Bio - Short version (scroll down for the full version)
When I was around 8 years old, I was given my first instruments: an acoustic guitar, a keyboard, and a drum machine. However, it was at 12 years old that I began to seriously play the drums as my main instrument.
I played in various bands, from punk to reggae, until I became a solo artist in 2005 as Sir Giant, a reggae-rock-ska project where I wrote all the songs and recorded all the instruments, including vocals. It opened important doors for me when my songs started playing on Portuguese radio and TV, as well as when I won the LEVI’s European contest Stay True, which took me to Abbey Road Studios.
After moving to New York in 2012, I released songs in a different genre I fell in love with in 2010: electronic music. Initially under the Sir Giant name, I eventually adopted two different aliases: Zypher in 2013, and then 3ple (pronounced Triple) in 2015.
At the end of 2019, now back in Portugal, my new alter ego Danny Wyatt was born out of the necessity of creating something more in line with what I had in mind for my career as an electronic music artist. 3ple was then officially “dead.”
I started bringing other projects to life in 2025 that you can find in Apps & Plugins
And the rest, as they say, is history…
Bio - Full version
Born and raised in Portugal, Europe, on April 2, 1979, I developed a passion for music at a very young age, around age 8, when I received my first keyboard, the Yamaha PortaSound PSS-140.
Look at me rocking that keyboard like no one’s business! (It was not even plugged in…)
As you can see, I also had an acoustic guitar and a Yamaha DD-5 drum machine. Since I didn’t have drumsticks, I improvised with wooden spoons, of course! “Start where you are, use what you have.” I even started my first band with two of my friends, Tiago (another one) and Gonçalo, called Mortal Noise. At the time, we were obsessed with the weekly stories about Jack the Ripper published by one of the newspapers. Our first and only “song” was about him. The band didn’t go anywhere, but it was still fun to say, “I have a band.”
In 1991, when I was 12, my 21-year-old brother Paulo decided to take a leap of faith and bought me my first real drum kit: a greenish-blue Vision drum set. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it! I can say this was a pivotal moment in my life and marked the true beginning of my music career.
My brother and I, along with some other musicians, then started a band called Black Bombay. We kinda wrote a song, but the band broke up soon after.
Crise Social (1992 - 2006) - My very first official band
After Black Bombay, I started a punk band with one of my Mortal Noise friends, Gonçalo, and three other friends, called Crise Social (Social Crisis in English). We wrote and recorded a demo tape and played live frequently over the years. I can say that this was indeed my first real band.
Click here to read a more detailed “Crise Social” bio, and have access to music links
Un-Sub-Mission / Urban Wreck (1995 - 1996) - The beginning of something new
Three years later, two members of Crise Social (Tó and Pedro Rolão), my then-friend Joana Anta, and I started a new hardcore band called Un-Sub-Mission, later renamed Urban Wreck. We never officially recorded our songs.
No Class Youth / 99 Stickers (1996 - 1999) - A time to improve musically
After a while, tired of the roughness of punk-hardcore music, we founded No Class Youth (later renamed 99 Stickers). The band was heavily influenced by California bands such as NOFX, Lagwagon, and others. We recorded a 10-song demo tape called Who Wants a Banana?
With the departure of the lead singer and the bass player, we added other musicians to replace them, and the band changed its name to 99 Stickers. We released a self-titled demo tape with 13 songs, some of which were re-recorded from Who Wants a Banana?. It was released through a record label I founded, World Sound Records.
Hi-Jack! (1998 - 1999) - A brand new territory for me
In 1998, I was invited to join a reggae-ska band called Hi-Jack!. Compared to all my previous bands, I began playing bigger and better shows, with more experienced musicians and music professionals around me. I quit the band one year later.
Click here to read a more detailed “Hi-Jack!” bio, and have access to music links
Mad Dog (2001) - My own songs coming to life
Between 1999 and 2001, I wrote a bunch of songs all by myself (all instruments, lyrics, and vocal melodies), under the name Mad Dog, and ended up playing live just once, joined by some friends on vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards, and saxophone.
Click here to read a more detailed “Mad Dog” bio, and have access to music links
Dub Hole Connection (2002) - The beginning of my experience as a lead singer
In 2002, I recorded a 5-song EP under the name Dub Hole Connection. It was a mix of dub, reggae, electronic music, and disco. I submitted the songs to a music contest, got selected as one of the contestants, and performed by myself, singing over the backing tracks. I played other shows, but the project never took off.
Click here to read a more detailed “Dub Hole Connection” bio, and have access to music links
Conguitos (2004 - 2005) - The first seed of Sir Giant
In 2004, I founded a reggae cover band called Conguitos, with me as the singer and guitarist. We played songs that were originally reggae and ska, but also created reggae and ska versions of songs from other genres.
Click here to read a more detailed “Conguitos” bio, and have access to music links
Sir Giant (2005) - The real shift in my life and career
Before Conguitos was founded, I started writing more songs by myself, after building my own rehearsal/recording studio and having the space and equipment to record. After struggling to find a female singer for those songs, I set up my drum kit, a bass, a guitar, hopped on the microphone, and recorded a very rough demo with seven songs, including an acoustic version of Sublime’s version of Smoke Two Joints.
One day in mid-2005, I met the well-known Portuguese radio host Henrique Amaro and gave him that demo CD. A few weeks later, he started playing my music on his radio station, and by the end of 2005, my song I’m 25 was the 23rd most played song on the radio’s yearly top 50, surpassing famous artists like Madonna, Robbie Williams, and many others.
After that, another peak in my career was when I won the first prize of Levi’s European contest that allowed me to fly to London, England, and record at Abbey Road Studios for a week.
This was just the beginning of my new life and career!
Click here to read a more detailed “Sir Giant” bio, and have access to music links
NEW YORK (2012 - 2018)
In October 2012, I decided to move to New York, a city I absolutely adore, and where I feel at home. I felt I no longer fit in Portugal. My goals and ideas were constantly being crushed by Portuguese culture where dreaming small is the norm and dreaming big is often ignored or ridiculed.
Zypher (2013 - 2015) and 3ple (2015 - 2019) - When electronic music really hit me
In 2013, as Zypher, I fully embraced electronic music as my main genre, something I became passionate about in 2010. I officially declared Sir Giant a project of the past. Then, in 2015, Zypher was replaced by 3ple (pronounced Triple), up until 2019 when 3ple was also officially declared “dead” and replaced by Danny Wyatt.
Click here to read a more detailed “3ple” bio, and have access to music links
Back in Portugal (2018)
During the six years I lived in New York, I dedicated myself to perfecting my craft and discovering more about myself both as a person and a musician, an experience that truly changed my life. If I used to dream big, now I dream 100 times bigger, with one huge difference: now I know that everything is possible.
But after six years of living in New York, I moved back to Portugal (something I hadn’t wanted, but life had other plans for me).
Danny Wyatt and reviving Sir Giant
Danny Wyatt came as a replacement for 3ple in December 2019. At the time, 3ple was going in a direction that no longer defined me as a producer and composer of electronic music. I also wanted to have a name that sounded more like a real person’s name, not a fictional name.
Click here to read a more detailed “Danny Wyatt” bio, and have access to music links
I also decided to revive my Sir Giant project by working on a new EP to celebrate the 20 years of the project.
Apps and plugins
In 2025, I used my basic knowledge of coding, my experience in graphic design and UI/UX, and significant help from GitHub’s Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok, to bring some old ideas to life you can find in Apps & Plugins
And the rest of the story, my friends, time will tell…