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Feeling ‘Ooo Oh’ about life

The Daniel Wesley Band debuts new album Sing and Dance at Whistler Shaw TV launch
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The Daniel Wesley Band

Who: The Daniel Wesley Band

When: Friday, Oct. 12, 6:30 p.m.

Where: Garibaldi Lift Company (GLC)

Admission: Free

An electrician no more, Daniel Wesley of the Daniel Wesley Band was recently able to hang up his tool belt on the trade and pursue his music fulltime thanks to the recent success of the band.

Still just out the gate, the one-year-old White Rock band is steadily climbing the hill of success with a sold-out show at Richards on Richards, bookings in venues such as the Commodore, a top five standing at The Fox Seeds 2007 battle of the bands competition and one single charting the Top 30 most requested songs on The Fox radio.

“Ooo Oh” is not just the title of the Daniel Wesley Band’s hit single, but also an exclamation of how charged Wesley is feeling these days.

“Its cool to just be doing music, but moving at the same time, to make sure you play elsewhere and create new fans to make this a reality,” Wesley said. “It’s definitely a lifestyle.”

The Daniel Wesley Band will make their Whistler debut Friday, Oct. 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Garibaldi Lift Company (GLC) as part of the new Whistler Shaw TV launch with a live taping of Vancouver’s Urban Rush.

The show will include music from the band’s newest album, Sing and Dance , and that is exactly what Wesley hopes audiences will be doing.

“It’s a little more reggae, funkier and electric from the last album,” he said. “It’s more upbeat and more danceable. That is the direction we are taking in our music. We want to make music that will make you move and sing and have a good time with friends and family and meet new people.”

Listening to some of the new tracks at danielwesley.com, you can’t help but move along to the easy grooves spanning roots, reggae and rock with catchy hooks and solid instrumentals.

Wesley is a self-made musician, having fronted numerous bands over the years, including General Mayhem, Audiophile and Replica.

His comrades tout impressive credits in classical training. Bassist Mark Luongo studied on scholarship at the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston and achieved a Grade 10 Conservatory of Music certification in classical piano studies. And drummer Alexander James Glassford studied at the acclaimed Capilano College jazz program.

But it was Glassford’s and Luongo’s session work which brought the Daniel Wesley Band together. Wesley hired the young guns to record his solo album, Outlaw , and a new sound and identity was born.

“We ended up playing a completely different kind of music,” Wesley said. “We are not just doing one thing, like the reggae thing, or the rock thing, but we do lots of different kinds of songs. With (Mark’s and Alexander’s) background, it makes everything sound really good.”

Sound good and feel good would be The Wesley Band motto, if they had time to come up with one.

After playing a reggae riff and feeling the satisfaction of watching a dance floor come alive, Wesley can’t get enough of his feel good sound, which all sprouts organically from in-the-moment decisions.

I asked what was going through his mind when re-penning the verses in the Genuine cover My Pony.

He chuckles at the thought of the sexually charged lyrics.

“I started jamming out those chords singing the chorus and mapped into doing my own things on the verses,” he said. “I didn’t think about it. I just think about the way music makes me feel and it comes out naturally… Usually I go with the first thing that comes to my mind, it might be the worst decision, but it’s the most genuine.”

The Daniel Wesley Band will take to the stage at 6:30 p.m. after the live taping of the Urban Rush from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Free tickets are available at the Whistler Shaw TV office.