Dan Sultan
Daniel Leo Sultan is an Australian alternative rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, actor and author. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2010 he won Best Male Artist and Best Blues & Roots Album for his second album, Get Out While You Can. At the 2014 ceremony he won Best Rock Album for Blackbird, which had reached number four on the ARIA Albums Chart. In 2017, Sultan's record Killer was nominated for three ARIA awards: Best Male Artist, Best Rock Album, and Best Independent Release. Sultan's debut children's music album Nali & Friends was named Best Children's Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 2019.
Early life
Daniel Leo Sultan was born in 1983. He spent much of his early life in Fitzroy. His father is of Irish descent, a lawyer who once worked for the Aboriginal Legal Service. His mother, Roslyn Sultan, is an Indigenous Australian of the Arrernte and Gurindji people. When Sultan was three, the family visited his mother's ancestral lands in Yuendumu in the Tanami Desert; soon after they returned to Melbourne. When a teenager, his parents separated and he lived with his mother in Cairns for three years. At seventeen he returned to Fitzroy.Sultan started playing guitar at four and wrote his first song at ten. His mother's friend gave him an "old, clapped-out electric guitar" and, when living in Fitzroy, he began singing at local pubs. In 2000 he met Scott Wilson, a guitarist, at a Williamstown pub's karaoke night and the pair began writing tracks together. Wilson later recalled "What struck me at first was that he could play piano and guitar and he was a great foil for what I was doing... After a while playing together he said, 'Can I sing this one?' I said, 'Do you know the words?'... mighty voice. A lot of people can play guitar... Not many can sing like that."
Career
2006–2008: ''Homemade Biscuits''
Sultan released his debut solo album, Homemade Biscuits on 13 March 2006, with most tracks written by Wilson or co-written by Sultan and Wilson. It was produced by Wilson at Flowerpress Studios, Newport, and True Form Services, Spotswood. Other performers on the album were Lazare Agnekis, Neil Gray, Elijah Maiyah, Lochile McKlean and Ben Wicks. He received the financial assistance of John Butler's Seed program.At the 2007 Deadly Awards, Sultan won the Single Release of the Year for "Your Love Is Like a Song", which was co-written with Wilson. He performed his self-written track, "Roslyn", at the National Sorry Day concert in May 2007, which describes his mother, a member of the stolen generation, removed from her family when she was six or seven.
Sultan and Wilson were invited by Paul Kelly to record a cover version of "This Land Is Mine", originally by singer-songwriter Kev Carmody, for a various artists tribute album of Carmody's work, Cannot Buy My Soul which was released in February 2007. They also performed at two concerts of the same name: the Sydney Festival in January 2008 and Queensland Music Festival in August 2009. In January 2008 Sultan's backing band consisted of Eugene Ball on trumpet, Ben Gillespie on trombone, Joshua Jones on bass guitar, Peter Marin on drums, Ash Naylor on guitar and Gina Woods on keyboards. Sultan and his band have performed at Australian music festivals.
2009–2013: ''Get Out While You Can''
In November 2009, Sultan released his second studio album, Get Out While You Can, which peaked in the ARIA Albums Chart top 100 in late May 2010 – six months after it was issued. It reached No. 1 on the independent Australian charts and was a Triple J feature album. Sultan describes his music as "country soul rock'n'roll". At the ARIA Music Awards of 2010 he won Best Male Artist and Best Blues & Roots Album for Get Out While You Can. In October that year, he also won Best Independent Artist and Best Independent Blues & Roots Album at the Australian Independent Record Awards.2014–2018: ''Blackbird'', ''Dirty Ground'' and ''Killer''
In February 2014 Sultan supported Bruce Springsteen's Melbourne and Hunter Valley gigs on his Australian tour.In April 2014, Sultan released his third studio album Blackbird, which reached No. 4 on the ARIA Albums Chart and spent thirteen weeks in the Top 50. At the ARIA Awards in November that year Blackbird won Best Rock Album. Also in November he released his first extended play, Dirty Ground, which reached the ARIA Albums top 100. On 13 November 2015, Sultan released Open Live, a live album recorded at his sold-out National Theatre show of his Blackbird tour.
On 28 July 2017, Sultan's released his fourth studio album Killer, which was produced by Jan Skubiszewski. The album peaked at number 5 on the ARIA charts was nominated for three ARIA awards.
On 19 May 2018, Sultan released his collaborative EP titled Killer Under a Blood Moon which saw Sultan re-record songs from this Killer album with other Australian artists.
In June 2018, Sultan postponed the balance of a national tour after criticism of a live performance and issues with alcohol abuse.
2019: ''Aviary Takes'' and ''Nali & Friends''
In March 2019, Sultan released his fifth studio album Aviary Takes, which was preluded with the lead single "Love & Hate" released on 22 February 2019.In April 2019, Sultan released his sixth studio and first children's album Nali & Friends. Produced by Jan Skubiszewski and released by ABC Music, Nali & Friends debuted at #1 on the Australian iTunes Children's charts, and was named Best Children's Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 2019.
Sultan published his first children's book, Nali, in December 2019.
Other projects
Sultan made his screen debut in the 2009 feature film Bran Nue Dae, alongside Geoffrey Rush, Missy Higgins and Jessica Mauboy.Sultan is a sometime member of Black Arm Band, a loose collection of various indigenous musicians. He was also involved in Paul Kelly's The Merri Soul Sessions project.
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Extended plays
Singles
As lead artist
As featured artist
Other appearances
Awards and nominations
In 2006, Sultan received a nomination from the Deadly Awards for Most Promising New Talent. A year later, he won the Deadly Award for Best Single, for "Your Love is Like a Song".Sultan received the Best Blues and Roots Album, for his album Get Out While You Can, and Best Independent Artist award at the 2010 Australian Independent Record Awards.
He also won Male Artist of the Year and Best Single Release of the Year for his song "Letter", at the 2010 Deadly Awards.
In 2014 he also won the Best Independent Blues and Roots Album at the Australian Independent Record Awards.
In 2014, Sultan won National Album of the Year for Blackbird, National Song of the Year for "The Same Man" and National Cover Art of the Year for Blackbird at the National Indigenous Music Awards. On 25 July 2015, Sultan was named joint Artist Of The Year with Jessica Mauboy at the National Indigenous Music Awards.
In 2019, at the Screen Music Awards, Sultan and Paul Kelly won Best Original Song Composed for the Screen for "Every Day My Mother's Voice"