Daniel - Best Damn Party

Being an independent musician is a blessing and a curse. You get to do things on your own time with your own creative freedom but you don't have the support of a label helping you market your work. So you have to be the A&R department, the marketing department, your own publicist as well as getting everything together for record releases and all the stuff that goes along with it. So it doesn't hurt my feelings at all to receive an email a year after an single has been released looking for coverage. I opened my email this morning to find a very excitedly written email from an independent artist from Salem Massachusetts, Daniel. It didn't give me much information other than there was a party in his head and everyone was invited. I'll be honest....it's the fastest I've clicked a link in an email because he didn't spend 4 paragraphs talking about how unique and how his music was "insert overly flowery hipster description". He let me hear him and he let me make up my own mind about him in as an unbiased manner possible.

So let's talk about "Best Damn Party". To compare him to artists like Andrew W.K. or Foxy Shazam or The Darkness would be fair. But there's a lot more to Daniel than that. Sure, he's a bombastic rocker like the above mentioned groups and he's got his very own style that isn't taken seriously. Scrolling through the comments on YouTube give an example of how people don't necessarily know how to respond to an artist that doesn't take a conventional approach to making music. With Zac Efron good looks and an unabashed sense of self, Daniel has the makings of an amazing rock star. This song and video are unabashedly fun. It's got a rapid fire energy that sweeps you up and takes you to the best damn party. It's high energy and the heavy guitar riffs just set the song off as more than just a gimmick.

Much like the flack and misunderstandings Andrew W.K. got when he came onto the scene, I think Daniel is going to face similar trials and tribulations but much like the survivors of the Salem witch trials (and potentially some of his ancestors), he's going to do alright. He doesn't just march to the beat of his own drum, he create the instrument. He's not following any play book and he's not trying to be anyone other than himself. If you've been a fan of this blog for any time, you know that's exactly what we celebrate here. Being you. Without hesitation. Without doubt. Be you and create the music that you need to. Not that you want to create but the music that burns a hole in you if you don't get it out of your body. Doesn't matter if people rush out and buy it. Doesn't matter if the masses get it. What matters is that you've got something that has to be released into the universe.

So he's unconventional. He's unique. He's all those things that hipster musicians describe themselves as but in the end what matters is that he's got a voice and a point of view that's ultimately his own and absolutely deserve to be heard. Like those above mentioned bands, not every one is going to like him. Hell, far fewer people will like him that he'd probably really like but those of us that do and that really get what he's out here doing will be loyal throughout his career and will support him through thick and thin. And he's got a life long fan in me.

DanielfromSalem on the Web