Creative Genius 27 - Dan Mangan - Vulnerability, Honesty, Determination & Grit: Bringing Your Art Into the World
2 time Juno Award Winning Canadian Singer/Songwriter Dan Mangan joins me to talk about the roles of vulnerability, honesty, determination and grit in bringing our art into the world.
We talk about how he ‘made it’ as a musician in a landscape that is oversaturated with incredible talent no matter which way you look, the importance of creating a vehicle to carry your work into the world and he reflects on the approach he took to building his career - which ultimately allowed him to to work with the record label of his dreams (Arts & Crafts Feist, Broken Social Scene) and build a deeply connected relationship with his ever growing fanbase.
Dan is a deeply grounded and all-round garden variety good dude. He has some incredible insights about what it takes to bravely express our art as it comes through us without adding all the pretense. He muses about how he feels that as artists it is our responsibility to put our armour down first, to inspire and free each other in the process.
Dan’s music comes from that deep, soulful grounded place of magic - where all truly great music and art comes from. In it we find painfully, gorgeously said truths about the hopeful joys, the earnest, longing, reaching of youth and the impossible agonies, and incredulous bittersweet defeat of a life fully lived. Lyrics that will make you close your eyes to savour the delicious weight of their truth, all sung to you by his commanding yet gentle voice that is all at once approachable, gritty, knowing, uncertain, soothing, yearning & familiar.
He's able to access this kind of magic for making his songs for a lot of reasons which will become obvious to you as you hear him talk. But I will say this; I feel like we can all learn a lot from Dan. He has figured out how to, as he puts it, ‘put his armour down first’ he fully shares his gifts without pretense, which has the beautiful side effect of inviting listeners and fans even closer to their own hearts.
Dan realized the importance of being himself on stage early on in his career. Reflecting on what kind of person he wanted to be he realized he didn't want to be a ‘rockstar’ on stage he wanted to be an approachable dude - he wanted to be himself and present to the magic he created with the audience. That decision to remain the truest version of himself may have ironically set him on a path of actually becoming the rockstar that he is today.
Dan Mangan is the most humble non rock-star rock-star you may ever meet and I think you are going to get a lot out of this interview.
SOME THINGS DAN AND I TALK ABOUT
-How when he was first starting out he didn't think he was ‘very good’ (that was crazy for me to hear, especially because i was there… and he was great)
-Imposter Syndrome being at the root of humanity glitching
-Why live concerts have the power to unite us in such profound ways.
-The magical thing he intentionally brings to his live shows.
-How it is the artist's job to put down their armour and go first. And how that can inspire all kinds of magic in people's lives
-How (and why) great music or art can make you laugh and cry in the same minute and leave you feeling as light as air which reminds you that the pros of existence do outweigh the cons
-How truly feeling the lows not just the highs in life helps him stay in gratitude mode not to take anything for granted
-The very important thing he realized early on in his career that helped him orient himself to choices and actions that would help him to build a sustainable career with lasting success
-Not waiting for his big moment or to be discovered, and what to do instead
-How it can be easy to fall into the trap of ‘waiting until you make’ it to share your best work with the world and how that is the very thing that can prevent ‘making it’
-The importance of discovering your gifts and really building on them. How he felt he had shortcomings as a musician and perhaps because of those was able to realize what he was extremely good at - connecting with large groups of people and lean into that.
-What it feels like to start to get famous/have your dreams come true (It’s not what you might think)
-The importance of internally clocking our self worth rather than seeking external validation.
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Dan Mangan is a two-time JUNO award winning & two-time Polaris Music Prize listed musician and songwriter. He has toured extensively in North America, Europe & Australia. He has played Glastonbury & Jimmy Kimmel Live, sold out Massey Hall and scored acclaimed soundtracks for television (Netflix, AMC) and feature film. Dan is a co-founder of Side Door. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with his wife and two sons. His 6th LP "Being Somewhere" is out Oct 28th.
Resources discussed in this episode:
- Dan’s new album
- Sidedoor
- Mother Mother
- Mark Berube
- Columbia House cd orders! Remember those?
- Sarah Mclachlan
- Tragically Hip
- Aerosmith Get A Grip - how cool would it be for stephen tyler to know know that this was dan mangans first album?
- The Beatles
- Malcolm Gladwell
- -Cafe deux soleils
- -Thom Yorke
- Arts & Crafts record label
- The Orpheum
- The Junos
- The Polaris Music Prize
- Feist
- Broken Social Scene
- Select All Delete John K Samson
- The Tourist Radiohead
- Leonard Cohen ‘Ring the bells that still can ring there's cracks in everything, that’s how the light gets in’
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