Duane Arthur hails from Johannesburg, South Africa and has dedicated his life to the art of music composition, songwriting, performance, production, sound design and audio engineering. With a career that spans over two and a half decades, he was born to a musically renowned father, and discovered an interest in the art at a very early age.
By nine years old Duane was already an accomplished singer and performer, in both studio session work, as well as on the live stage. He had also started to learn alto saxophone. At age fourteen, he began teaching himself guitar and promptly discovered his first true love…songwriting.
Duane turned out to be a prolific songwriter, and by fifteen years old he had a large enough repertoire to start his first band (Sublemon) and start performing on the live circuit. Sublemon acquired great recognition during its four-year existence, and achieved many big things in its short lifetime. This includes being the first South African band to be aired on MTV, playing alongside all of South Africa’s top acts; On all major festival stages, and having a #1 hit single on 5fm’s modern rock chart for four weeks running.
Since Sublemon disbanded in 1998, Duane has pursued his solo career as a singer/songwriter, as well as performed with several music groups over the years, covering multiple genres. These include Ethel My Love, Rise, Newtown, Abstrakt, and OTN (Outside The New).
Duane has also shown his diversity as a songwriter and music producer over the years, having the pleasure to have written with and/or produced many talented artists including Ringo Madlingozi, Ziyon (Liquideep), Wafiq (SA idols), Abstrakt, Chillo Mafia, Veziqolo and MXO (including two top 5 singles on Metro fm).
As an accomplished composer, Duane is well versed at composing music and songs for commercial use across a multitude of mediums such as film, television, radio, web and live events. Some of these include Miss SA, Miss SA Teen, Mr. Universe, 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup, Emakhosini, To Ride the Cape of Storms, M-Net’s Innocent Times, Roer Jou Voete, High Rollers, and The Good Life; As well as TV and radio commercials for many top brands including Cell C, The Pro Shop, Brand SA, Total, and more. He also received a SAFTA award nomination for Best Original Music in a TV Drama, due to his work on the drama series "Roer Jou Voete".
Not just a composer, Duane has extensive professional experience in sound design and final mix for all commercial platforms, and has been freelancing since 2009.
Duane Arthur thrives on anything creative, and usually excels at whatever he puts his mind to. His career is peppered with brief detours into other artistic arenas, which include film location sound recording, writing, graphic art and illustration. He believes that artistic expression should maintain the highest standard of honesty, integrity, consciousness, unbridled passion, and quality. He hopes to continue to refine and apply these values in a trade that he believes indivisible from life.
https://www.twine.fm/DuaneArthur
