Danny Dwyer on Coming of Age and Coming Back to Himself in Debut EP Losers
[UNPUBLISHED:] I want to give you a major congratulations on your debut EP Losers. How are you feeling now that Losers has been out in the world for the last month?
[DANNY DWYER:] I feel good. It’s been a process, a bit of an emotional roller coaster but I feel I am coming to the end of that and am entering an era where I can reflect on the project from an emotionally sober and honest place.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Losers is actually a double EP, with the first EP ending at “Rust” and the second EP picking back up with “Asthma”. What does this split between the EPs mean to you?
[DANNY DWYER:] I’ve always loved when movies are split up into several acts separated with title cards and when I was thinking about how I wanted to compile Losers I had the idea to do something similar. I want it to feel as if it is split up into Act I and Act II. It is a story with chapters. If I could insert an intermission I would. Anyways, I also feel like it highlights how each project can stand alone and be listened to as one EP in a cool way.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Through and through, Losers catalogs coming of age through a distinctly unique lens. What was the process like writing the songs of this EP for you?
[DANNY DWYER:] The entire process of writing Losers took place over the course of a few years. Some of the first songs were written in 2019, so I feel like this allowed for a lot of perspective to be packed into this EP. The ideas and concept about making something “coming of age,” and the stories I wanted to tell were decided on around 2018 or 2019, but it took years of writing and rewriting those stories to arrive at the project we are listening to today. I think that a lot of my process is just trying the same thing over and over again and eventually getting one version right.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Did you have any specific inspirations that you pulled from to create the EP?
[DANNY DWYER:] Mostly I would say it is inspired by music I grew up listening to. My first all time favorite album was Sum 41 Does This Look Infected. My neighbor got it off of LimeWire and burned copies onto a CD for my brother and I. I still know every word to that album. This sort of led to me and my brother learning to play drums and guitar and covering these songs and eventually digging into a bunch of other bands in the genre. I started writing Losers at that pivotal moment where one starts shedding a lot of that shame they tend to carry through their teenage years around the music they grew up loving and start embracing it in a new way. I think this project was about applying that new found openness to the music I had been making in my early 20’s and in a way blending the musical influences from my entire life in a new and unique way.
[UNPUBLISHED:] The 11 tracks of Losers feature a lot of references and metaphors to different experiences in life. Do you have any favorite lyrics?
[DANNY DWYER:] Definitely. Some are very personal, and some can be interpolations of things that have happened to me or friends. It was really about pulling from the whole world around me without hesitations and making the most compelling piece of art possible. I love “I had the time of my life fucking up my whole life with you” just cause it feels anthemic. A lot of the lyrics on “Dungeness” are really special to me because that was the last song written for the project. “You said you would marry me if we’re alone at 23” is a true lyric. I had a best friend in middle school and we were never remotely romantic but we always had a date in our calendars where an alarm would go off and if we were both still alone we would get married. That day came around and I got the notification, and I don’t know if it was actually 23, but it was at a hilariously early age. I really like how that moment spoke to how short sighted you are about your relationships when you are growing up. Every relationship feels so big and intense and you can’t imagine ever being separated from those people.
[UNPUBLISHED:] The music video for “Rust” features you in a whimsical and fluorescent bedroom as you shift from what seems to be abstract complacency in your suit and tie to a release of youthful energy as you ditch your coffee and jump on the bed. Can you tell me more about the concept behind this music video?
[DANNY DWYER:] When we were making that video, we really created this character of a nomadic, aloof man who wears a motorcycle helmet and travels from motel to motel lost in the mundanity of life. I wanted it to feel like the character was waking up and tending to a to-do list of bizarre tasks the same way someone would treat waking up for another day at their 9 to 5. We shot a lot of footage, including the character dancing alongside a group of middle aged and elderly swing dancers as a jazz band plays in the background. We also shot the character sitting alone at a dining room table with an entire feast in front of him. At the end of the day, we felt that one shot from the bedroom told the entire story in the most concise way and cut the rest of the footage. I am really proud of how that video turned out.
[UNPUBLISHED:] I really fell in love with “Brokenhearted,” which for me feels like a love letter to both youthful negligence and the specific experiences that come with growing up in the midwest, and as a native Ohioan, this really connected with me. Do you think where you’re from has impacted your music?
[DANNY DWYER:] Yeah, definitely. I think this whole project is focused on telling the story of that upbringing. I remember the first time I came to LA, I was so taken aback by how different the realities of people raised in big cities was. I really found so much of my identity by being true and honest to who I was and how I grew up. I thought I came here to escape my upbringing, but at the end of the day I ended up coming back to appreciating and embracing how much my specific upbringing shaped who I am and how I approach my art.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Where do you think the perfect setting is to listen to Losers?
[DANNY DWYER:] I grew up 15 minutes from where the Mississippi River meets the Missouri River. I have memories of parties where 10 or 20 cars would drive out to the river and people would turn on their headlights and blast music from their cars and get drunk and dance. When I was writing this project, I kept thinking about this image. I knew I wanted to make a pop record and I knew I wanted to make a party record, but I wanted to make the specific soundtrack to this party, not the party in the biggest club in LA or the strip club in Miami. This is a fire question because I haven’t really put that together until now.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Now that your debut EP is out, do you think you’ve found new understandings of life from creating and releasing Losers?
[DANNY DWYER:] I’ve never put out a project before, so this was a big step for me. Overall I just feel more fired up, more ready to go, and more confident and understanding of exactly what comes next. I am so excited about what I am working on and have moved so far beyond the need to wait on people or circumstances to share what I need to. I feel ready to go and see nothing standing in my way.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Is there any advice you wish you had been given when you were first starting out in your music career?
[DANNY DWYER:] Every day, wake up and ask yourself what you want to do, and then plot out everything standing in the way of you doing that. Look at every excuse you’re making and find any little way you can chip away at those excuses. Ask “what would have to change for me not to be making these excuses in a month or so?” Also, be clear with people what you want. A lot of things don’t happen because you never ask. Usually people don’t even know what you want. I’ve been around this music stuff for a while and watched a lot of people go from constantly asking for things to becoming the person that people are constantly asking things of within only a few years. It’s really just those who know they have to do it and never get tired of banging their head against the wall. Those are the ones who end up doing it.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What can fans expect next from you?
[DANNY DWYER:] The fucking world. A lot is coming and I am so excited for people to be along for the ride.
Photo by Erica Snyder