Hanni El Khatib

Hanni El Khatib (born June 8, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, and producer. He is also the visual director and co-owner of Los Angeles–based independent record label Innovative Leisure. His 2013 sophomore full-length Head in the Dirt was produced by the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach. His album Moonlight was released on January 20, 2015. He was described by The Guardian as a "former skate-punk raised on vintage rock and R&B [who] is keeping the spirit of 76 alive with his primal raunch 'n' roll."

Biography Hanni El Khatib, a first-generation American, was raised in San Francisco, California, by a Palestinian father and a Filipino mother. He grew up skateboarding

While employed as creative director for streetwear label HUF, he recorded himself singing and playing acoustic guitar as a hobby. He spent a year recording his songs with electric guitar and drums at the suggestion of friend and studio engineer Marc Bianchi of Her Space Holiday. After participating in a 2009 art show in San Francisco, he began circulating a homemade CDR of his music,

Musical career He was signed to Innovative Leisure in 2010. His debut was the 7" vinyl single "Dead Wrong," released on September 21, 2010, backed with a cover of the 1931 song "You Rascal You" most famously recorded by Louis Armstrong. His second 7" vinyl single "Build. Destroy. Rebuild." b/w "Loved One" was released on November 3, 2010. During this time, he would perform live and begin touring extensively, including a tour with Florence and the Machine, as a duo with drummer and longtime friend Nicky Fleming-Yaryan. He quickly developed a substantial audience. It was described by the Los Angeles Times as "a taut, muscular collection of rock ‘n’ roll" and by The Guardian as "if Joe Strummer came back as an angry young Filipino-Palestinian American." that was recorded by Josh Marcy, to better recreate the sound of his album. Later that year he recorded his second album Head In The Dirt in three weeks at Auerbach's Nashville studio Easy Eye. It was released on Innovative Leisure on April 30, 2013, and was described as "desert-burned blues rock boosted by punk, soul and hip-hop – music that has a retro heart but couldn't have been made before 2013" by Rolling Stone. Its track "Can't Win 'Em All" was featured in a popular Audi commercial that ran during Super Bowl XLVII and was reported to have reached 114 million Americans. recording his third full-length Moonlight with drummer Ron Marinelli and engineer Sonni DiPerri at Los Angeles studio The Lair. With the exception of drums, El Khatib played most of the instruments on Moonlight himself and also sampled and edited Marinelli's drums. Moonlight was released on Innovative Leisure on January 20, 2015.

In the fall of 2015, a Paris performance by El Khatib was cancelled after the Bataclan attack. He used the unexpected space in his schedule for studio sessions at the Jazzcats recording studio in Long Beach, described by Buzzbands LA as a "second home" where he and producer Jonny Bell worked writing and recording new material.

The first track from these sessions was "Baby’s OK," described by El Khatib as "completely improvised and was a total stream of consciousness lyrically and musically" and premiered in April 2016 by The Fader magazine. The second song "Gonna Die Alone" premiered in April 2016 on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 radio show. On April 29, 2016, El Khatib announced the first of five Savage Times EPs, releasing digitally on Innovative Leisure as they were completed and culminating in the Savage Times album, collecting the 21 tracks from the digital EPs for physical release on February 17, 2017. A reviewer for Clash Music said "it might well be his most creative document to date" and Mass Appeal reported that "as an already talented multi-instrumentalist, Hanni delivered on our high hopes."

In popular culture Hanni El Khatib's music has been used in television commercials for Converse, Captain Morgan, Applebee's, Sky Atlantic, Nike, Nissan, Levi's, T-Mobile and Apple.

His music was used in the USA Network series Suits, HBO series Hung, Netflix series Death By Lightning and Grace & Frankie, the Showtime series Californication and United States of Tara, the CBS series Elementary, the BBC series Luther and the feature film For a Good Time, Call.... The song "Build. Destroy. Rebuild." was used in the episode "Charity Case" of the series House. His song "Can't Win 'Em All" was used for the controversial Audi ad broadcast during the 2013 Super Bowl. "Come Alive" was used in the 2013 horror film Carrie. "Family" was used in NHL 14 and in the episode "Welcome Back, Jim" of the series Gotham (2015). His song “Gonna Die Alone” was also used in the 2023 Netflix series “Fubar” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Hanni El Khatib played himself as the DJ of Innovative Leisure Radio in Forza Horizon 2. Three of his songs also played on the station: "Head In the Dirt", "Family", and "Pay No Mind".

The song "Save Me" was also featured on the NBC show The Blacklist, season 2, episode 19: "Leonard Caul" on April 23, 2015.

"Gonna Die Alone" was featured in the closing credits for the first-season finale of the television series Loudermilk.

The song "Alive" was featured in the 2024 movie Tarot.

Discography Albums

Singles YearAlbumPeak positionsNotes FRA 2010"Dead Wrong"— Will the Guns Come Out"Build. Destroy. Rebuild."—