Danny McNamara
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Danny McNamara (born Daniel Anthony McNamara on 31 December 1970) is the lead singer of English band Embrace.
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[edit] Early Years
Danny and his brother Richard (guitarist) grew up in the village of Bailiff Bridge, near Bradford, Huddersfield and Halifax, in West Yorkshire.
His other younger brother, Jonathan, is also involved with the band, as the administrator of their website.
Aged 11, he passed his 11+ exam and gained entry to Hipperholme Grammar School, near Halifax.
When he left school, he then studied psychology at Manchester University, but eventually quit, having become tired of commuting.
[edit] Embrace
It is believed that Embrace began when Danny barged in on a session involving his brother's band, for whom he was originally a drummer and were of a thrash metal style, and started ordering Richard and his bandmates.
At the time of his band's first album The Good Will Out, Danny made some rather confident and ambitious quotes which gained him and his brother comparisons to the Gallagher brothers of Oasis, and being labelled arrogant. This is also because, like the Gallaghers, they are from the north of England and have an Irish father.
Although in hindsight, Danny claims this was a “Northern band thing, following on from Oasis and the Stone Roses”.
Other incidents around this time also increased this reputation, this includes a bet he made with friend and Radio One DJ Jo Whiley that his song "Higher Sights" (from their first album "The Good Will Out") would be a #1 single. It was never even released.
In 2000, at the time of Embrace's second album Drawn From Memory, Danny met Coldplay singer Chris Martin when his band supported Embrace at a gig in Blackpool. The pair have become close friends ever since, and infact did a huge favour for Danny when he wrote Embrace's comeback single "Gravity" (#7 in September 2004). Danny says "I love him like a brother". Once again, Noel Gallagher was unimpressed, claiming "I don't know what he's doing writing songs for Embrace".
In 2002, after the relative disappointment of Embrace's third album If You've Never Been, he claims that he sold many of his old records to make money. He claims this was the lowest time in his career, as Embrace had been dropped by their record label Hut.
[edit] Musician and Performer
Danny is generally considered to be a good performer, with a lively stage presence and much to say for himself on stage, often making statements such as "I want everyone jumping up and down, even though some of you are too old for it".
He and his brother are renowned for writing both ballads and anthems, which are musically very melodic and lyrically tend to describe his misfortune in love relationships.
His vocal style, however, has been rather heavily criticised, as in spite of writing songs with anthemic choruses, he often struggles to reach high notes when performing live. In recent years, it appears that his voice has got considerably weaker, though as of their September 2006 tour there has been a marked improvement. Nonetheless, many of their songs are played a key lower when performed live.
Possibly his harshest critic was Noel Gallagher of Oasis, stating about Danny in July 1998, "that cunt wants singing lessons". He admits "Liam Gallagher (Oasis) and Richard Ashcroft (The Verve) have very powerful voices, but mine's much more fragile", but also says "I try my best".
[edit] Conditions
Danny suffers from a hearing condition called Tinnitus, and fronted a campaign for the condition.[1][2]
In an interview shortly before the release of This New Day, he revealed that he also has a heart condition called tachycardia and has to take beta blockers when under stress. Adding that "I'm not planning on living long, so I'm enjoying every day as it comes. I'm treating life as though it's even more precious than I would if I thought I was going to live longer, which is probably a good thing."
[edit] DJ
Recently, Danny and his brother have been involved in a number of DJ sessions. The first was at Get Loaded in the Park festival in Cardiff, and he now DJ's on a weekly basis at the Proud Gallery nightclub in Camden, London. They also did a set for a special aftershow party for their gig at Manchester Apollo, which was opened up to the public for £4 per ticket, as well as recent one-off sets with Richard in Bristol and Cheltenham. Danny is soon to play a special one off DJ set at ClubTakeMeOut held weekly at the Harlow branch of Liquid Nightclub.
