Having always been an open-minded individual who is willing to learn as much as possible from as many sources as possible, the stuff that Daan stuck to the most is also the music that is the furthest from his style. Daan seems to be one of the only musos in RSA actually writing grunge-metal. This is quite curious since most musicians grew up with this music genre. Granted no one wanted to compete with Seether. But in terms of Afrikaans rock Daan found it frustrating that the only bands worth listening to was Fokofpolisiekar, Foto na Dans, Straatligkinders, Van Coke Cartel and Ef-El. He knew this would be his competition but he also had to look at what made them successful. It would be best to say that Daan Punaan is like and Afrikaans Papa Roach with a bit of a Tenascious D attitude.

Born in Kwazulu-Natal and raised on a farm in a small town bordering Mozambique and the Kruger National Park called Komatipoort. Life was very relaxed and isolated. Practicing was hard since it got about 45° Celsius in the summer days and there were no air cons in that house. Another problem was that there were no other musicians to jam with. So Daan pretty much ended up on a solo route. Daan used to be into rave music as a primary school kid and made some of his own dance songs with programs like E-Jay on the computer. Until at the age of fifteen he got his first guitar. A cheap classical but he loved it and started to get into bands like Seether and Staind. And a rocker was born. About a year later he finally got an electric guitar but no amp. Being a geek he found a way to play through the computer and quickly got a distortion pedal to boot. The computer speakers blew of course and thus an old hi-fi speaker connected to the computer was used. At the end of 2003 Daan finally had enough saved up and got an Ibanez amp and Zoom multi-effects pedal. Still no PA system or proper mic though. The mic used was a cheap pc mic and the stand was a bunch of books and boxes stacked on top of the pc case.

He attempted to start a band called “Fracture” with drummer and high-school friend Rujan who lived in Nelspruit although calling it a band is a bit of a stretch, they hung out, drank and called themselves a band. It is through Rujan that he discovered bands like Lostprophets, Machine Head, Slipknot, KoRn, Coal Chamber, Ill Nino and Chevelle though not really showing an interest in the heavier screaming stuff Daan stuck to his grunge-metal. Until one day when Daan, Rujan and a few other friends where in a car driving to a college prospectus at another high school and chatting loudly a song playing softly in the car caught his attention. “Dude! Wait shut up quickly. What’s that playing? Turn it up.” Rujan did so and said it is Machine Head – Only the names. Something in Daan clicked and he realized that these bands do some weird and quite interesting stuff that he could learn from. Okay granted, compared to Machine Head’s other albums this was a shitty high school metal album but it got Daan into metal. Shortly thereafter Daan found a new band called Trivium with a singer who was only 19. Trivium’s debut album Ascention became the first true gateway to heavier music for Daan. He then started paying attention to the music Rujan had and found among his collection an album called Roadrunner United: The All Star Sessions. An all collaborative album with almost all of his favourite bands featured!

After high school Daan moved to Johannesburg to study at the African Film Drama Academy (AFDA). After a while Daan coming from a small town had no idea how to make it in a big city. During all of this Daan lived in a commune where he learned of non-American/British bands like Lacuna Coil, Nightwish and of course the ever popular In Flames. He befriended former Unlisted guitarist Lwandi Mbebe (who happened to be the first black person Daan ever saw at a rock show back in Nelspruit playing for Unlisted) at college. They jammed a bit and made a few songs but never really did anything noteworthy. But Lwandi introduced Daan to He is Legend, Alexisonfire and Incubus (he always knew a few Incubus songs but never really paid much attention). As Daan Punaan got older his taste in music got heavier. He was introduced to bands like Sikth, Ween, The Dilligenger Escape Plan, Turbonegro, Supersuckers by his Sound Design lecturer. He then one day being into anime like Bleach went on the internet looking for some of the songs from the show and stumbled upon a Japanese rock band called Maximum The Hormone. Seriously if you don’t know them go look them up!

In his second year Daan made his first Afrikaans friend in Joburg. A very loud mouthed, short tempered Klipdrift-loving guy named Emile Potgieter. One day after a quite a few drinks at the Dros in Melville Emile, Daan and another friend Tienie ended up at Daan’s tiny flat with Daan on the guitar playing one of the only two Afrikaans songs he ever wrote. A song he wrote in high-school just for shits and giggles called Sy Fokken Haat My. An Afrikaans cover/translation of Puddle of Mud – She Hates Me. Rolling with laughter Emile said that he’d definitely buy that on a CD and being a very, very persuasive person convinced Daan to go Afrikaans. Up until then Daan used the stage name Dane Constantine. Daan discussed the idea of a new stage name with comedian/actor friend Grant Wilson in a pub called Unplugged in 7th Street, Melville. Grant simply said, “Why don’t you just call yourself Daan Punaan? It’s catchy and people will remember it. It also suites the Afrikaans style.” And thus began Daan’s new journey down a very different road. Emile one day rocked up at Daan’s place and said, “Let’s write a song.” This is the first and only song Daan ever wrote with a non-musician. A very commercial and catchy song called Wats Jou Naam? Daan Punaan then left college after finishing his second year but not his degree to attempt to pursue his music full-time.

Daan Punaan has played a few gigs around Jo’burg, some successful, some not so great. He also played at the Keg Battle of the Bands in Kempton Park as the only solo artist and was put through to the next round. Unfortunately he got really sick though he says “I never get sick” and couldn’t participate. He moved back to his hometown shortly after and joined up with his first fully fledging band. Borderline only lasted just over a year though as some members had to move to pursue their careers (Daan was by far the youngest member). During this time though Daan Punaan improved his singing, stage performance and guitar playing greatly. “It’s quite easy when the role of frontmant/lead singer has been taken of your shoulders. You get to mess around more on stage and focus on just doing weird shit with a guitar. Although being a backing singer was hard since I have such a loud voice. I had to stand like a metre away from the mic to not kill the lead singer’s vocals.” Daan Punaan also wrote quite a few new songs having learned over 60 classic rock songs in the band. He now lives in Fourways, and has a renewed vigour to pursue the dream of jamming all over.