Projects & Bio

bio

Audiences know Daniel Cervantes as the San Diego,CA-born musician whose interstellar electric guitar ignites bands like MRS. HENRY, Howlin’ Rain, and Chest Fever. Lauded by outlets including NPR, Rolling Stone & Relix Magazine, with NBC Channel 7 summing it up with: “What can’t this guy play? He oozes Rock & Roll swagger and few use it better.” A multi-hyphenate musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, label owner, and solo recording artist as Dude Cervantes, he navigates an ever-shifting orbit of sonic exploration both live and in-studio. As the originator of the indie record label Blind Owl, he advances a collective of authentic artists ranging from punk rock legend Zander Schloss of The Circle Jerks to author Noah C. Lekas, whose collaborative work with Cervantes on Saturday Night Sage earned praise from Rolling Stone Senior Editor David Fricke calling it “Poetry And Psychedelia, as if Tom Waits had hitched a ride on The Jefferson Airplane’s version Of ‘Wooden Ships.”

“Growing up with an immigrant father from Mexicali, Mexico, and a mother raised in Woodland Hills, California, Cervantes absorbed music from both sides of the border. Childhood was soundtracked by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, mixed with Santana and Maná, with a nylon-string guitar under the bed that only came out at midnight when family parties hit their stride. Insomniac by Green Day was a birthday gift from his older sister when he was seven, and before long he was sneaking her cassettes of Stone Temple Pilots and Led Zeppelin whenever she wasn’t looking.

It was in high school, though, when his dad received a Stratocaster for Christmas, that Dan found himself glued to the fretboard—working from dusk to dawn to master the instrument. Accepted into the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, he studied theory and arranging, graduating with a Bachelor of Music in guitar performance. Courses at Los Angeles City College offered an intellectual counterpoint, where, as he reflects, ‘literature, anthropology, and sociology influenced me as a writer, and Chicano studies gave me depth and appreciation for my culture.’