Blessed of voice, bright of future and big on the socials, modern rocker on everyone’s radar Dan Byrne is a proper raw talent – and possibly the nicest guy ever.
We were lucky enough to chat with Dan before his pretty much capacity show at Sheffield’s Corporation. And because it’s Jo Wright doing the interview she gets straight to the important stuff. So why are you a Dan and not a Danny, Dan????
‘I’ve never been a Danny. I feel like every Daniel can be either a Dan or a Danny – they have a vibe! I’m only Daniel to my parents!’
When we meet, Dan is just over midway through his ‘Live… In The Moment’ tour, which has seen him sell out venues, announce low ticket warnings and even move to a bigger space for his Edinburgh date.
‘Tonight is very, very close to selling out – we’ve only got ten tickets left,’ says Dan. ‘This whole tour has been unbelievable! I’ve been telling a story on stage each night about how we booked these shows almost six months ago, and at that time I had only five songs out. It’s been this unreal experience to turn up at these venues, especially in the cities I’ve never played before.’
And social media has helped with this. ‘I feel like, as a musician, there’s a lot of uncertainty,’ says Dan. ‘I decided in January to make a point of actively doing socials regularly, as opposed to posting every now and again. Five days after that our video went viral! It was a little clip of ‘She’s The Devil’ and off the back of that I gained 40,000 followers across the platforms. I even woke up today and I’ve gone up 6000 followers!’
Being a musician is about so much more than just the music now. You gotta do your own press, promos, all that stuff. ‘It’s not what I got into music for,’ Dan smiles. But just go listen to a clip of Dan’s shows on his socials now. It’s cool. We’ll wait. Breath-taking vocals yes? To hear him on your feed is to book tickets for his shows. Which is also handy, because he’s touring mainly record stores in May, more dates here and there, and then back on the road for much of October.
Dan’s a full time musician. It’s a dream come true, it’s so damn cool, it’s so many things – apart from glamourous. ‘It’s like the longest overnight success!’ Dan laughs. Was it scary to take the leap from juggling a day job to trying to make a living in the industry? ‘It was a long time coming,’ says Dan, who has stints at Morrisons and various music related shifts in London on his pre-full time musician CV. ‘The fear never goes away!’
He adds, ‘I always said the only real goal I had in music was to make a living, so if I could live – or survive doing it – that was my ultimate goal in life.
‘But it’s hard doing it as this level.’
‘The payoff is the shows,’ Dan tells Devo. ‘Touring certainly isn’t glamorous, unless you like Travelodges and service stations! It’s hard work. My body needs rest, and you don’t necessarily get that day to day! But it’s all worth it to be performing on stage and for the people I’ve met through playing live. I always say my fans are the best.’
They even made Dan’s birthday gig (March 24, same as mine!!!) extra special. ‘We played Chester that night, which is quite close to my home because I live in the Wirral,’ he says. ‘And my fans brought me gifts and cakes.’
Musician wasn’t actually Dan’s first choice of career. He started as a musician when he was in Year Seven, eventually picking up residencies in Liverpool pubs ‘that I wasn’t allowed to be in because I was under 18!’ As a child he wanted to be a vet. Is that why your tattoo collection includes a couple of animals Dan? Erm, no. The rabbit in a top hat tattoo is for his grandad who was a magician. ‘He was pretty successful, and was in the Magic Circle’ says Dan. He has ‘Death of Me’ inked on his arm which was his first single as well as his first ever tattoo, and a leopard with hearts as spots.
He was also into his sports as a kid too and played cricket, football, squash… pretty much everything. ‘I was a black belt in Jiu Jitsu aged 12,’ he adds. It seems like Dan could turn his hand to anything – and excel at it. Lucky for us it was music he stuck with.
Dan’s debut album ‘This is Where the Show Begins’ is released on May 22 via Frontiers Records. Where does the name come from? ‘It’s a lyric from ‘Saviour’ – the first single we released from the album,’ Dan explains.
And is he excited to let it out into the wild? ‘I can’t wait! I actually gave myself a deadline of writing it, and I pretty much had three months where I wrote the whole album. There were some ideas that came from stuff I already had, and I’d got the chords or melody. But I fortunately work really well on a deadline. I don’t like that idea! But I really wanted to put pressure on myself to write it – and a lot of things I didn’t expect came out of that session.’ The tracks we’ve heard so far are a dynamite mix of electrifying (‘Saviour’), dirty (‘She’s the Devil’), textures (‘Praise Hell’), monumental (‘Death of Me’) and soaring (‘Home’). Fronted by Dan’s phenomenal voice. You just know it’s gonna be original, outstanding and essential.
Interview by Jo Wright
Photos by Blackham Images