dan & drum

Dan & Drum is the bandworld created by LA songwriter and artist, Dan Checkers. Dan is the emotional yin to Drum's cerebral yang, and they produce a music that is similarly full of contradictions. Since releasing their debut album Growl Pop in 2017, they have earned 10s of millions of streams across platforms and have gone on several national tours. Heavy Mental, the official follow-up to Growl Pop, is set to be released in 2022.

what’s wrong with me

See rollout plan here

See full social + music audit here

nick, from online

New wave hippy and overall good guy, nick from online gives you a sound for your late-night drive or mid-afternoon daydream. With intimate vocals, introspective lyrics, and lazy rhythms, nick from online touches on themes of nostalgia, impermanence, and fleeting love. His most recent release, Sweetest, is the first of two singles leading up to an album coming next Spring and expanding on these same thoughts. Fueled by black and white movies, vinyl records, and his old Lexus, nick from online has been playing shows throughout North Carolina, trying to share his music.

imagination

With our leftover budget, nick and I decided to partner with a apparel company to create cheap sweatshirts to hand out to students around campus. The sweatshirts themselves are solid blue with “Draper” written across the front in small font. We knew that people wouldn’t immediately understand, and ultimately would have to ask what the sweatshirts meant when seeing their friends and other students wear them around campus. We wanted to create a sense of mystery with the clothing to tie in with the curious and enigmatic nature of the track. The text is also a testament to nick’s favorite show, Mad Men, extending an invitation to listeners into his personal life. We also conducted a shoot to promote the concept, contest, and new song all together over social media while simultaneously performing the new track and handing out the merch in the most populated area of the campus.

In return for reposting the album art for “imagination” a follower would receive a sweatshirt. I utilized Instagram promotion tools to extend the audience to the entire Durham area - avoiding the limitation of Duke students and nick’s friends. This allowed for a variety of differing social groups in the area to be exposed to his music. Wearing the sweatshirt itself also served as free marketing. The song has over 150 likes and 7000 plays on Soundcloud.

sweetest

nick was formerly known as simply “Nick Berray,” his real name. In order to further match his alluring music and unique personality, we decided that we needed a name to match - nick, from online. We took inspiration from a eccentric Vine personality that nick felt most captured his sense of humor and creativity. However, we needed to rebrand entirely. What better way to complete this with a massive shoot on film and a new song.

We decided to set the scene in a field that was warm and light - matching the beat and lyrical style of sweetest. The old Lexus, not only being a massive part of nick’s identity, was also crucial to include because we wanted to promote an uplifting “driving with the windows down” kind of feeling through the instrumental. We used a film camera to capture the nostalgia of nick’s musical style as well.

nick will be coming out with new music soon - make sure to stay posted with the links below.

a how to guide on soundcloud

Over the past decade, a variety of different creative outlets for creating and producing music through the means of social media have been constructed. A particular site, Soundcloud, has been especially important in this recent surge of interest in the realm of Electronic Dance Music (EDM). Soundcloud has ultimately lead to the ability for anyone around the world to share their music without the rigid requirements and licenses necessary for other applications like Apple Music and Spotify. However, with this universal ability for all to have their own chance at finding success in the music industry, it has become increasingly more difficult to get yourself out there. There are 12 hours of music uploaded every minute. With such immense competition one crucial question arises: How can you engage users of the application utilizing the Soundcloud interface and find the ability to create the next most popular electronic dance song.