Danyew Interview
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By the way, it’s pronounced “Dan-You”, you know like “Can You”. That wasn’t the first, but definitely one of the many questions I asked Phil Danyew when I sat down with him for coffee in San Diego. He explained that using only his last name gave some mystery as to whether it was a band or solo act, and that in the future if he did want to have a backing band, it would work that way too.
I caught wind of Danyew by chance and was immediately taken with the two currently available tracks: “Streetlight” and the seemingly made for radio hit, “Beautiful King”. For those not familiar with the music of Danyew he is in the same vein of Leeland and Phil Wickham but maybe with more synths and sequenced beats. The first thing we got to talking about was him as a new artist signed to a major label and what the future looked like. Although there was a little bit of understandable frustration about sitting on an full album that has been done for awhile, Phil was genuinely excited about the relationship he has and has had with EMICMG since signing with them. He said that the whole process of joining the label was something that came very naturally, thanks to his easy going persona.
About to transfer to Long Beach State (after currently attending college for graphic design), Phil decided at the last minute that he needed to basically scrap that to focus on music. The slimmed down and summed up recap as to how Phil got to this point in time as an artist is that after playing some shows in New York, along with some other places, he made his way out to Nashville and recorded a few tracks. However, most of the recording for his still unreleased full length album was done in partly in Nashville and partly in his home town of San Diego. Through some contacts he was able to meet the right people and, like what was mentioned earlier, things just fell into place for getting signed.
When we sat down, I had yet to hear the album and couldn’t ask many questions about specific songs, but we did talk about some musical influences. Being so into music like I am, I’m always interested in what people are listening to and what type of music pushes them in their own creativity. For Phil, Radiohead takes the cake as far as favorite bands go. He mentioned that Radiohead in addition to other acts like Bjork really create the desire to incorporate more electronic elements into his own songs. For a solo musician who is able to create thick, rich, and full backing music in the studio, touring can be a problem. Phil said he has been working on a solution to getting the necessary pieces to become a one-man band whether from the help of a laptop or other machines. Beyond getting ready for more touring and the release of a new EP he has just been practicing his songs and getting them ready the live shows.
The new EP from Danyew drops April 21st and I can tell you already that it shouldn’t leave anyone disappointed.
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Thanks to Phil for sitting down me to chat.
