We were lucky to catch up with Daniel Hoyt Kenneth Coton “DHKC” recently and have shared our conversation below.
Daniel Hoyt, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Recently, I dropped my newest full-length solo project, “EMOTEP”. The title’s a play on the Egyptian historical figure “Imhotep” (who was heavily dramatized as a supernatural villain in the first two Brendan Fraser “Mummy” movies).
This one was very meaningful to me, for several reasons: it had a lot of my friends on it, which was a first for me, because my projects are usually largely solo affairs; it was my first new solo project since starting to work with Apollo Naps, my producer/engineer (I say “new” because last year’s more experimental project, “Science Friction”, was written and completed long before Apollo mixed and mastered it last year); and in a lot of ways, it was my first full-length project with this many eyes on me. It felt a lot like a “proving” album, like “Ok, you’re here, what have you got?”
I believe I really came through on this one; there’s a lot here for my existing fans/followers, and a lot more for those who discover it in the future.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name’s Daniel Hoyt Kenneth Coton, or just the DHKC for short. I’m a rapper, singer, and musician. I make beats, and I’m confident enough to strictly self-produce, but I’m not a snob about it, and I like other people’s sounds, so by all means send me beats!
I play guitar, bass, keyboard, and glockenspiel but I really want a marimba cos it has a softer chime to it. I like making beats just off chords and arrangements, but like the other-people’s-beats thing, I’m not a snob about samples. Anything melodic and ancient-sounding: blow the dust off of it and throw it in the blender.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I have a love-hate relationship with Social Media. On one hand, it’s given us this ability to really connect on a mass-scale. But on the other hand, we’ve implemented all of these social moors to stop us from doing just that. You can’t overshare, you can’t discuss anything more in-depth, you can’t really ever say you’re having a bad day. EsPECially if you’re an artist. You have to perpetuate the illusion at all times. And I hate the everlasting crap out of it. So I like to connect with my base differently. I use Instagram Story more than I actually post; essentially I’ve been accused of using it like a Snapchat lol.
I share my artist friends’ work (usually before listening to it – support comes before opinion), I also share my followers’ comments using Reel format, tell jokes, some personal stories, and then I’ll share something of mine along the way.
You make as many friends as you do actual fans. Even if they don’t personally like my music, they probably like my personality by that point anyway, and just as many people will support your work because they like YOU as they will because they like your art. In my experience.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Telling my story has always been a difficulty for me in my personal life. Being given a platform to actually express the way the journey’s affected me is such an important thing to me, and I’ve really benefitted lately from having a great support system in LA. I’ve made a lot of amazing friends and met a lot of really great artists in the last couple of years.
It took a long time for me to actually get to a point where I could release music, so I’m overjoyed to have such support as I could’ve very easily fallen flat on my face going out on a limb to become a performing artist this late in life.
I’m blessed, grateful, and extremely lucky to have people around me that recognize the worth in what I do enough to encourage me to continue. The Steppers, Not Evil, everyone I met at Room that I still talk to: If you read this, I love you guys!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_dhkc/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_dhkc
Image Credits
Devonte Johnson Evan Anaya