Today we’d like to introduce you to Darnell Stewart.
Hi Darnell, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
My name is Darnell Stewart. I make music under two different aliases: Dakuan and DJ DanceAlone. Dakuan (my more popular alias) is my Techno/IDM alias. I make music that is more “robotic” technical sound under that alias. DJ DanceAlone is my more House Music (and everything else).
I got into making music back in the year 2000. I was in middle school and I wanted to make electronic music like heroes: Aphex Twin, Goldie, and Prefuse73. I was saving up to buy my first drum machine when a friend of mine showed me that I could get all the same sounds of a professional studio from my computer (via Fruityloops software).
From there, I began to experiment: making about 2-3 songs a day. I eventually realized that I would need to do more research if I wanted to sound like my heroes. In 2005, I stumbled across a software called Renoise. Unlike most workstations, Renoise works vertically and a lot of creative editing is done via fx commands (kinda like a programming language). From 2006 to now, I stuck with this software which gives me a very different approach to electronic music.
I currently release under record labels such as Future-Everything (Here in Memphis), RepoTrax (Remixes), DanceAlone Publishing (my label). I am currently working with a few licensing companies (Wav Pool and Music Vine). Most of my musical income comes from music licensing, DJ’ing, and streaming (Spotify, Apple Music, Emanate, etc).
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not entirely… Before I decided to make music for myself and the dance floor, I went down the journey that many laptop musicians go through: MAKING BEATS FOR RAPPERS AND SOUND ENGINEERING.
It took just one year as a professional sound engineer to realize that I was not built for that part of the business. Selling beats was such a task, I just gave up. When I realized that people could appreciate the music that I make creatively for myself, I never looked back.
I have nothing but love for the sound engineers of the world who can put up with obnoxious artists because I can not.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
So, I make about 20 songs a month. I register every song with BMI and submit those songs to various music licensing companies. I pick the songs I like the most and send those to record labels for releases.
I try to do about 2-4 releases a year. Sometimes it’s EPs, singles, or full albums. I work with Future-Everything for some of those releases and most of my booking. Micah (Strooly) is a huge reason why I still make music.
When I first moved to Memphis, I was going to quit making music altogether and just work my regular day job, but then Micah asked me to submit a song for their compilation. That literally got me back into making songs again.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Wow… kinda personal
I would say, I was pretty lonely as a child, but I had very demanding and controlling parents. I couldn’t really show what I felt inside so I had to just act like was ecstatic all the time. I saw a documentary about Jimi Hendrix when I was 10 years old and instantly decided that I wanted to play guitar.
My dad, the deacon, did not want me to play guitar, but when I saved up my allowance to buy my first guitar he made the decision that I could only play if I played for the church. I quickly became good with the guitar and my church exploited my talent greatly. It was the high demand of the church along with the church’s unwillingness to pay me for my time that led me to question the church and ultimately become agnostic.
Translating my musical ideas into danceable music was/is my ultimate escape from reality.
Pricing:
- I typically charge $250-$2000 for DJing gigs depending on the venue/promoter.
- I make between$500-$900 per licensed song.
Contact Info:
- Email: darnellisatwork@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dancealone_x_dakuan/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DDancealone
Image Credits
Millie Stewart
