Dhani Harrison
Dhani Harrison [d̪ʱ əni] (born 1 August 1978) is a British multi-instrumentalist musician and singer-songwriter who is the only child of George Harrison and Olivia Harrison. Harrison debuted as a professional musician assisting in recording his father’s final album, Brainwashed, and completing it with the assistance of Jeff Lynne after his father’s death in November 2001. Harrison formed his own band, thenewno2, in 2006.
Harrison is named after the 6th and 7th notes of the Indian music scale, dha and ni. Dhani is also a raga in north Indian classical music. His first name is usually pronounced in English as “Danny.”
Harrison grew up with his parents in Henley-on-Thames, in Friar Park, the estate on which his father had lived since 1970. His mother, Olivia Harrison, is Mexican. One of Harrison’s earliest memories, from the age of six, is receiving a drumming lesson from his father’s friend and bandmate, “Uncle” Ringo Starr. He recalled that before the lesson, he had been an avid drummer. However, when Starr began to play, the loud noise frightened him so much that he ran out of the room screaming and never used his drum kit again.
Harrison attended Badgemore Primary school in Henley-on-Thames, then Dolphin School near Twyford, a Montessori method school. He later attended Shiplake College, also near Henley, where he showed a keen interest in rowing.
Harrison is an alumnus of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States, where he studied visual arts, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree. After graduating in 2001, Harrison pursued a career as an aerodynamicist before deciding to follow in his father’s footsteps as a professional musician.
After his father’s death in 2001, Harrison, in collaboration with Jeff Lynne, completed his father’s final album, Brainwashed, which was released in 2002. Harrison participated in the Concert for George on the first anniversary of his father’s death. The concert was organized by Eric Clapton and featured some of his father’s friends and collaborators, including former Beatles bandmates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr as well as Clapton, Billy Preston, Ravi Shankar, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Jim Keltner, and Joe Brown. Harrison played backup acoustic guitar for most of the concert. Before the finale, McCartney relayed to the audience, “Olivia said that with Dhani up on stage, it looks like George stayed young and we all got old”, referencing the physical similarities between father and son.
In 2004 Harrison appeared onstage with Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne, Prince and others for a performance of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” during his father’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In March 2006, Harrison made a guest appearance on Liam Lynch‘s Podcast Video Variety Show, Lynchland. They performed a duet that will appear on a Lynch album. He collaborated with Jakob Dylan on the John Lennon song “Gimme Some Truth” for the Lennon tribute album Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur, which was released on 12 June 2007. Dhani is credited on two unreleased Traveling Wilburys tracks under the pseudonym Ayrton Wilbury, a tribute to Ayrton Senna.
In April 2006, it was announced that Harrison’s band, thenewno2, had begun recording. The band released a music video, “Choose What You’re Watching”, on its website. thenewno2 features Harrison on lead guitar, synthesiser and vocals and Oli Hecks on drums and synths. He also contributed to the 2007 EP by Heather Porcaro and the Heartstring Symphony, Rooney‘s 2007 CD Calling the World. He was involved in a re-working of the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” entitled “The Heart Gently Weeps“, which was the first single on the Wu-Tang Clan‘s album, 8 Diagrams, released in December 2007.
Thenewno2’s debut album, You Are Here, was released online on 11 August 2008 and in stores on 31 March 2009. The song “Yomp” was featured as a downloadable song for the Rock Band series, and “Crazy Tuesday” was featured as one of the 20 free songs that were downloadable with the purchase of Rock Band 2.
On 14 April 2009, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce posthumously awarded George Harrison a star on the Walk of Fame. After Olivia Harrison gave a short speech about her late husband, Dhani Harrison uttered the “Hare Krishna” mantra.
In August 2010, Dhani Harrison, Ben Harper and Joseph Arthur joined together to form Fistful of Mercy.
In 2014 Harrison participated in The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles.
With the announcement of Eric Clapton‘s studio album I Still Do on 18 February 2016, it was reported by the press that George Harrison might posthumously appear on the album, since “Angelo Mysterioso”, Harrison’s former pseudonym was credited with the album. When Clapton confirmed Harrison would not be part of the album, the press speculated Dhani Harrison might appear playing and singing on the album. However, this was not confirmed.
In between working on albums, Harrison along with Paul Hicks (musician) began their film composing partnership scoring the 2013 film Beautiful Creatures. In 2014 they scored the film Learning to Drive. as well as the TV series The Divide. They are currently scoring the WGN TV series Outsiders (TV series).
Harrison married long-time girlfriend Solveig ‘Sola’ Karadottir in June 2012. Sola’s father is Kári Stefánsson, co-founder of deCODE Genetics.
Visit site: http://thenewno2.com
