We were lucky to catch up with Dan Drnach recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Dan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents were certainly not afraid to expose me to music and performance. The most vivid memories I have growing up are tied tightly to music. We were not allowed to have a TV in our room. They tried very hard to not have a TV on while we ate dinner and if there was a TV on it was playing a concert film. Even now I can’t cook or clean in silence. Cooking, especially baking is done to The Carpenters and cleaning is The B-52’s Cosmic Thing album. I’m pretty sure they would have wanted me to get a better education and until I started working full time as a performer to have a more solid “back up” plan but that didn’t stop them from understanding and supporting me. I don’t think it came as a surprise to anyone in my family that I play music and work on stage. Before I started getting very serious about songwriting, which has only been the last 5 years or so, I would still write and record music but the only people with copies of those songs are my parents. We go to concerts together and I always play their favorite songs when they want to hear them.

Dan , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a 42 year old kid from outside of Pittsburgh that had an understanding that music was just a little bit more important than most things. I didn’t start playing guitar until I was 14 but that didn’t stop me from strumming tennis rackets, brooms etc and singing into hairbrushes. When I got my first guitar I wasn’t really interested in learning songs, I wanted to write them. I’m not a mechanically minded person. I’m not interested in how things work but I’m very interested in our songs were written. Why those words, those notes, those chords? I didn’t have anything to say really until I was in my late 30’s with a wife and kids and had been around long enough to start making sense of what I wanted to relay in my music. All that time in between was spent working performance jobs in Central Florida. I moved out of my hometown when I was 19. I had only been playing guitar for 5 years and I now I was “a professional?’ Whatever that means. I learned a lot, more about life and love than music but that’s, at least what I believe, your early 20’s are for. I’m still fortunate to work in the performance industry here in Central Florida but after my kids were born and a got sober my life moved in a way that freed me up to start writing again. This time the songs were different, dare I say they were a little bit better. I started sharing them with people I worked with and they were incredibly encouraging and supportive. A very close group of dear friends and I managed to put a show together of my own songs. Now angry 16 year old Dan playing songs by The Who in his bedroom only ever wanted to walk on stage and play his songs just like Neil Young or Bob Dylan. 20 years later I finally did it and its worked out really well. I started running a songwriters showcase style show between 2018 and 2020. I recorded one of those shows and released it as a Live Album, I’ve played multiple local festivals and even won an award for best musical score for my rock opera Cross Country. To date I’m most proud of Cross Country. It was a simple idea for a story I had one day about what happens to us when our environment lets us down and how hard change can be. The songs tell the story of two people with the same problems and how they learn about themselves while driving across the country. Again with the overwhelming help of dear friends we added actors and other players and had several shows around the Orlando area. It’s some of my favorite songs to play. On the heels of that was an open love letter to my hometown of Monongahela Pa. A four volume set of 16 songs that somehow lead me back to my old shadows. I challenged my recording processes on that project. I even released a set of Christmas Songs I’m very proud of and I genuinely believe will become classics one day. In the middle of all of that my fellow writer friend Amanda had taken a great deal of songs from over many years and weaved them together to write a full 2 act musical called The Red String of which we showcased in the fall of 2022 to a Sold Out crowd. Insane! Beautiful and insane. even now Amanda and I have teamed up for a brand new rock opera which will be in front of audiences this spring.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

If you have a local favorite artists you have got to see them when they play. You have to be the first to get in line to by Merch, CDs or take a picture. If you love a songwriter from out of state take your friends to see them when they’re in town. Share posts on socials. USE THEIR SONGS IN YOUR SOCIALS POSTS!!! The new world of independent music has actually made it so much easier for people to get involved so get out and support art and artists.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

If I never played a song on stage again that would rough but, if I never wrote another song I feel like I would explode. The process of creating a song is the most joyful aspect of being a content creator for me. That first chord or that first lyric that fits is the sweetest release. To see the empty spaces start to fill with sounds and slaps and words and stories is like heaven on earth. Even when everything is a struggle to be able to soldier through the muck to find that idea that causes every bit to line up is unexplainably awesome. And then if even one person hears it and thinks it’s half as cool as I do then it’s time to write the next one. Every single time I pick up them guitar is a chance to create something and it’s that uncharted exploration that keeps me coming back.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://open.spotify.com/artist/39oqlo2Zvt9FcMymzGXk2i?si=dnQLp5olQXexS_MvVswKpg
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dandrnach/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dandrnachmusic

Image Credits
Bee Photography Tom Cook Amanda Scheirer