Roller Coaster - Danny Vera

Danny Vera (real name: Danny Polfliet, born Middelburg, The Netherlands, 31 May 1977) is a Dutch singer, musician and songwriter born, raised and based in the southern Dutch province of Zeeland.

A graduate of Tilburg's Rockacademie, Vera's music is generally classified as Americana and has been influenced by Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Chris Isaak and - more than anyone else - his idol, Elvis Presley.

After a spell with his rock band, Till Dawn (1999-2002), Danny Vera signed a solo record deal at Universal Music, where he released his 2003 début, For The Light In Your Eyes. Much to everyone's surprise the single My Confession hit #1 in Turkey, but in his native The Netherlands Vera was dropped by Universal due to disappointing album sales.

Vera paid for subsequent albums out of his own pocket: Hold On A While (2005, featuring another Turkish #1 single, Innocence), Ordinary Man (2007) and Pink Flamingo (2009).

None of these albums sold particularly well and as it got harder to get gigs, Danny Vera started to fear that his recording career had come to a natural ending.

It turned out differently. Holland's spectacularly popular football talkshow, 'Voetbal International' (every Monday and Friday on RTL7), landed Danny Vera and his band as its 'house band' in 2009. It was just the gig he needed. November 2013 saw the release of the fifth Danny Vera album, Distant Rumble, quite surprisingly on the esteemed indie label, Excelsior Recordings.

Official website: www.dannyvera.com. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.