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Dana Wagner
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Musical Styles: Electronic Instrumental / Progressive Rock |
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From the BeginningDana Wagner has been involved, in some form, with music for most of his life. Born in Niagara Falls, NY, he grew up hearing his older brother's record albums, and by the age of nine was listening to The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Iron Butterfly, and Jimi Hendrix. As a kid, he was fascinated with rhythm, and was always banging on cardboard box "drums", and trying to entice his neighborhood friends to "start a band." His attention turned to keyboards when he first heard a gritty Hammond organ in a '60s TV theme song. Soon after, he was bitten by the "art rock" bug and began tuning in to classic bands like Genesis, Jethro Tull, Yes, and Kansas. The family relocated to Tarpon Springs, FL, where Dana spent some of his teen years studying music theory and piano. When he was 16, he got his first Moog synthesizer, and from then on he was hooked. Shortly after graduating from high school, he moved to Largo, FL, where he eventually joined a progressive rock band, Centaur. The group played locally for a year or two, and after a few "personnel adjustments" they took the show to the road - performing on the Florida rock club circuit. It was during this time that Dana began to write original material - one of his songs regularly appeared on the band's play list.
Although he loved the music, Dana quickly became disillusioned by the lack of discipline and the abundance of negative cash flow that often plagues young bands - especially those performing music that is not typically seen as "mainstream." After three years with the band, he finally made the decision to leave, and headed north to Atlanta, GA. Lured by the promise of "the big money", he soon joined a Top-40 club band from Pittsburgh, PA called Shadowfax. For the next four years he performed in various other dance club acts including Atlanta-based Prizm, Magic from Clearwater, FL, and the Hot Item band, which travelled the national hotel circuit. Along the way he began honing his skills in audio production by mixing sound on stage, while playing keyboards and singing lead and backing vocals. By 1987, he had returned to Atlanta and formed his own band, ATL, which enjoyed a highly successful 4-1/2 year tour of the southeastern hotel and dance club circuit. It was during this period that Dana began his love affair with computers, and gained valuable experience in programming MIDI tracks for the band - the computer covered the bass lines, percussion parts, and complex horn and string arrangements that gave ATL its signature "just like the CD" sound. Fast ForwardPresently, Dana stays busy with any of a number of projects, business ventures, and hobbies. He is currently the owner of a budding multimedia production facility, and is also a graphic/ production designer for a major health-related non-profit organization. When not busy with clients, web sites, or computer generated graphics, Dana enjoys working on his rather extensive butterfly collection and of course, playing the keyboard. In his spare moments Dana is working towards bringing his library of original music to CD. He is pursuing two projects: a new age/electronic instrumental CD titled Moon Overboard, and a more up-tempo, rock-based collection of tunes, which is yet untitled. |
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Moon Overboard Pre-release demo tracks |
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