Daniel Victor

Daniel Victor
Birth name Daniel Victor
Also known as Neverending White Lights, Black Ribbons
Born (1979-09-20) September 20, 1979
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Occupation(s) Vocalist, Songwriter, Musician, Record producer
Instruments Vocals, Piano, Guitar, Drums
Labels MapleMusic Recordings
Associated acts Neverending White Lights, Black Ribbons
Website Neverendingwhitelights.com

Daniel Victor (born September 20, 1979) is a Canadian recording artist and producer, best known for the collaborative music project, Neverending White Lights.[1]

Early life

Victor was born in Canada to an Italian father and Argentinian mother, and raised in southern Ontario. His father was a musician and performer, and exposed him to music from a very early age, imbuing in him a love of music. He began studying the piano aged 6, under the direction of nuns at a local conservatory. After five years, he quit piano lessons to play by ear and compose freely. He taught himself a range of instruments and began singing. During his adolescence he often performed as a percussionist in various local orchestras and jazz groups, and formed several other groups, for which he also acted as producer/engineer the home studios that his father had built in their basement. Victor worked in the studio producing local bands from the Windsor-Detroit area.

Neverending White Lights

Aged 19, Victor enrolled at the University of Windsor. During this period he moved from working in bands to multi-tracking in the studio, producing early versions of songs from his debut release, Act 1: Goodbye Friends of the Heavenly Bodies. Interested by the format of movie soundtracks, compilations, and hip-hop collaborations, he sent out compositions to vocalists with whom he wanted to collaborate, hoping to create a fully collaborative record in the indie genre, with what Victor described as "diversity in the voice, but consistency in the song".

Act 1: Goodbye Friends of the Heavenly Bodies

After graduating, Victor devoted himself full-time to the project, named Neverending White Lights, intended as a metaphor for human energy. The record was conceived as a 16-song concept album, entitled Act 1: Goodbye Friends of the Heavenly Bodies, the first episode in a story that would continue over many albums, with the albums as "Acts", the songs as "Scenes", and the various singers as "Actors".

Victor's first collaboration for this album was called "On Fire", co-written with Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman. The song was not included on Act 1, but made it onto Switchfoot's debut album The Beautiful Letdown. For other collaborations on the first album, Victor worked with vocalists from bands including 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 others. Victor wrote most of the music, insisted on performing all the instrumentation himself, and also completed all the producing and mixing stages.

On September 27, 2005, the album was released independently through Victor's own label, Ocean Records Canada. The first single from the album was "The Grace", featuring Canadian singer Dallas Green, which was Certified Gold and became the sixth most played song on Canadian Rock Radio in 2006. The music video for the song reached #1 on Much Music and modern rock radio, and Victor subsequently went on tour as a support act with Canadian band Our Lady Peace.

Act 2: The Blood and the Life Eternal

Victor took about a year to write and record his second album, entitled Act 2: The Blood and the Life Eternal, which was released on October 30, 2007. The first single released off Act II, "Always", was the first to feature lead vocals from Victor himself, and peaked at #18 on the Canadian Top 40 Rock Chart. This was followed by the second single, "The World is Darker", featuring Melissa Auf der Maur, and then the driving rock song "Where We Are" featuring Rob Dickinson of the UK band, Catherine Wheel.

Act 3: Love Will Ruin

Between 2007 and 2011, Victor was working on his third album, Act 3: Love Will Ruin. Writing and production for this album progressed slowly and was affected by various setbacks. Victor eventually wrote and recorded nearly seventy songs for inclusion on this album, but when he had a 'finished' copy in his hands after several years, decided it was unworthy for release, and returned to the studio to start from scratch. Act 3 was finally released in North America, and digitally in UK and Australia, on November 18, 2011.

Other work

Victor has produced and recorded albums for other artists, including the City and Colour album Sometimes, and keyboard parts on the Ours album Mercy.

In 2010 Victor contributed guest vocals to the single "This Time" from the JDiggz Mixtape, The Xperiment. The video reached #1 on the Much Music Countdown and garnered four video nominations, winning the Much Music Video Award for Best Independent Video Of The Year (2011).

In 2012, Victor parted ways with his record label MapleMusic Recordings to focus on his own label. On October 30, 2012 Victor released an album as his side project, Black Ribbons, entitled Neromancer. The 12-song album was written and recorded in 2008 and uses heavy synth-pop and noir 80's influences. Victor also produced and recorded the debut album from Vancouver artist Bed of Stars, released on Victor's Ocean Records label on June 11, 2013.

In November 2012 Victor collaborated with Juno-nominated Canadian Rapper D-Sisive on "Don't Turn The Lights Out". The track featured a video shot in the desert which peaked at #20 on Much Music's Countdown (Canada) in 2013.

In the fall of 2013, Victor launched an Internet radio station called Loveless Radio.

Personal life

Victor became a spokesperson for mental illness after stating in a 2013 interview with the online magazine Mind Your Mind that he has suffered from severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), depression, and anxiety during his career. He is an advocate of alternative medicine and a focus on maintaining a healthy lifestyle to address these conditions illnesses. He stated in 2012 that his OCD affects his approach to music as well as his everyday life.

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
  • 2012: Black Ribbons: Neuromancer

Awards and nominations

WINS:

  • Favourite Single Of The Year - Indie Music Awards 2006
  • Number 1 Song Award - SOCAN 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 - MMVA's 2011
  • Number 1 Song Award - SOCAN 2011
  • Artist Of The Year - Biz X Awards

NOMINATIONS:

  • Best Independent Video - MMVA's 2006
  • Favourite New Artist - Casby Music Awards 2006
  • Favourite New Single - Casby Music Awards 2006
  • Favourite New Release - Casby Music Awards 2006
  • New Artist Of The Year - JUNO Awards 2007
  • Best Independent Video - MMVA's 2008
  • Favourite New Single - Casby Music Awards 2008
  • Favourite New Release - Casby Music Awards 2008
  • Best Cinematography - MMVA's 2011
  • Best Director - MMVA's 2011
  • Favourite Video Of The Year - Indie Music Awards 2012
  • Collaboration Of The Year - Indie Music Awards 2013

References

  1. ↑ True, Chris. "Biography: Neverending White Lights". Allmusic. Retrieved 5 May 2010.

See also

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