Singer-songwriter Dany Horovitz has a message for children: “Be Good”

Dany Horovitz is a Canadian singer-songwriter known for delighting audiences with his memorable melodies and beautiful storytelling through vivid lyrics of love, loss, and life, drawing inspiration from ancient poets, modern philosophers, and personal experiences. Born to a middle-class Jewish family in Montreal and raised outside Toronto, Dany’s music is infused with modern takes on familiar sounds: melodic guitar and piano chords, popping bass licks, and toe-tapping percussion. 

What kind of advice could you give a young kid in this world? For Dany, he wanted to be prepared if his nieces and nephews wanted to ask the cool uncle for life advice. Here’s what he came up with: try to be your best self as much as you can; forgive yourself when you’re not your best, because that will happen, then try again; and, forgive others too whether they ask for it or not. Basically, be good. That is the essence of his new song, “Be Good.”

The writer Aldous Huxley coined the term “Phanerothyme” to describe the category of mind-altering drugs that would instead become known as “psychedelics.” It is based on the Greek words “phanein” (to reveal) and “thymos” (mind). This album is called Phanerorhyme as a nod to the fact music, too, is a mind-altering substance.

Phanerorhyme is fundamentally about change. There are stories about receiving and losing love, about being true to yourself, and about growing up.