It’s been another big year for Daniel Allan. He launched Daniel Allan Entertainment as a way of breaking from the traditional artist-label path, played his first major festival stage at Electric Forest, and has been making waves both on and off chain with his new project Duality.

One thing Daniel Allan hasn’t quite conquered yet though, is jet lag. Calling in from England, he’s taking advantage of a “flat swap” with a friend who’s currently staying at his spot in LA. Just back from a day at PIRATE, a nearby recording studio that grants access to heds NFT holders (heds covers the fee), Daniel’s still adjusting to the time difference.

Swapping jet lag horror stories, he tells me about missing a tennis court booking on the first day of the trip. “I played tennis in college so my girlfriend booked a grass tennis court for us,” he says. “We landed at like 1pm, got to the place at 2pm, fell asleep, and woke up at 2am.”

I had no idea he played tennis in college, yet I am unsurprised. Every time I talk to Daniel, I seem to learn a new layer of his. Today is no different.

He goes on to tell me about his summer, mentioning trips to Michigan, Paris, and Tokyo. I say I hope he’ll have some time to rest when he gets back to LA. He laughs, and says he’ll touch down at LAX eight hours before he gets back on a plane to see family in Kentucky.

“This year is definitely the most that I have traveled.”

Tokyo, he says, was a highlight. Primarily because his show was the day he landed, and had a week to enjoy himself afterwards without performance pressure “If I'm traveling somewhere, I usually have a show on the last day. So I've never really fully enjoyed it, because in the back of my mind, ‘I'm like, fuck, I have this thing.’”

For Daniel, it’s apparent how surreal it all still feels–flying around the world to play shows and make music. When playing his first major festival in Michigan at Electric Forest, he notes a small detail as specifically memorable. “Honestly, the most fun part about the festival was being in the golf carts, I’m like “Ah, I’m an artist in the golf carts!” You know, I thought it was the coolest shit ever.” The anecdote he chooses to share feels indicative of his own internal process, possibly his way of staying grounded while increasingly on the move and reaching new heights.

“When I was 16, I was like, ‘I'm gonna play a music festival, and it's gonna cure everything. I'm gonna be the happiest fucking dude on the planet. But as I've started playing them myself and befriending people that play so many of them. I've realized that it's all levels of the same shit. There’s always going to be a bigger show.”

Grappling with this, he’s careful not to mistake life for fantasy. “Experiencing it myself on a very small scale, but especially seeing friends and thinking like, ‘Damn, if I were in your position, I feel like life would be the sickest shit ever.’ But that’s not always the case.”

Thanks in part to his growing self-awareness and pragmatism, he’s found renewed purpose in making music as a way to center himself amidst all the changes. “Getting used to playing shows has been a new experience for me,” says Daniel. “I think it's reflected in a lot ofmy new music. The pivot this year has been focusing more on dance-centric music”

The shift began with the release of his track,“Ball!,” and is felt throughout his new project Duality.

An outtake from Duality, “UES,” follows suit showing just how at home Daniel feels on the dance floor. Short for Upper East Side, the opening track on HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2, is the perfect club record. “UES” shines with endless dimension, moving between layers with ease and edge, offering a full body rush of sonic sensation. “Last November, I went to a club in Miami and was like, ‘Oh, I should be making dance shit. I made “Ball!” on the flight back, and “UES” was one of the first dance songs that I made after that.”

Teaming up with indie act URL for the track's topline, Daniel's production skills shine, as do his instincts. “I was in a Zara in Bali and Shazamed this kid, URL, and DM’d him immediately. I was like, ‘We have to work on music together.’”

Once URL and Daniel linked, they immediately clicked and the song poured out. “He sent me a hook and I produced the song in like 15 minutes,” says Daniel. Surprised by how much his friends liked the record, Daniel was struck by how often fan favorites tend to be songs he’s spent the least amount of time on.

This phenomenon became especially enlightening for Daniel after receiving feedback from a trusted producer on a now revised version of Duality. “He said something along the lines of like, “Bro, I know you're good. Stop trying to show me that you're good.”

Both flattered by the compliment and shook by the revelation that he was perhaps overproducing in an unconscious effort to prove himself, he looked inward. “It was very much a moment of like, ‘Oh, you think I'm good? Like sick, but also, I began to question if I was making music for the right reasons. He was telling me not to overthink my music. He was like, “We don’t spend 10 hours in a day as producers to make a song in 10 hours. You spend 10 hours a day in the studio to make a song in 15 minutes that you like–the amount of time you spend on a song has nothing to do with how good or bad it is.”

A reminder to trust his intuition, Daniel afforded himself more permission to follow what feels good. “Maybe it's not a coincidence that the songs I make in like 15 minutes are some of people's favorite songs.”

“I Just Need” with Lyrah is a perfect example. Gaining traction on TikTok and Spotify, as well as onchain, “I Just Need” was the result of a quick, last minute idea from Lyrah that came at the tail end of a session. “I got a very visceral reaction to that song,” says Daniel. “What’s meant the most to me has been artists who I really genuinely look up to have reached out like, ‘This is a really special record. Send it to me, I'd love to play it at a show.’”

Co-signs from his musical heroes are the sweetest wins for Daniel. They tell him to keep learning to trust himself. “Every song on this project has had such a journey, like the first track, “Duality,” San Halo played at Electric Forest and brought me out during his set, and we played in front of 10,000 people. And then I was at Lollapalooza, Paris and turned around and he surprises me, and brings me on stage and plays the song.”

Having just released the project’s fourth single, “Safe” with Madalen Duke and Tisoki, Daniel’s finding his rhythm both onchain and beyond. Releasing independently on Distrokid, releasing a song every two weeks on DSPs alongside his Sound drops, Daniel and his team are setting a new precedent. “This feels the most sustainable,” says Daniel. “When I did my seed round, the whole point was to be able to put out music at a pace that wasn't dictated by a marketing budget or a label. It’s very liberating.”

Alluding to the duality of life as his own CEO and as an artist, the project explores the tension between the two roles. “I've lived my life onchain as a businessman, and then I've lived my life as an artist, which are two very fucking different things,” says Daniel. “I have business Daniel and I have manic producer, creative Daniel and I don't know that they would be friends.”

Reconciling this reality, Daniel’s finding this season of life increasingly edifying. “It’s been a time of self discovery. Not one groundbreaking thing or thought, just a bunch of little ones that have compounded this past year.”

Learning to get past the wall has become his greatest defense. ““UES” specifically was a turning point for me in finding a little bit of a purpose, and gaining more confidence in my artist practice,” says Daniel. “I always hit some sort of a wall when I'm working on a song. What I've really tried to make the biggest priority in the studio is to always finish the thing that I’m working on. I'm not saying a final mix/master, but a demo. That way, you can have closure on the idea because if you start a loop, and then come back to the loop later, the possibilities are still too endless. Whereas if you close the loop, you have something to objectively look at and can make a sound decision on the idea. It's kind of like building this weird muscle. I think just being able to finish it gives you the most confidence as a producer, or as a writer or as an artist.”

Another source of encouragement fueling his sense of purpose has been producing for other artists. Most recently working on projects for Emilia Ali, Daz Merchant, and frequent collaborator Reo Cragun, Daniel’s found a new channel for creative expansion by setting aside the expectations around his own music and following a fellow artist’s vision.

By the time we wrap, it’s late in England, and he’s just polished off what was left of a pint of ice cream while charging his phone by the laundry machine in the kitchen. “​​I should have done this at the beginning of the interview,” he says, holding up the empty carton in the camera. “But yeah, no, that was fun. That was a lot of fun. It was cool to rediscover this song.”

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Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “UES” is the first track to be released from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “UES” is dropping via Sound at 2pm PST on September 28, 2023.

Collect and add HIGH FREQUENCY writing NFTs to your digital library.

Article by Wallace Morgan for HIGH FREQUENCY, NOISE’s weekly newsletter. Subscribe for more.