I grew up in Wilmette, IL and was a sensitive and nature obsessed child. After my parents divorced in 3rd grade, my father introduced me to the guitar and I began learning songs from the Guitar Hero video games to form bands to perform at my school’s variety shows. But as time went by, there was an expectation that I would have to find a career that wasn’t music.

When high school came around, I became more of a jock and studied to get into engineering school, even though I was hiding the fact that I was really a theater kid who liked anime. When college came around I became more of an academic so I could get a good job.

But once I finished attending graduate school during COVID, I was faced with the question of “what will I do with my life when I’m not working?”

Instead of finding the answer and my life turning into sunshine and rainbows, that question opened up a void within myself. After falling into a dark depression, I searched and searched for meaning in my life. I could not get out of bed most days. I stopped taking care of myself. My friends and family watched me torture myself within the existential vacuum I was trapped in. I needed an answer that could not be bought. Something that would give me a reason to get out bed each day.

The answer for me was music. It turned out that it is what I need to survive. And now I finally understood what my family advised me to do. Get a job so I can make my own music, on my own terms. What you see and hear is the result of the choice to create for the sake of staying alive.

I do what I love everyday now, and I am so grateful for where I am. I thank my family, and my dear friends for existing and journeying through this life with me. Thank you as well. I hope that maybe my music can help you too.

Thank you for being here.

S

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Danny