Joe Dante
My Mom and Dad use to always put on very soulful music growing up. They loved putting on the Righteous brother and Jackie Wilson over the weekends. We use to take big family trips to Wisconsin and I would always sing along to whatever my dad would play in the car. It didn’t matter if it was the Beegees or Nsync, I was jamming to it.
My parents were always super supportive of my music interest as a child. I took guitar lessons early from my uncle Dave who married into my family. He was a professional guitar player in the Chicago Land area. And projected my career into what it is today.
After getting into that I wanted more. I always did want more. So naturally singing came next. I joined a mens chorus freshman year of Highschool and got obsessed. During parents teacher conference my teacher Mr. Estberg sat my mother down and said “your son can really sing” and my mother replied “oh, thats just an Italian thing, we can all sing”. But he was like “ no but really”.
I never took school or learning super serious, until music came into my life. I just didn’t have a passion for anything else. I was lost. I never had the best grades, but I knew I wanted to have fun. But my teacher Mr Estberg saw something in me.
We had some auditions for a musical and he asked me to do it. I respectfully declined, I just didn’t see myself doing a musical. I thought, it just wasn’t me. But one day he took me out of class and took me in. He said “joe just sing this for me, no pressures”. Perplexed I did. The next day I found out he just cast me in his musical. At the time I was super confused but sorta happy. He knew I wanted it but was shy at the time. He was one of the first people in my life that got me serious about singing.
From there I went to Columbia college Chicago and focused on vocal performance. I was in an elite group 3cvje. A. Vocal jazz ensemble that eventually went to new orleans and played at some festivals.
During that time I worked at my dads restaurant “the Greek Islands”. I know, Being an Italian with a greek restaurant. My dad had partners that are greek and honestly being Sicilian is basically being greek. But I did that to make money while I was in Chicago to save up money to go to los Angeles to do what I do now and teach and perform.
During college I joined some groups in Chicago that helped my “sound”.
I always had a very high voice and found it to be a strength. People always wanted to hear that rocker Led zeplin sound but I always had that soulful sound that brings me back to the day I was singing in the car going to Wisconsin with my family. I had to marry the two into what is my new album “do ya hear me”