Daniel Cartier

Artist Description

DANIEL CARTIER is a true music industry survivor; a prolific songwriter who continues to add to his extensive body of work in spite of a turbulent past. In fact it is his past, filled with drug and alcohol abuse, nervous breakdowns, abusive lovers and a violent gay bashing that fuels his songwriting, and ultimately leaves the listener with a sense of hope and redemption.

Arriving in New York City at the age of 21, Daniel immediately began honing his performing skills on subway platforms. He liked the subway systems acoustics so much in fact, that his first CD was recorded live, right on a subway platform. The resulting disc, "Live From New York-The Subway Session" became a cult favorite, and Cartier found himself touring the country promoting it to enthusiastic crowds.

Back in New York, he took his act above ground and was sharing bills with the likes of Ani Defranco, Lisa Loeb, X, Jill Sobule, The Indigo Girls, The October Project, Debbie Harry, and Jeff Buckley.

Soon major labels took notice. In the resulting bidding war Daniel caught the eye of one of his childhood heroes, Sir Elton John. He was signed to Elton's newly re-launched Rocket Records, which was part of PolyGram. The resulting disc "Avenue A" produced by Cartier and Fred Maher (10,000 Maniacs, Matthew Sweet, Lou Reed) was a critical smash, receiving 5 star reviews in various publications and landing on many "best of" lists at the years end.

Sadly, the party was cut short when a huge corporate takeover of PolyGram put countless artists, including Cartier, out of a deal.

Cartier returns to Joe's Pub for the release of his fifth studio album entitled "You and Me Are We.'