Daniel Nieberg shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Daniel, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What are you most proud of building — that nobody sees?
The biggest thing I’ve built over these past few years has simply been my confidence. My musical output comes and goes and it’s true that my musical skills have been growing, albeit slowly, but my confidence has been the biggest hurdle I have needed to overcome. It’s easy to underestimate the power of finding your own voice and bypassing the fear to act on it. If I had told myself two years ago that I would be playing music live with people, writing and producing an entire album, and going to grad school to pursue a career as a film composer, I wouldn’t have believed it.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m a music composer, producer, songwriter, and storyteller. I like to deal with sentimental and emotionally evocative themes within my work, and ultimately I’m trying to capture a sense of awe and larger-than-life beauty in everything that I do. Classical and orchestral music was my first love as a kid, so my music is heavily influenced by it, but I also draw a lot of inspiration from artists like Sufjan Stevens, Big Thief, Elliott Smith, Radiohead, and Bon Iver. I also have an unhealthy obsession with the late-Romantic composer, Gustav Mahler.
My most recent project is my album, named “Jericho”, which actually just released on October 10th. It was a project two and a half years in the making, entirely written and composed by me. It’s a classically influenced folk album dealing with themes of heartbreak, obsession, grief, and self-acceptance. I’m really happy with how it turned out.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
I think a large part of how I approached music in the past was from a place of self-pity. I thought that the best art that I could create had to come from a place of sadness and pain, which I don’t necessarily believe anymore. While I do very much believe that alchemizing bad experiences into good ones is important, it is also important not to stay sad all the time. There has to be a balance in my own life or else I will be consumed by my own negative feelings.
Going forward in life, I would like to allow myself to let go more freely. Yes, I should feel sadness when it comes, but I want to allow myself to search for other feelings and experiences too.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
I touched on this in the last question, but the best thing I could possibly do with my pain is to alchemize it into something else. Thankfully, I make music, so I have a pretty clear means to do that.
My album “Jericho” is a great example of this. I was sitting with all of these unprocessed feelings of grief and shame, and I needed something to do with them or else they would have sat with me forever. The creation of this album allowed me to interact with these negative feelings and create a narrative in order to make sense of them. Not only has this healed me, but it is now a tangible thing in the universe that can be shared with others, providing an avenue of meaning to those who listen to it.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Is the public version of you the real you?
I would say that the public version of me is absolutely the real me. I actually have a real aversion to inauthenticity and the idea that I have to put on a performance for others. The thought of it literally makes me nauseous. That’s why I don’t have a huge presence online to begin with. For the little content that I do have online, I make sure that it actually reflects my own interests.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope that people talk about my music more than me as a person. I want to know that my music made them feel something. If it made them laugh, if it made them cry. I want my music to have truly moved someone.
As far as my personality goes, I think that I would like to keep that for myself and my friends. The world can have my music.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.danielniebergmusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielniebergmusic/
- Other: Listen to my new album here: https://unitedmasters.com/m/jericho-7
Image Credits
Aurora Love
Mia Harris
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
