May 6, 2024 • 39 mins
Celebrating their viral smash "I Just Need" going #1 on the dance chart, Daniel Allan & Lyrah joined us on America's Dance 30 for the first time to talk all about the crazy story behind the song. They shared how the song was born, how long ago they started working on it, how many Vs there were of it before its release, and at what point they realized it was going viral!
Daniel also talked about his family's immigration to the United States with barely any money, and Lyrah shared about the origin of her artist name.
We also got to know Daniel & Lyrah better w #FinkysFirsts!
Find out about:
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
Daniel also talked about his family's immigration to the United States with barely any money, and Lyrah shared about the origin of her artist name.
We also got to know Daniel & Lyrah better w #FinkysFirsts!
Find out about:
- the first thing they wanted to get into growing up
- the first song Lyrah wrote
- the first song Daniel produced
- the first time Daniel DJ'd an event
- the first time Lyrah performed on stage
- the first dance song that made them fall in love w EDM
- the first thing they "just need"
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Lyra. Before we even start,I just want to say how thankful I
am that I DMed you to makesure I was pronouncing your name right.
Thank you, and I appreciate that. Just go with whatever. I've had
so many bad experiences with mispronouncing namesand hearing people mispronouncing names, and I'm
like, I'd better reach out,And especially with the way you spell it,
(00:20):
I totally would have been saying,Lira, no, we know Daniel,
just to make sure, is itDaniel Allen? Yes, backdoor secrets
to mine? All right, perfectdance counting down the biggest dance songs in
(00:49):
the country. This is America's Dancethirty. Daniel Allen, Lyra, Welcome
to America's Dance thirty for the firsttime. Thank you for having us.
It is awesome finally meeting you.And congratulations on I just need going number
one, your first number one.I can't even believe that's a real sentence.
(01:12):
That's insane, that right there islike that. Okay, we gotta
process this. It's so incredible andthe story behind it is crazy too.
I can't wait to talk about howthe song was born with you guys.
But first, as always, let'sget to know you guys a little better
with Finkey's first Okay is my soundokay, yeah, okay, they just
(01:37):
started mowing the lawn outside. Ofcourse, I'm gonna need you to go
outside and ask them to stop,please. I always love finding out the
origin story of artists, Daniel.I was reading a blog about you where
I was talking about how your parentscame to this country with only three hundred
(02:00):
dollars to their name. Uh.Yeah, my parents were immigrants from Ukraine
and definitely had very very humble beginningsat first. Like when you move countries,
whatever like education or things that youhad going for you in the previous
country kind of go out the window. It doesn't really matter. Like a
lot of my friends growing up werelike Russian, you know, Ukrainian Jewish
(02:20):
kids that were like very much.Their parents might have been doctors, their
parents might have been something else.They come over here and they end up
being janitors. And it was apretty similar situation with my parents too.
So yeah, definitely very humble beginningsfor them. It's always incredible hearing stories
like that because and I guess it'sjust the times that we grew up in.
I couldn't even imagine a being abrand new country b with only three
(02:42):
hundred dollars to your name, Imean, how do you even live?
Yeah? I mean they definitely taughtme how to be frugal, I'll tell
you that much. They definitely dida lot of figuring out. But it's
really funny, like when it comesto like a lot of the thought process
of us being independent and like workingon the song, A lot of that
kind of came through both in mycareer and I think in Kathleen's a lot.
So yeah, that's uh yeah,I look up to them a lot.
(03:05):
I gotta be honest. So Icame here from Canada, which obviously
isn't that drastic of a move likethat was, But I almost wished that
we had grown up like that soI would have known how to be frugal.
Anyways, that inside when you weregrowing up, was music the first
thing you wanted to get into orwas there something else you wanted to be
when you grew up? You know, I actually didn't even like music that
(03:28):
much because my it was in myit was in my household a lot,
right, so, or at leastI didn't like my early relationship with it.
So my both my parents did musicgrowing up, my mom kind of
had I guess you would call itlike an equivalent to like a PhD in
musicology. And my dad grew upplaying a lot of bands, and like
apparently there's like a movie that Ihaven't seen where like guy, like some
dude like took Beatles songs and thenlike played them like in the Soviet Union
(03:51):
or whatever. I don't know ifthat movie is based on my dad,
but that's he literally did that.Like he like he played a bunch of
like Beatles songs at high school,at like his high school, like answers
and one on. That's how hemet my mom, and like how we
like swooned my mom was like playingBeatles song. So, like my earliest
memory was my dad giving me likeSergeant Pepper on a CD player when I
was a little kid, and allof that was great, But at the
(04:11):
same time, being a Russian kid, you get thrown into, like,
you know, the classical route ofdoing music, which for me was piano,
and I always had like a prettyinteresting relationship with it because I loved
the consumption of music that went onin my house, which was you know,
Beatles, like classic rock, alot of hip hop, as well,
which was like influenced by my brotherwho's like fifteen years older than me.
(04:32):
But when I started playing piano,it felt really like, I guess
weird to me that all I wasdoing was like playing other people's songs,
and like I was I never reallylearned how to read music. And my
mom, who's obviously I always jokethat I'm like the worst musician in my
family. That like it's like Ithink that I'm the one that's doing it
professionally. But my the way thatI would always do it was I would
(04:53):
just go to my piano lessons,not know how to read, just kind
of sit through them, and thenthe day before like recitals, I would
just ask my mom to like sightread the thing, and then I would
show up the next day like playand not even look up, like just
be looking at my hands the wholetime. I would have no idea when
to turn the page because I obviouslywas not reading the music. Yeah,
and I would like add bridges andadd sections, which in my classic music
(05:15):
I can't do. It's like asin. It's like the worst thing you
can do, like not not likestit up, you know. It was
just like such a proper thing,and so I in a weird way when
I was doing this Panelistince, thisis like when I'm seven years old to
like twelve years old, I felta little bit burnt out from it.
And I started doing sports. Iplayed tennis and I ended up playing in
college and it was like kind ofthis other part of my life that that
(05:39):
was going on and as an outletfor tennis growing up kind of as an
athlete, like you know, travelingand like playing tournaments and whatnot, but
not with like the resources that otherkids had, right Like me and my
dad were like sleeping in like Walmartparking lots and like doing that whole thing.
And like, but I did thatso much that I felt a little
bit burnt out from the sport.And then I came back to music as
(05:59):
my outlet and it was a reallyinteresting kind of I guess like circle of
life, you know, that isunbelievable. Well, thank god that all
happened, so we got you backinto music. How it worked out?
Now, Lyra, I heard earlyon you know, your story with you
quitting your day job to concentrate onmusic completely, which had to be terrifying.
(06:20):
It was, but I sat onthe decision for so long that by
the point that I did it,I was like, I just have to
fully jump into this and do it. God, I couldn't even imagine now
when you were growing up, wasbeing a singer a songwriter the first thing
you wanted to get into or wasthere something else? Yeah, I mean
like in the studio that I'm in, let's see this, peer is my
childhood piano. So that was thefirst instrument that I played, so kind
(06:43):
of similar there. And I hatedclassical lessons, yeah, and I always
wanted to just play like the popsongs that had to practice my classical music.
So it started a piano. Andthen I'm from a small town in
Pennsylvania, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, andso it was a lot of singing at
church, and I was like,whatever you could sing at church, weddings,
funerals, nursing homes, skate parks, let's skate parks, motorcycle rallies.
(07:13):
But hey, it got you towhere you are now, so that's
all it really matters. Something that'smore like church singing and then just making
up songs at my piano. Now, speaking of making up songs at your
piano, do you remember the firstsong you ever wrote, Oh my gosh,
no, because it just started aslittle idea. So it's never like
(07:33):
I have this amazing composition. Itwas just like, you know, you're
just like playing around, and Ifeel like a lot of times it would
come out of playing the pieces thatyou're supposed to and then you screw up,
but then you hear this new pieceout of it, and then you
just like play around with that.But yeah, I didn't really think of
myself as like a singer songwriter.I was just bored and would play piano.
(07:56):
Your guys' stories are unbelievable. Howyou landed into the Indus. That's
so crazy. Now, Daniel notonly producing music for your artist project,
but you've also done some ghost producingand producing for other artists. Do you
remember the first song you ever produced. I remember the first like electronic song
that I ever produced for sure,and it was I still know where it
(08:20):
is. I actually do have accessto it. It's on a Google drive
on my like very first like emailaddress, and it is. Uh.
I thought it was the coolest thingever when I made it, like it
was, I was like, maybeI want to say that I was like
fourteen, like when I had justI had just like downloaded fl studio and
(08:43):
like started like messing with it becausebefore that, I was like recording a
bunch of local rappers where I were, like in Louisville where I'm from,
and uh, I wasn't making thebeats for them. But I remember even
before, like the predecessor to thefirst beat was the first recording, and
it was rough. It was definitelyrough, but I remember it. I
definitely remember it. Could I guessyour first email address? Was it at
(09:05):
AOL dot com? It wasn't atAOL dot com. It actually was at
a dot com that kind of likedates me, but it wasn't a I've
still got my AOL account too.Wow, Daniel, do you remember the
first time you ever performed at anevent DJing? I definitely remember. I
don't know if it was my first, but I remember my first like fun
(09:28):
one. I remember, like Imean, it wasn't even like a it
wasn't even like a big deal,but it was like when I was a
freshman in college. I oh,actually, as I'm talking, I do
remember it. I was a Iwas a freshman in high school and Maddion
had just dropped his pop culture likemash up on YouTube. And there was
this girl that I was like tryingto impress in my freshman year AP human
(09:50):
geography class. And so I boughta Ovation launch pad, which is the
same exact thing that Maddyon used forthe pop culture thing, and and it
came with a free trial of Ableton, and I had no idea how to
use it, and so I justmemorized his like finger patterns and didn't and
just didn't actually like load in thesamples because I didn't know how to use
(10:13):
Ableton. And I threw a raveat my house and I and I literally
just ripped the audio from YouTube andI just sink it up. So you
were like lip syncing to Maddie A. Hunts. Totally did it impress her?
(10:39):
Side? Note we've got her offon the side here, let me
bring her in now, Lyra.You were talking about performing all over the
place. Do you remember the firsttime you perform? Yeah? I think
(11:01):
I was thirteen. So I startedtaking vocal lessons in the town that I
was in, and it was moreopera singing. It was like our vocal
recital. Wow, so a lotless fun than this stuff. And definitely,
I mean if you're starting with opera. That's so crazy. Yeah.
Also, I had to like resing or reteach myself how to sing because
(11:22):
I got stuck in it where Ifelt like the only way to sing was
this operatic voice, which like livesmore and your head voice rather than like
this chest or mixed voice. Soyeah, I would like try to sing
what was on the radio and ithad an opera, had to tone to
it, and then I was justlike having an identity crisis with my voice
(11:45):
and had to react to that.I didn't know that about you. I
actually, Wow, we're getting toknow each other on interviews. Hey,
you're welcome. That's crazy. Ido wonder if the voice that I have
is my like real voice or ifit's this like selected voice because I had
to reteach myself how to sing.That's a crazy thought, Like I don't
(12:05):
know how how would you know?Wow, now we're getting existential here.
Wow now, Lyra, do youremember the first song that made you fall
in love with dance music? Oh? Man, yeah, dead Mouse.
I remember when I heard that,I was like, these are the type
of vocals that I want to make, Like I wanted to feel like this.
(12:26):
It is such a beautiful song andso not opera. Did you know
that it was that Mouse? Forme too, it was it was Ghosts
and Stuff. It was in whenI was in sixth grade. Lady Gaga
had just started dropping the album thatJust Dance was on, so she was
dropping Just Dance, Bad Romance,and I was super into the production behind
it, and for the first time, my brother was living in Chicago and
(12:48):
Dead Mouse I think one of hisfirst stops in the US on tour was
Chicago, and that was one ofthe hubs of obviously like house music in
like the nineties and early two thousands, but it's also where that song started
having one of the first I guesslike it wasn't called a viral moment back
then, right like that's when itreally started like coming up in like the
Chicago scene. And my brother,who's fifteen years older than me, was
(13:09):
like a DJ and a lot ofpeople were playing Ghosts and Stuff, and
he sent it to me and Iwas like right at the same time of
like being interested in the production behindLady Gaga records, there was like an
artist facing person that was like justthe you know, quote unquote just the
producer of the song and I didn'tknow that, like Dead Mouse was your
first was my first, onest,And what's crazy is I think it might
(13:31):
have been in the same blog thatI was reading about you, where it
talked about you going to an aboveand beyond show or seeing above and beyond,
and that kind of turned you towardsDM. So it wasn't above and
beyond that made you fall in lovewith it. So Above and Beyond is
when I really decided that I wantedto pursue making electronic music. I became
a fan of electronic music just likea consumer Dead Mouse in sixth grade,
(13:52):
and then after recording a bunch ofrappers and started starting to produce beats for
them in like my early days ofhigh school. I went to all it
was a saw Above and Beyond,and I was like, wait, I
just download I just downloaded fruity Loops. I'm learning how to make hip hop
beats. I want to make electronicstuff now. But that was like that
was like the inflection point of likeI want to be djaying, I want
to be making this kind of musiceven now, like I feel influenced by
(14:15):
them the way vocals still in theirmusic. I mean, you know,
I did to push the button thingyou know how yeah, yeah yeah,
and lights all lights all night,Dallas eighteen. I showed up with a
I showed up with my friend Andrew. Andrew we drove twelve hours from Louisville
to Dallas. I was like anabove me on super Fan, Like I
was like gonna Endjuna Beats like superFan. I had like an artist project
before Daniel Allen that like they wouldspend some of that stuff on their Group
(14:39):
of Therapy radio show. And Iliterally pulled up with a neon pink sign
that I still have in my childhoodhome that's like, can I push the
button? And they like picked meup. It was awesome. Now you
didn't vomit when you got on stage? Right? I came close because there
is a story that lives. Ithink it was a girl that was on
stage to push the button and shevomited because she was so nervous and I'm
(15:01):
sure other stuff going on, butyeah, she vomited for sure. How
embarrassing is that? Oh my god? Now, finally, in honor of
I just need going number one,finish this sentence. The first thing I
just need is Daniel cookies. Ohwhat kind dude? I'm a very simple
(15:24):
chocolate chip man. I was hopingyou were gonna say oatmeal raisin because I
love oatmeal raisin and it gets sucha bad rap and I don't know why.
I don't know. It's just nottop of mine, you know.
I mean, I think they're good. I think they're good. I got
I got nothing against omeal raisin cookiewell three CODs. I would have had
to drop you out of this chat, Lyra, how about you? This
(15:45):
is funny, I would say.I just knew I'm right now one I
need today though. Now let's talkabout this viral smash. Now. Were
you guys completely independent when this songfirst dropped? Still? Are we still
are? Yeah? That is unbelievable. So how was this song born between
(16:07):
you two? I mean, Ican I could take a stab at this,
Katherine if you If I mess up, just let me know. So
me and Kathleen had kind of knowneach other on like the internet. We
were like in similar like pockets onTwitter and whatnot, and she came over
to do a session. We actuallymade this song in our first session that
(16:27):
we ever had, I'm pretty sureto think about. Yeah, it was
in my it was in the bedroomof my old house. We had messed
around with an idea for a lotof the day, and then Kathleen had
a dinner date that she had togo to, and I think she said
something along the lines of, like, I wonder how many good songs don't
(16:51):
happen because of dinner dates? Else'squote I think like John Mayris said that,
like how many are ruined in thissession by dinner reservations? Yeah,
yeah, this is this is verybad for like work life balance. But
yeah she uh, I was like, okay, like let's let's just do
one more thing. And she previouslyhad the I just need a cappella,
(17:15):
which she had done for different artists, and that artist ended up not like
wanting to use it, and soshe had like a new vocal and she
air dropped it to me, andthe main like ies me, Like the
main kind of like part of thatsong was the very first thing that I
did enabled him. Like it waslike within like I've always heard that like
the best songs, like up untilthat point, I've always heard that like
the best songs kind of happened,you know, in twenty minutes or in
(17:37):
thirty minutes when you're not really eventrying to make a song, and that
was very much the case with thisone. It was like, look,
she's like, you know, Cathol'sin a hurry to go somewhere, like
we had already been working all day, and yeah, like she that that
was the very very first thing thathappened. And then I ended up sitting
on the song for about six sevenmonths because I wasn't I didn't think it
was that good, like to me, totally honest, like I just make
(18:00):
so much. I just make somuch music that I was just like,
okay, like this is a ademo folder. When I started working on
Duality, which is the project thatI just need was on, I send
a bunch of like massive, massivedemo folders to my friends and friends who
I really trust, like their musicalears, and all of them are like
do this. I just need recordslike the best one, like you need
(18:21):
to like stop, you know,you just just put this song, like
do something with this song. Andthen like kath was always an advocate of
it, like she was always likeshe was always like no, like there's
something special in the song like that. It's like you know, like she
always heard it, and you know, at a certain point in my roommate
was like, dude, just likedo something with this, and then she
came over. She came over,and then we did like one follow up
touchout session we had because there wasnot a second verse written to the song,
(18:45):
I don't think. And Kathleen cameover and she was like, there
was another situation where she was alittle that day and because we didn't know
it would become this, so Iwas like, let's just get the vocals
in now while we can't because Iwas about to travel. So it was
like it like it was another thingwhere you had to go somewhere. I
think it was to be in likeItaly or something for like, And I
(19:07):
was like, no, no,let's just do this real quick. And
then you were just like do Isound bad? Like I don't know,
like my im like terrible. Youcan actually hear it a little bit in
the second verse that I'm a tinybit sick, but I also think it's
like a little more emotion in it. Oh, so you didn't redo the
vocals after it, you just leftwhat you cut. Then, Yeah,
(19:30):
a couple of things. I mean, there's a lot to unpack with that,
but I remember, I remember Iremember chatting with bb Rex about how
and when I'm Good Blue went numberone and became such a massive smash.
We were chatting about how annoying itis that these songs that get put together
so quickly are the ones that blowup, and the things that you put
(19:52):
so much work into are the onesthat are kind of stale. It's like,
come on, what the heck?So how long ago did you guys
start working on it? December oftwenty twenty two was like, that was
(20:12):
the fifteen minute session. That waslike the fifteen minute session where we really
decided to work on it, andthen we that next summer June of twenty
twenty three, I had I playedElectric Forest. It was like the first
US festival that I did. Andaround that time I had my first kind
(20:33):
of video start to do well,like my big thing. Like going into
twenty twenty three was like I reallywant to try to be consistent with posting
on the internet because I had neverreally like given it a shot before.
And this I did a mashup ofLaRue LaRue's Bulletproof with like some other instrumental
such I write such a classic,such a classic. I started to see
(20:53):
just like a little for the firsttime of like six months of posting,
I I saw a little bubble oflike something working with that, and I
was like, let me just kindof take that and try to apply it
towards I Just Need. And soI started promoting the hell out of I
Just Need, and I started noticingthat the videos were like just getting a
little bit more traction, Like therewasn't there really wasn't up until there was.
(21:15):
Right, there was like a fourmonth, five month window of just
like little by little progress, Likein November there was a really viral video
of it, but starting from Iwas really promoting that song from July to
November, before the first viral videoand then after I had a couple viral
videos. Kathleen had a bunch ofother viral videos too, So like the
kind of the where we might nothave worked on it so long in the
(21:37):
studio, we definitely worked on itway more like after it was done and
after, because I mean we did, like I don't know what the updated
number is CAT, but I meanit's like a couple hundred videos that we
posted of the song, and likeI'm pretty sure like the one that went
viral for me was like I meanit was like probably after the hundredth for
sure. So yeah, it waslike, yeah, I think it was
a ninety first or something because Iended up archiving like a bunch of them
(22:00):
too and whatnot. So like it'sdefinitely been a process and like like you
said, like we're we're independent artists, you know, and so like for
us, there was there wasn't reallyany like backing behind the record. It
was just look, our friends thinkit's an undeniable record, and like my
friends specifically will tell me if somethingsucks, and it was honestly, like
I was wrong about the song,and like a lot of the times,
(22:22):
like there's like the artistic tendency tobe like no, like I'm right,
like I know, like what thewhat the song on the project's gonna be
with YadA YadA. But like withthis record specifically, like I just listened
to the people, you know,and I at the time and probably still
now don't have like that big ofa fan base. But I just remember,
out of the few amount of fansthat I that I did have,
like they were the one. Itreally was connecting with them, you know,
(22:42):
And that was really the first timethat I had experienced that I don't
want to speak for you, Kath, but it was definitely like overwhelming,
Please do something with this. Soyeah, it's yeah, it's been a
process. Well listen, it's awesomethat you're able to admit that, because
even as a programmer, you know, we get fed so many songs that
we don't hear everything at first,and you know, there's times when we
(23:04):
do miss songs that we hear itagain, like on an artist show or
something like, holy crap, whatis that song? That's a great song?
And it was sent to me likesix months ago. It's like,
are you kidding me? Come onnow, Lyra, how long ago did
you actually write it? Well?Yeah, one thing I wanted to mention
with that, So I had madethat song a few days before our session.
(23:26):
I think this was actually really keypart of the session that I'm now
trying to recreate. We didn't yetknow that that other artist had passed on
it when we made the song race. Yeah, we had our session like
we had worked mainly on a completelydifferent song for the majority of the session.
Then at the very end, Yeah, Daniel was like, all right,
let's try out one more idea,and I had that a cappella I
(23:49):
had already sent it to this otherartist because he was working on his next
album, and so I just thought, like, you know, made the
song for him. I like thesong. I thought he was going to
use it, and so I thinkI told you, Daniel, we can't
use this, but we could justlike play around with it. Yeah.
Wow, I went in one earand out of the other. For sure.
(24:15):
Whenever someone sends me a vocal,I'm like, I'm gonna try to
make the best song possible. Ididn't even I didn't. I do think
that kind of helped though, thisidea that like we didn't even know if
we could do anything with a vocal, so it was just like more experimentation
with it. And now I'm tryingto bring that into future sessions where I'm
like, Okay, let me makesomething that I can't do anything with.
But see, you're thinking about ittoo much, that's the problem. So
(24:41):
it made that just a few daysbefore the session. And then with verse
two, yeah, I was likewalking around those feelers just on my phone,
typing up ideas for verse two,and then went to Daniels and recorded
it. It's so unbelievable. Now, have you spoken to the other artists
since no, And the other thingis like, at this point, I
(25:03):
was also a much smaller artist.I don't even know if I was on
his radar. The email it wentto his management, so there's always a
chance of like maybe he never heardthe record, But yeah, I do
wonder sometimes I'm like, I wonderif he knows the song. Oh my
god, that would hurt so much. When did you guys start realizing that,
(25:26):
oh my god, this is catchingon and going viral. I have
a side of this story for sure. I was so in the weeds on
the data like I was like,and Kathleen is too, because like in
her previous job, like she's justlike very like the song title is like
specifically I just need with Lyra becausein the electronic world there's just like a
(25:47):
lot of like features and whatnot.And I wanted it to be very abundantly
clear that we like collaborated on therecord in terms of like both of us
like doing all this content, doingall these things for it, but like
we're both like very in the weedson the data side. When the song
came out, it was literally alike upload to distro kid release, Like
there was nothing like there wasn't evenwe didn't even use like any kind of
like elevated distribution, Like it wasliterally just uploaded to distro Kid put it
(26:11):
out, and like I said,it had a few tiny moments like on
my TikTok like where it got likeeight thousand plays because I was like in
TikTok jail where I was getting likeone hundred plays on everything, and like
it there was like a few videos. We're got like eight thousand plays,
and I remember seeing that some randomperson. It was like the first user
generated content was like a girl thatwas like, oh, like I think
(26:33):
it was the same day that Atmosphereby Fisher came out, and she was
like songs I've been looking forward toand it was like Fisher, Atmosphere,
Daniel and Lira, I just needit. And I was like, I
was like, oh, we didn'teven like like I didn't even like this
is like a fan, Like Idon't know, like I don't know what
a fan is, but I thinkthis might be a fan. Like I'm
like and I was in London andI was, you know, me and
Calf every day we're checking like thedaily streams, being like super like erotic
(26:56):
about it. And like it waswhen it came out, it was getting
like three or four thousand streams aday, which we were both stoked on.
Like again it's like we were reallylike small artists and like it was
a district kid song. I'm like, wow, like this is a this
is getting three or four thousand streamsa day, this is like amazing.
I was in London and this guyGeezoom made a video to the song and
(27:18):
that doubled the streams in a day, so it was get it went from
It went from like four to eightthousand, and because his video went viral,
and then the next day Hato madea video and that took it from
like eight to sixteen k These numbersare gonna be printed in my brain forever,
like he Hato took it from eightto sixteen a day, and then
like me and Kathleen started being likeyo, like what is what is going
on here? And then I playeda show the day of the song hit
(27:40):
a million streams, which is afew months after that, I played a
show with the Chainsmokers at the ShorelineAmphitheater, and I brought Kathleen out for
the song and a few people knewthe song wow. And that that was
like and again, like it's likeit was like a twenty two thousand person
amphitheater. It obviously it was notfull when I was playing. I was
like second of five, but likethere were people that knew like some of
(28:02):
the words like the verse and whatnot, Like just like stuff like that where
it was like like we kind oflooked at each other, We're like,
dude, like actually you know,and and all of all of the stuff
that's happened since then has just likebeen exponential and been like unbelievable. But
that was to me, at atleast the moment where we were like,
dude, there's like something like goingon here, and the song hit a
million, like I think five minutesbefore I went on stage. I think
(28:25):
like a riot of Ye, wewere refreshing it if you were refreshed at
a million time. No, I'mjoking. And is it the same for
you, Lyra the timeline when yourealize, because I mean I saw your
(28:45):
videos, you know, celebrating asit was going viral. Yeah, Which
it's crazy because I think when wefirst started posting this to our stories,
we were getting a little more reactionthan like our typical songs, so we
knew that people liked it, butI still never knew that it would hit
this point. Like I remember,I don't know. A few months ago,
we had the conversation of like somebodysaid this could be a Billboard hit,
(29:10):
and I talked to my manager.I was like, are they just
saying that to make us feel good? Like is that real? And now
to see it actually on like Billboarddance is insane. Yeah. And I've
never seen a reaction to a songof mine like this before, comments that
we've gotten on this song, Imean, like it it makes us emotional.
(29:30):
People saying like they've been in adeep depression and this song is what
gets them through the day. Likethat's the coolest feeling in the world that
you make a song that becomes someone'sfavorite thing to listen to. Yeah,
And I announced like my first,like my first headline tour right as right
before really the song started doing reallywell, and I was really nervous about
(29:52):
it because it wasn't like a massivetour. It was literally three dates like
first like just the first headline run, and I was really nervous. I
was like, you know, likeI went into it really blind. I
just wanted to try to like startselling tickets and like see how I did.
And at first, like the tourwasn't like selling well at all,
you know, just like super candidlylike I was like really trying to like
market it and like use some ofthe taxics I was doing for I just
(30:15):
need to like help push the tour. And then as the song started picking
up, the tour started doing reallywell and I ended up selling the whole
thing out. And when I playedthe shows and when I and I ended
up bringing out Kathleen for the LAshow, those were the real moments of
like holy sh like people people likereally know, like like random people know
(30:38):
this song. And that was Ithink the touring stuff for is what really
opened my eyes. I mean therethere have been like little legs on the
journey of like every you know,little milestones of seeing how it's impacted people,
but you know, seeing people likeat the New York show, this
girl got her like a tattoo,like a Daniel Allen tattoo, and it
was like she was like talking tome about like the record and how it's
(30:59):
like saved life and whatnot. Iwas like, dude, like just things
that like don't even make sense tome, you know, like it's just
like beyond me. Yeah, hearingthose stories are always so incredible. I
don't have anything along those lines,but being on the radio and doing it
for as long as I have,you know a lot of people have come
up. I used to do aSaturday night show where it was pure dance
music, and we used to alwaysget letters from people in jail and prison
(31:25):
that were listening while they were lockedup, sending us jail mail saying your
show is what gets us through thistime that we're being locked up, and
it's just hearing messages like that isjust so incredible. Yeah. Now,
something I love to find out aboutsongs is how many different vs there are,
from when you start working on it, all the tweaking that goes on
(31:48):
to when you finally mastered and putit out. Do you guys know what
the final V was of? Ijust need like two big jumps. It
originally started with different chords, whichI've got to say I have demo,
which is like when you hear thething for the first time, you get
so attached to it that it's hardto detach. So for a while I
was like, I don't know,I really love those original chords. Thank
(32:10):
god Daniel swap them out for thenew chords because it makes a record better,
But I really love those well it'swe never changed the main chop though.
Yeah. I mean that's one ofthose things about the records that come
together quickly. Because I am alsoguilty of Version sixty seven, you know,
like I'm guilty of doing those kindsof things for sure. With this
(32:30):
one, it was really like Vone and V two, and we didn't
even like I mixed and mastered therecord too, like it was like very
like in house, super clean,super easy, like you know, we
really only had two sessions for thesong. Whereas like Kathleen is like she
she does. She has a verydemodasy like person and she's also like really
picky with like vocal takes and whatnot, which is a really good trait to
(32:52):
have as an artist. Like it'slike it's to be to be fair.
That's why the song ended up comingout, is because she was the one
that was like, yo, likethis is still special, even when I
was like, I don't know,but I think for this one, I
was very much just like it's good, you know, like it like it's
done. It's good. It's justlike no, like maybe like I should
just like retry like this, likesecond line of the second person. It's
(33:12):
good, like as long as it'sdone, like the whole Also, I
had known that the song would hitthis point, I would have been like,
is this syllable prect So it's betterthat you didn't. But the whole
story behind this song, you know, there's so much to learn from it
because everybody's so stuck on record labels. And of course, you know,
(33:35):
record labels do their job and youdefinitely do need them, but this is
kind of proof to an artist thatyou can get a number one song independently
by yourselves. Absolutely, I feellike even you know, I'm sure Daniel
feels the same way, Like that'sso much more as possible for your music.
Now, just having gone through thisexperience, I think the Internet kind
(33:55):
of democratized attention in a lot ofways, you know, And I think
that for this record, I couldn't, you know, hopefully I'm speaking for
both of us. I don't thinkeither of us could have asked like a
better collaborator on the record, becausewe both went insane in the process of
posting this record. Like there weretimes when I'm like, I've posted one
(34:16):
hundred and fifty videos, like everyoneprobably hates me for it. But then
I look over and like Kathleen's doingthe same thing, and I'm like,
at least I'm not doing this bymyself. At least there's like another person
that doesn't think I'm like totally likea man. Or if she does,
she like kept it to herself,you know. Yeahs like hundreds of videos
of my cats hoping that they're gonnago but nothing ever happens. Hey,
(34:38):
hey, I'm gonna keep posting andI'm gonna have a number one cat very
soon. Well, congratulations on thissong going number one. It is so
amazing for you guys. Now what'snext for you now? Danielle Allen?
I know that you just dropped Spacemanright, Wow, you got to the
(35:00):
streets. I love that. Yeah, I just did so. And do
you have more shows coming up aswell? Yep. So I'm like,
not stuff that I can talk aboutquite yet, but I am planning to
do a lot more markets in thefall. There are just so many places
that like, I get so manycomments on videos that are like, hey,
like you should come to Peru,and I'm like, do you have
one hundred friends? Because who elsewould come to a Peru show? But
(35:23):
you would be surprised. I guess, I guess I would. I mean
I've been surprised so much in thepast year because of the record that like
maybe you're right, But yeah,I'm really excited. Like there's like a
lot of stuff that I'm planning forlike late summer and in the fall and
whatnot that I'm gonna be announcing reallysoon, and just like a lot of
music that I'm that I'm really excitedabout. I think me and Kathleen a
lot of ways both are like okay, like I just need halfen what do
(35:45):
we do next? But to me, I think what I found a lot
of like confidence and fun in isjust like the best part of that song
was like making the song, youknow, like the everything else has been
you know, it's been such atreat and such a like cherry on top
that it's like, you know,quote unquote like getting results. But to
me, like the thing that I'vealways cared about more than anything is sitting
in my computer and making music andthe results. I'd like that's what I
(36:08):
always just want to focus on movingforward is like like making stuff and sharing
it with the world as much asI can. Like, if people listen
to it, it becomes a numberone, Like that's amazing. If not,
like, I'm still really happy,you know. So that's like kind
of my focus. That's a greatattitude to have. Please keep that attitude
as you get bigger and bigger,Please keep that attitude. Now, I
saw you working on coming back.That's going to be dropping soon. Yes,
(36:30):
that drops in I think two daysMay first. Oh wow, very
nice? And what else do youhave coming up? A lot of singles
and I'm going to put out anEP and the one thing from I Just
Need that I've been pulling into thisis like seeing the reaction of it.
Yeah, Like honestly, it's hardto follow that up. I did have
a stressed out moment where I'm like, how the hell do I I Just
(36:52):
need? But I had to flipit mention for myself of like so many
people had, you know, itlives in this like sad you for a
pocket and wanting to make more stuffin that. So, yeah, just
been writing a lot of stuff wantingto give people similar feelings to that.
So to be like a lot ofsingles and then an EP of a bunch
(37:15):
of them. And listen, eventhe biggest artists in the world go through
that when they have so much successwith a song, you know, they
chase trying to recreate that, andhonestly, that's not the avenue to go
down. You just got to beyourself and got to do you mm hm
exactly. Well, it is awesomefinally meeting you guys, and really quickly,
(37:36):
where does Lyra come from? Oh? I'm a perfectionist. My real
name is Kathleen, and I waslike, I need a name to put
this out under so I can distancemyself. I feel fine about this now,
but when I was first putting outmusic, I was like, I
won't put out anything as Kathleen.It doesn't feel done, so I needed
a different name to distance it.And how did you come up with Lyra?
(37:58):
Well? A little mad to coleinfluence. I'm sorry your feed broke
up a little bit there. Couldyou repeat that? Please? Ask for
all the record? And then whatwould again, like we mentioned in the
beginning, what would make you sayLyra and not Lira like I would think
(38:21):
Lira with lyrics? I don't knowmy head I was just always like,
Lara, yeah, good, that'sawesome. Well, Daniel Allen Lyra,
it is so awesome finally meeting youguys. Thank you so much for your
time with us on America's Dance thirty. Thank you so much. This is
great. Thanks so much for havingus, and thanks so much for the
(38:42):
support. This is our you know, our first number one, and we
uh we could not be more excited. So thank you so much. We
really appreciate it. Answer counting downthe biggest dance songs in the country America's Dance thirty
Lyra. Before we even start,I just want to say how thankful I
am that I DMed you to makesure I was pronouncing your name right.
Thank you, and I appreciate that. Just go with whatever. I've had
so many bad experiences with mispronouncing namesand hearing people mispronouncing names, and I'm
like, I'd better reach out,And especially with the way you spell it,
(00:20):
I totally would have been saying,Lira, no, we know Daniel,
just to make sure, is itDaniel Allen? Yes, backdoor secrets
to mine? All right, perfectdance counting down the biggest dance songs in
(00:49):
the country. This is America's Dancethirty. Daniel Allen, Lyra, Welcome
to America's Dance thirty for the firsttime. Thank you for having us.
It is awesome finally meeting you.And congratulations on I just need going number
one, your first number one.I can't even believe that's a real sentence.
(01:12):
That's insane, that right there islike that. Okay, we gotta
process this. It's so incredible andthe story behind it is crazy too.
I can't wait to talk about howthe song was born with you guys.
But first, as always, let'sget to know you guys a little better
with Finkey's first Okay is my soundokay, yeah, okay, they just
(01:37):
started mowing the lawn outside. Ofcourse, I'm gonna need you to go
outside and ask them to stop,please. I always love finding out the
origin story of artists, Daniel.I was reading a blog about you where
I was talking about how your parentscame to this country with only three hundred
(02:00):
dollars to their name. Uh.Yeah, my parents were immigrants from Ukraine
and definitely had very very humble beginningsat first. Like when you move countries,
whatever like education or things that youhad going for you in the previous
country kind of go out the window. It doesn't really matter. Like a
lot of my friends growing up werelike Russian, you know, Ukrainian Jewish
(02:20):
kids that were like very much.Their parents might have been doctors, their
parents might have been something else.They come over here and they end up
being janitors. And it was apretty similar situation with my parents too.
So yeah, definitely very humble beginningsfor them. It's always incredible hearing stories
like that because and I guess it'sjust the times that we grew up in.
I couldn't even imagine a being abrand new country b with only three
(02:42):
hundred dollars to your name, Imean, how do you even live?
Yeah? I mean they definitely taughtme how to be frugal, I'll tell
you that much. They definitely dida lot of figuring out. But it's
really funny, like when it comesto like a lot of the thought process
of us being independent and like workingon the song, A lot of that
kind of came through both in mycareer and I think in Kathleen's a lot.
So yeah, that's uh yeah,I look up to them a lot.
(03:05):
I gotta be honest. So Icame here from Canada, which obviously
isn't that drastic of a move likethat was, But I almost wished that
we had grown up like that soI would have known how to be frugal.
Anyways, that inside when you weregrowing up, was music the first
thing you wanted to get into orwas there something else you wanted to be
when you grew up? You know, I actually didn't even like music that
(03:28):
much because my it was in myit was in my household a lot,
right, so, or at leastI didn't like my early relationship with it.
So my both my parents did musicgrowing up, my mom kind of
had I guess you would call itlike an equivalent to like a PhD in
musicology. And my dad grew upplaying a lot of bands, and like
apparently there's like a movie that Ihaven't seen where like guy, like some
dude like took Beatles songs and thenlike played them like in the Soviet Union
(03:51):
or whatever. I don't know ifthat movie is based on my dad,
but that's he literally did that.Like he like he played a bunch of
like Beatles songs at high school,at like his high school, like answers
and one on. That's how hemet my mom, and like how we
like swooned my mom was like playingBeatles song. So, like my earliest
memory was my dad giving me likeSergeant Pepper on a CD player when I
was a little kid, and allof that was great, But at the
(04:11):
same time, being a Russian kid, you get thrown into, like,
you know, the classical route ofdoing music, which for me was piano,
and I always had like a prettyinteresting relationship with it because I loved
the consumption of music that went onin my house, which was you know,
Beatles, like classic rock, alot of hip hop, as well,
which was like influenced by my brotherwho's like fifteen years older than me.
(04:32):
But when I started playing piano,it felt really like, I guess
weird to me that all I wasdoing was like playing other people's songs,
and like I was I never reallylearned how to read music. And my
mom, who's obviously I always jokethat I'm like the worst musician in my
family. That like it's like Ithink that I'm the one that's doing it
professionally. But my the way thatI would always do it was I would
(04:53):
just go to my piano lessons,not know how to read, just kind
of sit through them, and thenthe day before like recitals, I would
just ask my mom to like sightread the thing, and then I would
show up the next day like playand not even look up, like just
be looking at my hands the wholetime. I would have no idea when
to turn the page because I obviouslywas not reading the music. Yeah,
and I would like add bridges andadd sections, which in my classic music
(05:15):
I can't do. It's like asin. It's like the worst thing you
can do, like not not likestit up, you know. It was
just like such a proper thing,and so I in a weird way when
I was doing this Panelistince, thisis like when I'm seven years old to
like twelve years old, I felta little bit burnt out from it.
And I started doing sports. Iplayed tennis and I ended up playing in
college and it was like kind ofthis other part of my life that that
(05:39):
was going on and as an outletfor tennis growing up kind of as an
athlete, like you know, travelingand like playing tournaments and whatnot, but
not with like the resources that otherkids had, right Like me and my
dad were like sleeping in like Walmartparking lots and like doing that whole thing.
And like, but I did thatso much that I felt a little
bit burnt out from the sport.And then I came back to music as
(05:59):
my outlet and it was a reallyinteresting kind of I guess like circle of
life, you know, that isunbelievable. Well, thank god that all
happened, so we got you backinto music. How it worked out?
Now, Lyra, I heard earlyon you know, your story with you
quitting your day job to concentrate onmusic completely, which had to be terrifying.
(06:20):
It was, but I sat onthe decision for so long that by
the point that I did it,I was like, I just have to
fully jump into this and do it. God, I couldn't even imagine now
when you were growing up, wasbeing a singer a songwriter the first thing
you wanted to get into or wasthere something else? Yeah, I mean
like in the studio that I'm in, let's see this, peer is my
childhood piano. So that was thefirst instrument that I played, so kind
(06:43):
of similar there. And I hatedclassical lessons, yeah, and I always
wanted to just play like the popsongs that had to practice my classical music.
So it started a piano. Andthen I'm from a small town in
Pennsylvania, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, andso it was a lot of singing at
church, and I was like,whatever you could sing at church, weddings,
funerals, nursing homes, skate parks, let's skate parks, motorcycle rallies.
(07:13):
But hey, it got you towhere you are now, so that's
all it really matters. Something that'smore like church singing and then just making
up songs at my piano. Now, speaking of making up songs at your
piano, do you remember the firstsong you ever wrote, Oh my gosh,
no, because it just started aslittle idea. So it's never like
(07:33):
I have this amazing composition. Itwas just like, you know, you're
just like playing around, and Ifeel like a lot of times it would
come out of playing the pieces thatyou're supposed to and then you screw up,
but then you hear this new pieceout of it, and then you
just like play around with that.But yeah, I didn't really think of
myself as like a singer songwriter.I was just bored and would play piano.
(07:56):
Your guys' stories are unbelievable. Howyou landed into the Indus. That's
so crazy. Now, Daniel notonly producing music for your artist project,
but you've also done some ghost producingand producing for other artists. Do you
remember the first song you ever produced. I remember the first like electronic song
that I ever produced for sure,and it was I still know where it
(08:20):
is. I actually do have accessto it. It's on a Google drive
on my like very first like emailaddress, and it is. Uh.
I thought it was the coolest thingever when I made it, like it
was, I was like, maybeI want to say that I was like
fourteen, like when I had justI had just like downloaded fl studio and
(08:43):
like started like messing with it becausebefore that, I was like recording a
bunch of local rappers where I were, like in Louisville where I'm from,
and uh, I wasn't making thebeats for them. But I remember even
before, like the predecessor to thefirst beat was the first recording, and
it was rough. It was definitelyrough, but I remember it. I
definitely remember it. Could I guessyour first email address? Was it at
(09:05):
AOL dot com? It wasn't atAOL dot com. It actually was at
a dot com that kind of likedates me, but it wasn't a I've
still got my AOL account too.Wow, Daniel, do you remember the
first time you ever performed at anevent DJing? I definitely remember. I
don't know if it was my first, but I remember my first like fun
(09:28):
one. I remember, like Imean, it wasn't even like a it
wasn't even like a big deal,but it was like when I was a
freshman in college. I oh,actually, as I'm talking, I do
remember it. I was a Iwas a freshman in high school and Maddion
had just dropped his pop culture likemash up on YouTube. And there was
this girl that I was like tryingto impress in my freshman year AP human
(09:50):
geography class. And so I boughta Ovation launch pad, which is the
same exact thing that Maddyon used forthe pop culture thing, and and it
came with a free trial of Ableton, and I had no idea how to
use it, and so I justmemorized his like finger patterns and didn't and
just didn't actually like load in thesamples because I didn't know how to use
(10:13):
Ableton. And I threw a raveat my house and I and I literally
just ripped the audio from YouTube andI just sink it up. So you
were like lip syncing to Maddie A. Hunts. Totally did it impress her?
(10:39):
Side? Note we've got her offon the side here, let me
bring her in now, Lyra.You were talking about performing all over the
place. Do you remember the firsttime you perform? Yeah? I think
(11:01):
I was thirteen. So I startedtaking vocal lessons in the town that I
was in, and it was moreopera singing. It was like our vocal
recital. Wow, so a lotless fun than this stuff. And definitely,
I mean if you're starting with opera. That's so crazy. Yeah.
Also, I had to like resing or reteach myself how to sing because
(11:22):
I got stuck in it where Ifelt like the only way to sing was
this operatic voice, which like livesmore and your head voice rather than like
this chest or mixed voice. Soyeah, I would like try to sing
what was on the radio and ithad an opera, had to tone to
it, and then I was justlike having an identity crisis with my voice
(11:45):
and had to react to that.I didn't know that about you. I
actually, Wow, we're getting toknow each other on interviews. Hey,
you're welcome. That's crazy. Ido wonder if the voice that I have
is my like real voice or ifit's this like selected voice because I had
to reteach myself how to sing.That's a crazy thought, Like I don't
(12:05):
know how how would you know?Wow, now we're getting existential here.
Wow now, Lyra, do youremember the first song that made you fall
in love with dance music? Oh? Man, yeah, dead Mouse.
I remember when I heard that,I was like, these are the type
of vocals that I want to make, Like I wanted to feel like this.
(12:26):
It is such a beautiful song andso not opera. Did you know
that it was that Mouse? Forme too, it was it was Ghosts
and Stuff. It was in whenI was in sixth grade. Lady Gaga
had just started dropping the album thatJust Dance was on, so she was
dropping Just Dance, Bad Romance,and I was super into the production behind
it, and for the first time, my brother was living in Chicago and
(12:48):
Dead Mouse I think one of hisfirst stops in the US on tour was
Chicago, and that was one ofthe hubs of obviously like house music in
like the nineties and early two thousands, but it's also where that song started
having one of the first I guesslike it wasn't called a viral moment back
then, right like that's when itreally started like coming up in like the
Chicago scene. And my brother,who's fifteen years older than me, was
(13:09):
like a DJ and a lot ofpeople were playing Ghosts and Stuff, and
he sent it to me and Iwas like right at the same time of
like being interested in the production behindLady Gaga records, there was like an
artist facing person that was like justthe you know, quote unquote just the
producer of the song and I didn'tknow that, like Dead Mouse was your
first was my first, onest,And what's crazy is I think it might
(13:31):
have been in the same blog thatI was reading about you, where it
talked about you going to an aboveand beyond show or seeing above and beyond,
and that kind of turned you towardsDM. So it wasn't above and
beyond that made you fall in lovewith it. So Above and Beyond is
when I really decided that I wantedto pursue making electronic music. I became
a fan of electronic music just likea consumer Dead Mouse in sixth grade,
(13:52):
and then after recording a bunch ofrappers and started starting to produce beats for
them in like my early days ofhigh school. I went to all it
was a saw Above and Beyond,and I was like, wait, I
just download I just downloaded fruity Loops. I'm learning how to make hip hop
beats. I want to make electronicstuff now. But that was like that
was like the inflection point of likeI want to be djaying, I want
to be making this kind of musiceven now, like I feel influenced by
(14:15):
them the way vocals still in theirmusic. I mean, you know,
I did to push the button thingyou know how yeah, yeah yeah,
and lights all lights all night,Dallas eighteen. I showed up with a
I showed up with my friend Andrew. Andrew we drove twelve hours from Louisville
to Dallas. I was like anabove me on super Fan, Like I
was like gonna Endjuna Beats like superFan. I had like an artist project
before Daniel Allen that like they wouldspend some of that stuff on their Group
(14:39):
of Therapy radio show. And Iliterally pulled up with a neon pink sign
that I still have in my childhoodhome that's like, can I push the
button? And they like picked meup. It was awesome. Now you
didn't vomit when you got on stage? Right? I came close because there
is a story that lives. Ithink it was a girl that was on
stage to push the button and shevomited because she was so nervous and I'm
(15:01):
sure other stuff going on, butyeah, she vomited for sure. How
embarrassing is that? Oh my god? Now, finally, in honor of
I just need going number one,finish this sentence. The first thing I
just need is Daniel cookies. Ohwhat kind dude? I'm a very simple
(15:24):
chocolate chip man. I was hopingyou were gonna say oatmeal raisin because I
love oatmeal raisin and it gets sucha bad rap and I don't know why.
I don't know. It's just nottop of mine, you know.
I mean, I think they're good. I think they're good. I got
I got nothing against omeal raisin cookiewell three CODs. I would have had
to drop you out of this chat, Lyra, how about you? This
(15:45):
is funny, I would say.I just knew I'm right now one I
need today though. Now let's talkabout this viral smash. Now. Were
you guys completely independent when this songfirst dropped? Still? Are we still
are? Yeah? That is unbelievable. So how was this song born between
(16:07):
you two? I mean, Ican I could take a stab at this,
Katherine if you If I mess up, just let me know. So
me and Kathleen had kind of knowneach other on like the internet. We
were like in similar like pockets onTwitter and whatnot, and she came over
to do a session. We actuallymade this song in our first session that
(16:27):
we ever had, I'm pretty sureto think about. Yeah, it was
in my it was in the bedroomof my old house. We had messed
around with an idea for a lotof the day, and then Kathleen had
a dinner date that she had togo to, and I think she said
something along the lines of, like, I wonder how many good songs don't
(16:51):
happen because of dinner dates? Else'squote I think like John Mayris said that,
like how many are ruined in thissession by dinner reservations? Yeah,
yeah, this is this is verybad for like work life balance. But
yeah she uh, I was like, okay, like let's let's just do
one more thing. And she previouslyhad the I just need a cappella,
(17:15):
which she had done for different artists, and that artist ended up not like
wanting to use it, and soshe had like a new vocal and she
air dropped it to me, andthe main like ies me, Like the
main kind of like part of thatsong was the very first thing that I
did enabled him. Like it waslike within like I've always heard that like
the best songs, like up untilthat point, I've always heard that like
the best songs kind of happened,you know, in twenty minutes or in
(17:37):
thirty minutes when you're not really eventrying to make a song, and that
was very much the case with thisone. It was like, look,
she's like, you know, Cathol'sin a hurry to go somewhere, like
we had already been working all day, and yeah, like she that that
was the very very first thing thathappened. And then I ended up sitting
on the song for about six sevenmonths because I wasn't I didn't think it
was that good, like to me, totally honest, like I just make
(18:00):
so much. I just make somuch music that I was just like,
okay, like this is a ademo folder. When I started working on
Duality, which is the project thatI just need was on, I send
a bunch of like massive, massivedemo folders to my friends and friends who
I really trust, like their musicalears, and all of them are like
do this. I just need recordslike the best one, like you need
(18:21):
to like stop, you know,you just just put this song, like
do something with this song. Andthen like kath was always an advocate of
it, like she was always likeshe was always like no, like there's
something special in the song like that. It's like you know, like she
always heard it, and you know, at a certain point in my roommate
was like, dude, just likedo something with this, and then she
came over. She came over,and then we did like one follow up
touchout session we had because there wasnot a second verse written to the song,
(18:45):
I don't think. And Kathleen cameover and she was like, there
was another situation where she was alittle that day and because we didn't know
it would become this, so Iwas like, let's just get the vocals
in now while we can't because Iwas about to travel. So it was
like it like it was another thingwhere you had to go somewhere. I
think it was to be in likeItaly or something for like, And I
(19:07):
was like, no, no,let's just do this real quick. And
then you were just like do Isound bad? Like I don't know,
like my im like terrible. Youcan actually hear it a little bit in
the second verse that I'm a tinybit sick, but I also think it's
like a little more emotion in it. Oh, so you didn't redo the
vocals after it, you just leftwhat you cut. Then, Yeah,
(19:30):
a couple of things. I mean, there's a lot to unpack with that,
but I remember, I remember Iremember chatting with bb Rex about how
and when I'm Good Blue went numberone and became such a massive smash.
We were chatting about how annoying itis that these songs that get put together
so quickly are the ones that blowup, and the things that you put
(19:52):
so much work into are the onesthat are kind of stale. It's like,
come on, what the heck?So how long ago did you guys
start working on it? December oftwenty twenty two was like, that was
(20:12):
the fifteen minute session. That waslike the fifteen minute session where we really
decided to work on it, andthen we that next summer June of twenty
twenty three, I had I playedElectric Forest. It was like the first
US festival that I did. Andaround that time I had my first kind
(20:33):
of video start to do well,like my big thing. Like going into
twenty twenty three was like I reallywant to try to be consistent with posting
on the internet because I had neverreally like given it a shot before.
And this I did a mashup ofLaRue LaRue's Bulletproof with like some other instrumental
such I write such a classic,such a classic. I started to see
(20:53):
just like a little for the firsttime of like six months of posting,
I I saw a little bubble oflike something working with that, and I
was like, let me just kindof take that and try to apply it
towards I Just Need. And soI started promoting the hell out of I
Just Need, and I started noticingthat the videos were like just getting a
little bit more traction, Like therewasn't there really wasn't up until there was.
(21:15):
Right, there was like a fourmonth, five month window of just
like little by little progress, Likein November there was a really viral video
of it, but starting from Iwas really promoting that song from July to
November, before the first viral videoand then after I had a couple viral
videos. Kathleen had a bunch ofother viral videos too, So like the
kind of the where we might nothave worked on it so long in the
(21:37):
studio, we definitely worked on itway more like after it was done and
after, because I mean we did, like I don't know what the updated
number is CAT, but I meanit's like a couple hundred videos that we
posted of the song, and likeI'm pretty sure like the one that went
viral for me was like I meanit was like probably after the hundredth for
sure. So yeah, it waslike, yeah, I think it was
a ninety first or something because Iended up archiving like a bunch of them
(22:00):
too and whatnot. So like it'sdefinitely been a process and like like you
said, like we're we're independent artists, you know, and so like for
us, there was there wasn't reallyany like backing behind the record. It
was just look, our friends thinkit's an undeniable record, and like my
friends specifically will tell me if somethingsucks, and it was honestly, like
I was wrong about the song,and like a lot of the times,
(22:22):
like there's like the artistic tendency tobe like no, like I'm right,
like I know, like what thewhat the song on the project's gonna be
with YadA YadA. But like withthis record specifically, like I just listened
to the people, you know,and I at the time and probably still
now don't have like that big ofa fan base. But I just remember,
out of the few amount of fansthat I that I did have,
like they were the one. Itreally was connecting with them, you know,
(22:42):
And that was really the first timethat I had experienced that I don't
want to speak for you, Kath, but it was definitely like overwhelming,
Please do something with this. Soyeah, it's yeah, it's been a
process. Well listen, it's awesomethat you're able to admit that, because
even as a programmer, you know, we get fed so many songs that
we don't hear everything at first,and you know, there's times when we
(23:04):
do miss songs that we hear itagain, like on an artist show or
something like, holy crap, whatis that song? That's a great song?
And it was sent to me likesix months ago. It's like,
are you kidding me? Come onnow, Lyra, how long ago did
you actually write it? Well?Yeah, one thing I wanted to mention
with that, So I had madethat song a few days before our session.
(23:26):
I think this was actually really keypart of the session that I'm now
trying to recreate. We didn't yetknow that that other artist had passed on
it when we made the song race. Yeah, we had our session like
we had worked mainly on a completelydifferent song for the majority of the session.
Then at the very end, Yeah, Daniel was like, all right,
let's try out one more idea,and I had that a cappella I
(23:49):
had already sent it to this otherartist because he was working on his next
album, and so I just thought, like, you know, made the
song for him. I like thesong. I thought he was going to
use it, and so I thinkI told you, Daniel, we can't
use this, but we could justlike play around with it. Yeah.
Wow, I went in one earand out of the other. For sure.
(24:15):
Whenever someone sends me a vocal,I'm like, I'm gonna try to
make the best song possible. Ididn't even I didn't. I do think
that kind of helped though, thisidea that like we didn't even know if
we could do anything with a vocal, so it was just like more experimentation
with it. And now I'm tryingto bring that into future sessions where I'm
like, Okay, let me makesomething that I can't do anything with.
But see, you're thinking about ittoo much, that's the problem. So
(24:41):
it made that just a few daysbefore the session. And then with verse
two, yeah, I was likewalking around those feelers just on my phone,
typing up ideas for verse two,and then went to Daniels and recorded
it. It's so unbelievable. Now, have you spoken to the other artists
since no, And the other thingis like, at this point, I
(25:03):
was also a much smaller artist.I don't even know if I was on
his radar. The email it wentto his management, so there's always a
chance of like maybe he never heardthe record, But yeah, I do
wonder sometimes I'm like, I wonderif he knows the song. Oh my
god, that would hurt so much. When did you guys start realizing that,
(25:26):
oh my god, this is catchingon and going viral. I have
a side of this story for sure. I was so in the weeds on
the data like I was like,and Kathleen is too, because like in
her previous job, like she's justlike very like the song title is like
specifically I just need with Lyra becausein the electronic world there's just like a
(25:47):
lot of like features and whatnot.And I wanted it to be very abundantly
clear that we like collaborated on therecord in terms of like both of us
like doing all this content, doingall these things for it, but like
we're both like very in the weedson the data side. When the song
came out, it was literally alike upload to distro kid release, Like
there was nothing like there wasn't evenwe didn't even use like any kind of
like elevated distribution, Like it wasliterally just uploaded to distro Kid put it
(26:11):
out, and like I said,it had a few tiny moments like on
my TikTok like where it got likeeight thousand plays because I was like in
TikTok jail where I was getting likeone hundred plays on everything, and like
it there was like a few videos. We're got like eight thousand plays,
and I remember seeing that some randomperson. It was like the first user
generated content was like a girl thatwas like, oh, like I think
(26:33):
it was the same day that Atmosphereby Fisher came out, and she was
like songs I've been looking forward toand it was like Fisher, Atmosphere,
Daniel and Lira, I just needit. And I was like, I
was like, oh, we didn'teven like like I didn't even like this
is like a fan, Like Idon't know, like I don't know what
a fan is, but I thinkthis might be a fan. Like I'm
like and I was in London andI was, you know, me and
Calf every day we're checking like thedaily streams, being like super like erotic
(26:56):
about it. And like it waswhen it came out, it was getting
like three or four thousand streams aday, which we were both stoked on.
Like again it's like we were reallylike small artists and like it was
a district kid song. I'm like, wow, like this is a this
is getting three or four thousand streamsa day, this is like amazing.
I was in London and this guyGeezoom made a video to the song and
(27:18):
that doubled the streams in a day, so it was get it went from
It went from like four to eightthousand, and because his video went viral,
and then the next day Hato madea video and that took it from
like eight to sixteen k These numbersare gonna be printed in my brain forever,
like he Hato took it from eightto sixteen a day, and then
like me and Kathleen started being likeyo, like what is what is going
on here? And then I playeda show the day of the song hit
(27:40):
a million streams, which is afew months after that, I played a
show with the Chainsmokers at the ShorelineAmphitheater, and I brought Kathleen out for
the song and a few people knewthe song wow. And that that was
like and again, like it's likeit was like a twenty two thousand person
amphitheater. It obviously it was notfull when I was playing. I was
like second of five, but likethere were people that knew like some of
(28:02):
the words like the verse and whatnot, Like just like stuff like that where
it was like like we kind oflooked at each other, We're like,
dude, like actually you know,and and all of all of the stuff
that's happened since then has just likebeen exponential and been like unbelievable. But
that was to me, at atleast the moment where we were like,
dude, there's like something like goingon here, and the song hit a
million, like I think five minutesbefore I went on stage. I think
(28:25):
like a riot of Ye, wewere refreshing it if you were refreshed at
a million time. No, I'mjoking. And is it the same for
you, Lyra the timeline when yourealize, because I mean I saw your
(28:45):
videos, you know, celebrating asit was going viral. Yeah, Which
it's crazy because I think when wefirst started posting this to our stories,
we were getting a little more reactionthan like our typical songs, so we
knew that people liked it, butI still never knew that it would hit
this point. Like I remember,I don't know. A few months ago,
we had the conversation of like somebodysaid this could be a Billboard hit,
(29:10):
and I talked to my manager.I was like, are they just
saying that to make us feel good? Like is that real? And now
to see it actually on like Billboarddance is insane. Yeah. And I've
never seen a reaction to a songof mine like this before, comments that
we've gotten on this song, Imean, like it it makes us emotional.
(29:30):
People saying like they've been in adeep depression and this song is what
gets them through the day. Likethat's the coolest feeling in the world that
you make a song that becomes someone'sfavorite thing to listen to. Yeah,
And I announced like my first,like my first headline tour right as right
before really the song started doing reallywell, and I was really nervous about
(29:52):
it because it wasn't like a massivetour. It was literally three dates like
first like just the first headline run, and I was really nervous. I
was like, you know, likeI went into it really blind. I
just wanted to try to like startselling tickets and like see how I did.
And at first, like the tourwasn't like selling well at all,
you know, just like super candidlylike I was like really trying to like
market it and like use some ofthe taxics I was doing for I just
(30:15):
need to like help push the tour. And then as the song started picking
up, the tour started doing reallywell and I ended up selling the whole
thing out. And when I playedthe shows and when I and I ended
up bringing out Kathleen for the LAshow, those were the real moments of
like holy sh like people people likereally know, like like random people know
(30:38):
this song. And that was Ithink the touring stuff for is what really
opened my eyes. I mean therethere have been like little legs on the
journey of like every you know,little milestones of seeing how it's impacted people,
but you know, seeing people likeat the New York show, this
girl got her like a tattoo,like a Daniel Allen tattoo, and it
was like she was like talking tome about like the record and how it's
(30:59):
like saved life and whatnot. Iwas like, dude, like just things
that like don't even make sense tome, you know, like it's just
like beyond me. Yeah, hearingthose stories are always so incredible. I
don't have anything along those lines,but being on the radio and doing it
for as long as I have,you know a lot of people have come
up. I used to do aSaturday night show where it was pure dance
music, and we used to alwaysget letters from people in jail and prison
(31:25):
that were listening while they were lockedup, sending us jail mail saying your
show is what gets us through thistime that we're being locked up, and
it's just hearing messages like that isjust so incredible. Yeah. Now,
something I love to find out aboutsongs is how many different vs there are,
from when you start working on it, all the tweaking that goes on
(31:48):
to when you finally mastered and putit out. Do you guys know what
the final V was of? Ijust need like two big jumps. It
originally started with different chords, whichI've got to say I have demo,
which is like when you hear thething for the first time, you get
so attached to it that it's hardto detach. So for a while I
was like, I don't know,I really love those original chords. Thank
(32:10):
god Daniel swap them out for thenew chords because it makes a record better,
But I really love those well it'swe never changed the main chop though.
Yeah. I mean that's one ofthose things about the records that come
together quickly. Because I am alsoguilty of Version sixty seven, you know,
like I'm guilty of doing those kindsof things for sure. With this
(32:30):
one, it was really like Vone and V two, and we didn't
even like I mixed and mastered therecord too, like it was like very
like in house, super clean,super easy, like you know, we
really only had two sessions for thesong. Whereas like Kathleen is like she
she does. She has a verydemodasy like person and she's also like really
picky with like vocal takes and whatnot, which is a really good trait to
(32:52):
have as an artist. Like it'slike it's to be to be fair.
That's why the song ended up comingout, is because she was the one
that was like, yo, likethis is still special, even when I
was like, I don't know,but I think for this one, I
was very much just like it's good, you know, like it like it's
done. It's good. It's justlike no, like maybe like I should
just like retry like this, likesecond line of the second person. It's
(33:12):
good, like as long as it'sdone, like the whole Also, I
had known that the song would hitthis point, I would have been like,
is this syllable prect So it's betterthat you didn't. But the whole
story behind this song, you know, there's so much to learn from it
because everybody's so stuck on record labels. And of course, you know,
(33:35):
record labels do their job and youdefinitely do need them, but this is
kind of proof to an artist thatyou can get a number one song independently
by yourselves. Absolutely, I feellike even you know, I'm sure Daniel
feels the same way, Like that'sso much more as possible for your music.
Now, just having gone through thisexperience, I think the Internet kind
(33:55):
of democratized attention in a lot ofways, you know, And I think
that for this record, I couldn't, you know, hopefully I'm speaking for
both of us. I don't thinkeither of us could have asked like a
better collaborator on the record, becausewe both went insane in the process of
posting this record. Like there weretimes when I'm like, I've posted one
(34:16):
hundred and fifty videos, like everyoneprobably hates me for it. But then
I look over and like Kathleen's doingthe same thing, and I'm like,
at least I'm not doing this bymyself. At least there's like another person
that doesn't think I'm like totally likea man. Or if she does,
she like kept it to herself,you know. Yeahs like hundreds of videos
of my cats hoping that they're gonnago but nothing ever happens. Hey,
(34:38):
hey, I'm gonna keep posting andI'm gonna have a number one cat very
soon. Well, congratulations on thissong going number one. It is so
amazing for you guys. Now what'snext for you now? Danielle Allen?
I know that you just dropped Spacemanright, Wow, you got to the
(35:00):
streets. I love that. Yeah, I just did so. And do
you have more shows coming up aswell? Yep. So I'm like,
not stuff that I can talk aboutquite yet, but I am planning to
do a lot more markets in thefall. There are just so many places
that like, I get so manycomments on videos that are like, hey,
like you should come to Peru,and I'm like, do you have
one hundred friends? Because who elsewould come to a Peru show? But
(35:23):
you would be surprised. I guess, I guess I would. I mean
I've been surprised so much in thepast year because of the record that like
maybe you're right, But yeah,I'm really excited. Like there's like a
lot of stuff that I'm planning forlike late summer and in the fall and
whatnot that I'm gonna be announcing reallysoon, and just like a lot of
music that I'm that I'm really excitedabout. I think me and Kathleen a
lot of ways both are like okay, like I just need halfen what do
(35:45):
we do next? But to me, I think what I found a lot
of like confidence and fun in isjust like the best part of that song
was like making the song, youknow, like the everything else has been
you know, it's been such atreat and such a like cherry on top
that it's like, you know,quote unquote like getting results. But to
me, like the thing that I'vealways cared about more than anything is sitting
in my computer and making music andthe results. I'd like that's what I
(36:08):
always just want to focus on movingforward is like like making stuff and sharing
it with the world as much asI can. Like, if people listen
to it, it becomes a numberone, Like that's amazing. If not,
like, I'm still really happy,you know. So that's like kind
of my focus. That's a greatattitude to have. Please keep that attitude
as you get bigger and bigger,Please keep that attitude. Now, I
saw you working on coming back.That's going to be dropping soon. Yes,
(36:30):
that drops in I think two daysMay first. Oh wow, very
nice? And what else do youhave coming up? A lot of singles
and I'm going to put out anEP and the one thing from I Just
Need that I've been pulling into thisis like seeing the reaction of it.
Yeah, Like honestly, it's hardto follow that up. I did have
a stressed out moment where I'm like, how the hell do I I Just
(36:52):
need? But I had to flipit mention for myself of like so many
people had, you know, itlives in this like sad you for a
pocket and wanting to make more stuffin that. So, yeah, just
been writing a lot of stuff wantingto give people similar feelings to that.
So to be like a lot ofsingles and then an EP of a bunch
(37:15):
of them. And listen, eventhe biggest artists in the world go through
that when they have so much successwith a song, you know, they
chase trying to recreate that, andhonestly, that's not the avenue to go
down. You just got to beyourself and got to do you mm hm
exactly. Well, it is awesomefinally meeting you guys, and really quickly,
(37:36):
where does Lyra come from? Oh? I'm a perfectionist. My real
name is Kathleen, and I waslike, I need a name to put
this out under so I can distancemyself. I feel fine about this now,
but when I was first putting outmusic, I was like, I
won't put out anything as Kathleen.It doesn't feel done, so I needed
a different name to distance it.And how did you come up with Lyra?
(37:58):
Well? A little mad to coleinfluence. I'm sorry your feed broke
up a little bit there. Couldyou repeat that? Please? Ask for
all the record? And then whatwould again, like we mentioned in the
beginning, what would make you sayLyra and not Lira like I would think
(38:21):
Lira with lyrics? I don't knowmy head I was just always like,
Lara, yeah, good, that'sawesome. Well, Daniel Allen Lyra,
it is so awesome finally meeting youguys. Thank you so much for your
time with us on America's Dance thirty. Thank you so much. This is
great. Thanks so much for havingus, and thanks so much for the
(38:42):
support. This is our you know, our first number one, and we
uh we could not be more excited. So thank you so much. We
really appreciate it. Answer counting downthe biggest dance songs in the country America's Dance thirty
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!