Daniel Leonard Nigro (born May 14, 1982) is an American musician, songwriter, instrumentalist and record producer. He was the lead singer and guitarist of the

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band

As Tall As Lions As Tall As Lions were an indie rock band from Long Island, New York. History High school friends Dan Nigro (lead vocals & guitars), Saen Fitzgerald (guitar, keyboards, & percussion), Brian Fortune (guitars & keyboards) and Cliff Sarcona (drums ...

. Nigro has produced, written and co-written songs for singers

Kimbra Kimbra Lee Johnson (born 27 March 1990), known mononymously as Kimbra, is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. Known for mixing pop with R&B, jazz and rock musical elements, her accolades include four ARIA Music Awards, two Grammy Awards and se ...

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Carly Rae Jepsen Carly Rae Jepsen (born November 21, 1985) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After studying musical theatre for most of her school life and while in university, Jepsen garnered mainstream attention after placing third on the fifth season of ...

Caroline Polachek Caroline Elizabeth Polachek (born June 20, 1985) is an American singer, producer and songwriter. Raised in Connecticut, Polachek co-founded the indie pop band Chairlift while studying at the University of Colorado. The duo emerged from the late- ...

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Finneas Finneas Baird O'Connell (born July 30, 1997), known mononymously as Finneas ( stylized in all caps), is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has written and produced music for various artists, most notably his sister, ...

Olivia Rodrigo Olivia Isabel Rodrigo (born February 20, 2003) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She gained recognition in the late 2010s with her lead roles on the Disney television programs ''Bizaardvark'' and '' High School Musical: The Music ...

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and many others. He won a

Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album The Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality vocal pop music albums. Awards in several ...

for producing Rodrigo's ''

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'' album.

Early life

Nigro was raised in Long Island,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. His father owned an Office Product Manufacturing Company. As a child, he took piano lessons and played in the band. He was an honorary member of Rob Parr, from

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. In sixth grade, he learned how to play a guitar and became obsessed with pop music after hearing

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

's song "

Smells Like Teen Spirit "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. It is the opening track and lead single from the band's second album, ''Nevermind'' (1991), released on DGC Records. The unexpected success of the song propelled ''Neve ...

", and soon after, he and his friends made their own music video through an attraction at Long's Island Adventureland. At the age of 15, he wanted to become the front-man of his band, despite not having formal vocal training. To improve his singing voice, he started listening to

Jeff Buckley Jeffrey Scott Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scott Moorhead, was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990s by ...

for two years trying to sing like him.

Career

As Tall As Lions

Nigro and his high school friends Sean Fitzgerald and Cliff Sarcona formed an indie rock band

around 1997. During the next few years, the band endured line up changes and experienced artistic roadblocks before taking their present, permanent form with addition of fourth member, Julio Tavarez. Somewhere in 2002, they released their first EP "'' Blood Aphorisms''" and put it on the internet websites, the band received "calls" from record labels ready to sign them. In 2003, they signed a record deal with

Island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

and

Triple Crown Records Triple Crown Records is a New York-based rock music record label created in 1997 by Fred Feldman. The label features such artists as The Receiving End of Sirens and The Dear Hunter, ''Artists Page'' and launched the career of Brand New in 2001.> ...

. All of them decided to drop out from college and pursued their music career as full time members of the band. In 2004, the band released their debut album "''Lafcadio''" and set out on a tour in support of their album. Two years later, they released their self-titled sophomore album "''

''", then they were headlining a tour from June until September and made their first television debut on

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, Los ...

. The band's third album "'' You Can't Take It with You''" took over a year to record and was released in 2009. Their album peaked at number 88 in the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of art ...

chart. By September 2010, the band split up amicably. Nigro went to work on solo projects, named Blocks.

Songwriting and solo career

Nigro has always expressed his love and passion in writing music. It was between the ages of 14-16 when he started writing his songs. While he was in the band, he talked about the moodiness, nervousness and pressures of writing every record with his bandmates. Sometimes, he would write a song once in two months or when he had sudden inspiration. After the band's split up, he moved to

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' ...

and went through a period of soul searching while pursuing a solo career. He became a freelance songwriter and started making commercials for a living. Nigro continued writing songs with his childhood friend Justin Raisen and began working relentlessly for song ideas and recorded demos without success on their first couple of years. Finally, his biggest break came when

Sky Ferreira Sky Tonia Ferreira (born July 8, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, model, and actress. As a teenager, Ferreira began uploading videos on Myspace of herself singing songs she had written, which led to her discovery by producers Bloodsh ...

enlisted them for her album. Ferriera's album received critical acclaimed and opened doors for him to work with other singers.

Discography

As Tall As Lions

Songwriter and record producer

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nigro, Daniel 1982 births American male songwriters Grammy Award winners Living people People from Long Island Songwriters from New York (state)