As the guitarist and musical director for 17-year-old pop music phenomenon Justin Bieber, Ottawa-born Dan Kanter has also taken on the roles of mentor and friend.

Dan Kanter, left, puts the teen idol through some vocal exercises before a show.

“He is a great kid, a sweet guy, with a good heart,” said 29-year-old Kanter, who spoke to The CJN from Melbourne, Australia, where he was on break from Bieber’s world tour.

“I definitely mentor him. Even though he’s my boss, I compare it to when I was a camp counsellor. He’s not just musically impressionable, but even in life, we try to steer him in the right direction.”

Kanter displayed a musical talent as a child and then studied piano, drums, bass and guitar. It seemed only a matter of time before he made a name for himself in the music industry.

By the age of 14, Kanter was playing clubs in Ottawa as the lead guitarist of a rock band called Hubris. Four years later – no doubt influenced by his father who  directed musicals performed at the local Jewish community centre – Kanter wrote a full-length musical titled Destiny: The Musical.

After moving to Toronto in 2000 to pursue a music degree at York University, Kanter continued to build on his experience, eventually touring with up-and-coming artists, including Toronto’s Fefe Dobson and Shiloh.

Kanter was well on his way to a promising career in the music biz, but he never imagined how quickly his career would snowball when he joined the “Bieber crew” in 2009.

Two years ago, Bieber was scheduled to perform an acoustic show at MuchMusic in Toronto, and was in need of a second guitarist. Kanter’s record label recommended him.

“Right off the bat, we hit it off, and we’ve been working together ever since,” he said.

When Kanter first joined him, Bieber hadn’t yet become the household name he is today.

“He had quite the following on YouTube and Twitter, but it wasn’t until six months of working with him that he really blew up everywhere,”Kanter recalled.

Kanter said that despite Bieber’s status as a pop icon, he is still just a “phenomenal, incredibly grounded” teenager from Stratford, Ont., who wants nothing more than to live up to the hype.

“I think he’s become a phenomenon so quickly that he feels a lot of personal pressure to live up to it artistically, so he’s always trying to be a better singer, a better guitar player, a better drummer, a better songwriter.”

Kanter has his own reputation to live up to as the musical director for a tour that has stopped in “pretty much every city that has an arena that can hold at least 20,000 12-year-old girls.”

Kanter has a presence not only on stage as Bieber’s guitarist, but also behind the scenes, where he works closely with the dancers,the lighting technicians and the concert producers.

“I was always into the music and the show, not just the song, but how the song looks with lighting, dancing, choreography.”

Kanter said touring with Bieber has given him so many opportunities to see the world, achieve childhood dreams and even experience moments he himself could never have imagined.

He said one of the best moments of his career came just weeks ago when they performed in Israel.

Coming from someone who has performed in front of millions of people in stadiums, on Saturday Night Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and the MTV Video Music Awards, it must have been a very special moment.

“For me, it was a huge deal to be playing in Israel. We had 40,000 kids in the audience and they don’t really get concerts very often,” Kanter said.

About an hour before they took to the stage, Kanter was approached by Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun, who is also Jewish, and he suggested that just before the show, Kanter would play “a very Jimmy Hendrix style version of Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem.

“I did it, and it was one of the most special moments of my life. With the kids singing along, right off the bat, it was quite amazing. A moment I’ll never forget.”

Although it was widely reported that Bieber had a difficult time navigating around Israel because of aggressive paparazzi, Kanter said that he didn’t have the same experience because he was touring Israel separately.

As if touring with a pop star isn’t eventful enough, Kanter also got married last October to fashion blogger Yael Latner – whom he met seven years ago when they  travelled to Israel on a Birthright trip.

Kanter said he never would have anticipated that his wedding would make headlines, but that’s just what happened when Bieber not only attended the wedding, but performed during the reception as well.

“Justin really wanted to be there and he wanted to sing. He wanted to sing the song for our first dance, but I told him, ‘No offence, our song is not a Justin Bieber song,’” he said with a laugh.

With the tour ending this week in Japan, Kanter said he looks forward to working with Bieber in the future, but also  hopes to establish himself as a songwriter and producer.

“Since working with Justin, I got to produce his last album, called My Worlds Acoustic, and he and I have been writing for his next record,” Kanter said.

“Working with him has opened a lot of doors to write and produce for other artists. I would love to eventually not travel and work out of my studio in Toronto and write for film and TV and pop artists and be a sort of a David Frost type.”

Despite his success, Kanter is determined to obtain his master’s from York in musicology and is currently working on his thesis.

“I’m going to try to incorporate what I’m doing. I’m going to do it on the process of musical directing a pop show. Hopefully when we have some time off from travelling… I can try to finish my thesis.”