Daniel Habermann
“Music is and always has been cathartic for me, a release, an escape, a way of maintaining relative sanity. It was my music that brought all of my lasting friendships and important relationships to me, and I would be totally lost without it. It was my music that brought Mandy into my life in 2013, and for that I shall be eternally grateful,” Danny Habermann
Daniel was immersed in music from Day 1! Both his parents were musicians, though not at a professional level. Favourite childhood memories include going along and listening to his father playing his Euphonium in a brass band, and his mother sitting at her Piano. Being a member of a religious family, he enjoyed the church music led by the nuns, particularly the pump organ, which dear Mother Laurencia had to pump furiously with her feet to get any sound out of it. As Daniel says, ”she probably had great legs but, being catholic, it surely was sinful to ponder too much on that image.”
He started playing Guitar at age 13; a Suzuki Nylon String Classical that cost all of $39.
He learnt quickly with a few lessons, but never had the discipline to apply himself to rigorous study. Still, he was blessed with talent, and essentially taught himself by absorbing tips and ideas from other players, and incorporating them into what he was playing.
He played lead guitar in a rock band for a number of years, before falling in love with natural acoustic sounds. As such, he got rid of the Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar and Marshall Amp at age 20 and concentrated on acoustic guitar.
He found a book by Stefan Grossman on Alternative Tunings which, he says, opened up a whole new world. He commenced writing songs in his late teens; although they all sounded a whole lot like Neil Young.
After a long time away from music, he started up again in his 30’s and hasn’t looked back. Gradually, he acquired other instruments and found he had a gift for sitting down with them and making sense of them.
Today, he plays 15 different instruments.