by Jane Roser
photos by Dustin Wise
We all have that one pivotal experience that winds up changing our lives. Maybe it was a decision based upon a whim, a calculated choice or just fate twirling its finger, but our lives have never been the same since. For pop singer-songwriter DANAE that decision came in 2010. Known then as Tiffany Thompson, she auditioned for American Idol during a mass cattle call in Milwaukee and didn’t get through.
“I had a full time job, but had always done music on the side. American Idol and The Voice are kind of the litmus test of talent and people often ask me if I’d ever auditioned for them, so that experience made me realize that I’d just spent all this time and effort for this one shot, but what if I started really working [on my own] to get my music out to the people who love it, then I got caught up in that moment- a vision of where I wanted to go and this passion started building to make it happen. You know how earthquakes have an epicenter and it takes awhile to get out to the far edges [that’s what happened].”
Three years later, DANAE moved to Nashville, changed the sound and direction of her music and decided to go by her middle name. Originally from Iowa, her pastor father moved the family to Moscow, Russia when he started working with a church there. “It planted wanderlust in my blood.” When they moved back to the US, the family settled in Austin, Texas where DANAE started taking guitar and piano lessons while honing her skills as a songwriter through her passion for writing poetry before heading back to Moscow to study Russian and political science at Moscow State University. Years of traveling and experiencing other cultures helped shape her debut EP Direction which will release July 1st through Tone Tree Music.
Several brilliant hands were in the pot to make this album come together. Nashville-based music producer Sarin Kuruvilla, LA-based producer Phil Danyew, Secret Road producer AG and platinum songwriter Jesiah Dzwonek (who wrote Echosmith’s hit “Cool Kids”) all helped work their magic to make Direction come to life. The eponymous debut single went to #30 on HypeMachine’s Popular Charts, while its music video quickly surpassed over 57,000 views on YouTube. The second single “Actualize” hit SoundCloud and reach #10 on the HypeMachine Charts and the third single “Gold In The Dirt” debuted June 10th. With its “oh so cool” James Bond-esque lyrics and melody, the song should be an instant sensation.
DANAE has been writing with Danyew for over six years now and she thoroughly trusts his intuition. “Phil is a true artist- it’s in his soul and he comes up with some of the most original production ideas that I’ve ever experienced- I hear him in the songs we write together.” Speaking of Kuruvilla, DANAE says that he will work on something until it’s perfect and she learned persistence and refinement from working with him. “He has an incredible work ethic which just rubs off on anybody he’s around.”
With an original release date of June 10th, DANAE decided to delay Direction’s release so another track could be added. “It’s a cover of “Don’t Stop Believin’; a remix I did with a hip-hop/EDM producer”,” says DANAE excitedly. “I really wanted to have a cover song on the EP- it’s another great way to get your music out to people who wouldn’t have normally found you.”
Creating a pop album is very different than making a folk or country album, so Direction took a while to complete. “As a singer-songwriter you’re either writing alone or if you’re co-writing, you bring in an idea and would finish the song that same day; it’s pretty unusual to do an all-day writing session, but for pop songs, it’s a more complex production. You could be working on tweaking melodies and notes for weeks or even months. The songwriting is more nuanced and structured, but lyrics are sort of my sweet spot-I have a real vision when writing which is personal and authentic from where it starts, but then I like it to go to a broader, poetic spot so people can interpret it as they wish.”
DANAE’s fans from her singer-songwriter days will be thrilled to know that she has included an acoustic version of “Direction” on the EP. “People really connected with that [genre] and even though I love pop music and I’m beyond excited about the sonic explosion that happens on each of these tracks, I know there’s a lot of people who love the acoustic version of songs, so I put it on there for my fans.”
Besides preparing for her EP release, DANAE is currently working on refining an upcoming tour and is in the process of booking venues and colleges. “Hopefully as the music expands and people want to hear it then we’ll start coming to their cities to play. You’ve got to just build it to that tipping point and then go and make the magic happen.”
