Hanni El Khatib

Hanni El Khatib grew up on vintage rock and R&B and came up through skate culture before ever stepping into a recording studio. The Los Angeles singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer signed to the city’s independent label Innovative Leisure in 2010, debuting with the 7″ single “Dead Wrong” that September, backed by a cover of Louis Armstrong’s 1931 standard “You Rascal You.” A second single followed that November, and touring as a duo with drummer Nicky Fleming-Yaryan, including a run with Florence and the Machine, quickly built him a devoted audience.

His debut album, “Will the Guns Come Out,” arrived on Innovative Leisure on September 27, 2011, praised by the Los Angeles Times as “a taut, muscular collection of rock ‘n’ roll.” Its Funkadelic cover “I Got A Thing” passed 2 million YouTube views and landed in a Nike campaign that NPR called a “modern surf, skate and all-around shredding anthem.” A chance meeting with Dan Auerbach at a Paris DJ set led to 2013’s “Head in the Dirt,” recorded in three weeks at Auerbach’s Easy Eye studio in Nashville, with “Can’t Win ‘Em All” reaching an estimated 114 million Americans in an Audi Super Bowl XLVII spot.

A self-reliant studio mind, he played nearly every instrument on 2015’s “Moonlight,” recorded at The Lair in Los Angeles, then worked at the Jazzcats studio in Long Beach with producer Jonny Bell. Those sessions fed the five “Savage Times” EPs and the 21-track “Savage Times” album of February 17, 2017. He is also the visual director and co-owner of Innovative Leisure.