I met Daniel McCoy almost nine years ago at a show that I played with my old band. He had seen us play previously at another show and came to see us at this show we played at this coffee house in Palm Desert. After we had played his friend and him approached me as I was putting my gear away and told me how much he liked our music. Surprisingly he and his friend Nick played that same show doing a three song set. It was just the two of them on their electric guitars and sharing the same mic. Daniel's raspy voice paired with Nick's nasally croon and the dueling yet minimal guitars really caught my attention. You don't see that kind of sincerity and humility in music very often. I'm drawn to this kind of open, heart pouring, kind of songwriting that he's done in the past. He's never released any of his music to the public and I think mostly because what he's done is so personal that for the kind of person that he is, you'd really need to be someone he feel comfortable giving it to.
I was fortunate enough to have played with him in a couple bands and I can tell you first hand how amazing a musician he is. Once, he gave me a copy of some of the music he had been recording around the time his girlfriend had moved to Japan. He'd been saving up to go visit her for a month. The CD simply read "21 Songs by Dan McCoy".
Upon listening to this CD, I saw what he'd been going through in his head and how much he missed her. This kind of songwriting is rare. It's so personal. To open one's self for the world to examine can be an excruciatingly difficult. Some are to afraid to do this so they only open up partially and only let the world see what they want them to see. They say it cryptically so as to make you work just to understand the story.
Dan wrote cryptically but in an obvious manner. The only other person I can compare him to is Daniel Johnston. There was one song on that CD that really brought tears to my eyes. It was so heartbreaking you'd have to be a heartless bastard to not get at least a little choked up hearing it. The opening lyrics went "Here I am standing/on bended knee/please, don't leave me here". Honestly, that was my favorite CD to listen to for a few months. Going back to it now, once again, I've yet to put it down and is on heavy rotation on my iPod.
Fast forward to recently. I haven't seen Dan in a while, mostly because we live on opposite sides of town. So, I get this message on myspace from this person called mammal regarding a show that the group Themselves was playing locally. He was asking when this would be and at the bottom he tells me that it's Dan McCoy. He also tells me to check out his new music. Now I've always know that Dan was into hip hop. But actually making hip hop was something that I never thought he would attempt. Yet I checked it out and it was amazing. I shouldn't have put it past him. He's always been so good with music that if he put his mind to it he definitely would excel in it. It's just a little baffling how he got to this point. Then again it's not so far fetched knowing how talented Daniel is, or should I call him mammal now.
Go check out his music at www.myspace.com/mammalmammal
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