SongVault Artist Profile

Daniel Rata grew up in New Zealand before moving to Perth, Western Australia to pursue his musical dream. With a lifelong love of music and cultural Maori background, Daniel saw his future as a musical artist and quickly established a strong reputation working Perth’s bars, clubs and music venues.

Though not formally trained, Daniel is a unique and gifted musician who has strong feeling anda superbly rich and warm vocal tone. Perhaps due to his cultural roots and a deep appreciation for a variety of musical styles, his music is free of conformity. Daniel is left handed, but he taught himself to play a right-handed guitar by turning it upside down. This particular approach to playing gives his chord progressions an original and unique harmonic flavour.

As a songwriter Daniel is a surprisingly fresh lyricist who has produced a very good repertoire of original songs - finding his own niche and style of writing. Daniel’s self-funded and independently released debut album ‘Suspended In Time’, won both critical acclaim and strong sales in Australia and was played on several radio stations.

Following the release of the album Daniel took some time off to reflect on how he had developed as a songwriter and performer. This gave him the confidence to start writing tracks for his second album. In late 2008 Daniel began collaborating with legendary UK producer John Ravenhall, who has worked with artists such as Elton John, Sting and Paul McCartney. In 2009 he spent several months recording in John’s London studios and before going to Chicago to put the finishing touches to his second album with John Ravenhall, US engineer Larry Sturm and the Chicago Philharmonic.

Having fine tuned his artistic direction and recorded what he believes to be his breakthrough album, Daniel is now keen to reach out and perform to international markets. For those who have never seen Daniel live, he is the consummate performer has that ‘certain something’ and a stage presence that sets him and his music apart.