photo by Mireille Robaerts/Layout by Ingrid Varet

V1.4 May 2007
I am Daniel Wang,

Son of Chen-Kuo Wang and Andrée Masson.
I am born in Frameries, Belgium on the 13 february 1963.
We come to live in Brussels when I am 18 months.
I begin to play music at 7, on trumpet, and do my first live gig at 8 in the Ancienne Belgique venue for a chinese new year event, accompanied by my father on guitar.

1977 I try drums and guitar, lucky to find the Punk/New-Wave scene to get things going right away, I form my first band with a few friends who could play better guitar (three chords!) or bass than I, so I take on the drums, being better at that. I take the name of a one-shot pseudo-jazz project that a friend (Philippe Terseleer) had invited me to: 
Phallus Band. With three songs we get our first gig in a punk festival and get two encores. We play a lot between 1978 and 1979 in Brussels and Wallonie.

1979 The group split and I join Spermicide at the time of release of the soon-to-be-banned "Belgique Putain Frigide" single.

Photo by Jean-Louis Pennequin

1980 I join Contingent with Eric Lemaître on guitar, whom I would meet again in PPz30 15 years later.

1981 As a side job I begin to work as stagehand in concert venues in Brussels: Ancienne Belgique, Cirque Royal, Forest National,..., for the concert promotor Sound & Vison, where I meet Philippe Kopp, Christian "Fletcher", Philippe Lengelée and Herman Schuermans (Rock Werchter).
That gives me the opportunity to discover the "behind the scenes" of a rock concert. It is great to see the rise of young alternative artists like U2, Simple Minds, Eurythmics, from intimate club gigs to packed arenas or festivals. My ability to understand the various accents of English, Irish, Scottish, American and other exotic crews of roadies allow me to become a crew chief and stage manager.

1982 I play a few gigs with Jerry WX in the project Three Hands, I have to dig an old tape of a gig in Holland "Beneden de Grens" to post some excerpts.
My friend Daniel Rabbinovitch hires me to work with him on market places, selling leather goods. He is playing percussions in Lavvi Ebbel, he introduces me to the band as a needed partner, I have never touched a pair of bongos or congas before, but I get in the groove easally, so off I went on tour in Flanders and Holland, we even played in a festival in Forest National and a the Sea Side festival. Their manager was Arthur Praet, I had him sweat sometimes with my chaotic behaviour, I was going to meet him again later...

1983 Renaud Janson is the first owner of an Emulator sampling keyboard, and the Oberheim system (Ob8/DSX/DMX) in Belgium. He builds a 16 tracks Home studio "Team For Action" around that and, trough my friend Philippe Wauquaire, I begin to work as DMX programmer(this Digital Drum Machine is easally recognizable on Herbie Hancock's "Rock It" or Grandmaster Flash's "The Message") and sound engineer...

1984 My first time in a studio as a drummer is for Michel Clair, for the single "Je suis brûlé". On guitar: Alain Berliner (director of "Ma Vie En Rose"), on keyboards: Gwenaël Micault (played with Arno, Julos Beaucarne, Orion, Renaud,...) and bass: Datcha Ribeiro. The single is produced by Nico Françolet and Christian Debusscher of Allez-Allez (they became Whar! production team). We are in the RKM studio, avenue Molière, where Black Sabbath recorded "Sabotage", engineered by Alan Ward (aka Elton Motello "Jet Boy, Jet Girl" aka "Ca plane pour moi").

I almost played in Front 242! I received a call from Daniel B. :
-"Are you doing anything these times?"
-"No"
-"Good, you are the new drummer of Front then, you will play two gigs in AB and then we go for a tour in the USA, get your visa ready!"
-"...?"
-"Hey, it's not a joke, I have everything in my head, it's going to be great!"
I was familiar to their "Electronic Body Music" on record, but I was more into Miles Davis and Billy Cobham at the time, so I insist to have a trial rehearsal, wich is reluctantly organized in the AB club. Besides Daniel B., I only know Richard R23 from the punk era, but he looks tense when we meet. The Simmons kit is hooked up and is to be played standing up, Daniel starts the backing machines and I find myself in a thunderstorm of electronic percussion, where would I fit in there? Since I am in a "jazz-rock-fusion" mindset, I figure that some para-diddle flams with syncopated accents would do the job, but it only makes things worse! Daniel tries to mute some tracks, but after some more trials he takes me aside and apologizes for the time wasted.
I understand later what would have fitted on drums: a heavy choreographic backbeat, but I think it helped redefine part of the role of R23 on stage, that I would have been "stealing". Anyway, with them leaving for the States, I am available for other collaborations...

1991 I join a big band formula of the flemish avant-garde pop band Arbeid Adelt.

1992 I join La Muerte as 8th drummer. We tour in Switzerland, France, Holland and Belgium.

1994 Last concert of La Muerte is recorded and filmed in Brussels, Live CD "Raw" of the event is released / I form a WangWay trio, with Patrick Dorcéan on drums and Fred, then Thierry Rombeaux, then Patrick Leboucher on Bass.

1995 Arthur Praet, former manager of Lavvi Ebbel and Blaine Reininger, contacts me as director of Dureco record company, he hires me as sales representative.
PPz30's drummer, Phil "The Vibes", is injured, Eric (Contingent) Lemaître contacts me and I replace Phil for five concerts.

1996 I join PPz30 on guitar, replacing Jean-Luc "Monster" Guyot, as the band is finishing the album "Sweet Smell of SuckSess" and releases the single "Jumpin' Jehosaphat" (I play percussions on that song). Lots of concerts follow the continuous airplay of the single.

1997 As we work on a new album "This Is Not A Bell", I play two times at the Dour Festival: on guitar with PPz30 and then on drums with a unique reunion concert of La Muerte.

1999 PPz30 joins Carbon7 label and teams up with André Gielen on production for the new album "Beautifuel".

2001 I quit my sales job in the record business.

2003 I quit PPz30 and concentrate on my project WangWay, sending a demo to most of the record labels, nothing comes out of this.

2006 Marko Kapri (La Muerte) initiates the Kriminal Hammond Inferno project with Simon "Diabolix" Rigot on Hammond B3 and me "Kriminal" on drums.

2007 John Baine (aka Attila the Stockbroker), first bass player of Contingent in 1979, finds me on the internet. I put him back in touch with Bob and Eric as he prepares to play a gig in Brussels. We decide to reform Contingent on that occasion, at least for the fun of it. We have a very successful concert in Magasin 4, sharing the stage with Attila's Barnstormer, PPz30's 15th birthday party and Grimskunk (CAN). That same night I play in Recycl'Art, with Kriminal Hammond Inferno, for the "The Swinging Lust World of John Phillip Law" ..ary, directed by Marko Kapri, projection party.