ABOUT:
A record of big pop moments and globe trotting arrangements in technicolor, these songs focus on a five year period of struggle, self discovery, growth and renewal in the life of songwriter/record-maker David Karsten Daniels. During this time DKD got married, had a kid and experienced a crisis of self-identity. Losing himself in self-help books and the Enneagram, many of these songs appear as mantras for a new husband and father trying to trade control and ego for connection and meaning. While a few of the songs flash back to easygoing youthful times, most deal very directly with the day to day of trying to survive and thrive in a new reality (with a handful of the songs following DKD into alternate realities as Larry Ellison, a Ghanaian treasure hunter and a rabbit). End the end, the album is a sort of letting go - shedding a pervasively melancholic youth, discarding a fabricated self in order to participate in an ever-evolving and interdependent family unit. 

Along the way David fell deep in love with the sounds of Fela Kuti, Congolese and Indonesian music, fun. and Kanye West. Roughly half of these songs feature extensive collaboration with songwriter/producer/filmmaker Chris Walker (Driver Friendly/Hopeless Records/Danger Films) whose focus on rhythm, faster tempos and relentless hooks helps gives the record a feeling of urgency and buoyancy rarely found on David's previous albums.  

A handful of the other songs feature the inspired performances of friends and family - among them David’s wife and son, his brother and sister-in-law Dane and Abbey Daniels and friends Kyle Henson and Ben Jousan. In at surprising turn of events, Austin, TX singer Lex Land (NBC’s ‘The Voice’) and Dallas rapper -topic briefly appear... 

CREDITS:
David Karsten Daniels - vocals, guitar, bass, percussion, drums, keys, programming, violin
Chris Walker - drums, percussion, guitar, drums, keys, programming, violin, vocals

Dane Daniels - drums, percussion, vocals
Abbey Daniels - vocals, bass
Kyle Henson - drums, percussion,vocals
Ben Jousan - guitar, vocals
Lex Land - vocals
-topic - vocals
K8 - vocals
K. - vocals
Dashon Moore-Guidry - additional percussion
Juan Lopez - handclaps, vocals
Aaron Carpenter - handclaps

*written, recorded by DKD and CDW
^written, recorded by DKD
produced by Chris Walker and DKD
mixed and mastered by DKD

additional engineering/mixing by Aaron Carpenter for Fifty50Studios
additional engineering by Juan Lopez

THIS RECORD HAS NOT YET BEEN RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC. PLEASE USE DISCRETION.

all songs are either:
(c) 2013 david karsten daniels, all songs published by smll thngs (ascap)
(p) 2013 TBD

OR

(c) 2013 david karsten daniels / christopher daniel walker, 
all songs published by smll thngs (ascap) / classic cwalk (ascap)
(p) 2013 TBD

www.davidkarstendaniels.com

Whistle While You Work (feat. The Many Hands)

David Karsten Daniels