As singer and the song, Kevin Daniel is happy for a while, conceivably forever.
Kevin Daniel has had the full experience of a musician’s life from the bottom looking up in his 37 years on the planet. He’s been a songwriter, a singer, an entertainer, a struggling indie artist, who not long ago signed with a label and moved to Music City. It’s a where has the time gone and how did I manage to get through it all and wind up in the place I always wanted to be kind of feel-good story. “If I was to look into a crystal ball to see forty years from now, I’d be content just to support myself in way that’s comfortable and keep on playing music. Simple as that. Anything beyond that is a bonus.”
Daniel believes constant touring is the best way to make money as a musician. He’s disgruntled by the difficulties encountered in getting his music out there to be heard. “Some of us are trying to do licensing and syncing. Others try to squeeze the system with Patreon and fan clubs. My best content is heard on my records or at shows.”
Like many musicians starting out, Daniel worked a day job, in his case as a copywriter in advertising where he still freelances if the money is good. “I worked for a corporate employer and didn’t care at all about anything but a paycheck. Now I care about every aspect of my career 100% of the time. It’s stressful, which isn’t great but at least I’m doing what I’m passionate about. I never thought that following your passion could lead to disaster if you find out down the line it’s really not your passion. At the end of the day, ask yourself if you could do anything else and if the answer is no, then you’re kinda stuck. I knew this would be hard and very emotional at times, but I don’t see myself at all as stuck.”
He began at the tender age of five, playing an electric piano that was bigger than him, then switched to the sax, which got him into college at George Washington University. He moved around with his parents from Little Washington in eastern North Carolina to boarding school, DC, Brooklyn and recently Nashville. One song on his latest album, ‘Don’t Tell the Devil’ written with his friend Skylar Gregg, describes his intention to move to L.A. But he thought better of it and went to Nashville instead. “I come to California with the weight of who I was” but in the next verse he “comes to Tennessee with a voice I thought I knew, singing to strangers like I used to sing to you.” A memorable line from a Firesign Theater satirical sketch applies: “No matter where you go, there you are.” He seemed to get the comparison and said, “Essentially it doesn’t matter where you are, your problems are going to follow you. It’s like don’t tell the devil where I am, but that’s no use.”
Daniel’s songs feel personal and one example comes from his “Been Here Before” album. “Probably my favorite song on that album is ‘Don’t See the Light.’ It’s the second part of a story from “Fly” about my parents dying in a plane crash.” he explains. His relationship with his mother was obviously different from the tumultuous one with his father, on display in a line from ‘Sorry’s Not the Way’ when Daniel sings “Father say one more mean thing. I got thick skin and it helps me to sing.”
It’s apparent he had strong feelings for both parents, easily perceived in ‘Denny’s Song’ from his first record. “When my parents died ten years ago, I went home to deal with everything and it was the worst two days of my life. It felt like a dream,” he continued, “and I wrote a bunch of songs in two weeks, performing one, ‘Denny’s Song,’ at their ceremony.” The lyric “Your love is the kind people sing about, five now three” references his older brother and sister. Again from ‘Sorry’s Not the Way’ he addresses his brother first, “Brother you live so far away. We’re running from something. What it is I can’t say” then his sister, “Rose you live so far away …. I’ve now got my reason to live. To spread hope to my family, my children and friends. Sorry’s not the way to feel right now.”
“Back then we were baby versions of ourselves though I still play some of those songs,” he said wistfully. “Like that one. Now I’m going to have to play it again.”
The EP “Myself Through You” is his second record, also produced by Ben Rice at DeGraw Sounds in Brooklyn. “That’s the one that really got my career going,” Daniel stated with pride. “Ben and I had our shit together better.” The title song happens to be the one most people aware of his music know and like to hear at shows. “My thought process was if you could see yourself the way others see you, you’d probably not do half the stupid shit you’ve done but a) it’s really hard to know what someone else thinks and b) it’s hard to hold yourself back. It really refers to a relationship where we couldn’t manage to see each other’s point of view.” Another strong song is ‘Born a Preacher,’ which Daniel reasons is about the forgiveness of sins. “It opens the door to forgiving myself for some of the bad stuff I’ve done that I’ll never tell anyone about. That doesn’t necessarily make you a bad person.” Then ‘Faded Red’ leaves the demons of the previous song behind. It’s about running into an ex at a party, so what does he do, stay or run away? “She’s become a stranger to me.”
The most hard-hitting song on the EP is ‘Hardcore Medicine,’ and that’s saying a lot about what some call his best work before the new record. “I wrote that one a few weeks after injuring my arm skateboarding,” he relates, wincing at the memory. “I was in the hospital in a lot of pain and that was the first time I had morphine. I could feel it from the top of my brain to the tip of my toes. Never felt a drug like that before and wrote the song about how hard drugs can really take you out.”
Rice also produced Daniel’s third album, this time at Old Soul Studios in upstate New York. “Langhorne Slim also records there,” Daniel mentioned. “He’s really interesting. I like that guy a lot. We’re just two Jews from the East Coast who got along.” The record has a bigger, more expansive sound, which Daniel suggests is probably because some heavy hitters were part of the band, including Will Bryant (organ/keys), Lee Falco (drums), and Brandon Morrison (bass), all members of The Restless Age, along with a shredder, Jon LaDeau (guitar) from The National Reserve and Andy Krizan (guitar) who used to be with The Spin Doctors.
‘Used To Be’ from “Things I Don’t See” is one of his favourites, one he doesn’t often play because it’s sad and slow and burns the mood of a show. Daniels explains, “It used to be about getting older and wondering if my mom would recognize me for the person I am and be proud. Think about my actions in the ten years since she passed away. What would her judgment be?” It’s a question most young men will at some point ask themselves. “Would my momma rest in peace, know who I am, her baby boy a lawless broken man?” The song moved Daniel to get a tattoo while making the music video.
The album’s title song concerns assuming the worst-case scenario. As Daniel says, “If your girlfriend goes out and doesn’t call, you don’t know where she is and just assume the worst.” ‘Things I Don’t See’ touches on what hurts you the most, like in the last seconds before his parents’ plane went down, and they realized they were going to crash. “We don’t know anything about that point in time so again assume the worst.”
“Been Here Before” was Daniel’s fourth album and he jokes about how they put the bar code over the song list on the back cover, which happens when you don’t have a graphic design team. He terms it his COVID album. “We’d do some stuff then shut down, then record at weird times. The whole album is about change. It took a year to finish and nothing happened. It was like the record hadn’t been made. Ironically, most of the songs I play live are on this record.” ‘Me, No Myself & I’ was a co-write but still very personal. “You’re taking me back to a time when I felt so insecure. Just me no myself and I.” It’s also his breakup album as on ‘Dial Up Pain,’ with Daniel’s songwriting becoming more direct. “My ex and I broke up after eight years during the recording of the album, so there’s a lot of feelings that go with that event.” The aftermath comes to light on ‘Single in the Center’ as he finds himself single in just one night. “I wasn’t myself just by spending way more time with myself than ever before. She would blame me for not blaming me and for this, it’s my fault.”
One of the album’s hottest songs is ‘Horizons’ with Steve Okonski on horns making it really pop. The subject matter of the song, however, is not so sunny even though the location is hotter than blue blazes. Noting that he doesn’t believe in heaven or hell, Daniel had this to say: “I had this thought about dying then waking up and being shocked to find I was actually in hell. I knew this because I didn’t see my mother anywhere, and I was certain she would be in heaven. But the song ends with me not caring and still doing the same stuff. Crazy, right?”
Daniel typically writes from his own experiences. “I freak out every time I finish a song and think I’m never going to write another. Unfortunately, they’re all from personal experience or in my head. I can’t even write tangentially about other characters.” This is one of the reasons for his move to Nashville. He wanted to try working with a co-writer on his songs, just to see what changes would transpire. The songs are on his fifth and latest album, the 2023 release of “The Life and Adventures of Kevin Daniel,” adding his name to the list of people who’ve had their life and times similarly memorialized: Judge Roy Bean, Juniper Lee, Grizzly Adams, Tim (from the hilarious animated series “Solar Opposites”), Rosie the Riveter, Scrooge McDuck and, last but by no means least, Jesus. When you think about it, walking with the giants isn’t a bad way to become a member of the club.
Despite the happy-go-lucky exterior Daniel projects, many of his songs deal with things that went sideways as in ‘Happy for a While,’ which takes into account the uncertainty of music as a career path and the vagaries of making sacrifices from continually being on the road touring. It’s hard to break free from that pattern and gain more success without someone whacking you on the noggin with a lucky stick. Or, looking at it another way, “when everything’s right, I make things go wrong,” a lyric from ‘Feels Like it Should,’ about a woman Daniel dated. “I didn’t feel the connection, so it was the first time I ever had to be the one to end the relationship. It started out great but I stand by that decision.”
You can’t help but groove to the sweet and sour R&B vibe of ‘Whiskey with My Maker,’ a tongue-in-cheek tune he wrote nine years ago, then scuttlebutted it, which refers to something that may or not be true. Let the readers decide on that score. ‘Dragging Me Down’ is the epitome of the one step forward two steps back situation that can take place when a relationship comes to an end. “They are still part of your life even if you don’t want them to be. This one is about my ex who broke up with me during COVID,” Daniel said with a hint of vexation. “She got married and has a kid.” Go figure.
‘Don’t Tell the Devil’ is one of Daniel’s favourites, written with a friend, Skylar Gregg. But he really shines when talking about the album’s final tune, ‘Singer and the Song.’ “Maura Strepp actually wrote this one about herself. It has to do with some people who write about themselves but others don’t want to listen to them contrasted with those that write because their goal is to get their songs out in the world. There’s a guy from Chicago working 9 to 5 who’s a great songwriter in his spare time but doesn’t care if anybody ever hears his songs. Some people are singers and others just want to write the song.”
It’s a new way of making music for Daniel. He lives in Nashville and has co-writers. His record is on a label (Organic Records). For someone whose entire career has been DIY with a little help from his friends, it takes some getting used to. “I don’t think labels are necessary to have anymore,” he said, chewing over the concept before offering, “You can assemble a team with enough freelancers for publicity, graphic design, radio promotion, finding a studio as well as an engineer and producer. Mostly I like the people who work at the label, the other musicians there and the music they’re making. My new album was produced by Joe Weisberger and I think it’s the best one I ever made. It wouldn’t have happened without the label. They were able to do it quicker than I could have, cheaper and with notes that I’d never have bothered to take. I will never stop having control over me and my work, though. Maybe that’s a bad thing but it is what it is.”
Daniel feels if it was up to him alone, he’d put out another record immediately. “Working with the label makes me be organized rather than release stuff by the seat of my pants,” he declares. “It’s the best move overall but it does take some getting used to. I mean; after touring all summer I’d like to have new music out in the fall.” From what can be ascertained about Kevin Daniel’s capability to be convincing, that’s something you shouldn’t bet against happening.
