Dany Horovitz Is Moving On To Better Things

The Toronto folk-rocker’s debut captures the joyful sound a mended heart makes.

Dany Horovitz steps out of the darkness and into the light with his debut single and animated video Moving On — showcasing today on Tinnitist.

The lead single in advance of Horovitz’s forthcoming album Free Times, Moving On takes the first half of its title very seriously. The Toronto singer-songwriter calls this jubilant stomper “an upbeat folk-pub song about the moment you’re no longer heartbroken.”

With so many playlists full of romantic pathos, Horovitz took opted instead to shine a light on a bright, new day after dark drama. “We focus a lot on the agony of a breakup,” he explains, “but one day, some time after my heart had been broken, I became aware of feeling great for the first time in a while, and wanted to capture that feeling.” Horovitz riffed on those good feelings and wrote down everything he could about them. “Then, I worked on and refined my thoughts until it became a song,” he says. “Our protagonist telling his tale in a pub to friends, and everyone relating, eventually joining in the chorus.”

The jovial handclaps and stomps in Moving On go a long way toward achieving Horovitz’s goal of “resurrecting that old school rock ’n’ roll sound and reforming it for the modern era.” It’s an influence and desire that hits very close to home for the Montréal-born artist. “My grandfather, who was a watchmaker by trade, had a record store franchise in Montréal when I was growing up,” he says. “So my parents always had great records in the house. We’d always be listening to a very old style of music. It would be ’50s and ’60s rock ’n’ roll.”

A songwriter with a gift for infusing modern takes on familiar melodies, Horovitz’s main influences are an intriguing all-Canadian combo of urban poets like Leonard Cohen, Bryan Adams and Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, along with rootsy daydreamers like Gordon Lightfoot and Stan Rogers. Horovitz’s lyrics are stories of love, loss and life, drawing inspiration from ancient poets, modern philosophers and personal experiences. “When you go to McGill and you’re in literature, the ghost of Leonard Cohen is everywhere. I mean that in the best of senses!”

Watch Moving On above, listen to the song below, and follow Dany Horovitz on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

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