Dan the Automator
Kikori cocktails and music presented by Dan the Automator.
Dan “The Automator” Nakamura has never waited for approval or applause. For over two decades, he has created progressive, genre-warping music on his terms. A producer, composer, engineer, and DJ, Nakamura remains in constant motion, performing on stages around the world and lending his singular artistic vision to one endeavor after another.
Whether collaborating with like-minded artists such as Del the Funky Homosapien and Damon Albarn or scoring films (e.g., 2019’s Booksmart), he has disregarded accepted convention and fleeting trends.
Raised in San Francisco’s Sunset District neighborhood, Nakamura began playing music at just three years old, when his mother enrolled him in violin lessons. Once he absorbed the pop and soul music of the late ’70s, he became enamored with rap groups like Run-DMC. In high school, he traded the violin for turntables, bought a drum machine, and built a studio in his parents’ basement. When the foam that he glued to the studio walls didn’t reduce the sound level upstairs, Nakamura wryly dubbed the noxious-smelling room the Glue Factory.
The Glue Factory became home base for countless rappers and producers in the ’90s. In addition to providing a space for artists from Bay Area label/crew Solesides to record, Nakamura assisted on records like DJ Shadow’s seminal 1996 debut Endtroducing….. At the same time, he and New York rap legend Kool Keith were working on the groundbreaking Dr. Octagonecologyst.
