BIO
Young Artist At Work
Dennis Fuentes's journey as a singer/songwriter started with piano lessons when he was six years old.
Classically trained on piano from Grade 1 thru his sophomore year of high school, he was schooled on the classical masters: Mozart, Bach, and Chopin, It wasn't until his early-teens when he picked up an acoustic guitar and, after a handful of lessons, started playing just for fun. When he moved to Chicago in 1992, however, a more serious interest in songwriting started to surface.
"I've always had an eclectic taste in music. But around the early 90's, I became aware of this emerging music genre called 'roots rock' that bands like Barenaked Ladies, Hootie and the Blowfish, Dave Matthews Band, Blue Rodeo, and Freddy Jones Band were making. It was a more folk/acoustic approach to rock and roll that really captured my imagination and ultimately became the centre of my musical tastes. I've been writing songs for years, but it wasn't until I started listening to more roots-type music that I started to find my songwriter's voice."
Dennis spent a couple of years in the early 2000's studying songwriting and performance technique at the famed Chicago Old Town School of Folk Music. In his writing, he attempted to emulate his singer/songwriter heroes: Jimmy Rankin, Jim Cuddy, Shawn Colvin, Marshall Crenshaw, Sarah McLachlin, Will Hoge, and Teddy Thompson, among others. Then, in the spring of 2007, Dennis assembled a band and started record songs in bits and pieces in his co-producer's basement studio.
The end result of that work was his first full-length CD in 2009 titled, "Letters From Broken Street." One song from the album, the self-penned "The Show Goes On," was voted to the #9 position on the fearlessradio.com weekly listener-supported countdown show in the spring of 2010. Another of the album's songs, "Beautiful Again," was voted to the #19 position that spring as well.
It would be another six years before Dennis would make another record. In 2015, he headed back into the studio with his band to record two singles, both released in 2016: "Easily Bruised," a cover song written by Toronto, Ontario-based singer/songwriter, Matthew Barber, and "This December Nite," an original song that was inspired by the dozens of military homecoming videos he saw on Facebook and YouTube. The song tells the story of a soldier who drives thru the nite to make it home in time for Christmas. This song earned Dennis a songwriting nomination at the 2016 American Songwriting Awards.
In 2017, The Dennis Fuentes Band released a four song EP titled, "I Know There Will Be Better Days." Inspired by the current political and social environment, Dennis wrote the lead single, "Better Days," as "a rallying cry to anyone who believes in fairness, kindness, open-mindedness, compassion, peace, love, and understanding, and the pursuit and preservation of truth."
In 2019, Dennis took time to pursue work as an actor. He was cast in speaking roles in two independent short films: "Home" in which he played a real estate agent, and "Ducks" in which he played the principal of an elementary school.
A native of New York City and a 27 year resident of Chicago, Dennis relocated to Portland, OR in the fall of 2019, and is currently working on new music to be released in 2021.
Classically trained on piano from Grade 1 thru his sophomore year of high school, he was schooled on the classical masters: Mozart, Bach, and Chopin, It wasn't until his early-teens when he picked up an acoustic guitar and, after a handful of lessons, started playing just for fun. When he moved to Chicago in 1992, however, a more serious interest in songwriting started to surface.
"I've always had an eclectic taste in music. But around the early 90's, I became aware of this emerging music genre called 'roots rock' that bands like Barenaked Ladies, Hootie and the Blowfish, Dave Matthews Band, Blue Rodeo, and Freddy Jones Band were making. It was a more folk/acoustic approach to rock and roll that really captured my imagination and ultimately became the centre of my musical tastes. I've been writing songs for years, but it wasn't until I started listening to more roots-type music that I started to find my songwriter's voice."
Dennis spent a couple of years in the early 2000's studying songwriting and performance technique at the famed Chicago Old Town School of Folk Music. In his writing, he attempted to emulate his singer/songwriter heroes: Jimmy Rankin, Jim Cuddy, Shawn Colvin, Marshall Crenshaw, Sarah McLachlin, Will Hoge, and Teddy Thompson, among others. Then, in the spring of 2007, Dennis assembled a band and started record songs in bits and pieces in his co-producer's basement studio.
The end result of that work was his first full-length CD in 2009 titled, "Letters From Broken Street." One song from the album, the self-penned "The Show Goes On," was voted to the #9 position on the fearlessradio.com weekly listener-supported countdown show in the spring of 2010. Another of the album's songs, "Beautiful Again," was voted to the #19 position that spring as well.
It would be another six years before Dennis would make another record. In 2015, he headed back into the studio with his band to record two singles, both released in 2016: "Easily Bruised," a cover song written by Toronto, Ontario-based singer/songwriter, Matthew Barber, and "This December Nite," an original song that was inspired by the dozens of military homecoming videos he saw on Facebook and YouTube. The song tells the story of a soldier who drives thru the nite to make it home in time for Christmas. This song earned Dennis a songwriting nomination at the 2016 American Songwriting Awards.
In 2017, The Dennis Fuentes Band released a four song EP titled, "I Know There Will Be Better Days." Inspired by the current political and social environment, Dennis wrote the lead single, "Better Days," as "a rallying cry to anyone who believes in fairness, kindness, open-mindedness, compassion, peace, love, and understanding, and the pursuit and preservation of truth."
In 2019, Dennis took time to pursue work as an actor. He was cast in speaking roles in two independent short films: "Home" in which he played a real estate agent, and "Ducks" in which he played the principal of an elementary school.
A native of New York City and a 27 year resident of Chicago, Dennis relocated to Portland, OR in the fall of 2019, and is currently working on new music to be released in 2021.