![Alex Tanas](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Alex_Tanas_.jpg)
Alexander Vincent Tanas (born February 28, 1986), known professionally as Alex Tanas or Alexander Vincent, is a Canadian-American artist, producer, songwriter, and drummer. He is best known for being a former drummer and vocalist for the pop-reggae group
Magic!
Magic! (stylized in all uppercase) is a Canadian reggae fusion band based in Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of lead vocalist, guitarist/producer Nasri Atweh, guitarist/keyboardist Mark "Pelli" Pellizzer, and bassist Ben Spivak. Active ...
. In addition to performing for MAGIC!, Tanas has collaborated with a number of musicians including
Justin Nozuka
Justin Tokimitsu Nozuka (born September 29, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. His debut album ''Holly'' has been released in Europe, Canada, Japan and the United States. He has licensed the album to indie label Coalition Enterta ...
,
Kira Isabella
Kira Isabella Wilkie, who is known by her stage name Kira Isabella is a Canadian country music artist. Isabella was signed to Sony Music Canada in 2009. Her first single, "Love Me Like That", was released in 2011 and charted on the Canadian Hot 10 ...
, Benj,
Pat Robbitaille, Leslie Pike, and
Maneli Jamal. In 2018, Tanas began releasing his own solo music. Tanas currently resides in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
Early life
Alex Tanas was born in
Toronto, Ontario
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, Canada on February 28, 1986, of Ukrainian and Irish descent. He began drumming at ten years old Tanas attended Earl Haig Secondary School in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Collaborations with other artists
Tanas wrote, performed, and toured with the
Justin Nozuka
Justin Tokimitsu Nozuka (born September 29, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. His debut album ''Holly'' has been released in Europe, Canada, Japan and the United States. He has licensed the album to indie label Coalition Enterta ...
band for a total of six years, where he had the opportunity of opening for
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...
. He cites his biggest influences as
Stewart Copeland
Stewart Armstrong Copeland (born July 16, 1952) is a Scottish-American musician and composer. He is best known for his work as the drummer of the English rock band the Police from 1977 to 1986, and again from 2007 to 2008. Before playing with th ...
and
David Grohl
David Eric Grohl (born January 14, 1969) is an American musician. He is the founder of the rock band Foo Fighters, in which he is the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter. Prior to forming Foo Fighters, he was the drummer of grun ...
. Tanas also performed with Canadian musician Kira Isabella and Pat Robitaille. He has also performed with Leslie Pike and Maneli Jamal.
Tanas is a frequent collaborator with singer-songwriter
Hayley Gene Penner
Hayley Gene Penner (born November 5, 1985) is a Canadian singer, songwriter and author based in Los Angeles. She is best known for the songs she has written for artists including The Chicks, Sabrina Claudio, Lennon Stella, Charlotte Lawrence and T ...
, and has been a co-writer and producer of all her songs. He also frequently collaborates with
Sabrina Claudio
Sabrina Claudio (born September 19, 1996) is an American singer and songwriter. In late 2016, Claudio uploaded several songs to SoundCloud, before compiling a select collection as part of her debut extended play, ''Confidently Lost'', which was ...
, as he wrote and produced the songs "I Don't", "Frozen", "Everlasting Love" and "Wait." He has written all songs for singer Vöx.
In 2014, Tanas co-wrote "Cut Me Deep" by
Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll ( , ; born 2 February 1977), professionally known by the mononym Shakira, is a Colombian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Barranquilla, she has been referred to as the " Queen of Latin Music" and is ...
with his bandmates from MAGIC!, in which they are also featured on the track.
In 2014, Tanas co-wrote "Coming Home", performed by
Anthony Hamilton. In the same year, he served as a co-producer and co-writer of "Human Contact", performed by
Catey Shaw on the EP titled "The Brooklyn EP." Tanas co-wrote "Consider Me" for R&B artist
Allen Stone
Allen Stone (born March 13, 1987) is an American soul and R&B singer and musician.Deming, Mark. Allen Stone Biography AllMusic. Retrieved February 15, 2013.
Early life
Stone was born on March 13, 1987, in Chewelah, Washington, near Spokane. ...
, which appeared on his album titled "Building Balance." In 2016, Tanas co-wrote and co-produced the tracks "Levitate" and "Lovesick" for
Jacob Whitesides
Jacob Michael Whitesides (born November 11, 1997) is an American singer-songwriter from Sevierville, Tennessee. He records his music for Double U Records, of which he is also the CEO.Stassen, Murray (May 29, 2015BMG partners with online sensat ...
. Tanas co-wrote "Heavy Stone," performed by
Justin Nozuka
Justin Tokimitsu Nozuka (born September 29, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. His debut album ''Holly'' has been released in Europe, Canada, Japan and the United States. He has licensed the album to indie label Coalition Enterta ...
. In 2017, he co-wrote "Warm in December", performed by
Michael Schulte. During the same year, he co-wrote "Bad News" for
SOJA.
In 2019, he co-wrote and produced "Missing Me" for TRACE's EP titled Like Hell. He also co-wrote and produced the track "Continuum" for
Tanerelle.
Apart from songwriting, Tanas has also performed drums for artists such as Justin Nozuka,
Kira Isabella
Kira Isabella Wilkie, who is known by her stage name Kira Isabella is a Canadian country music artist. Isabella was signed to Sony Music Canada in 2009. Her first single, "Love Me Like That", was released in 2011 and charted on the Canadian Hot 10 ...
, Sabrina Claudio,
Pat Robitaille, Leslie Pike,
Maneli Jamal, and
Luis Figueroa.
MAGIC!
Tanas was a member of the pop-reggae group
MAGIC!
Magic! (stylized in all uppercase) is a Canadian reggae fusion band based in Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of lead vocalist, guitarist/producer Nasri Atweh, guitarist/keyboardist Mark "Pelli" Pellizzer, and bassist Ben Spivak. Active ...
, alongside vocalist
Nasri, bassist
Ben Spivak
Ben Spivak (born January 4, 1983) is a Canadian singer and musician. He is best known for being a bassist and vocalist in the pop-reggae group Magic! In addition, Spivak has performed with a variety of musicians including Canadian hip hop group K-O ...
, and guitarist
Mark "Pelli" Pellizzer Mark Pellizzer (born June 14, 1980), better known by his stage name Mark Pelli, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for being a guitarist and vocalist for the pop-reggae group Magic!. In addition to perfo ...
. While Mark Pellizzer was in Los Angeles, he called Alex Tanas to work on music together, since they knew each other from past collaboration with the Justin Nozuka Band. On his first visit, Tanas and the members of
MAGIC!
Magic! (stylized in all uppercase) is a Canadian reggae fusion band based in Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of lead vocalist, guitarist/producer Nasri Atweh, guitarist/keyboardist Mark "Pelli" Pellizzer, and bassist Ben Spivak. Active ...
wrote Stupid Me, Don't Kill The Magic, and Gypsy Woman, and decided to form the band.
As a band member, Tanas wrote and co-produced all MAGIC! songs.
In February 2022, Magic! announced that Tanas had left the band in a
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
post.
Solo Music
Tanas began releasing his ow
solomusic in 2018. He served as the co-writer and producer of the singles "Same Love", "I Won't", "Other People's Lives", "Free Myself", "Unravel", "Everything", and "Close to You."
In 2019, he co-wrote and produced "Miles Away", performed by
Kan Wakan
Gueorgui Linev known professionally as Kan Wakan, is a Bulgarian-born, Los Angeles and UK-based electronic music producer, composer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Linev has released two studio albums under the name Kan Wakan (''Moving On' ...
. Tanas is also featured on the track as a vocalist. The song was recognized b
Vultureas one of the best new songs during its release.
Awards and honors
Tanas is the recipient of two
Juno Awards
The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...
for "Single of the Year" for MAGIC's song 'Rude', and Breakout Group of the Year.
He is
recipientof the SOCAN Award for songwriting.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanas, Alex
Canadian male drummers
Musicians from Toronto
Writers from Toronto
Living people
1986 births
Canadian songwriters
Canadian people of Ukrainian descent
Canadian people of Irish descent
21st-century Canadian drummers
21st-century Canadian male musicians