Balto

At 21, after a failed attempt to begin a journalism career in Moscow and an overwhelming heartbreak, Dan Sheron’s life collapsed. Without so much as saying goodbye to his friends or packing a bag, Dan took a train bound for Siberia with a child's guitar and journal that quickly filled with songs. That restless spirit has remained, long after Balto took on a life of its own, became a band, and churned its way through many thousands more miles... More

At 21, after a failed attempt to begin a journalism career in Moscow and an overwhelming heartbreak, Dan Sheron’s life collapsed. Without so much as saying goodbye to his friends or packing a bag, Dan took a train bound for Siberia with a child's guitar and journal that quickly filled with songs. That restless spirit has remained, long after Balto took on a life of its own, became a band, and churned its way through many thousands more miles of highway.   At its core, Balto is a rock’n’roll group from Los Angeles - groovy and exuberant, boozy and tight; a working band that has honed its sound over the better part of 8 years through the sweatiest dive-bars and clubs on three continents. The long nights, hard breaks, and unexpected joys of that life are all there in the music - in the poignant, quiet moments where songs simmer down to their bones and in the feverish emotionality of the big lifts. They’re lived-in songs, meant to be felt in person and danced to - all heart, blood, guts, hips, shoulders.   Over the last several years Balto has played hundreds of shows all over the USA, Continental Europe, and Russia, performing at festivals such as SXSW, Timber!, PDX Pop Now, and Echo Park Rising. They’ve supported heavyweight bands such as The Revivalists, Houndmouth, Blind Pilot, Low Cut Connie, and others up and down the West Coast and had songs featured by Spotify, Consequence of Sound, American Songwriter, Relix, and Tidal. Of the band’s recent release. Black Snake, Mojave Blues, Rolling Stone wrote, “Sound[s] like the twisted soundtrack to some 1960s beach party movie, this punky garage-rocker skewers the hedonism and hollowness of Los Angeles.” Less