Danny Dakota
Written by: Cait Elizabeth - December 2019
Edited by: Travis Ryan
Introductions
Danny Dakota is an endless source of infectiously catchy songs. He masterfully captures specific moods and situations in the webbed intersection of dance, pop, rock, and hip-hop. Danny is a lifelong musician that you may have caught filling in on drums for local bands, performing in a solo spotlight, or joined by a full band over the years. When the whole team is assembled, you can find Matt Edell (lead guitar), Erik Kohl (bass) from Maisons, and Tyler Boerckel or Rodney Harris (drums) alongside him. Mr. Dakota is reliably polished and full of energy whether he is a featured act or just jamming late into the night with his friends.
Playing drums was Danny’s first musical passion, one that he picked up about a decade ago, around the age of 15. A natural singer, he picked up guitar at 18 in order to flesh out his ideas. “Songwriting is everything to me, I think it's the most important thing in music above production and technical ability.”
Danny uses two different strategies when he approaches writing. The first is the more traditional technique of sitting down with just his voice and guitar. A more hip-hop-flavored direction led to another option: writing to the beats he creates, many of which feature real guitar riffs alongside MIDI layering. The hip-hop element started to come into focus around four years ago when Danny first began producing on Garageband, later graduating to Logic Pro X. “I use my songwriting to reflect on good and bad times in and out of relationships, not just romantically (but often). It's become more of a coping mechanism and sometimes creating a song to reflect on an experience is my only way of getting it off my chest.”
Tours & Shows
Danny Dakota is a familiar name on fliers in the Long Island scene. You can often see him playing at showcases or as a featured artist at LI bars and clubs. He is a fixture at the open mics and open jams, improvising with musicians who specialize in all genres. “I play as a solo artist but often collaborate and hope to tour in the near future with a band to back my songs.”
Danny’s sense of humor frequently shines through in comedy sketches and collaboration videos gracing Facebook and YouTube. It’s striking to see someone who is so laid back don a new identity in the blink of an eye—he is ready to go full-on character actor at any moment.
The new album Nueve and singles “K Pop/Believe You”, “Come Back to Me”, and “Heavy Implications”, all released in 2019, stand as testaments to the creative powerhouse that is Danny Dakota.
Support & Subscribe
““To my listeners, I appreciate you all so much and everything I do with my music is for you guys and I want to expand everyone’s horizons including my own so I’m constantly listening to different music and trying to give you the best music I can create by improving my skills vocally, instrumentally and production!
Never give up on what you love to do! Whether it’s music, writing, art, any kind of career, setbacks happen for a reason, they happen for me all the time and it’s taken 6 hard-working years to create a song catalog I’m proud of but I feel like I’m just getting started!””