Daniel Victor
Encyclopedia
Daniel Victor is a Canadian recording artist and producer who is most famous for his work in the collaboration of Neverending White Lights
.
, and his mother in Argentina
, who married and raised a family in southern Ontario. Victor's involvement with music began at a very early age. His father, a musician and performer himself, exposed him to hundreds of record albums and helped shaped his early love of song. He spent the majority of his childhood listening to these albums over and over and found a very strong connection to the emotive qualities of music from his very first experience with it. At the age of six, he studied the piano
under the direction of nuns at a local conservatory. After a five-year period there, he quit to pursue his abilities to "play by ear" and compose freely. He taught himself a range of instruments and began developing his vocal abilities. During his adolescence he performed on stage often in various local orchestras and jazz groups as a percussionist. He formed several original 'alternative' bands in which he played different roles, always acting as the producer/engineer in their home studio environment; a collection of gear his father had built in their basement with pipe dreams of eventually starting a record company. Victor worked part-time in this home-studio producing local bands from the Windsor-Detroit area, developing skills and experimentation that would later serve as the background for his upcoming releases.
At the age of nineteen, Victor enrolled at the University of Windsor for his Bachelor of Arts. It was during these years that he began to drift apart from working in 'band-like' environments and experiment with multi-tracking himself in the studio. These early recordings eventually went on to become the first batch of songs from his debut release, "Act 1: Goodbye Friends Of The Heavenly Bodies". Though proficient on most instruments, Victor felt that utilizing the same singer on every song could grow tired, and was all too common. The idea of movie soundtracks, compilations, and frequent collaborations on Hip-Hop records intrigued him, and he wanted to bring these ideas over to the indie-alt music world and create an entirely different concept. Something he didn't own in his collection, but wanted to. After making notes of all his favourite singers, he began sending out compositions to the various vocalists he felt would be a good fit for the songs. His idea was to create something more interesting than just another album by another band; something that offered a bigger experience for the listener.
After Victor finished school, he spent all his time devoted to making the record he envisioned. The name "Neverending White Lights" came to him one night after flipping through his old notebooks in search of key words. The lyric stood out to him and gave him the sense of infinity and foreverness he was trying to create with the project. It was also a metaphor for humans; he explains: "There is an energy in people that doesn't go away when they die. While the physical body stays on earth, the light escapes. That is what we're made of, that never-ending light". With the premiss of the album's content starting to unfold, Victor deemed it important to make the album a concept record; an entire collection of sixteen songs all telling one story, in different ways. This would be an ongoing story, from album to album, each with a different conceptual basis for the lyrics. The albums would be the "Acts", and the songs would be the "Scenes", and of course, the various singers would become the "Actors" - much like a movie or stage play. It was an ambitious undertaking for one person to put together with no help in the industry and no band to bounce ideas off of, and this difficulty lead him into some troubled territories.
After a very trying experience realizing this overly-ambitious debut, Victor surfaced with the finished album in September 2005. It featured over a dozen guest vocalists, many of which were Victor's favourite. He states: "It means more to me to hold a burned copy of this finished concept in my hands after seeing it in my head for so long, than it does to actually release it to the world. I'd rather just put it on my shelf to listen to now and then and reflect on what it means to have completed this personal musical ambition."
. The idea behind this album concept was to feature different musicians within his own compositions. It was an attempt to conceive and birth an entirely different type of album/band, and it was an idea Victor had visions of for years before putting it together. It was to play out like a soundtrack, having what he stated as "diversity in the voice, but consistency in the song."
His first actual collaboration for this album was a song called "On Fire", which he wrote alongside Switchfoot
frontman Jon Foreman
. The song did not end up on Victor's first record, but instead made it onto Switchfoot's Columbia
debut album The Beautiful Letdown
, which was their most popular release to date, eventually selling over 3 million copies.
It was during this time that Daniel continued work on his own collaborative album, which would feature the likes of many different vocalists. He pulled together the lead men from bands such as: 311
, Ours, Hum (band)
, Finger Eleven
, Shudder to Think
, The Velvet Teen
, Our Lady Peace
, Age of Electric
, The Watchmen
, The Black Maria
, Creeper Lagoon
, Starflyer 59
, and many others. Victor wrote nearly all the music, produced, and performed all the instrumentation himself. His originality and creativity made it interesting for his collaborators to be a part of, and solidified their commitment to the project. It's important to note that Victor insists on performing all the instruments on his albums himself, also producing and mixing them as well. This one-man-band operation of sound from the writing process to the end product is the key element to the unique sound of Neverending White Lights.
On September 27, 2005, the album was released independently through Ocean Records Canada (his own record label). His first single, "The Grace
," which featured Canadian singer Dallas Green
, shot up the charts, finishing as the 6th most spun song on Canadian Rock Radio in 2006. The music video eventually hit #1 on Much Music and modern rock radio, and a tour supporting Canadian legends Our Lady Peace soon followed.
After taking about a year to write and record a follow-up to "Act 1", Victor emerged with his 2nd album. On October 30, 2007, Daniel Victor/Neverending White Lights released his second album, the follow-up to Act 1 Titled Act 2: The Blood and the Life Eternal
.
The first single released off of Act II, "Always", was the first to have lead vocals sung by Victor himself, and peaked at # 18 on the Canadian top 40 Rock Chart.
He later followed that with the second single "The World is Darker" featuring Melissa Auf der Maur
(of The Smashing Pumpkins
, Hole
and Auf der Maur), and then the driving rock song "Where We Are" featuring Rob Dickinson of the UK band, The Catherine Wheel.
Between 2007 and 2011, Victor went to work on the long awaited Act 3 "Love Will Ruin album. Between mounting pressures to produce radio singles and to repeat past successes, yet to still maintain true to the artistic integrity NWL was founded on, writing and production was staggered and troublesome. Victor eventually went on to write and record nearly seventy songs for inclusion on this album. It wasn't until he had a 'finished' copy in his hands after years of assiduous work and travel that he decided it was unworthy for release. He then returned to the studio with a new outlook and found inspiration within himself, free from outside influence and pressure. It was this personal freedom and revelation that allowed the music he was looking for to finally surface. Victor stated that "every song has to take you somewhere, every song has to hit you, and every song has to make you close your eyes and get chills. It was the letting go that allowed me to get to those moments. I tested them on myself, and these are the songs that have stood up for me." This batch of music became Act 3.
The album's roster of guest artist has yet to be revealed. The release date is tentatively set for late September 2011.
WINS:
NOMINATIONS
CERTIFICATIONS:
Victor is also developing his own label's roster (Ocean Records Canada) by signing and producing some up and coming artists. He has recently signed Bed of Stars (Vancouver) and is in production making their debut E.P and full length albums. Victor has also signed fellow Canadian hip hop and R&B artist JDiggz
on a collaborative project featuring the both of them called We Are Not Heroes.
Victor also lends guest vocals to the single "This Time" from the JDiggz Mixtape, "The Xperiment" (2010). This video reached # 1 on the Much Music Countdown and, garnered 4 video nominations, and won the Much Music Video Award for Best Independent Video Of The Year (2011).
Victor also has a side project called Black Ribbons. This full length 12 song album was written and recorded in 2008 and has yet to be released. It leans heavily on synth-pop and noir 80's influences like; Pet Shop Boys, The Cure, David Bowie, Depeche Mode, and New Order among others. The release date is tentatively set for 2012.
Victor is also on the board of directors for the music industry affairs division of Xelleon Industries. This company specializes in protecting piracy in digital media, such as MP3's.
Neverending White Lights
Neverending White Lights is a Canadian music collaboration project fronted by Daniel Victor from Windsor, Ontario, and featuring several artists mainly from Canada and the United States. Daniel Victor performs all musical instruments, with most of his songs featuring guest singers...
.
Early life
Victor was born a Canadian of landed immigrants, his father born in ItalyItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and his mother in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, who married and raised a family in southern Ontario. Victor's involvement with music began at a very early age. His father, a musician and performer himself, exposed him to hundreds of record albums and helped shaped his early love of song. He spent the majority of his childhood listening to these albums over and over and found a very strong connection to the emotive qualities of music from his very first experience with it. At the age of six, he studied the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
under the direction of nuns at a local conservatory. After a five-year period there, he quit to pursue his abilities to "play by ear" and compose freely. He taught himself a range of instruments and began developing his vocal abilities. During his adolescence he performed on stage often in various local orchestras and jazz groups as a percussionist. He formed several original 'alternative' bands in which he played different roles, always acting as the producer/engineer in their home studio environment; a collection of gear his father had built in their basement with pipe dreams of eventually starting a record company. Victor worked part-time in this home-studio producing local bands from the Windsor-Detroit area, developing skills and experimentation that would later serve as the background for his upcoming releases.
At the age of nineteen, Victor enrolled at the University of Windsor for his Bachelor of Arts. It was during these years that he began to drift apart from working in 'band-like' environments and experiment with multi-tracking himself in the studio. These early recordings eventually went on to become the first batch of songs from his debut release, "Act 1: Goodbye Friends Of The Heavenly Bodies". Though proficient on most instruments, Victor felt that utilizing the same singer on every song could grow tired, and was all too common. The idea of movie soundtracks, compilations, and frequent collaborations on Hip-Hop records intrigued him, and he wanted to bring these ideas over to the indie-alt music world and create an entirely different concept. Something he didn't own in his collection, but wanted to. After making notes of all his favourite singers, he began sending out compositions to the various vocalists he felt would be a good fit for the songs. His idea was to create something more interesting than just another album by another band; something that offered a bigger experience for the listener.
After Victor finished school, he spent all his time devoted to making the record he envisioned. The name "Neverending White Lights" came to him one night after flipping through his old notebooks in search of key words. The lyric stood out to him and gave him the sense of infinity and foreverness he was trying to create with the project. It was also a metaphor for humans; he explains: "There is an energy in people that doesn't go away when they die. While the physical body stays on earth, the light escapes. That is what we're made of, that never-ending light". With the premiss of the album's content starting to unfold, Victor deemed it important to make the album a concept record; an entire collection of sixteen songs all telling one story, in different ways. This would be an ongoing story, from album to album, each with a different conceptual basis for the lyrics. The albums would be the "Acts", and the songs would be the "Scenes", and of course, the various singers would become the "Actors" - much like a movie or stage play. It was an ambitious undertaking for one person to put together with no help in the industry and no band to bounce ideas off of, and this difficulty lead him into some troubled territories.
After a very trying experience realizing this overly-ambitious debut, Victor surfaced with the finished album in September 2005. It featured over a dozen guest vocalists, many of which were Victor's favourite. He states: "It means more to me to hold a burned copy of this finished concept in my hands after seeing it in my head for so long, than it does to actually release it to the world. I'd rather just put it on my shelf to listen to now and then and reflect on what it means to have completed this personal musical ambition."
Neverending White Lights
Victor's first project was entitled Neverending White Lights - Act 1: Goodbye Friends of the Heavenly BodiesAct 1: Goodbye Friends of the Heavenly Bodies
Act 1: Goodbye Friends of the Heavenly Bodies is a 2005 multi-artist collaborative album by Neverending White Lights. Conceived by Daniel Victor, it features lead vocal performances by members of different bands, including several well known Canadian acts, such as Our Lady Peace, Finger Eleven,...
. The idea behind this album concept was to feature different musicians within his own compositions. It was an attempt to conceive and birth an entirely different type of album/band, and it was an idea Victor had visions of for years before putting it together. It was to play out like a soundtrack, having what he stated as "diversity in the voice, but consistency in the song."
His first actual collaboration for this album was a song called "On Fire", which he wrote alongside Switchfoot
Switchfoot
Switchfoot is an American rock band from San Diego, California. The band's members are Jon Foreman , Tim Foreman , Chad Butler , Jerome Fontamillas , and Drew Shirley .After early successes in the Christian rock scene, Switchfoot first gained mainstream...
frontman Jon Foreman
Jon Foreman
Jonathan Mark Foreman is the lead singer, lead guitarist, main songwriter and co-founder of the alternative rock band Switchfoot. He started Switchfoot in 1996 with drummer Chad Butler and bassist Tim Foreman ....
. The song did not end up on Victor's first record, but instead made it onto Switchfoot's Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
debut album The Beautiful Letdown
The Beautiful Letdown
The Beautiful Letdown is the fourth studio album by alternative rock band Switchfoot. Released in early 2003, it launched the band into the mainstream on the strength of two top 20 singles: "Meant to Live" and "Dare You to Move." The album was hugely popular and remained a staple on the Billboard...
, which was their most popular release to date, eventually selling over 3 million copies.
It was during this time that Daniel continued work on his own collaborative album, which would feature the likes of many different vocalists. He pulled together the lead men from bands such as: 311
311 (band)
311 is an American rock band from Omaha, Nebraska. The band was formed in 1988 by vocalist/rhythm guitarist Nick Hexum, lead guitarist Jim Watson , bassist Aaron "P-Nut" Wills and drummer Chad Sexton...
, Ours, Hum (band)
Hum (band)
Hum is a post-hardcore band from Champaign, Illinois. They are best known for their 1995 radio hit "Stars." Hum has not been consistently active as a recording or touring group since 2000.-Founding and early recordings:...
, Finger Eleven
Finger Eleven
Finger Eleven is a Canadian rock band from Burlington, Ontario, formed in 1989. They have currently released five studio albums, with their album The Greyest of Blue Skies bringing them into the mainstream...
, Shudder to Think
Shudder to Think
Shudder to Think is an American indie rock group. Formed in 1986, they released three albums on the Washington, D.C.-based label Dischord Records and were a post-hardcore band, although they drew upon a wide range of stylistic influences, including pop....
, The Velvet Teen
The Velvet Teen
-History:The Velvet Teen was founded by Judah Nagler and Logan Whitehurst as a side project from their other bands, Tin Circus and Little Tin Frog. Judah and Logan recorded the EP Comasynthesis, which had a prominent electronic sound, in 2000...
, Our Lady Peace
Our Lady Peace
Our Lady Peace is a Canadian alternative rock band that formed in Toronto, Ontario in 1992. Headed by lead vocalist Raine Maida since its formation, the band additionally consists of Jeremy Taggart on percussion, Duncan Coutts on bass, and Steve Mazur as lead guitarist...
, Age of Electric
Age of Electric
Age of Electric was a Canadian alternative rock band in the 1990s.The band, consisting of two pairs of brothers, formed in Lanigan, Saskatchewan in 1989. The members were guitarists Ryan Dahle and Todd Kerns, bassist John Kerns and drummer Kurt Dahle. Ryan, Todd and Kurt all contributed vocals as...
, The Watchmen
The Watchmen
The Watchmen is a Canadian rock band. They were one of the most commercially successful Canadian alternative rock groups of the mid to late 1990s. During their peak years the band had three gold records and one platinum record...
, The Black Maria
The Black Maria
The Black Maria was a rock band from Toronto, Canada. After touring and recording actively between 2003–2007, the band has gone into a permanent hiatus.-History:The Black Maria was formed in 2003, based out of the Greater Toronto Area in Canada....
, Creeper Lagoon
Creeper Lagoon
Creeper Lagoon is a San Francisco indie rock band originally started by Sharky Laguana as a solo project in 1991. They are currently on Sharky's digital record label, Neglektra.- History :...
, Starflyer 59
Starflyer 59
Starflyer 59 is an alternative rock band from Riverside, California that was founded in 1993 by Jason Martin, brother of Ronnie Martin of Joy Electric. While Jason Martin has written nearly all of Starflyer 59's songs, the band has included a number of different musicians over the years, including...
, and many others. Victor wrote nearly all the music, produced, and performed all the instrumentation himself. His originality and creativity made it interesting for his collaborators to be a part of, and solidified their commitment to the project. It's important to note that Victor insists on performing all the instruments on his albums himself, also producing and mixing them as well. This one-man-band operation of sound from the writing process to the end product is the key element to the unique sound of Neverending White Lights.
On September 27, 2005, the album was released independently through Ocean Records Canada (his own record label). His first single, "The Grace
The Grace (song)
The Grace is a song written by Canadian recording artist and producer Daniel Victor in August 2005 and appears on the Neverending White Lights' debut album, Act 1: Goodbye Friends of the Heavenly Bodies.-Background:...
," which featured Canadian singer Dallas Green
Dallas Green (musician)
Dallas Green is a Canadian musician who releases music as City and Colour. He is also known for his work as the former vocalist, guitarist and songwriter for the post-hardcore band Alexisonfire.-Name:...
, shot up the charts, finishing as the 6th most spun song on Canadian Rock Radio in 2006. The music video eventually hit #1 on Much Music and modern rock radio, and a tour supporting Canadian legends Our Lady Peace soon followed.
After taking about a year to write and record a follow-up to "Act 1", Victor emerged with his 2nd album. On October 30, 2007, Daniel Victor/Neverending White Lights released his second album, the follow-up to Act 1 Titled Act 2: The Blood and the Life Eternal
Act 2: The Blood and the Life Eternal
Act 2: The Blood and the Life Eternal is the second album by Neverending White Lights. Like their first album it features guest artists performing vocals, however this album plays host to significantly more tracks sung by Daniel Victor than the first, which included only one...
.
The first single released off of Act II, "Always", was the first to have lead vocals sung by Victor himself, and peaked at # 18 on the Canadian top 40 Rock Chart.
He later followed that with the second single "The World is Darker" featuring Melissa Auf der Maur
Melissa Auf der Maur
Melissa Auf der Maur is a Canadian rock musician from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Her career has included 5 years as bassist with the band Hole and she later toured with The Smashing Pumpkins for their 2000 tour. Her second solo album, Out of Our Minds, was released on March 30, 2010. She is also a...
(of The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band that formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1988. Formed by Billy Corgan frontman and James Iha , the band has included Jimmy Chamberlin , D'arcy Wretzky , and currently includes Jeff Schroeder Mike Byrne , and Nicole Fiorentino The Smashing...
, Hole
Hole (band)
Hole is an American alternative rock band that originally formed in Los Angeles in 1989. The band is fronted by vocalist/songwriter and rhythm guitarist Courtney Love, who co-founded Hole with former songwriter/lead guitarist Eric Erlandson...
and Auf der Maur), and then the driving rock song "Where We Are" featuring Rob Dickinson of the UK band, The Catherine Wheel.
Between 2007 and 2011, Victor went to work on the long awaited Act 3 "Love Will Ruin album. Between mounting pressures to produce radio singles and to repeat past successes, yet to still maintain true to the artistic integrity NWL was founded on, writing and production was staggered and troublesome. Victor eventually went on to write and record nearly seventy songs for inclusion on this album. It wasn't until he had a 'finished' copy in his hands after years of assiduous work and travel that he decided it was unworthy for release. He then returned to the studio with a new outlook and found inspiration within himself, free from outside influence and pressure. It was this personal freedom and revelation that allowed the music he was looking for to finally surface. Victor stated that "every song has to take you somewhere, every song has to hit you, and every song has to make you close your eyes and get chills. It was the letting go that allowed me to get to those moments. I tested them on myself, and these are the songs that have stood up for me." This batch of music became Act 3.
The album's roster of guest artist has yet to be revealed. The release date is tentatively set for late September 2011.
Awards and nominations
The success of his debut album led to numerous award nominations and wins including:WINS:
- "Favourite Single of the Year" - Indie Music Awards 2006
- "Favourite Group of the Year" - Indie Music Awards 2007
- "Best New Group of the Year" - Radio Music Awards 2007
- Best Independent Video of the Year - Much Music Video Awards 2011
NOMINATIONS
- "New Artist of the Year" - Juno Awards 2007
- Best Independent Video - Much Music Video Awards 2006 / 2008
- "Favourite Group / Single / Album" - CASBY Music Awards 2006/2007/2008
- Best Director / Best Cinematography - Much Music Video Awards 2011
- Best Video Of The Year - The Indies 2011
CERTIFICATIONS:
- Neverending White Lights - "The Grace" Feat. Dallas Green - Certified Gold Digital Single (In sales of over 10K) in Canada
- City & Colour - "Sometimes" Album Recording - Certified Platinum in Canada
- Switchfoot - "The Beautiful Letdown" Album Co-writer - Certified 3X Platinum in the US
Other work
Victor has produced and recorded records for other artists as well, including the City And Colour album "Sometimes", guest keyboard parts on the Ours album "Mercy" (produced by Rick Rubin), and most recently the Bed of Stars albums.Victor is also developing his own label's roster (Ocean Records Canada) by signing and producing some up and coming artists. He has recently signed Bed of Stars (Vancouver) and is in production making their debut E.P and full length albums. Victor has also signed fellow Canadian hip hop and R&B artist JDiggz
JDiggz
Jonathan Matthew Poirier, better known by his stage name JDiggz, is a Canadian hip-hop MC and producer of Guyanese and French Canadian descent...
on a collaborative project featuring the both of them called We Are Not Heroes.
Victor also lends guest vocals to the single "This Time" from the JDiggz Mixtape, "The Xperiment" (2010). This video reached # 1 on the Much Music Countdown and, garnered 4 video nominations, and won the Much Music Video Award for Best Independent Video Of The Year (2011).
Victor also has a side project called Black Ribbons. This full length 12 song album was written and recorded in 2008 and has yet to be released. It leans heavily on synth-pop and noir 80's influences like; Pet Shop Boys, The Cure, David Bowie, Depeche Mode, and New Order among others. The release date is tentatively set for 2012.
Victor is also on the board of directors for the music industry affairs division of Xelleon Industries. This company specializes in protecting piracy in digital media, such as MP3's.
Discography
- 2005: Act 1: Goodbye Friends of the Heavenly Bodies
- 2007: Act 2: The Blood and the Life Eternal
- 2011: Act 3: Love Will Ruin (TBA)
See also
- Neverending White LightsNeverending White LightsNeverending White Lights is a Canadian music collaboration project fronted by Daniel Victor from Windsor, Ontario, and featuring several artists mainly from Canada and the United States. Daniel Victor performs all musical instruments, with most of his songs featuring guest singers...
- Neverending White Lights Official Website