Adrian Daniel talks about making visual music and a wide range of influences

Adrian Daniel brings his alt-soul sound to all-new heights on his new single, “This City.” I chatted with him about his influences, his music, and his love for Disney.

Adrian Daniel is a TIDAL Rising featured artist whose alt-soul sound has been compared to the likes of Frank Ocean and The Weeknd. His latest single “This City” is his “theme music for New York City”. Accompanied by video game-inspired visual teasers, the single takes a broody look at a New Yorker’s relationship with the city.

Adrian Daniel is currently working on a new album, which follows 2016’s Disillusions. I chatted with him about his love of Disney, his rock and roll influences, and his determination to make music his fans will love without getting trapped in a box.

First thing’s first: How excited are you for all the news that came out of D23 Expo this weekend? You tweeted about Kingdom Hearts and the Incredibles sequel — are you a big Disney fan? Are you a gamer?

AD: Disney, to me, was pretty much my introduction into big production music. I feel like, you know, Aladdin and The Lion King and all those things were such a big thing for me. And Toy Story, you know, as a kid, that was like everything to me. I’m totally into Disney and games. When I’m not working I’m definitely playing Destiny or Kingdom hearts and I’ve been waiting for new stuff to come out for like, years. I’m like a super nerd.

Do you feel like that inspires the music you record?

AD: Absolutely. A lot of the time, I feel like I’m making music for games and movies. Like, if I made the soundtrack to TRON, what would it sound like? That’s what I try to do.

There are a lot of visuals to go along with your new single. Are you involved in the whole creative process for your music, from recording to visuals?

AD: I made all of those videos. Everything you see in those, I made myself. The artwork was very Akira-inspired. I told my label I wanted to kill that aesthetic. When I was making the record — the reason you see the video game stuff — it’s always very on-point as far as the music. You’re hearing it and I just really wanted people to see what the music I’m making looks like. I really want the music to be so you can visualize in your head what it looks like to you.

With the internet, you’re constantly getting feedback and interaction from fans. Do you ever take inspiration from what they have to say to you?

AD: Oh, absolutely. I ask, “what’s your favorite song?” If I see people talking about very specific things, I listen. I pay attention to the internet. Sometimes it’s hard because they’ll ask, “when are you gonna release this?” And I have to say, “I just gave you a whole album! What do you mean?” It takes some time. I make contests and everything. I think that my fans are everything. They pretty much dictate where I’m gonna go.

A lot of the time, I’m making the music and I’m like “this is what you’re gonna like from me” but they allow me to not be in a box which is really great. I can say, “This is what I’m giving you” because I know they’re gonna like it. Then I see what they’re gravitating toward and I can make that. I can also say, “This is what you like, but you might like this too, you never know.” They give me the option to do that.

You’ve been compared to artists like Frank Ocean and The Weeknd, but you seem to draw influences from several types of music. Aside from Disney, where else do you get your inspiration?

AD: A lot of Prince, Queen, and Journey. Pink Floyd. Growing up, my mom always played everything. She was into everything. A lot of rock was in the house. I was really into rock n roll, just the feeling of it. There were always these super big chords and super big moments in the songs. Really big voices, you know what I’m saying? Freddie Mercury was incredible. When I’m making music now, I’m trying to give those same moments to people. I love MGMT. Tame Impala is everything.

Do you have a bucket list of artists that you want to work with?

AD: Tame Impala! They’re number one. Then Kanye, James Blake. Nao, she’s really dope. Jai Paul. Frank Ocean for sure. I love Frank. Frank Ocean’s amazing. Stevie Wonder. That would be pretty amazing. If Prince was still alive, no question I’d be trying to make music with him.

You described your new single, “This City”, as “theme music for New York City.” The song has some pretty sad vibes. Where do those come from?

AD: That’s New York! New York has this thing about it where it’s very broody. It’s very inspiring but it’s very broody. You want so much from it, but it takes so much at the same time. When I made the song I feel like I was talking for the people of New York. From a relationship standpoint, you want something that’s so great but everything comes in between that stops you from having that — greed, money, people, whatever. New York has a lot of distractions. You can get caught up in a lot that’s not in your goal for what you want. For me, it was telling the story of what I see in New York, especially at night.

Are you currently working on a new album? What does that process look like for you?

AD: It was wrapped but then I changed my mind, so I’m still working on it. I’m nitpicking at this point. I write the whole album first before I record everything. I have the title before I start. Then it’s really building the sonics around the story I want to tell. A lot of the time I’ll make something and be like okay, I like it, and a month later, I don’t like it. When I make a record, I want to like it six months or a year from now. I want to listen to it and still love it. If I don’t have that feeling, I’ll scrap it. We’ve definitely done songs over twenty times.

You were a TIDAL Rising artist in June. How does it feel to be featured on such big platforms?

AD: It feels great. TIDAL has been holding me down! They’ve been really great. They’re like, “Whatever you wanna do, just let us know.” They’ve been really supportive and they understand the vision and get it. As an artist, it’s great to have that kind of people in your corner so you know that what you’re doing is not whack. Someone actually cares! Cool.

Are you willing to reveal your new album title, or are you keeping it under wraps?

AD: I’m keeping it under wraps for right now. There’s a certain way I want to reveal it and when you see it, you’ll be like “this is dope.”

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

AD: Just that we’re making a video for “This City” and it’s going to be really cool. It’s a whole animated video. You’ll like it.

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You can stream “This City” and Adrian Daniel’s Disillusions on Spotify. For updates, follow him on Twitter.