I grew up digging a lot of different musical styles. For example, I love the innocence and wholesomeness in the lyrics and melodies of the old jazz standards, the truth and heart of country music, the depth of emotion in rock and alternative and the ability adult contemporary has to put me in a melancholy mood. As far as most hip hop, great music to dance to, for the most part, but unfortunately I can’t be into music that glorifies demeaning women, promoting drugs and alcohol the way it does and often promotes murder and gang violence. Artists have a responsibility to our world’s children. Hip Hop has become eh lowest common denominator of low culture in America.
Dana Kamide is a songwriter, first and foremost. “I write at any time, and constantly put bits and pieces in notebooks and in my portable digital recording rig,” Dana says. “I may ultimately use only ten percent of what I come up with but I just keep writing.” Lately Kamide has been composing primarily with acoustic guitar and piano in which Dana worked with a special intensity. “Almost everything here is very spiritual, very deep, yet comprehendable. “I think most of my lyrics can be taken many different ways. . . But that’s ok. When I looked back later, I realized that the deeper meanings of the songs, without forcing them, corresponded to something larger.”
”I’ve tried to write songs that either immediately grab people and songs that can take time to really soak in. I’ve also tried to write lyrics that people can relate to. Many are about life and death, not necessarily always in the physical sense, but in the spiritual sense. Life doesn’t really begin until we die, die to ourselves that is, by conquering and overcoming our evil and material nature,” Kamide explains. Dana continues to strive to fight against the pull of the “world” and live a more wholesome Christian life after experiencing what he calls, “a supernatural awakening and conversion experience. This reflects in much of his latest lyrics.
I think we all have to battle with “materialism” and possession and I hate the idea of being ruled by materialism, which is so predominant in today’s society. Relatively speaking, there is never enough once you get on that path… and one can never being fully satisfied or content with material wealth… not until you are content with yourself and have a close personal relationship to God through faith.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy success and like having nice things, but I don’t care if I lose them either. Only temporary pleasure can be found in material wealth, popularity and success. It takes most people a life time to realize that. It’s been said that our biggest battle on earth is with ourselves and I believe that. That’s what I hope people get out of my music.”
With an awesome vocal intensity and power, 26-year-old Dana Kamide displays the confident assurance of a seasoned veteran on his latest song works. Dana has found his own niche in his writing and singing style. “I’ve always had this real affection for blues and soul,” Dana explains. “However, I enjoy a wide variety of musical styles and have been fortunate enough, through my family and friends, to experience those interests as well.”
Extraordinary music, is what the latest collection of songs written by Dana Kamide is and presents his many strengths. And his formidable strengths: vivacity and introspection, vocal dazzle and stinging guitar, arrangements breathtakingly intimate or epic in range, language on fire. Above all else. . .passion.
Dana Kamide’s Music
What strikes you first is the music’s ambition. There’s simply so much music here. Unifying all of this rich musical diversity is Dana Kamide’s unmistakable voice. Singularly fresh, singularly inspiring, he has proved himself a songwriter and musician of exceptional depth and integrity. Dana’s stream-of-consciousness approach allows his music to take on its own whole, large life. It’s the basis of the unfettered passion all his songs exude.
Over the course of several very successful tours throughout North America, Dana perfected his singing, songwriting and performance skills. For almost four years straight Dana performed close to 200 shows each year with his band Wildheart. While performing a show at the Hard Rock Cafe in Cancun, Mexico, Dana met up with members of Tony Bennett’s organization. That meeting opened the floodgates for a remarkable torrent of networking opportunities that later found the New York Native attending many important music-associated events over the past three years such as the Grammy Awards and MTV’s Music Video Awards. Events such as these have awarded Dana the opportunity to forge relations with notable music business moguls and celebrities alike.
Fan support led to the sale of over 5,000 copies of Dana’s first record, a 6-song ep Kamide recorded in his personal studio, and released on his own label and made available at shows during 2009.
Dana’s ongoing commitment to charitable causes was exemplified by his active involvement and live performance at the Millennium Magic Ball in Providence, Rhode Island which helped to raise over $100,000 for the United Way. Among the 750 guests at the event were Rhode Island’s Governor and Speaker of the House, Lincoln Almond and John Harwood, respectively and Providence Mayor, Buddy Cianci, to name a few. Dana composed and performed a special song for the event called “The Rhode Island Song.” The song was recorded by Dana in a Providence Recording Studio along with top New England jazz musicians and is available through the envision-music.com web-site. There has been talk among some Rhode Island officials of possibly making the song Rhode Island’s new state song.
More recently Dana helped organize and performed a Super Bowl event in Orlando, FL with proceeds benefiting the Humane Society. Dana also performed a benefit show in New Jersey which helped raise more than $80,000 to build a convent and student facility in Vietnam that will house 200 girls with religious vocations and aid and protect poor young children from the perils of communism.
Dana has always been a pathfinder. Impatient with labels, he’s crafted memorable music from a tapestry of elements: modern and progressive rock, acoustic-soul and alternative-pop. In all, Dana confesses justifiable pride in his music as he embarks on what is sure to be a long and prodigious career. “It has taken a long time to get this dream off the ground — but I am very happy where I am at right now.”
