We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Danielle (Dano) Hickson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Danielle (Dano) below.
Alright, Dano thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
In August 2019, while relaxing at the Asbury beach, I had a blaring wakeup call. I had just gotten married, moved into a charming condo, and received a promotion. I was… miserable. How could I be so unhappy when I had so much to be grateful for? Suddenly, after repressing it for a decade, it became crystal clear. I was a songwriter who didn’t write.
I used to love songwriting. I had passionate dreams of writing for Broadway or Disney, or becoming a nationally touring artist. But when it came time to decide my career path, I was told to pick something realistic. Deep down I knew I had what it takes, but I made the biggest mistake of my life. I gave up music, went back to college, and landed a stable 9-5.
Perhaps a decade of living a life that never felt authentic finally made me realize a simple fact. If I’m too scared to live, then my life is already over.
Terrified but determined, I decided to change the trajectory of my life. I immersed myself in songwriting books and courses, practiced writing, singing, piano, guitar, music theory, started analyzing and breaking down every song I could listen to and reconstructing it.
By October 2021, I quit my comfy and safe 9-5 to launch my freelance songwriting business. Three months later I received my first musical theater commission to write the music and lyrics for an original rendition of “A Christmas Carol.” I cried tears of joy. I finally found that indefinable feeling I knew was somewhere within me on the Asbury beach.
Dano, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I gave up on music.
My love for it started when I was 10 years old, I would sit on my Windows 97 computer plunking out song lyrics for the “band” that my neighbor, sister and I made after watching too much S Club 7. I learned violin, piano, and classical voice and performed in as many community theater productions that my parents could drive me to. By my junior year of high school, I had fully morphed into a scene kid and was thrilled to be in rock bands with my friends. We wrote, recorded, and released our own music, and even went on a national tour in 2009. We were going to “make it,”
But, we didn’t. I just dropped out of college and the band was the only thing going for me. When we broke up shortly after our tour, I attempted to make my way with some other bands, but they weren’t the same. I realized that I had been leaning heavily on my very talented band members, and without them, I couldn’t be a musician. So I quit. Went back to college, and landed a well paying 9-5 in a field that felt very random to me.
After a decade of repressing my inner songwriter, I finally let her come out and play. All music and songwriting aside, this process of looking within, facing my fears head on, and rehabbing my inner artist has been life changing. Using songwriting as the tool, I was able to completely re craft my life into one that brings me personal joy and fulfillment. Words can not express how grateful I am for this experience.
Fast forward, I quit my safe 9-5 job and launched my freelance songwriting business where I primarily write for musical theater, but also write custom songs, toplines and session vocals. I teach songwriting at Lakehouse Music Academy where I am so grateful to help other artists just like me work through their writer’s blocks and get the songwriting tools they need to make music they’re proud of. And of course, I gig too!
This path is much more difficult, risky, and unstable than the one I was on. But I would do it a million times over again.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
More important than any personal songwriting or career goal, my greatest joy comes from helping or inspiring others to connect with their true selves. Songwriting is a beautiful tool to do this, since it requires self reflection, humility, patience, and acceptance. My students jokingly call me their music therapist or psychologist. Sometimes they don’t realize that the “thing” that’s preventing them from meeting at their songwriting potential is actually a mental block, that usually is blocking other things in their lives outside of music.
Every song I write is with the intention of connecting to another human being. That is the most important goal of sharing my music. When someone tells me my song made them cry, I feel like I accomplished my mission as an artist.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
When I was in my 9-5, I woke up every day with a feeling of dread. I didn’t want to get out of bed. I didn’t want to go to work. I didn’t want to sit in meaningless zoom meetings where people argue about things that don’t matter.
Now I wake up every day excited to live life. Excited for my morning cup of coffee, to write in my morning pages, to write a musical theater song that brings a character to life, to lay down a demo, to practice guitar, to write songs with my students or just talk and help them discover parts of themselves they’ve been burying. I will never take this life for granted. I feel rewarded and blessed every day to live a life that brings my joy and fulfillment, even when times are hard. I get to be and express myself every day. There is nothing more I could ask for.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.danomakesmusic.com/
- Instagram: @danomakesmusic
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellehickson/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DanoMakesMusic