Dan Mangan

Dan Mangan’s affecting folk is buoyed by his heart-on-sleeve vocal performances. Known as one of the nicest guys on the Vancouver music scene, Mangan was born in 1983 and grew up listening to artists like The Beatles and Nick Drake. As a teen, he played his first shows around his hometown in a band called Basement Suite before going it alone. His scrappy, acoustic 2003 EP led to 2005’s more fleshed out Postcards and Daydreaming, which laid the blueprint for 2009’s Nice, Nice, Very Nice—a symphonic folk-rock record by turns ambitious in scope (“Robots”) and achingly raw (“Basket”). An avid collaborator, Mangan brings in members of Vancouver’s experimental music community for 2011’s Oh Fortune, resulting in its intricate, layered pop-rock production on tracks like the booming “Rows of Houses”. With 2015’s critically acclaimed Club Meds he explores art rock (“Vessel”), and 2018’s More or Less is a return to simpler arrangements (“Cold in the Summer”). In 2022, the groovy “Fire Escape” from Being Somewhere, further testifies to Mangan’s ability to strike a stirring chord.