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Dan Costello is a songwriter based in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY.
Dan is an independent musician, having quit his corporate music job in January 2006. He works as a sound engineer, a recording assistant, a piano player, an open-mic host, an audio consultant, and occasionally as an album producer. He's a member of the Freelancers Union and various arts organizations. He has toured all over Europe, Canada and the United States.
Dan is a member of Creaky Boards and has played with A Fermata, Eric Wolfson and the War Cabinet, and Brook Pridemore and The Valley Cubs. Dan has produced albums for Soft Black, Annie Crane, Ben Godwin, and Peaks and Valleys and more.
Dan's four albums of original music, "Halloween Baby", "Come Home", "Costello", and "Recession Songs" are available for purchased download at dancostellomusic.com. "Recession Songs" is free.
(The Other, Less Crucial Facts, If You Really Want Them, Are Below.)
Stepping out of the cultural cross streets of Brooklyn, Dan Costello's sound breaks all the musical molds. Writing from the influence of Folk, Rock, Jazz, Hip Hop and Broadway, Dan's songs cannot be restricted to any particular genre, as he fashions new sounds out of his eclectic influences.
Born on Halloween and a theatrical performer since the age of five, Dan's been all over the country in embarrassing costumes. He is not related to Elvis Costello but thanks you for asking. He is however related to Ethan Allen (of the Green Mountain Boys).
Through his politically active parents, Dan heard socially conscious music ranging from Woody Guthrie's "Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti" to Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs at an early age. He was admittedly "raised on Dylan by my Ph.D Dad" while he "sang showtunes quite loudly in the kitchen with my mother" He went to folk festivals every summer, sometimes working as a member of the business crew.
As an early teenager in a predominantly Black middle school, Dan sang in a gospel choir, learned jazz saxophone and keyboard, and started writing hip hop lyrics. He wrote his first song, "Dan's Blues" for the All-City Orchestra in Albany, NY at the age of thirteen. Dan starred in community and regional stage productions throughout his teenage years.
Dan attended Syracuse University, where he musically produced a stage version of Pink Floyd's The Wall, and created adaptations of The Who's Tommy and The Rocky Horror Show. He composed a theatrical song cycle and staged a workshop production. He graduated in May 2003 with a BFA in Drama and moved to New York City that fall.
Dan is always performing in New York, either his own music or in Creaky Boards, and frequently with other projects too. He's been onstage at Mercury Lounge, The Bowery Ballroom, Rockwood Music Hall, CBGB's, The Bitter End, Sidewalk Cafe, Cake Shop and tons of other venues.
In 2006 Dan released "Halloween Baby" and ventured to England for Brighton's Summer Antifest and a show at London's 12 Bar.
In 2007 he produced the New York Antifolk Festival where he had the pleasure of hosting and working sound for Suzanne Vega. He recorded and released a new album "Come Home", a collection of songs about people who are far away.
In 2008 he wrote a new album of songs over a month-long solo train trip, and within the year took his band on an East Coast tour to promote the new album, simply called "Costello".
In 2009 toured Europe again, and he released "Recession Songs", a solo folk album about hard times. He is working on a musical, a rock album, and a new financial rubric. He's hitting the road again in August to the birthplaces of his great grandfathers. He is a proud uncle of the cutest kid on the whole planet. He is in love, too.
