Hey there reader. Do you ever find it hard to define the art you make, but you can trace back all the reasons why you make it the way you do? And try to find some sort of conclusion in all of that searching? That's what this article is about. This one's kinda messy.
So first of all, who is daryl dee?
Put simply, in 2017 I wanted to try making darker electronic music, and I wanted to have an outlet to express my furry identity in music (without having to come out as a furry when I tell people I make music). Thus, I have two main aliases: goodnight girl and daryl dee.
Daryl actually came about as I was sitting at the breakfast table one morning and thought "I don't know what this theoretical alias' species should be. I should just go for the first animal I see" and then a chickadee landed on the bush outside the main window.
For the longest time I couldn't put my finger on why I wanted a masculine character despite being transfemme, and I think it's been more productive to leave it at that and not overexplain it.
2017-2018 daryl: breakbeats/trip-hop
When I was a brony, I got really into SoGreatandPowerful's music. I was especially fond of how completely unique the sound palette of "Galaxy" was, to the point of trying to recreate its magic. That's how my first album "Universes Unlike Ours" got made.
Later on, once I had overworked that angle of trying to recreate "Galaxy" a billion times, I found myself wanting to make darker music that more-fit my sort of nhilistic apathy in high school. I was struggling to write music that talked about politics, and felt I needed to try something where the music was all about these strange sounds that I, a drummer, could still find interesting.
I ended up converging on making rough, crunchy beats and weird electronic vibes, and I've kept up with this style for a while.
But I think more than anything I just wanted to get away from the goodnight girl "soft-core" sound as much as possible, and just make something that was its own vibe.
2019 daryl: breakcore/gabber
This is where I felt like I wanted to make something more akin to emma essex's "This Broken City"
Sound-wise, I tried to draw on two big influences in my listening habits: Indie Rock, and Breakcore.
daryl dee has always been about embodying anxiety, and seeking a better version of the self that hasn't come yet. The vibe and lyrics always draw from my past as a (former) cis male, but I try to imbue it with a sensibility that I've gotten just from the hindsight of having reinvented myself.
I wanted to reflect that in the aggressive and shouty sound design
2020 daryl: drum n' bass
Drummer roots, rhythm focus2024 daryl: indie rock
Dig in fingers to the rhythm Dig in fingers to the rhythm I also liked June Lalonde’s sound, I asked her how she did it: Multiple takes (minimum 4!) Each take is its own cabinet range of frequencies Pan your takes opposite of eachotherGuitar Playing
Once I'd sort of seen through that kind of angle, I found myself wanting to get more involved with guitar. After having listened to SoGreatandPowerful for the 1000000th time, I pivoted more towards Le Soldat Pony's music. (She still makes music as Howndstooth!)
I learned her songs "forward only forward", "a town in central virginia" and "scarecrow". I really enjoyed learning to strum chords and sing at the same time. This came mostly by exposure to my dad having his guitars, as I took guitar lessons at a younger age but quit out after the second lesson.
Anyway, I found my own ways to try and put this guitar playing into goodnight girl with songs like "come on home", but I wanted to find a more punk outlet for the more hardcore music I'd been enjoying.
It wasn't until 2016 when Ashley introduced me to Car Seat Headrest that I got really into trying to learn their songs, anything from the punchy acoustic "sober to death" to the anthemically strummed "beach life-in-death".
I tried to take that punky, chaotic strumming style and imbue it into this new daryl dee alias. Not quite satisfied with power chords and quarter notes, but overall trying to give off that heavy energy vibe. I feel like this is weirdly present in my early songs like "don't know anything about you".