For the millions of fans who buy Justin Bieber’s albums, get tickets to his concert and support the singer through their undying loyalty, there seem to be just as many who think the young pop star is gimmick. No one knows just how untrue this is better than his Musical Director, guitar player and close friend, Dan Kanter.
Through a chance encounter an MuchMusic (that’s right, we’re totally claiming bragging rights on this friendship), Dan and Justin met, meshed, and the rest is musical history. Touring the world together, playing SNL, Wembley and more, these two Canadians have taken the world by storm. Dan, an Ottawa native who is working on his thesis while on the road with Justin (the topic? The process of developing Justin’s pop arena show, from a musical director’s perspective), has developed a following of fans all his own. Two Bieber fans in Boston even went as far as writing and performing a song as an ode to the guitar player, which Justin now performs to the chagrin of Dan during sound checks. I’d link the video here, but I think it would end my friendship with Dan. I’m sure you can find it on YouTube.
Dan’s wedding this fall to Canadian blogger and fashion line owner, Yael Latner, made headlines when their wedding singer turned out to be the very same performer that won four American Music Awards earlier this week. Fresh off their big AMA win, Justin and Dan were in town this week to play to the home crowd at the ACC. We sat down with Dan to talk about My World Acoustic, which hits stores this Friday, fashion, performing and of course, the biggest craze to come out of Stratford. Ever.
