http://www.dankosub.com/
“Dan Kosub has a voice that sounds very established for such a young cat. His reflective debut album Reservoir is a magnificent display of gifts…Songwriting and composing are the obvious highlights of this Canadian rising star …Blue and Grey spins the same spool of thread held by the likes of Jonathan Clay or Howie Day, but is much better lyrically.”
– Fensepost.com
“…there is an intelligence to the lyrics of Kosub not found in most pop tunes these days…”
– Jim Barber, Pie Magazine
“…subtle bass and chilling imagery that works well for Kosub, showing sides of intelligence and melancholy laced with vulnerability.”
– Sheena Lyonnais, Toronto Music Scene on “Gone by 2040”
On his debut album Reservoir, Canadian singer/songwriter Dan Kosub evokes an evocative pop/alternative sound, reminiscent of Matthew Sweet, James Blunt and the Barenaked Ladies. Hitting the road this summer, he will share his musical talents with audiences across the country from Toronto to Victoria kicking off on Canada Day with an intimate show at the Cameron House.
After relocating to Toronto, ON from Victoria, BC in 2006, Kosub wrote over 50 songs, including ten new tunes for his debut album Reservoir. The album features stand out tracks “Blue & Grey” and “I’ll Never Know,” as well as the environmentally conscious “Gone by 2040.”
“Lyrically, I run the gamut of things that are a part of me; politics, social issues, stories, and of course the painfully confessional,” explains Kosub. “Employing new writing methods make songwriting consistently fulfilling. Elliott Smith advocated searching for new ways of developing song ideas, which often leaves me more stimulated than a good idea alone.”
“Blue & Grey” the albums first single and video, deals with the upswing of seasonal affective disorder, which Kosub suffers from. “It’s about the early signs of spring that re-ignite a passion for life you forgot existed for the last six months,” he says. “The last line of the song is the most telling of where I was when I wrote it… “let in the light” … I was living alone in a dark basement apartment at the tail end of winter, going stir crazy.”
“Gone by 2040” was inspired by a CBC article about scientists speculating the polar ice caps may be melted by 2040. “Climate change is a substantial threat,” Kosub explains, “yet whenever the nightmarish scenarios are discussed I find it very surreal. The song imagines the future of this potential catastrophe as no longer an imminent threat, but an irreversible fact of day to day life.”
Kosub draws on both formal and informal musical training, having graduated in 2006 from The Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria, BC, where he studied performance in multiple disciplines. While attending, he was a featured vocal soloist with the Victoria Symphony and was awarded the Bill and Margaret Bender Voice Scholarship.
“Artists that directly influence my sound are ones who are boldly dynamic and in a frequent state of reinvention;” says Kosub, “they write, produce, and perform in one vein, and then shamelessly change direction on a dime, often at the height of their popularity. When I was a kid, it was The Smashing Pumpkins, Dylan and Radiohead, these days; it’s more Springsteen and Tom Waits. That’s why my album ranges from epic to stripped down and confessional.”
Kosub is eager to get out on the road this summer to perform live and continue to work on new music. The album has full instrumentation and production; however, he will be going with a more intimate acoustic approach for the tour.
“I never get bored of performing, because I believe the work’s never done,” says Kosub, “there’s always room to grow and something new to discover, even in songs that I’ve played thousands of times.”