Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Drnach.
Hi Dan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Music was always more important than everything else from a very early age. I finally got my first guitar at 14 but was interested in something other than learning songs. I was determined to write my own. I had to learn songs to understand the instrument and craft. Neil Young’s songs taught me the basics, and The Who taught me how to apply a heavy amount of emotion to strumming an acoustic guitar. Neil Young and Pete Townshend are the 2 songwriters I refer to the most when writing nowadays. After years of learning a million of my parent’s favorite songs, I finally started trying to write my own. In 2000 during a brief collage experience, I wrote a song called “From the Ashes,” During open mic nights, it got some attention, so my friend and I recorded it on a compilation CD and played it on college radio. It’s still on my set list and is the Act 2 opener of The Red String: A New Musical. I moved to Florida to play guitar at Busch Gardens Tampa. That job allowed me to grow and learn and get more comfortable playing and writing, so by the end of 2008, I had written a Children’s Music Album dedicated to my nieces and nephews a thousand miles away. I only did a little songwriting in early 2018. I had become a husband and father and recently Sober for the first time in 13 years. That journey fueled my current drive as a songwriter. Since the fall of 2018, I have released a Live Album, a Christmas EP, and a full 16-song album just this month. In the middle of all of that. I wrote a Concept album called Cross Country: A Self-Help Concert Performance that won an award for Best Original Score at the 2021 Orlando Fringe Festival and supplied all the songs for The Red Strings: A New Musical, which had its premiere showcase this past November. I hosted a Songwriting Showcase in Orlando for 2 years called Live From The Garden Room, where local songwriters were allowed to be heard. All in all, in is a great ride; I’m fortunate that Music still feels just a little more important than most things.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I am fortunate to have a full-time job in music which has allowed me to play some things safe, so while I know they’re coming, many of those bumps and bruises haven’t happened yet. To date, the rockiest roads have been in the quiet of my writer’s room when I’m short on confidence, belief, or worse, Ideas. I have certainly played to empty rooms and rooms full of people not interested in what a skinny 40-year-old songwriter has to say, but every show teaches us something. Every chance we get to play to audiences is a wonderful opportunity. I know it’s cliché, but it is the truth. Getting to make and play music is easily the greatest experience I’ve had thus far.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a Singer/Songwriter, Performer, and Multi-Instrumentalists. I focus mostly on songwriting, making any effort to create a piece of music for any occasion but, most importantly, any emotion. My shows are intimate, where I bear many of my soul and secrets about the process and where the songs come from. I say almost every show that I can not tell lies on stage. So many of my songs cover the emotional intent of someone in and out of love. Hearts broken and then glued back together kind of thing. I incorporate blues influences with clever lyrical content and have been told that my songs have a way of sounding familiar the first time you hear them. I am very proud of that, but I am most proud of Cross Country, my concept piece. As a long-time fan of The Who and Pete Townshend, I have always wanted to write a concept album and Cross Country helped me make sense of 2020 because it is a story of 2 complete strangers with completely separate lives that are almost exactly the same. The intention was to remind the players and audience that no matter what may happen in their lives. At some point, someone on your right or left has survived what is worrying you. To choose kindness over anything else and respect people’s journey. Again not trying to deflect or play it down; I don’t know what sets me apart. There is no time in my creative process that I’m trying to make waves or kick down doors. I try very hard to write good music and music that helps me, if no one else, sort through my feelings and gets my ideas and emotions out. I would instead leave those answers to my audiences and contemporaries.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
Hahahaha. The songs I’m most proud of are the least liked, and the songs I think are dumb are always requested. That is very true but only in an annoying funny way. Seriously though, honesty. People aren’t stupid when it comes to music. They know what they like, and if you’re not upfront with applying your whole heart, they’ll turn their ears off. You have to have open ears in the crowd. The chord, the note, and the word don’t work their magic if it’s not just right so they can receive it the way it was written or, even better, what it means at the moment. I have played the silliest of love songs with a heart full of love, and everyone is smiling. Contrary wise, I have wept and watched people wipe tears from their eyes. Honesty, anything else is cheap.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dandrnachmusic.bandcamp.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dandrnachmusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dandrnach
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_fUYGRCizY2GEsHfUqbZew
- Other: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/dan-drnach/756722485
Image Credits
Small Bee Photography PB and J Studios Rick Tetu
