Dan Moraski first started studying music in his youth with William Bennett, formerly of the Royal Academy of Music in London. He first studied classical voice and choral music. Dan has been playing guitar since his early teens. His first guitar was an acoustic “Beltone.†He started out playing acoustic guitar, then moved onto electric guitars. Over the years, Dan has added a number of instruments to his playing repertoire – funk bass, blues harmonica, keyboards, blue grass 5-string banjo and mandolin to name a few. He has played with a wide assortment of musical acts all over North America. His musical style is a mixture of classical, folk, rock, cajun and reggae.
Dan plays a number of amazing guitars but his favorite is a Custom Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster with an on-board Roland GK-2A synthesizer pick-up. The guitar was built in Fender's Custom Shop and further "tweaked" by Dan's friend and phenomenal luthier, Frank Lucchesi. Dan's style of guitar playing and the guitar synthesizer gives him the ability to add some interesting and definitely "non-guitar" tones to the mix. He can produce an incredible library of sound.
His major musical influences are: J.S. Bach, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton and of course Andy Summers for bringing guitar synthesis out of the studio and onto the stage.
There are two musical selections on Dan’s MySpace page. They are decades apart in time and differ widely in style. One is from Dan’s days performing with the group “Perfect Tommy,†a power-pop band from the Boston area that was popular in the mid ‘80’s. That tune, “Tell Me What You Want†was co-written with Dan’s long time friend Mark Kolnicki. Mark and Dan have performed together in a number of musical acts over the years. Mark currently performs with the fabulous Skid Marks – perhaps the best oldies band you’ve ever heard. They perform the music of the 50’s and early 60’s with an edge. They are the “real deal.†They play vintage rock’n’roll – and exemplify why rock’n’roll was considered such a threat to society by the authorities when it first hit the airwaves. The second selection was co-written with another of Dan’s long time friends, percussionist Brad Willard. Brad and Dan first got together and performed acoustic rock. At the beginning of the New Millennium, they got together in a project called “Strange Visitors†and wrote some instrumental pieces for use on soundtracks, video games and similar applications. The selection “Wild Jungle†is one of those pieces. Brad currently plays drums/percussion with award winning singer-songwriter, Lisa Martin, who writes and performs in the acoustic rock genre.
Dan currently is on tour in North America with the world's greatest Elton John Tribute, Bennie and the Jets, but appears from time to time with the fabulous Skid Marks.
