Weekly Updates
Final Song from The New American Dreamers
I didn’t think I was going to record or release this song until my friends said it was one of their favorites. I coped with the feelings of the last presidency by writing and rewriting this tune over the course of 4 yrs. The result is a really tightly written sardonic blues tune that features my buddy Joe Rodwell on horns, guitar, bass, and background vocals. I was originally inspired by Bob Dylan’s Motorpsycho Nightmare and I was going to call it Voterpsycho Nightmare.
October 20th, 2022
Summer Support Drive
September 16th, 2022
I’ve been talking about this concept for a new album I want to create called ‘To Collapse Well…’ about grief and death and therapy and the planet.
But I don’t feel ready to make it yet. I feel like the concepts I have are grand enough that I want to develop my skills and my audience further first. And the only way I know to do this is make a BUNCH of stuff.
So over the next four years, I’m imagining finishing a project every two weeks that is somewhere between fleshed out ideas and finished songs. Some songs, like the one over on the right might just be a verse on someone else’s song. Others might be a full mixed and mastered song on Spotify. But all of them are part of me exploring more and more in preparation for the next album. I’m thinking all together this should be about 100 songs that I’ll write trying to find the perfect 10-12 songs for a masterpiece album in 2026.
More to come about this! But for now here’s the first one ->
Summer Support Drive
September 2nd, 2022
Woah. This last month since the Summer Support Drive was action-packed.
- Spent a week with fellow musician and sustainability advocate AY Young in Kansas City. He’s the US representative to the United Nations for their Young Leaders program.
- Got awarded the Ansel Adams Award by the national Sierra Club for my work with Clouds of Different Colors.
- Met a legendary rapper and got asked to write a verse to potentially feature on a song with him. More to come…
I realized I really need to be doing more outreach to organizations aligned with sustainability. So I:
- Created a ‘get to know me’ video
Hired a part-time outreach person to help research contacts and reach out to them - Put together some software automations to streamline the outreach process
- Created a one-pager about the music to send out
- Created a process for discovering and reaching out to contacts for the new assistant
Demo’s of new songs:
Cubby – AY and I are making this one
Tired – New song 🙂
Letting Go – New song 🙂
I think I’m gonna make like a hundred songs for this next album and then pick the best 10-15.
Made an introductrion video
July 26th, 2022
Live streaming from the trailer!
I’ve really come to love the idea of “Building in the Open”. Instead of stowing away in the dark and completing an album only for you to hear it when it’s all finished, I’m sharing the journey of creating it by livestreaming my production and writing process.
So stop by a livestream and hang out and share what you think about the song as it’s unfolding. I’m hoping to get in a groove with when these happen so I can promise you a schedule.
Summer Support Drive
As I’m finishing up this album and starting to think about the next one, one of the things these projects need is some cashflow. As these projects grow, I can’t fund them by myself forever. So I want to start working on making them more financially self-sustainable.
So I’m asking for your help.
Starting Wednesday July 27th and lasting through August 10th I’m going to be going live every night. I’ll be performing songs, hanging out, taking requests, doing solar designs, calling representatives, and showing you around my off-grid solar studio to raise awareness for the support drive. You’ll be seeing a lot more emails and posts from me over the coming weeks. You can sign up and support by going to DaneMyers.com. All of the contributions go towards furthering music and sustainability projects on my channel.
The overall goal for the campaign is to get 15 people signed up for as little as $5/mo.
Goal 1 – 3 Supporters
Goal 2 – 10 Supporters
When we reach goal two, I’m going to be able to pull the trigger on something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I want to make a song for the people who have dedicated their careers to sustainability. I’m going to reach out to anyone I can find that works in the space and collect responses from them about their experiences and turn that into a song to honor their work.
Goal 3 – 15 Supporters
When we reach goal three, I’m going on tour!! It’s been years since I’ve gotten to perform live for people. People who sign up to be supporters will get first dibs on hosting concerts on the tour.
Go to DaneMyers.com and consider lending your support!
Insulating the studio trailer
The sheet metal ceiling of my trailer has been getting over 150 degrees in the afternoon and it makes the trailer totally unbearable. So I’m building a new ceiling with insulation on top of it so I can hopefully make the space much more livable.
Stuff like this always takes 10x longer than I think it will. So a lot of my time this month has gone to this.
I’m making a video about it! Can’t wait to show ya 🙂
Lenny Kravitz Artwork
July 6th, 2022
Collaborating with AY Young
This month I had a dream come true with AY stopping by the trailer to work on some tunes on 4th of July. It was so fun to eat ice cream, make music, and talk biz. Can’t wait to show you new tracks.
Speaking of new tracks:
New Songs
Here are a couple new songs inspired by recent climate legislation.
Sunset
This track is about Biden’s green new deal getting shut down by Joe Manchin.
Alright
This track is about Florida’s net metering laws almost getting shut down by FPL.
Magic – New Artwork and Song 7/18
JUISE – New Annotated Lyrics Page
June 22nd, 2022
New Song on All Streaming Platforms! Juise
This track was definitely inspired by being locked down with some of my best friends in Miami. We all had a chance to turn more towards our art and the stuff we cared about. I started planning the Living in My Tesla music video and wrote Salt n pepper. It was the first time I ever really embraced myself rapping instead of just singing songs I wrote.
You can find links to all streaming platforms here:
Lenny Kravitz – Live Performance Video
A new clip live from my solar trailer 🙂
HOPE – New Artwork and Song on the Way 7/4
DOPE – New Annotated Lyrics Page
May 31st, 2022
‘The Mansion’ Episode 1- With Seizure Machine
I’ve always loved production videos that show the process of making music. I think back to watching Pharrell and Timbaland and now watching Kenny Beats and the amazing production community they’ve created online. And I wanted to do something to bring that creative process to life while showcasing the solar studio trailer. So voila! I bring you episode 1 of a new series called ‘The Mansion’.
I hope to keep doing regularly where I invite musicians I dig into my solar studio trailer to make music together. Let me know what you think!
DOPE
This is probably the most NSFW (sorry mom) song from me so far but I’ve just been so exuberant about this trailer setup I had to express it.
Video
I recorded this song in the trailer!! Pretty fun to be able to make all the music right here.
Annotated Lyrics Page
Check out the new Annotated Lyrics Page for Salt n pepper to see deeper into the lyrics and stories that inspired the song.
May 9, 2022
AY Young Collab!
I’m super excited to announce my first collaboration with the UN Youth Leader for the United States AY Young. He’s actually also a performer making music powered from solar energy and using his music to spread environmentalism.
Our means and methods are so similar I was so excited to learn about him and connect with him and now I’m super excited to be doing a project together! I’ll be sharing the finished song as soon as it drops!
Check out his music and what he’s doing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcU2gStRqmQ&t=11s&ab_channel=AYYoung
Clouds of Different Colors – Behind the Scenes
Here’s a little behind the scenes of shooting the studio performance footage for the Clouds of Different Colors music video.
This is really my first time working with another videographer to capture footage in a studio environment.
I had the idea of shooting in the hospital gown to express the huge costs to our health that sugar poses. We put Gatorade in the blood bag to symbolize our blood becoming sugary like Gatorade. Plus we couldn’t fill it with blood.
All in all I like doing videos in real life environments. It’s really easy for a video studio to feel cold or corny.
Get the Clouds of Different Colors song on your favorite streaming service.
New Videos
April 19, 2022
Y’all are the best for sharing the Clouds of Different Colors video and spreading the word.
The Palm Beach County Democratic Executive Committee finally published a resolution calling for Nikki Fried to put an end to the sugar burning which is poisoning the Glades communities.
Also! We proved that art can make a difference in environmental justice because the press release for the resolution being published cited the Clouds of Different Colors music video as the background context to the resolution being passed!
There is a LOT of work that has gone into the StopTheBurn campaign and my music video was just a small part of it. But I’m thankful to contribute my skills to this issue and see some change happening right after. Anyway, all eyes are on our state leadership!
New Artwork to celebrate the solar trailer!
In case you don’t already follow me on Instagram, my profile is like a running graphic novel of paintings like this one. My insta is @danemyers.
New Songs
April 5, 2022
I got hitched in Canada
Up Next-
- Added Guitar holders to the trailer
- I’ve got Merch with me now so you can click here to pick up schwag
- Improved safety by installing DC disconnect switches for the solar and batteries
The Green Gatsby is taking it off grid
March 15, 2022
This month I purchased a 26′ snowmobile trailer and am in the process of converting it into a mobile solar-powered studio that I can pull from town to town with my Tesla.
This takes “Living in my Tesla” to a whole new level! I’ll be able to show you a bunch more creative sustainable lifestyle content like:
- Charging my Tesla from solar from the trailer
- Composting human waste into soil for growing food
- Drinking and bathing in rainwater
- And much more
So think about a good name for the Green Gatsby’s new mansion because this is a big upgrade.
New Track!
Next up –
Clouds of Different Colors
I’m chomping at the bit to show you this next song and music video coming next month. It’s been over a year in the making and I think it can contribute to creating some change in Florida. Can’t wait to show it to you. But first, check out the artwork for this project created by master painter Reinier Gamboa.
Let me know what you think the project is about based on this artwork!
Here are three things I can say about this music video.
- I’ve never put more hours or dollars into a project
- It’s about a human rights crisis happening right now in Florida that I didn’t know about before I started this
- The beat slaps.
- Purchased 3 kW of solar panels, 2 kWh of batteries, and a hybrid solar charge controller/inverter for getting more power from solar.
- Reduced the hours at my job from 20 hrs/wk to 10 hrs/wk to put more time into my stuff.
- Curious about Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Beta? I made a video testing it out (it FAILED)
- Ghillie Suited Jimmy Carter
