Article

Daniel Lanois

Published Online October 16, 2008

Last Edited March 4, 2015

Lanois has enjoyed a fruitful co-production partnership with renowned UK composer Brian Eno, which began when Eno began working at Grant Avenue in 1979.

Lanois, Daniel

 Daniel Lanois, record producer, recording engineer, singer, composer, guitarist (b at Hull, Qué 19 Sept 1951). Daniel Lanois moved to Hamilton when he was 10. An avid musician, he played in several small local bands as a teen and built a recording studio with his brother at his mother's home in Ancaster when he was just 17. In 1974 he built the Grant Avenue Studio in Hamilton, where he produced records for Canadian artists such as Martha and the Muffins, Parachute Club, Luba and both Ian and Sylvia Tyson (seeIAN AND SYLVIA).

Lanois has enjoyed a fruitful co-production partnership with renowned UK composer Brian Eno, which began when Eno began working at Grant Avenue in 1979. Their studio collaboration peaked in terms of critical and commercial success on a string of landmark albums by Irish supergroup U2, notably The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree. The partnership continued on All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000), which includes U2's Grammy Award-winning hit single "Beautiful Day."

Leaving Hamilton in the mid-1980s, Daniel Lanois has operated studios in New Orleans and Oxnard, California. His production credits include albums by Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, Robbie ROBERTSON and Emmylou Harris. His trademark blend of acoustic instrumentation and rich, impressionistic ambient sound can also be heard on his own albums, among them his solo debut Acadie (1989) and the soundtrack to the Billy Bob Thornton film Sling Blade (1996).

Lanois was a major contributor to the soundtrack for the Wim Wenders film The Million Dollar Hotel. His third solo album, the critically acclaimed Shine, was released in 2003 and features low-key roots music highlighted by Lanois's own steel-guitar playing. Guests on the album include Emmylou Harris and U2's Bono.

Lanois shared production credits for U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, which won the 2006 Grammy Award as Album of the Year. His instrumental album Belladonna (2005) generated two Grammy nominations of its own the same year. His autobiographical documentary, Here Is What Is, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2007; the CD soundtrack of the film features performances by THE BAND 's keyboardist Garth Hudson and drummer Brian Blades. In 2008, Lanois and Brian Eno were again sequestered in various European recording studios with U2.