Photo Credit: Abe Perlstein
This is the official Dino Bio I recently purchased from eBAY, verbatim (so don't blame me for grammar errors!).
Scans of the Bio and Billboard Chart Positions
DINO
''I was always hanging out with the black kids 'cause I felt a bond with them,'' explains Dino, who spent his teenage years avoiding what he calls ''the glamour and glitz'' of his hometown of Las Vegas. And, according to the 25-year-old musician, ''black music did something to me.''
So much so that when Island Records made Dino's ''24/7'' a Mystery Cut on a sampler album serviced to all the country's top tradepapers, most thought the singer was black. A flattering complement to the white, blond, who not only wrote all of the songs but played almost all the instruments and produced it as well. And his previous single ''Summergirls,'' was a club hit that made it on Billboard's pop charts.
Dino was born in Encino, California and spent his childhood in Hawaii and Connecticut before his family settled in the gambling town of Las Vegas. He was 14 yers old and found the bright lights and money-oriented transients a little disconcerting. Solace was found on the radio, especially the station that played Earth, Wind & Fire, Ohio Players, Stevie Wonder and the Jackson Five.
''At the time, my dad owned a restaurant and the guy who came in to fill the jukebox used to give me the 45's,'' recalls Dino. ''Between the radio and the 45's, I immerged myself in funk music. That's how I knew I wanted to be a musician.''
Having had organ lessons when he was seven, Dino turned to piano and signed up for music theory in high school, ''cause I had to learn to write and arrange as well as be able to play.'' He discovered he could sing when he tried to join the high school pop group and the teacher said the keyboard position was filled. ''The director asked if I could sing,'' he says. ''I tried, it went over big, and I moved out into the spotlight.''
By the time Dino earned his Bachelor's Degree in Communications/Broadcasting and Musc at the University of Las Vegas, he had already become the college radio station's program director with his own morning show called, ''Urban Sunrise.'' A stint at Power 97 as a Top 40 deejay led to a job at KCEP, Las Vegas' biggest black music station, and eventually he became its music director.
It seemed that even as an adult, Dino would continue to immerse himself in funk. In the evenings, after working on the air at the local radio station, he'd deejay at local clubs. ''I was getting a good education, paying attention to what people liked and what would get them going on the dance floor.'' He decided to make a few demos based on what he learned and ''to get the music out of me and onto the dance floor.''
Dino had those demos handy the day a couple of promo men came into his office at KCEP pushing their latest wares. Dino thought the songs they were hawking were alright but was convinced that the tunes he recorded were better. The promo men agreed. They worked Dino's record all the way to the West Coast. ''Summergirls'' became a Top 50 record, referred to in Billboard as ''last year's sleeper hit.''
4th and B'Way/Island Records has just released Dino's debut album, ''24/7,'' featuring both ''Summergirls'' and the single the LP is named for, ''24/7.'' Dino explains: ''It stands for the love a man has for a woman, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.'' And, as in Dino's case, the amount of time he spends with his music.
February 1989.
Linkage!
