Dan Mangan reaches into the back pocket of his slim jeans and pulls out a few bills. Turning to his horn and string section, he says, “I was going to grab you guys a few tambourines from Tom Lee, but does anyone mind running over there?” Someone quickly volunteers, takes the money and navigates around the chairs, cords, and sheet music littering the space that moments ago was thick with the rehearsing sounds of spoken word poetry and orchestral crescendos.

Often seen with only his guitar accompanying him, Dan Mangan decided to have a little extra company for the Vancouver show and ended up with a 10-piece band. The added production seems in order as the show at the Vogue is sold out. Not just sold out, but was sold out in 10 days – a feat Mangan wasn’t expecting at all, let alone in the short period of time it took for his home base to imagine themselves singing “Robots” in unison and shell out the cash for the tickets.

Saying that Dan Mangan has a loyal group of fans is like saying that we would have been ok with the Canucks winning the Stanley Cup. Mangan’s fans are with him – and have been for a while. Valuing a close-knit group of supporters is what sets Mangan apart from many fame-seekers and places him right among the “good guys”.

Sure, the album being titled, Nice, Nice, Very Nice does reflect Mangan’s attitude as well as the Kurt Vonnegut poem it is paying tribute to, but treating people with kindness isn’t exactly an “angle” for Mangan.

“It is about respect and about continuing to try not to just be a better musician, a better artist, but a better human being – doing everything you can to make the people who are close to you feel appreciated,” says Mangan.

Along with family and friends, Mangan keeps the company of a wide range of artists, most uniquely, spoken word poets. He has shared the stage Shane Koyczan many times and speaks about how Koyczan has influenced his work. Mangan says, “[Koyczan] has a special power… a poetic way of being matter of fact.” He goes on to describe the way that Koyczan takes plain day things and uses them to be incredibly metaphorical.

Similar things can be said about Mangan, with lyrics like, “To them, be rogue waves. To them be lost trains, just posers posing,” from his song “Dear Verona”.

After a sound check where he conducted the band with the neck of his guitar like a plaid-wearing bearded maestro, Mangan wanders down the narrow backstage hallways of the Vogue, passing other bearded men, working hard (a solid beard is almost a prerequisite for working with him). Questions are fired at Mangan, who calmly answers, generally with the easiest option for whoever is carrying out the task. A man catches up and hands Mangan a Tom Lee bag and a handful of change saying, “The tambourines were on sale!”

Yes, Dan Mangan is still excited when tambourines are on sale.

Because although Mangan has met huge success lately, oftentimes the recognition comes miles before the giant paychecks do. Even with all of the days on the road and working on the album, Mangan only quit his job at the Keg in September. “I only did it because I didn’t have the time – not because I didn’t need the money, “ he says.

At times he is only home for a few days before leading himself back onto the lonely highway. Speaking of the road, Mangan looks like he has or will play every coffee shop, pub, and theatre in the country this year. An exaggeration yes, but no one can say that he isn’t getting out there. It seems like there is a new show announced every week and most of them are in unlikely places.

The unlikely places are exactly Mangan’s angle. There is no venue too small for this artist who, despite recent success, isn’t about to start turning down opportunity, although it is nice that he has the option to play larger venues.

Even with a less-than-flattering review, Mangan feels like selling out the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto was a huge milestone. He says that it was one of his top ten favourite shows he has ever played and felt like it was a giant victory in the East.

“I feel like I’ve spent five or six years going around with a key – just unlocking every door I saw and then eventually some of them opened from the other side,” says Mangan.

Who would have thought that the one opening the door for him would be Canadian management company Arts and Crafts? Not Mangan. “I always held them in such high regard that I just assumed that they would never want anything to do with me so I didn’t even approach them. So when they approached me, it was really cool,” he says.

Along with the Arts and Crafts news, here is another another exciting update: Mangan will be playing at Glastonbury festival in the UK this summer. Glastonbury is the largest festival of its kind in the world. Oh, and he is also playing tonight at The Art Space in Prince George, in case you happen to be in the neighborhood.

If you are unfamiliar with the husky, yet gentle, voice of Dan Mangan, be sure to check out his MySpace and pay special attention to “Road Regrets” or “Pine for Cedars”. If you can call Vancouver home, you might feel a special fondness for his city-loving tunes. Who doesn’t love when they recognize streets and bridges mentioned in songs?

Nice, Nice, Very Nice shows Mangan’s obvious love of Vancouver, a love he says he notices the most when he is on the road, which is where he wrote the majority of the record. The next one? “I think the next record is going to be a little bit experimental, but every single time I’ve gone into the studio I thought I was going to do something experimental and then I come out with something that is fairly straight forward,” Mangan jokes. He says that has been writing about death lately, which is a little different for him: “Some of these songs are kind of putting myself in the shoes of someone who is unsure about what is going to happen [after life].”

Dan Mangan may not be entirely sure what will happen after life, but he can be sure that life is going pretty well right now. Grinning a cheesy grin, Mangan raises his voice into a cartoon wisp and says, “It’s everything I ever hoped for.”