Born in Matangari, Venda, Dan Tshanda had to leave school at the primary level due to lack of funds in the family.
While working as a taxi driver, he made a demo cassette, which was submitted to a record company, by then Dan had started a group known as Flying Squad.
The album was not a success, but the late Hamilton Nzimande of Gallo Records gave them a second chance, and Dan continued under the name "Splash".
Ray Phiri of Stimela agreed to feature them as their support act whenever they had shows, he later discovered that they had a great talent and decided they should change their names to SPLASH.
[1] In 1991 Dan Tshanda formed a group called Matshikos that was led by his two backing vocalists Penwell Kunene and Joseph Tshimange releasing an album, The Park Is Mine.