Greg Danielak's passion and pursuit of music, primarily through the guitar, goes back beyond his childhood. As a boy he would string up planks of wood with hammer and nails, stretching rubber bands across them, innocent play that foreshadowed the future. Greg spent many an hour investigating his parents' record collection, which included a large amount of jazz, classic and 70s progressive rock. "By the time I was 11, my Dad showed me King Crimson," Greg recalls. "My father was a huge influence on my wide musical love. I was hooked on music for life, and the idea of being a musician, for as long as I can remember."
Once his family moved to Los Angeles CA from New York City for a brighter future, Greg's mother supported him to dive further into the studies of guitar. "I would watch my brother play video games, and I'd figure out the melodies on guitar. I was fooling around on my own with keyboards and singing, before guitar took over" Greg remembers, "but Mom got me sat in front of my first proper guitar teacher. I loved it, shortly after, I was in my first band, playing with real people. And it began, the fire was lit."
Throughout adolescence, Greg's broad taste of music expanded, "however discovering thrash, prog-metal and extreme metal, were huge turning points for me personally, and as a musician." Greg enrolled in the Harrison School of Music, an after-hours private music academy located in Topanga CA, while attending high school. There, he grew his skills and experience, studying with acclaimed players and musicians such as Mark Harrison, Los Angeles jazz guitar stalwart Justin Morell, and prog-metal/thrash luminary Kragen Lum (of Prototype, Heathen and fill-in for Exodus live.)
Greg attended Los Angeles Pierce College in Woodland Hills CA, where he studied various music subjects and classical guitar for one year under UCLA alumni John Schnieder. "But the call of the band life was too alluring, so I decided to devote all my time to the band and left school." Greg moved to Hollywood CA in the early 2000s, striving to get something going in a metal context with numerous bands and projects for several years, "but nothing really panned out. It's hard being a young adult in any era, however, I had a lot of work to do on myself personally, nevertheless it was a good learning experience and I grew much from it."
Not disheartened, Greg marched on to develop stability in his private life, keeping up his guitar skills while monitoring the latest music and recording technology. In the summer of 2019, Greg relocated from Los Angeles CA to Las Vegas Nevada, finally finding a home for his musical ambitions. By 2023, Greg became a regular performer at several live open-mic events in town. Soon enough, the bug to collaborate with others struck Greg again. "By fate, I'd seen Milo's call for Intrinsic Nature, on an internet board. I realized by now, that music is a social, in addition to spiritual, mental and physical construct. I was hungry to meet with, contribute and build music with others, after so many years of solitude spent learning," Greg states. "This is the perfect group for me to be creative in, at this season of my life."
"The great thing about Intrinsic Nature and its music, is that it is truly unlimited," says Greg. "There is such a wide variety, of not just style or genre, but rather mood, feelings, mindscapes. It truly gets under your skin and moves you, something which I strive for, and how all the great music which I admire affects me too."