Damian Hagger is a singer/songwriter and guitarist. He has 2 solo albums (Half My Mind / The Ripple Effect), several one-off songs and is a co-founder, writer and member of the bands Race Card and the children's band Happy Hatters.
For BIO info on DAMIAN HAGGER please go here:
http://www.damianhagger.com/dropbox/e-kit/
For BIO info on RACE CARD please go here:
http://www.racecardband.com/e-kit/
For BIO info on THE HAPPY HATTERS go here:
http://www.happyhatters.com
Race Card Bio
“Do you love Hip Hop? Hip Hop mixed with a little Rock?”
It’s a line from one of the songs on the new self-titled Race Card album and it’s a line that sums up the band perfectly. Think Jay-Z meets Led Zeppelin. Think Chuck D meets Weezer. Think Eminem meets Living Colour. Think you can handle it?
Rapper Tahir Jahi and guitarist-singer Damian Hagger conceived Race Card early in 2004. Both did solo projects prior to working together, one Pop-Rock, one Rap. The merger of the two came naturally and the self-titled debut album was recorded in only 6 days of studio time. Race Card blends riff-oriented rock and pop hooks with intense hip hop rap lyrics and subjects; and the combination is unlike anything out there. Keeping the solid rhythm-section foundation for the group are bassist Aaron Schwoerer and drummer Jay Warren.
Rapper/vocalist, Tahir Jahi, has enjoyed abundant shares of shine and various successes ever since he began rhyming at the age of 15. While other kids were squabbling over tennis shoes and cutting class, a young Tahir was mastering a craft all his own, competing in local battles, performing on occasion, and honing an artistic, standout, and standalone mic style. He met guitarist and singer, Damian Hagger, in 2000 when they both worked at MP3.com.
Guitarist and vocalist, Damian Hagger, is also an African-American…. Ok, not literally, but spent part of his childhood in South Africa and the rumor is that his first words were spoken in Zulu. After high school in Singapore and South Africa, he was accepted to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, USA. Damian graduated cum laude from Berklee with a Bachelor of Music in Contemporary Writing/Production and Music Business. It was at Berklee that Damian became friends with bassist, Aaron Schwoerer.
Bassist, Aaron Schwoerer, was raised in an environment directly related to the surging Minneapolis music scene of the 80's. Aaron went on to study music in at Berklee in Boston before setting his sights on Los Angeles. A veteran of numerous bands, his talents combined nicely with those of Tahir and Damian thus creating the true diversity of influence that is Race Card.
Rounding out the Race Card line up is drummer, Jay Warren. Jay graduated from the Collective School of Music in New York City and has toured, recorded and performed professionally since the age of 17 with several signed and independent acts.
Damian Hagger Bio
English born singer-songwriter, Damian Hagger, got a 4-track recorder for his fourteenth birthday. It started his passion for writing and recording music. After high school in Singapore and South Africa (where Damian spent the majority of his childhood and teens), he was accepted to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, USA. Damian graduated cum laude from Berklee in 1998 with a Bachelor of Music in Contemporary Writing/Production and Music Business.
Damian’s teens were spent writing "friend and family" releases of instrumental music and songs. By the time he was sixteen he had written ,arranged, performed and produced his first full-studio 8 song EP, M'aidez. In 1997 he released a 7 song EP of his instrumental music titled The Ripple Effect. The album gathered over 50,000 downloads on the largest independent music portal on the internet, MP3.com (before the site was bought by CNET in 2003).
In 2003, Damian co-wrote and recorded a 7 song EP titled You Must Be Kidding, with critically acclaimed Power Pop outfit, Big Kid. One of the songs he co-wrote, "Pop Song", was a top ten finalist in the USA national songwriting competition (http://www.songwriting.net/winners.html).
2004 marked Damian's solo debut as a singer-songwriter. Sardonically titled Half My Mind the 12 song disc features the talents and production expertise of drummer, Dave Uosikkinen (The Hooters, Alice Cooper, Patty Smyth) and covers a writing period of over two years and was over a year in the making. Despite the title’s seemingly scattered and disorderly suggestion, no expense was spared in the articulation and performance of the dozen originals, recorded in San Diego over a sixteen month period.
From the album's pumped up, overdriven, power pop, title-track opener to the T Rex-esque pop-rock sequels, Half My Mind, presents an alternative to the mainstream sounds of today. Relying on traditional recording techniques and instrumentation, and featuring very few "artificial" sounds, the album delivers a potent mix of contemporary pop rock songs with a modern-organic sound.
Damian is currently a member of Rock-Rap group "Race Card" and regularly performs in the LA area.