Part 2/3




NME: Thank you for listening to NME radio; The record you just heard is called "Architect" and we are back with the person who sung it; Daniel The Freenerd! Daniel, how does it feel hearing that record right now?

Daniel: It's always weird listening to my own records, especially in front of other people but I had fun recording "Architect"; I was definitely in a different head space artistically. It's like a dark spin on dance/disco and also all the disco stuff I was creating from 2019 through 2020 with other artists. I knew I wanted to come out with something that felt different; even for disco. I couldn't possibly create something that was textbook disco; I feel like that is limiting nowadays. I will be honest with you though, I don't want to record no more disco bullshit for a while. Everything I touched in 2019-2020 was disco and I think I outgrew the genre (laughs)

NME: It seems to me like you're always ahead of the curve when it comes to sending trends of sounds and styles of music genres. Is that something you take notice or are familiar with?

Daniel: I don't feel that way, but I know that it is normal when certain genres of music seem to become trendy within artists. It's a test of time. Music will always come back full circle as some point. That's just something that happens naturally in the music industry. Disco has been around for decades, but I know that many artist have tried to make the genre feel revived in some kind of way. I'm just tired of it (laughs) nothing about it excited me right now and I kind of wish it would go away for a bit now that practically every artist has touched it.


NME: Very true, it's kind of becoming predictable and I feel like everyone is going the Disco route. I do kind of want to bring things back to your childhood in the first part of the interview. I never seen you be this candid about your life. I don't think you've shared that with anyone on any interview, so thank you for being vulnerable like that. One thing that stood out to me, well pretty much everything stood out to me (Daniel laughs) but the fact that you developed social anxiety issues when you moved to the states is something I feel is not talked about for people with language barriers. So Thank you for sharing those stories with us man. Now for this section of the interview we are gonna focus on a couple of topics, one of them being your music that you've released in the past. Your debut album; "Antisocial" was released more than 10 years ago; the album won "Breakthrough Album" at The Music Hall of Fame; which is a huge deal. How do you feel about that album today?

Daniel: I was 17 years old when I started making that record. I try not too forget the impact it had on my life but It's definitely not an album that I would create today; because I've overcome so many things I was facing during that album phase - I've learned so much about music since then - I'm so much more developed as an artist, producer and even as a leader but I'm still proud of the sound and instrumentation that went into that album. I was catering a dance sound to an indie scene. I was also taking on experimental instruments which is something a lot of people were not exposed to at the time. Producing my own album with little help was a crazy move and I don't know how I did it. Was very frustrating with the shift of technology that was taking place at that time too; social media was different and It was a lot more difficult to bring things together. I guess some of the tracks and some of the topics I have different points of views on them today. I think when people think of mental health they see it as a form of weakness. Not to glorify mental health but I think talking about it is very important so that people can feel normal in life and that album shed a lot of light on the social anxiety I was dealing with and facing at the time.

NME: Fast forward to today, it seems like you have been putting on so many hats. Aside from all of the records you've put out or been a part of behind the scenes, you have literally started a management company from the ground up and also have grown and develop so many new artists and hit records just within the last year alone. I can't even front, you're kind of building your own business model at this point and I highly admire that. It's not an easy task to do that and then also turn around release your own stuff. What has been the purpose behind all of this and what keeps you motivated to do that?

Daniel: I enjoy it. It's that simple. I think many artists forget to the enjoy and kind of just live in the moment. I put so much pressure on myself coming into this. I knew I was different and I knew I had ideas but I didn't think people would either catch on or understand my purpose as an artist. There's always that sense of pressure to outdo your last record hovering over your head or to work harder. That's the young me but the person that I am today is so much stronger than that. That's just part of growth and the more you do this the more you realize that all of this just done for entertainment so why not enjoy it. But to answer your question about the management company, I always wanted to kind of "pay it forward" and I don't mean that in the egotistical kind of way. I mean that I know that starting out there are certain things and resources I wish I had that would of probably made things a lot easier for me. I've always dreamed of creating a creative hub for other artists so that they can bring their art to life. Freenerd Management just focuses on that. Artist development, pushing boundaries artistically. It's less chart focused and more art focused.


NME: Do you feel like people today look at you as more of a producer or an artist or at this point more of a CEO?

Daniel: I think a lot of people really view more as the producer nowadays because of how many productions I've been a part of within my own realm of artists. Everyone in this industry wants some sort of level of respect but I feel like people really definitely have shown that to me and I'm pretty grateful for it to be honest with you. No matter what people view me as I'm always ready to challenge myself and do things that either I'm not familiar with or I may or people may not see me doing.

NME: One thing we need to talk about and I think I can speak for someone when I say this, Why the hell did you not release Architect Tapes? (laughs) Honestly. I'm still in shocked that you decided to scrap the album all together. It seemed like a lot of work went into that album! You also decided to kill off the "Architect" alter ego as well.

Daniel: I'll be honest that project did take a lot of work to complete and a lot of research, designing and work took place in the studio but ultimately my heart did not feel it at the end of it all. I just couldn't go through with it and I'll be honest there are lot of factors that went into my decision that I can't speak of right now but I feel like I made the right decision even if it pissed people off.

NME: Are there moments in your career that you don't necessarily feel proud of?

Daniel: Oh absolutely! I have moment when I look back and say you know what maybe I could of said that this way or maybe I could of done this record a certain way. It's all a part of growth but I don't regret anything in life. Shit happens. Shit has happened to me. It happens to all of us but we have to take it with a grain of salt sometimes. One thing I have learned to stop overdoing is apologizing so much.

NME: Your love life is something that you don't seem to like to talk about in interviews but it's obvious you have dated Rad..

Daniel: Let me stop you right there my man, I really don't (lets out a nervous laugh) like talking about that and I'd like us to refocus the interview to something else if possible.

NME: No I completely understand! Well, let's talk about "Hollywood Envy" you actually played us the track before this interview started which was very cool, thank you for doing that but also I wanna talk about how different this record sounds from anything you pretty much have done! I don't mean that it doesn't sound like you because it's very much YOU but it's very different at the same time do you get what I'm saying (laughs)

Daniel: (laughs) no I get what you're saying actually it's pretty funny because when I heard the record once it was finished I couldn't believe that I recorded this song it's not the song that I would normally approach but at the same time I knew coming into it that it is something that I wanted to tap into. It's definitely more of a mature sound; it's more instrument driven and it's more put together than a lot of my other records I've released in the past but it also doesn't sound like anything that's out at the moment. (laughs) That's what's good about it. Music should do that. There has to always be some kind of shift happening. I never want to become monotone or a machine.

NME: You announced recently that there's a music video already filmed for the song, What can we expect? Like dude your videos are always so freakishly interesting. What goes on in that head of yours? Like how do you get a production behind you to make your vision a reality?

Daniel: Honestly that's the part that people don't see is the work that goes into creating my visuals because mine at the very least aren't designed to be played on MTV or some pop music platform (laughs) However, this music video I just made for "Hollywood Envy" will have sort of a sadistic comedy spin on Hollywood culture. It also features an evil clone of myself. Talking about clones, there's also a tango dance scene that was so difficult to shoot. It's me dancing with myself but a version of myself that is quite scary (laughs). I definitely wanted this video to be entertaining but there's also seriousness in the story that it tells as well. Honestly my music video always seem to come in dreams or even nightmares. How I view the world and how I feel the world is seen from the music's point of view.



NME: Prior to "The Architect Tapes"; the last released album was Milking the Pop Stars and I'll be honest with you I was crying on the floor when I heard the album title but to my surprise the album sounded pretty interesting. It sounded like a horror movie almost it had this like creepy but ear candy sounds that I think a lot of people appreciated.

Daniel: Thank you very much! My intention with that album was to create something that sounded almost like a horror movie but the album really is about heartbreak and love and some politics thrown in there. I really wanted to make fun of myself a bit. There's really no sense of cohesiveness with that album though so I think for the most part it's not one of my favorites, it's just an album I really enjoyed creating.


We are taking another break. When we come back we are talking about "Pop Star Disorders" the album and the new tour! Thank you for hanging around thus far on NME Radio!