From: NY, United States
Genre: Alternative/Alt. Rock, Progressive Rock, Christian Metal
Before DYNAMITE DANIEL, became a solo project, it started out with a band comprised of four people. In the Bible, Proverbs 29:18 reads, "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." Daniel Isaac Roberts had a vision, and that vision was to create a band, unlike the EMO and pop punk bands during the late 90's and early 2000's, who would be aggressive and real in what they stood for in regards to social and spiritual beliefs.
In the summer of 2002, he met a guitarist by the name of Carlos Bayley at Queensborough Community College. They got into a deep conversation about music and certain hard rock bands like Metallica, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains whom they were heavily influenced by. Carlos decided that it would be a great idea to start a band of their own. Even though Daniel just started playing guitar a few months before he and Carlos began jamming together, he was ready, willing, able to advance in his style of playing no matter how long it took. They started their first rehearsal session around the second week of September. Within the following week, Carlos brought in an accomplished musician by the name of Erick Britton to join in the band that they were creating. Erick was willing to play the bass guitar but only if they were able to find a drummer. The drummer that they found was QCC student, Julien Laniado. It had been three months since they all played together, but they needed a name. They called the band Rated X.
A little while after Rated X became the official name for the band, Julien wanted out. He was so eager for the band to take the next step, in playing at live shows, that he dropped out before the band could even make that move. Shortly after he left, the band split up. Depressed for the fact that Rated X didn't last very long, Daniel Isaac Roberts sat in his room wondering what should he do now. He had the motivation to continue his music career but didn't have any connections with anyone. He decided to go forward on his own and prayed that the good Lord would open up some door for him to continue where his band left off. He began making small recordings at Astoria Soundworks located in Astoria, NY. The name that Daniel gave himself was DYNAMITE, since the music had a very edgy and revolutionary feel. He had the talent to record great songs but didn't have any musicians. Engineers Sam Amato and Kamilo Kratc decided to help him by connecting him to accomplished drummer Anthony Espinoza. After two rehearsal sessions with Anthony, Daniel was convinced that he wanted him to play drums on what would be the project's first demo CD.
In the summer of 2004, Daniel Isaac Roberts and Anthony Espinoza got together to record the project's self-titled CD. At first there was no bass player, but at the last minute Kamilo Kratc decided that he wanted to play bass for the recordings. Within four hours, they completed all four tracks on the demo. It was a slam hit on the month that Daniel started school at Nassau Community College, as he sold it to massive people on campus. He did a couple of shows at the Oasis bar in Baldwin, NY and got a standing ovation for his marvelous performance.
In the summer of 2006, Daniel was ready to release the project's next CD, "LEFT ON THE OUTSIDE." There were a couple of problems that escalated before the album's initial release. Astoria Soundworks Recording Studio was closing down and along with that Anthony Espinoza was not available to help in the growth of the project after the birth of his newborn son. Daniel never gave up. He got together with engineer Eugene Sackey from Multisound Studios and started recording tracks for the new album. Since there were no other musicians available to help out with the completion of this record, Eugene decided to layout the drum tracks through his drum machine. The album was finished in December 2006, and had received much praise from friends of Daniel Isaac Roberts and fans on his Myspace Music page. The two songs off of the album that received much radio airplay through the Internet were "The Lone Wanderer" and "Memories." Both songs went up to #1 on the alternative and hard rock charts on Radioindy.com. It was a huge maturity from his first record and because of that he received much credibility.
In the fall of 2007, musicians Carlos Bayley and Erick Britton decided to rejoin Daniel for the recording of the project's very first Christmas album entitled "A DYNAMITE CHRISTMAS." Carlos's closest friend, Jarone, decided to play bass with the aggressive trio. The intial release of the Christmas album came out in December 2007 and featured four songs, "What Child Is This", "Joy To The World", "Silent Night! Holy Night!" and "The First Noel." All songs were recorded live. In the fall of 2008, Daniel decided to remake all of the songs, including 8 new additional songs, giving the record a more professional studio sound. It was on this CD that the solo project's name was changed from DYNAMITE to DYNAMITE DANIEL. The most popular song off of the newly remastered Christmas CD was DYNAMITE DANIEL's rendition of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel."
Four years after DYNAMITE DANIEL recorded the "LEFT ON THE OUTSIDE" LP, Daniel thought it would be best to re-record the album and remaster all 8 tracks. The original "LEFT ON THE OUTSIDE" LP is nothing in comparison to the new "LEFT ON THE OUTSIDE" LP. The tempos to the fast songs are much faster, and the tempos to the slow songs are much slower. The album opens up with a riveting, jaw-dropping new version of the project's hit song "The Lone Wanderer" which was edited, re-recorded, and remastered by Daniel's new guitar buddy, Da-Ko. The head crushing sound of "Memories," the fist pumping sound of "Betrayal," followed by the epic metal orchestra sound of "Kristin's Tree" made this hardcore album into a masterpiece. After hearing this album numerous amount of times, I can gladly say that DYNAMITE DANIEL has mastered the arts of progressive rock and Christian metal and show no signs of slowing down.
Throughout the years that DYNAMITE DANIEL has been around, the project's motive has always been the same and that is to empower the people to take a stand in what they believe in. The solo project is aggressive, but the heart and soul of the band lies in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. With all of the musicians who have planted seeds in this growing project, it wouldn't have been possible without His blessing and divine intervention. People who are not even influenced by rock music have been heavily influenced by DYNAMITE DANIEL and are still influenced by the project to this very day. DYNAMITE DANIEL will never die, because it has already left a powerful legacy behind it.
If you would like to become a fan of DYNAMITE DANIEL, simply create your own account off of www.ourstage.com then search for DYNAMITE DANIEL in the search box. You can also type in www.ourstage.com/fanclub/dynamitedaniel in your web browser for more convenient service. You can also become a fan of DYNAMITE DANIEL through www.numberonemusic.com. After you sign up as a member on Number One Music, you can search for the project's website, www.numberonemusic.com/dynamitedaniel, and add yourself to DYNAMITE DANIEL's mailing list.