Danny Ocean (1)

About Danny Ocean

Danny Ocean’s story begins in Caracas, in more ways than one. Born in Venezuela to a music producer father and a cultural diplomat mother, he soon found himself far from the country of his birth. He spent the first four years of his life in the Caribbean, specifically in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the next six in the African country Namibia. The winds of political change ultimately brought him back to his homeland, but the natural influence of his youth abroad, characterized by constant international exchange experienced firsthand, would help shape the young man who’d become one of the most unique talents in Latin music today.

It was the return to Caracas that set off Ocean’s second beginning, his musical awakening to be specific. Hanging out with his father in the studio, he absorbed a great deal at this crucial stage of adolescence, building further on the multicultural arts immersion. Seeing the interest, his father gifted him a guitar and lessons, yet it became immediately clear that the burgeoning young creative’s passion could not be contained in formal study nor in any one instrument. “I hated like trying to learn music,” he says. “I was more into practice; I hated theory--so I just began experimenting.” That free-spirited approach, one that would guide him well in his future career, put him onto making electronic music and hip-hop beats, as well as to eventually study graphic design in college. But most notably, it was a move to a bedroom in his aunt’s house in Miami that prompted him to truly discover his voice.