If you would like to be interviewed as a Surprising Expat, please write with a few details of what you do, to: Marion by clicking here.

For some expats, Hungary is a carefully chosen destination; for others, it could be described as accidental. Danny Bain falls quite firmly into the latter category.

“Fifteen years ago I was a young crazy guy travelling in a lot of places, mostly to maybe more exotic places than Eastern Europe. I spent a year in Brazil, I spent a few months in West Africa. I have a jazz degree and I'm a percussionist, but in university I got really interested in world music - Afro Brazilian music is really rich in percussion.

“I played in a carnival group in Brazil. I had also studied with a master of the Ghanaian xylophone, which is one of my main instruments that I play. And then when I arrived in Hungary, it wasn’t planned ahead – I came directly from Brazil.”

In 2010, when Danny’s visa expired in Brazil, he had to make a snap decision as to where he might go. He had enjoyed a week as a tourist in Budapest years earlier, and now decided to come to Hungary while he pondered his next move. “That first summer I was playing street music and I really quickly met a lot of people. I had a band that first summer – and I met my wife [to-be] that first summer!”

Danny busked in the Castle District, around Deák tér and Astoria. Meanwhile, he was sharing a two-room flat with six others in Dob utca, paying only 8,000 forints. “It was really fun, a really exciting time. I made two or three really good friends that first summer and we made a band together.”

A turning point came when Danny was offered a teaching job six months later. “I took a job in Borsod County in some small villages, working with a school which has mostly Roma children – it's a Buddhist school, actually. I worked there for two years, still living in Budapest, but I'd spend three days a week there.”

Danny taught both English and Music and, as he observes, this period marked the transition between his earlier ‘tourist’ life to one more rooted in the country. It was during this time that he began to learn Hungarian.

“I thought I was really smart. I had learnt Portuguese pretty quickly in Brazil. So, I told Melinda [Danny’s wife] I would learn Hungarian in three months. I didn’t. And after three months, I said, OK, six months! Actually, it took a few years to feel like I'm not really stupid in Hungarian!”

2013 marked another turning point. Danny came into contact with the director of the Kabóca Puppet Theatre in Veszprém. “She invited me to do a children's show using this African xylophone that I had studied, and to figure something out that I could do with storytelling.” What grew out of this was the stage show he developed and has used ever since: Danny Mesel.


Danny playing the Balafon at Veszprém’s Kabóca Puppet Theatre

To his surprise, not only did Danny enjoy performing to children – something he had previously not considered – but he was also extremely well received. The theatre’s summer festival saw Danny travelling by bus to Veszprém, accompanied by his huge Ghanaian Balafon, which required its own seat.

Danny was performing in Hungarian. “Lots of times we write the stories in English and then translate them, or we adapt a folk story – for example, we found a Tanzanian folk tale that we adapted for my first performance. I also have a friend, Anna Sándor, who has written a few original folk tales that I perform. My newest album is from a book of stories by Arnold Lobel, they’re animal stories Melinda and I like, and we adapted them and wrote songs for them.”

It becomes clear that Danny’s wife, Melinda, provides a great deal more than moral support. She acts as translator, co-songwriter, she does his PR and is an all-round PA – in addition to looking after their three children, and managing the Lóvasút Cultural Centre.

For many years, Danny performed as a solo act, but he has recently started to team up with other musicians. He has a concert series with Béla Ágoston “who plays a million instruments. And so we do duos with really interesting instrument combinations,” he explains.

Danny and Béla, with the washboard and balalaika

He also has a new project with a full band, based on American tales and Appalachian folk music “I think it's really unique because there are puppets in it, there's a set, there are props, but also it's really a concert. And there are a lot of homemade instruments - I have a kind of trombone made from a kitchen sink! And a recyclophone, which is a bunch of junk metal on a ladder that I play. The story is about a railroad, and I wanted to write a Hungarian ‘work song’. And so we built this huge instrument just for that one song.”
 

Danny’s Recyclophone

Danny Mesél performs in a huge variety of venues: from the Hungarian House of Music and the Marczibányi Cultural Centre in Budapest, to puppet theatres in Veszprém and Szeged, and countless summer festivals around the country and abroad. He has also appeared in international schools such as AISB and the Anglo-American School in Moscow, Russia.

This was not a life Danny had envisioned in his student days. “I think there wasn't a lot of talk in my education about what a musical career looks like.It’s kind of: you're a music teacher, or a rock star, or a suffering artist. It makes a lot of sense to do children's music because there's a demand for it, and you can reach a lot of people. It's also a really wide open field, in that I feel like I can really explore different styles of music. I have shows that explore African music or American folk music, Brazilian music, and also just weird combinations of music that I’m interested in.”

Last year, Danny undertook 200 performances. “It doesn’t get repetitive. Each audience has its own personality. It changes a lot if there are parents there, or if it's in a school, or depending on the age of the kids – and that's really exciting, as a performer.

“It's a really great career when you have young children because they, our kids, see so many puppet shows and concerts, not just mine. In the summer we go to so many festivals and events.” Yet, the logistics of taking a family of five to a festival, alongside the battery of instruments, are hardly uncomplicated.

It is no secret that the life of a self-employed artist of every kind is both demanding and financially precarious. Danny reckons on an hour or two of packing before leaving home, followed by a further two unpacking and setting up, just for one performance.

To that can be added the time – and cost – of the drive to the venue, especially in more far-flung parts of Hungary. But Danny accepts this as part and parcel of such a career. “When I have a good show, it’s the best feeling – and most of my shows are pretty good!” he smiles. “I think any artist who is making some basic living, is hugely successful.”

Danny’s parents and family live in the United States, and occasionally, when he visits with Melinda and the children, they debate the pros and cons of relocating. He is quick to acknowledge that the financial strain of bringing up three children is considerable wherever one lives.

“In my first few years in Hungary, when I would cancel an English class to play a concert, I thought I'm not making any money. But I would have to remind myself that if my goal is to make money, then I shouldn't be here in the first place! That attitude helped me focus on doing work that is important to me.”

“In the US, it would be hard to have this life that we have here,” adds Melinda. “It seems to me that in the U.S. people are less connected to their communities. Things are farther apart, the shops are bigger, and in general they don’t live as locally.”
 

Danny, Melinda and their children live in Budakeszi. “We have so many people who we know if we need anything. If anything breaks, or we need a ladder, or we need someone to watch our kids for five minutes, we can ask any neighbour. We walk everywhere, we meet the kindergarten teachers while we're walking to kindergarten with our kids – and it's so nice to see the teachers who are part of the community,” Melinda says.

 “I don't feel like my kids are missing out by living here. When they met their American cousins over the holidays, I didn't feel like my kids were behind them in anything,” Danny adds.

“I am really happy with our lifestyle, and I wouldn’t change anything. I really like having the freedom to develop my own ideas. I guess I'm worried maybe long term, doing these big summer tours to countryside festivals – it might not be so sustainable as I get older. But actually, I really enjoy it! Maybe one day we could open our own small theatre — and even hire a roadie!”

Links:

Website: Danny Mesel

Workshops for Children

Facebook

Instagram

You Tube

For private parties/events, contact Melinda and Danny by clicking here

Marion Merrick is author of Now You See It, Now You Don’t and House of Cards and the website Budapest Retro.

If you would like to be interviewed as a Surprising Expat, please write with a few details of what you do, to: Marion by clicking here.