Hi there. I'm going to ask you to do something that you probably get asked to do quite often, and which often, unfortunately, ends up feeling like a waste of your time. I'm going to make every effort, however, to not waste your time, but my request is that you please stick with me for a few paragraphs. I'll strive for brevity, despite that not always being my strongest suit.
My name is Dan Israel. I grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, an inner-ring suburb of Minneapolis that somehow managed to give birth to comedian-turned-U.S-Senator Al Franken, filmmakers the Coen Brothers, writers and pundits Tom Friedman and Norm Ornstein, a slew of notable musicians (Dan Wilson, Peter Himmelman, Sharon Isbin), author Pete Hautman, and comedian/TV writer J. Elvis Weinstein (MST3K, Freaks and Geeks, etc.), among others.
But boasting of my hometown's famous alumni isn't why I'm writing to you. It's impressive, to be sure, but the real reason I'm writing to you is to tell you about myself, what I've been doing with my life, what I hope to do going forward, and why and how you could perhaps help me to get there. It has not been an easy road for me, and now, at age 46, I find myself reaching out to a few individuals like yourself who may be able to provide some advice and assistance. I expect nothing, nor am I demanding anything. I know you are a very busy person with many obligations and I fully understand if there are limits to what you can do. Please read my story, and if you find it compelling and would like to talk more, please let me know. I have an unprecedented (for me, anyway) amount of freedom right now in my life (for reasons I will explain below) that make it so - probably for the first time ever - I'm able to travel on short notice, almost anywhere, and meet with people who might have some ideas for me. So do keep that in mind as you read on (hopefully you're still with me!).
As I mentioned, I grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, just west of Minneapolis. My father (a Brooklyn native) worked for the government (the Metropolitan Council) and my mom (who grew up on the Iron Range in northern MN) was a homemaker/stay-at-home-Mom, and then later a social worker. My older brother went to Stanford and ended up in the financial world, and my younger sister, after many personal struggles, ended up a social worker, like my Mom. I had a good childhood, overall. My parents were very worldly. We discussed politics and culture at the dinner table. The traditional Jewish emphasis on discussion and thought and education was evident in my household, which was also very loving and affectionate. I was close to my grandparents, who were teachers and musicians (my paternal grandfather played accordion in a band in the Borscht Belt in the Catskill Mountains, and was friendly with people like Sid Caesar and Milton Berle; my maternal grandmother was a renowned concert pianist in Chicago before my grandfather moved the family up to the Iron Range, where my grandma gave piano lessons to people like David Zimmerman, brother of Bob Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan; and my paternal grandfather, Frank Bourgin, had his PhD thesis rejected by the University of Chicago in the '40s, only to have that decision reversed in the '80s in an unprecedented story that made national news, when he finally received his PhD decades after originally having his thesis rejected - a powerful story about professional vindication after many years of persistence and frustration, which obviously resonated with me then and still does).
I was always drawn to music and film and television - and most of all, music. I started taking piano lessons as a child, switched to guitar at age 12, formed my first band at age 13, and fell head over heels in love with rock and roll - forming more bands, learning songs, going to concerts, and even starting to write my own songs in high school. I also made short films with my friends and decided to major in radio/TV/film at Northwestern University. While there, I took many screenwriting and other film classes, but was also drawn strongly to the study of philosophy, literature, and religion/spirituality. Most of all, I plunged headlong into music at Northwestern, forming my first real band, One Town Horse, with another songwriter, and we recorded a demo tape and started to play out around the Northwestern campus and in the Chicago clubs. I wrote a lot of songs - some good, some that at least showed potential. We were folkies and it was the late '80s/early '90s - we had some good songs and harmonized nicely, but all of the "buzz" at the time was on thrashier/punkier music, which soon sprung from Chicago to worldwide acclaim in the form of bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Urge Overkill, and Liz Phair. My heroes were Dylan, Neil Young, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, and so on. People liked our music, but we were also somewhat-derisively referred to as "the Indigo Guys" due to our sweet acoustic harmony sound and hopeful lyrics in a time of buzzing guitars and lyrics awash in bleak cynicism. It wasn't the first time and it wouldn't be the last time that I felt out of step with what was going on around me. My introspective, personal, acoustic-based songs seemed to get lost in the noise a bit. One Town Horse even got some good gigs around Chicago, but after graduating, I found myself dissatisfied with Chicago and what I felt was its music scene's over-emphasis on noise over quality, and on top of that, the recession of the early '90s made getting a job (or at least one I was interested in) a struggle.
It wasn't even that I made "quiet" or "soft" music - it was more that I wrote on acoustic guitar and preferred making music where one could actually discern melody and lyrics a bit. I was every bit a rocker too, but I guess I preferred writing and performing songs one could actually sing along with a bit more than songs one could only scream along with. I connected with another Northwestern graduate and we decided to move together to Austin, Texas. We formed a band called Potter's Field and heavily immersed ourselves in the burgeoning Austin scene (that same scene that would later birth platinum acts Fastball and indie-rock heroes Spoon - bands that Potter's Field shared bills with in the early '90s in Austin). Finding myself unable to support myself on music alone, despite relentless gigging with my band, I went to work as a proofreader for the Texas Legislature (where many other people I knew from various bands in Austin worked as well). Unlike in Chicago, I actually made some headway in the ultra-competitive music scene in Austin. The Austin Chronicle frequently praised Potter's Field for our intense "ampheta-folk" sound and we were soon playing weekend shows at some of the bigger local clubs. Meanwhile, we recorded a CD, "Esperanto", released in 1993, and we embarked on tours back to the Upper Midwest a couple of times. Nevertheless, despite some notice and success, Potter's Field seemed to hit a wall. We weren't cool or edgy enough for the Austin scene, or something. Then our bass player got lured away from the band by another artist who had signed a record deal with Lightstorm Entertainment (founded by "Titanic" director James Cameron). As a result, our band broke up and I went solo in Austin, and got some nice attention there too (I was named one of Austin's top 15 songwriters in the 1995 Austin Chronicle Music Poll, a list that included the likes of Daniel Johnston, Alejandro Escovedo, Jimmie Vaughn, and Butch Hancock - not bad for some recent transplant from Minnesota/Illinois - scroll down to "Best Songwriter" category https://www.austinchronicle.c
The only problem was, Austin still didn't feel like the right place for me. I wasn't "country" enough for the singer-songwriter scene there, but wasn't quite grungy enough for the rock band scene there either. I went to the South by Southwest music conference in 1995 and saw the Jayhawks and Soul Asylum from my hometown, and realized that, musically, I belonged in Minneapolis. All of my favorite artists seemed to be from Minnesota: Bob Dylan, Prince, Jayhawks, Replacements, Soul Asylum, Husker Du/Bob Mould/Grant Hart, Peter Himmelman, Trip Shakespeare, etc. Not to mention the fact that, bottom line, I was just homesick. I missed my family and friends back in Minnesota, and saw greater musical opportunities waiting there (including some interest at the time from Prince and the Revolution drummer Bobby Z), so, at the end of 1995, my "Austin experiment" ended and I moved back home to Minneapolis.
Once back home, I wasted no time and was soon playing many solo acoustic gigs, writing a plethora of new songs, and forming a new rock band, Dan Israel and the Cultivators. CD release after CD release followed. My reputation grew, slowly. I did some touring, connected with a couple of indie record labels, and even made inroads into Europe, getting fairly impressive amounts of airplay and press overseas. I also ended up working for the Legislature for a day job, this time the Minnesota version in St. Paul. I got married and had kids I struggled and struggled and struggled some more to get my music more known in the Twin Cities, around the US., and around the world. Sometimes, it seemed I was making great progress. Uncut Magazine, a UK rock mag with an almost Rolling Stone-like reputation in England, gave my 2007 album "Turning" four stars. I started getting bigger shows in the Twin Cities, opening for the likes of Morrissey, the Steve Miller Band, Marshall Crenshaw, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Loudon Wainwright III, Livingston Taylor, Iris Dement, Todd Snider, Paula Cole, Martin Sexton, Chuck Prophet, Joe Ely, the Tragically Hip, Trampled by Turtles, Mason Jennings, and many other high-profile national artists.
I was named Songwriter of the Year in the 2006 Minnesota Music Awards. I was the first-ever guest on the Local Show of 89.3 The Current, now one of the nation's premier public radio stations that plays rock music. I released a total of 13 (THIRTEEN!) all-original studio albums of my music, and continued to play music, sometimes at an even more intense pace, often performing 80 shows or more a year while also helping to raise two young children and hold down an often-very-demanding job at the Minnesota Legislature.
And then, it all got to be too much. The daily commute from St. Louis Park to my job at the State Capitol in St. Paul became a loathsome, bumper-to-bumper daily grind, and the many late nights and weekends that had to be worked during the legislative session, came together to overwhelm me. My health plummeted - I got very sick and lost 60 pounds in six months and nearly needed to be hospitalized. The best the Mayo Clinic could come up with as a diagnosis was "irritable bowel syndrome," which I had suffered from all my life, but had effectively managed (for the most part) until I hit this crisis point. I knew a great deal of this major flareup had to do with stress. I also battled depression and anxiety, which came to a head when my health problems spiked, and I turned to anything I could to ease the pain, eventually finding myself addicted to opiates. My marriage was crumbling. My health situation was truly troubling, and I was getting grief, not sympathy, from my superiors at work - some of whom felt quite threatened by the fact that I had another career, and whose attitude towards my music ranged from disinterested to openly hostile over the years. In short, I kind of hit rock bottom. I did the only thing that's ever worked for me - I turned it all into music. I wrote a lot more songs, some very painful and personal songs that I previously might have been afraid to play for people. I let people see - some of whom probably I thought I had my whole life "together" - that that was most definitely not the case. I wrote about failed dreams and failed relationships and I tried not to make it too depressing. This review in national Americana music publication No Depression for my latest album, 2015's "Dan", kind of nails it about my music, I think (and also says that I deserve far more recognition for my music than I've attained thus far): http://nodepression.com/album
Why did I put up with the job for all those years and not just quit and pursue music full time? Well, for one thing, have you seen the music industry lately? There are a million reasons that the bottom has essentially fallen out of the music business, but of course the fact that it's basically free for people to stream most music hasn't exactly helped most of those trying to make a living from it, especially those of us who are basically doing this all on our own. It also seems like now everyone and his brother or sister has a basement studio and puts out records - which is great, but it can have the tendency to flood the market with not-always-the-highest-quality music (but that is still decently recorded and produced) - in short, there's an awful lot of crap out there, and maybe it's gotten harder to tell the difference between the good stuff and the not-as-good stuff partly because there's just so MUCH out there.
But let's face it, part of the problem for me is just that I haven't gotten that big break. I haven't gotten offered a big record deal or publishing deal or gotten a song of mine prominently placed (or, for that matter, placed at all) in a film or TV show or commercial or movie trailer or videogame or ANYTHING, despite multiple, repeated efforts to do so, and frankly, this is quite frustrating, after so many years of doing this. If I thought I wasn't good, it would be one thing - instead, I find myself walking around a shopping mall sometimes and getting upset that the music playing over the PA system is so much less impressive and intense and full of emotion and hooks than my own music. I watch movies and TV shows and hear the songs that get placed in those programs and wonder how and why it couldn't ever be my music getting those licensing opportunities. I don't mean to sound pathetic. I just know that with the right connections, that could be my music playing at the grocery store, and I actually think people would enjoy it!
I look at the artists who come to the Twin Cities on national tours and play on late-night TV shows - I don't know how to say this modestly, so I won't even try - most of them don't write songs as good as mine. There, I said it. And I feel better for having said it. I don't want to sound sour grapes or bitter or angry or anything - I just know that writing songs is something I'm really good at, and I've created 13 albums' worth of material - some of it (most of it?) is quite good and yet only a few thousand people in the world have ever even had the chance to hear my music. I want to give more people the chance. If they hear it, and then they think it sucks (unlikely, but possible, obviously), then fine.....then I did all I could and perhaps that's the limit of my talent and that's what I should be satisfied with, a small niche audience of dedicated fans, but never anything more than that.
BUT I DON'T THINK THAT IS HOW IT SHOULD BE. I think my music could touch people, could affect their lives in a positive way, could even, dare I say it, change the world a little. And forgive my personal delusions of grandeur, if you would, but please acknowledge just how much music CAN affect people emotionally and CAN change our society profoundly (Dylan and the Beatles both come to mind, and no, I'm not trying to say I'm as good as them, but that's the bar I always aim for). And let's face it, the world needs some positive change right now. I would like to be a small part of that. Right now, I'm a VERY small part of that - I'd like to be able to contribute more, but that can only happen if my music is able to reach more people, and I'm sometimes feeling like I've run out of ideas for ways to make that happen on my own. If there is one common theme/refrain throughout my career, it's that I've basically done everything MYSELF - no booking agent, no manager, no publishing company, no publicist, nobody shopping my songs around for usage in film/TV/commercials or for other artists to cover my songs.
I truly think I deserve a chance to get my music out to more people. And as for that legislative job I suffered through for 21 years - well, I quit that job a couple weeks ago. Quit it. Done. Gone. Why? Because I need to pursue this dream, once and for all, and stop approaching it half-heartedly, at least in terms of my time commitment. I want to go on tour. I want to make a movie about my own life and use my own songs in the movie. I want to co-write with great songwriters and meet my heroes and play music with them and open for them. I want to hear my songs in TV shows and movies and commercials and video games and ringtones and I deserve to get paid for this gift of songwriting that I have and that I've honed for so many years. I find myself at a crossroads right now. I don't want to let this moment slip away, as it may never come again in my lifetime. I'm healthy again, finally, and I'm ready to do this. But I can't do it by myself.
There are far greater injustices in the world than my relative lack of recognition. I am not looking for sympathy or tears on my behalf - I am looking for assistance and advice though. Plenty of artists with tons of talent go under-recognized every day, and to some extent, that's life. But I'm trying to change that dynamic up in my life. I'm not willing to simply accept the status quo. I think me and my music deserve more, and I would love to meet with you and/or just talk to you and see if you have any ideas for how I can help bring this "Long Gone Dream" (which is also the title of a song on my forthcoming album and will perhaps be the album title as well, listen to a rough mix of it here if you like: https://danisrael.bandc
By the way, the song is called "Long Gone Dream" but my dream isn't gone. Sometimes it feels like it's on life support, but it ain't gone. Can you think of any way you can help to finally make this dream into a reality? Would you be willing to talk by phone or even just respond by email to this with some thoughts or advice or suggestions? Would you be willing to have lunch or dinner with me? If you don't live in the Twin Cities, I would be willing to drive or even fly to where you are to meet with you and discuss ideas and suggestions and possible avenues I could go with my music at this point in my life. Would you let me buy you a meal while you spend a couple hours with me? Is this something you would ever be amenable to? If so, let me know.
And here's my promise to you: I won't become your worst nightmare. I won't drive you nuts. I understand boundaries and I have often found myself in your position (someone asking me for advice/assistance) and I know how irritating it can be when someone won't leave you alone - I've been on the other side of that equation too, and you have my word that I won't be that person, and you have every right to tell me to leave you alone at any time and I will do just that, because I get that not everyone has the time (or is maybe going through too much in their own life at the moment) to meet with someone like me or spend time on the phone or whatever - so please don't let that concern get in the way of responding to me. There are some pretty prominent artists and others in the business who would be more than willing to vouch for me on this point - they know I get it, that I understand that other people have their own lives and obligations and that I'm very respectful of that and know how to take "no" or "that's all I can do for now" for an answer. In short, despite me bombarding you with this now-not-entirely-brief email, I am a considerate and thoughtful person with kids of my own and a life and family of my own that I support and protect, and thus I get it when others need to take care of those priorities as well - my career and my life is not your problem, and I don't want to MAKE IT your problem, I just am seeking some help, if you can provide any.
I was always drawn to music and film and television - and most of all, music. I started taking piano lessons as a child, switched to guitar at age 12, formed my first band at age 13, and fell head over heels in love with rock and roll - forming more bands, learning songs, going to concerts, and even starting to write my own songs in high school. I also made short films with my friends and decided to major in radio/TV/film at Northwestern University. While there, I took many screenwriting and other film classes, but was also drawn strongly to the study of philosophy, literature, and religion/spirituality. Most of all, I plunged headlong into music at Northwestern, forming my first real band, One Town Horse, with another songwriter, and we recorded a demo tape and started to play out around the Northwestern campus and in the Chicago clubs. I wrote a lot of songs - some good, some that at least showed potential. We were folkies and it was the late '80s/early '90s - we had some good songs and harmonized nicely, but all of the "buzz" at the time was on thrashier/punkier music, which soon sprung from Chicago to worldwide acclaim in the form of bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Urge Overkill, and Liz Phair. My heroes were Dylan, Neil Young, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, and so on. People liked our music, but we were also somewhat-derisively referred to as "the Indigo Guys" due to our sweet acoustic harmony sound and hopeful lyrics in a time of buzzing guitars and lyrics awash in bleak cynicism. It wasn't the first time and it wouldn't be the last time that I felt out of step with what was going on around me. My introspective, personal, acoustic-based songs seemed to get lost in the noise a bit. One Town Horse even got some good gigs around Chicago, but after graduating, I found myself dissatisfied with Chicago and what I felt was its music scene's over-emphasis on noise over quality, and on top of that, the recession of the early '90s made getting a job (or at least one I was interested in) a struggle.
It wasn't even that I made "quiet" or "soft" music - it was more that I wrote on acoustic guitar and preferred making music where one could actually discern melody and lyrics a bit. I was every bit a rocker too, but I guess I preferred writing and performing songs one could actually sing along with a bit more than songs one could only scream along with. I connected with another Northwestern graduate and we decided to move together to Austin, Texas. We formed a band called Potter's Field and heavily immersed ourselves in the burgeoning Austin scene (that same scene that would later birth platinum acts Fastball and indie-rock heroes Spoon - bands that Potter's Field shared bills with in the early '90s in Austin). Finding myself unable to support myself on music alone, despite relentless gigging with my band, I went to work as a proofreader for the Texas Legislature (where many other people I knew from various bands in Austin worked as well). Unlike in Chicago, I actually made some headway in the ultra-competitive music scene in Austin. The Austin Chronicle frequently praised Potter's Field for our intense "ampheta-folk" sound and we were soon playing weekend shows at some of the bigger local clubs. Meanwhile, we recorded a CD, "Esperanto", released in 1993, and we embarked on tours back to the Upper Midwest a couple of times. Nevertheless, despite some notice and success, Potter's Field seemed to hit a wall. We weren't cool or edgy enough for the Austin scene, or something. Then our bass player got lured away from the band by another artist who had signed a record deal with Lightstorm Entertainment (founded by "Titanic" director James Cameron). As a result, our band broke up and I went solo in Austin, and got some nice attention there too (I was named one of Austin's top 15 songwriters in the 1995 Austin Chronicle Music Poll, a list that included the likes of Daniel Johnston, Alejandro Escovedo, Jimmie Vaughn, and Butch Hancock - not bad for some recent transplant from Minnesota/Illinois - scroll down to "Best Songwriter" category https://www.austinchronicle.c
The only problem was, Austin still didn't feel like the right place for me. I wasn't "country" enough for the singer-songwriter scene there, but wasn't quite grungy enough for the rock band scene there either. I went to the South by Southwest music conference in 1995 and saw the Jayhawks and Soul Asylum from my hometown, and realized that, musically, I belonged in Minneapolis. All of my favorite artists seemed to be from Minnesota: Bob Dylan, Prince, Jayhawks, Replacements, Soul Asylum, Husker Du/Bob Mould/Grant Hart, Peter Himmelman, Trip Shakespeare, etc. Not to mention the fact that, bottom line, I was just homesick. I missed my family and friends back in Minnesota, and saw greater musical opportunities waiting there (including some interest at the time from Prince and the Revolution drummer Bobby Z), so, at the end of 1995, my "Austin experiment" ended and I moved back home to Minneapolis.
Once back home, I wasted no time and was soon playing many solo acoustic gigs, writing a plethora of new songs, and forming a new rock band, Dan Israel and the Cultivators. CD release after CD release followed. My reputation grew, slowly. I did some touring, connected with a couple of indie record labels, and even made inroads into Europe, getting fairly impressive amounts of airplay and press overseas. I also ended up working for the Legislature for a day job, this time the Minnesota version in St. Paul. I got married and had kids I struggled and struggled and struggled some more to get my music more known in the Twin Cities, around the US., and around the world. Sometimes, it seemed I was making great progress. Uncut Magazine, a UK rock mag with an almost Rolling Stone-like reputation in England, gave my 2007 album "Turning" four stars. I started getting bigger shows in the Twin Cities, opening for the likes of Morrissey, the Steve Miller Band, Marshall Crenshaw, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Loudon Wainwright III, Livingston Taylor, Iris Dement, Todd Snider, Paula Cole, Martin Sexton, Chuck Prophet, Joe Ely, the Tragically Hip, Trampled by Turtles, Mason Jennings, and many other high-profile national artists.
I was named Songwriter of the Year in the 2006 Minnesota Music Awards. I was the first-ever guest on the Local Show of 89.3 The Current, now one of the nation's premier public radio stations that plays rock music. I released a total of 13 (THIRTEEN!) all-original studio albums of my music, and continued to play music, sometimes at an even more intense pace, often performing 80 shows or more a year while also helping to raise two young children and hold down an often-very-demanding job at the Minnesota Legislature.
And then, it all got to be too much. The daily commute from St. Louis Park to my job at the State Capitol in St. Paul became a loathsome, bumper-to-bumper daily grind, and the many late nights and weekends that had to be worked during the legislative session, came together to overwhelm me. My health plummeted - I got very sick and lost 60 pounds in six months and nearly needed to be hospitalized. The best the Mayo Clinic could come up with as a diagnosis was "irritable bowel syndrome," which I had suffered from all my life, but had effectively managed (for the most part) until I hit this crisis point. I knew a great deal of this major flareup had to do with stress. I also battled depression and anxiety, which came to a head when my health problems spiked, and I turned to anything I could to ease the pain, eventually finding myself addicted to opiates. My marriage was crumbling. My health situation was truly troubling, and I was getting grief, not sympathy, from my superiors at work - some of whom felt quite threatened by the fact that I had another career, and whose attitude towards my music ranged from disinterested to openly hostile over the years. In short, I kind of hit rock bottom. I did the only thing that's ever worked for me - I turned it all into music. I wrote a lot more songs, some very painful and personal songs that I previously might have been afraid to play for people. I let people see - some of whom probably I thought I had my whole life "together" - that that was most definitely not the case. I wrote about failed dreams and failed relationships and I tried not to make it too depressing. This review in national Americana music publication No Depression for my latest album, 2015's "Dan", kind of nails it about my music, I think (and also says that I deserve far more recognition for my music than I've attained thus far): http://nodepression.com/album
Why did I put up with the job for all those years and not just quit and pursue music full time? Well, for one thing, have you seen the music industry lately? There are a million reasons that the bottom has essentially fallen out of the music business, but of course the fact that it's basically free for people to stream most music hasn't exactly helped most of those trying to make a living from it, especially those of us who are basically doing this all on our own. It also seems like now everyone and his brother or sister has a basement studio and puts out records - which is great, but it can have the tendency to flood the market with not-always-the-highest-quality music (but that is still decently recorded and produced) - in short, there's an awful lot of crap out there, and maybe it's gotten harder to tell the difference between the good stuff and the not-as-good stuff partly because there's just so MUCH out there.
But let's face it, part of the problem for me is just that I haven't gotten that big break. I haven't gotten offered a big record deal or publishing deal or gotten a song of mine prominently placed (or, for that matter, placed at all) in a film or TV show or commercial or movie trailer or videogame or ANYTHING, despite multiple, repeated efforts to do so, and frankly, this is quite frustrating, after so many years of doing this. If I thought I wasn't good, it would be one thing - instead, I find myself walking around a shopping mall sometimes and getting upset that the music playing over the PA system is so much less impressive and intense and full of emotion and hooks than my own music. I watch movies and TV shows and hear the songs that get placed in those programs and wonder how and why it couldn't ever be my music getting those licensing opportunities. I don't mean to sound pathetic. I just know that with the right connections, that could be my music playing at the grocery store, and I actually think people would enjoy it!
I look at the artists who come to the Twin Cities on national tours and play on late-night TV shows - I don't know how to say this modestly, so I won't even try - most of them don't write songs as good as mine. There, I said it. And I feel better for having said it. I don't want to sound sour grapes or bitter or angry or anything - I just know that writing songs is something I'm really good at, and I've created 13 albums' worth of material - some of it (most of it?) is quite good and yet only a few thousand people in the world have ever even had the chance to hear my music. I want to give more people the chance. If they hear it, and then they think it sucks (unlikely, but possible, obviously), then fine.....then I did all I could and perhaps that's the limit of my talent and that's what I should be satisfied with, a small niche audience of dedicated fans, but never anything more than that.
BUT I DON'T THINK THAT IS HOW IT SHOULD BE. I think my music could touch people, could affect their lives in a positive way, could even, dare I say it, change the world a little. And forgive my personal delusions of grandeur, if you would, but please acknowledge just how much music CAN affect people emotionally and CAN change our society profoundly (Dylan and the Beatles both come to mind, and no, I'm not trying to say I'm as good as them, but that's the bar I always aim for). And let's face it, the world needs some positive change right now. I would like to be a small part of that. Right now, I'm a VERY small part of that - I'd like to be able to contribute more, but that can only happen if my music is able to reach more people, and I'm sometimes feeling like I've run out of ideas for ways to make that happen on my own. If there is one common theme/refrain throughout my career, it's that I've basically done everything MYSELF - no booking agent, no manager, no publishing company, no publicist, nobody shopping my songs around for usage in film/TV/commercials or for other artists to cover my songs.
I truly think I deserve a chance to get my music out to more people. And as for that legislative job I suffered through for 21 years - well, I quit that job a couple weeks ago. Quit it. Done. Gone. Why? Because I need to pursue this dream, once and for all, and stop approaching it half-heartedly, at least in terms of my time commitment. I want to go on tour. I want to make a movie about my own life and use my own songs in the movie. I want to co-write with great songwriters and meet my heroes and play music with them and open for them. I want to hear my songs in TV shows and movies and commercials and video games and ringtones and I deserve to get paid for this gift of songwriting that I have and that I've honed for so many years. I find myself at a crossroads right now. I don't want to let this moment slip away, as it may never come again in my lifetime. I'm healthy again, finally, and I'm ready to do this. But I can't do it by myself.
There are far greater injustices in the world than my relative lack of recognition. I am not looking for sympathy or tears on my behalf - I am looking for assistance and advice though. Plenty of artists with tons of talent go under-recognized every day, and to some extent, that's life. But I'm trying to change that dynamic up in my life. I'm not willing to simply accept the status quo. I think me and my music deserve more, and I would love to meet with you and/or just talk to you and see if you have any ideas for how I can help bring this "Long Gone Dream" (which is also the title of a song on my forthcoming album and will perhaps be the album title as well, listen to a rough mix of it here if you like: https://danisrael.bandc
By the way, the song is called "Long Gone Dream" but my dream isn't gone. Sometimes it feels like it's on life support, but it ain't gone. Can you think of any way you can help to finally make this dream into a reality? Would you be willing to talk by phone or even just respond by email to this with some thoughts or advice or suggestions? Would you be willing to have lunch or dinner with me? If you don't live in the Twin Cities, I would be willing to drive or even fly to where you are to meet with you and discuss ideas and suggestions and possible avenues I could go with my music at this point in my life. Would you let me buy you a meal while you spend a couple hours with me? Is this something you would ever be amenable to? If so, let me know.
And here's my promise to you: I won't become your worst nightmare. I won't drive you nuts. I understand boundaries and I have often found myself in your position (someone asking me for advice/assistance) and I know how irritating it can be when someone won't leave you alone - I've been on the other side of that equation too, and you have my word that I won't be that person, and you have every right to tell me to leave you alone at any time and I will do just that, because I get that not everyone has the time (or is maybe going through too much in their own life at the moment) to meet with someone like me or spend time on the phone or whatever - so please don't let that concern get in the way of responding to me. There are some pretty prominent artists and others in the business who would be more than willing to vouch for me on this point - they know I get it, that I understand that other people have their own lives and obligations and that I'm very respectful of that and know how to take "no" or "that's all I can do for now" for an answer. In short, despite me bombarding you with this now-not-entirely-brief email, I am a considerate and thoughtful person with kids of my own and a life and family of my own that I support and protect, and thus I get it when others need to take care of those priorities as well - my career and my life is not your problem, and I don't want to MAKE IT your problem, I just am seeking some help, if you can provide any.
Thank you beyond words for reading this far. I tried to keep this short, but as I said at the top, brevity isn't my strong suit. I'll work on it. Might be easier to keep it short once I can just say "I'm that guy whose music was in that show/movie everyone knows about." That would help! Below is my contact info and some standard promotional stuff about me with links to some music and videos, should you wish to hear more and see more and read more about me.
I appreciate it immensely. Any feedback at all, at a time entirely of your choosing, is appreciated tremendously. Happy to get phone calls too (ph. 612-280-8902, which I put below too). I know not everyone has time to read long emails and even fewer people have time to write back long emails, so I don't expect that at all. I just needed to get this down and send it to a few people who I think could potentially make a difference in my life and career. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Dan Israel
ph. 612-280-8902
email: danmyspace@gmail.com
website: http://www.danisraelmusic.com
here is a link to download a zip file of Dan Israel's 13th (and latest) studio album, "Dan"
http://www.danisraelmusic.com/
Here is a pdf of the onesheet for "Dan"
http://danisraelmusic.com/DanA
http://www.danisraelmusic.com/
Here is a pdf of the onesheet for "Dan"
http://danisraelmusic.com/DanA
Here's a music video for the first single, "Be With Me":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
A nice general link to more Dan Israel music videos:
http://danisraelmusic.com/vide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
A nice general link to more Dan Israel music videos:
http://danisraelmusic.com/vide
The latest album "Dan"has been getting lots of very good press/radio airplay/etc, including very positive reviews in national publications like Paste and No Depression
"Dan" review Pastehttp://www.pastemagazine.com/a
"Dan" review No Depression
http://nodepression.com/album-
You can see more of the rave reviews at my website: http://www.danisraelmusic.com
"Dan" review No Depression
http://nodepression.com/album-
You can see more of the rave reviews at my website: http://www.danisraelmusic.com
Here are some things people have been saying about it:
And I gathered up some of the quotes here on my blog: http://danisraelmusic.blogspot
"Dan" is showing up on not one but TWO European Americana radio airplay-tracking charts - first, coming in tied for #18 on the Euro Americana chart http://www.euroamericanachart.
"Dan" is showing up on not one but TWO European Americana radio airplay-tracking charts - first, coming in tied for #18 on the Euro Americana chart http://www.euroamericanachart.
Anyway, here are two easy links that contain lots of my music: https://soundcloud.com/dan-Isr
