At his first gig at a local pub, he was so overwhelmed he sent microphones flying and broke a cymbal on stage – now, working on his sophomore album, Daniel Angelus has rerouted his energy and passion into his writing and vocal ability to create something truly experimental.
Daniel has a very distinct voice. Some would say it is pretty similar to David Bowie. More contemporarily, his voice resembles ¡Forward, Russia! frontman Tom Woodhead, but he prefers not to be typecast.
He said: “I don’t like to be pigeonholed because my music isn’t the same on any scale, it drifts wherever it wants too. Not intentionally, but my music needed a genre for it to be understood in a mainstream circuit.”
Daniel, originally from Alvaston, Derby, usually refers to his own music as ‘Electromance’, drawing influence from a lot of new wave eighties music, adapting his sound from the synthpop generation. He said: “I noticed what was seeping into my recordings and I just let it flow.”
However this 23 year-old’s influences are a lot less musical than they are emotional, and his songs are stories of specific connections to moments in time.
Much of his pain stems from his late father’s violence and cruelty toward him. His dad died at the already traumatic age of 14, and song writing became a therapeutic activity for Daniel.
“The music is connected to deep emotions I felt when I wished [my father] would utter the words ”I love you” and not ”I wish you were never born”. It is difficult to comprehend how one human could be so hard and cruel to another, let alone a father to his son.”
And Daniel gets an expected response from fans, telling him his music is so dark it almost scares them. But he admits proudly his songs are raw and honest, and predominantly focused on telling the truth, saying: “Music is a universal language that gave us more peace and love than any religion, government or breakfast cereal.”
The songs are haunting, and this young artist is getting better and better at crafting his skill.
2010 began dramatically, with Daniel’s debut LP EMPIREǀGHOSTS, being released on Jan 1 through iTunes and Spotify.
Now in the middle of recording the second of hopefully many, Daniel is taking a more ‘natural’ approach to every aspect of the sequel I-Heartbreak.
Daniel has worked with 80′s pop music producer David Emery due to his genuine desire for retro synths, and Tom Meighan from Kasabian and other artists to create a certain texture within some elements of his songs, mainly in regards to the drums.
Many of his songs on his first album have been accompanied by video, which although help his audience to put a face to a name.
Regret, Regret, Forever Regret is an up tempo offering, with the apparent heavy influence of Joy Division – the video is available to watch on YouTube from July 1.
The video for the dark Cry, Cry, Cry All Night, from I-Heartbreak, is a montage of still pictures which narrates a love story, with a staggered video release date of July 29.
This forthcoming album is taking Daniel in different directions but live shows are what he lives for.
Daniel is no stranger to multiple encores during his live set, and loves performing live.
“The very first true moment I realised I wanted to take music seriously as a career was when I did my first ever show. It was in 2008 and I had compiled a bunch of bedroom demos and I took them to a local music venue called The Victoria Inn in my old hometown and did a 25 minute performance. I remember smashing the stage up! Someone tried to get up on stage and nearly got hit. It was raw and it showed exactly how I felt at the time. Things have changed a little since then but it was the first time I felt free to express my anger, misery and suffering. I had a lot of emotion – I needed to put it somewhere.”
Getting into music, for Daniel, seemed like a natural progression. He got a small keyboard and a pen and paper and just began to put together songs, trying to forge his creative identity.
Once he had started performing these songs live he began to network with different bands and get more shows performing these raw songs.
Soon after, he saw an advertisement in the newspaper where a local producer wanted to work with a singer/songwriter. He said: “From that one meeting in 2008 stems this huge journey.”
Translating his pain into his passion, he hoped performing would lead to bigger and better things.
And boy has it.
This ordinary Derby lad is now seeing his face plastered down the streets of Sweden and being asked to perform at rich kids’ birthdays.
His resume also includes touring with Australian singer Kylie Edmond in the US – and Daniel is hoping to tour with some great bands in the future.
“On my US tour I gained a lot of respect from the fans for what I was doing. Unlike British audiences fans like to talk during the shows, so I felt I had to compete with the crowd. Each country is special in its unique way though, and I hope to visit many more along the way. I would love to support Shiny Toy Guns and La Roux on respective tours I guess, and I would love to work with Glasvegas. They are a tremendous band with amazing lyrical connection and it would be great to work with them.”
When asked what he is currently listening to, he says: “Adele – Someone like you.
“It is an amazing song and truly honest. It really reaches out to me and takes me to some sad memories, and that can be good at times. I don’t want cars, I don’t want to be worshipped and I don’t want your money, I just want to perform night after night and I want to continue making music that people feel.”
I-Heartbreak is set for release in November 2011.
