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A semi-regular role in Mark Burnett’s reality series The Casino was supposed to help, not hinder, crooner Matt Dusk’s career.
But three year’s after doing the series, the Toronto-based Dusk is still fighting the reality-TV label that has crippled his promising singing career.
Once widely regarded as the only real rival to another young Canadian crooner —Michael Buble — Dusk has spent much of the past two years re-establishing his credibility after The Casino was cancelled.
“The series was the best and the worst thing to happen to me,” says Dusk from his home in Toronto. “It was a real double-edged sword because it made me a household name but because I was a character on another reality TV show, they wouldn’t take me seriously.
“They thought I was like another Canadian Idol, a manufactured star.”
Dusk is getting used to the bum raps. Before the reality TV label some less subtle critics couldn’t get past Dusk’s smoky, emotionally drenched vocals, his preference for retro suits, and performing with a band on the Las Vegas strip, much like his hero Frank Sinatra.
And the 27-year-old Dusk will look, sound and swings like a Rat Packer when he plays the Casino Lac Leamy Theatre tonight.
“No one writes lyrics like the songs Sinatra sang anymore,” he says. “I love singing this material. They move me every time. But I’m not channeling the Rat Pack. I’m singing swing songs with a fresh pop sensibility.”
Dusk culled 14 songs on the new disc out of almost 400 he auditioned before recording his new album, Back In Town, which is due on June 13.
“The new album is synonymous with my life in Vegas. It’s a happy time in my life.”
“I know that this music is going to be big again and Vegas will revive as an entertainment capital with the 22- to 36-year-old crowd. Right now, virtually all my club dates are full of people 30 and younger.”
For the singer who likes to live life large, Las Vegas is his current favourite address. He lives there six months a year when he’s not on the road. It’s also where he hopes to launch his own line of clothing sometime in the next year or two.