Dan English
West Branch, IA
For the longing listener… The music of composer Dan English is the communing of the head and the heart sharing secrets. The songs subsume time into feelings and images of purity, sonically and spiritually, and then, somewhat masochistically, play with lyrics drawn from the dingier parts of life: love, family, and capricious head-spaces. It’s movie-music; eternal scores for an espionage film with a protagonist who’s a clandestine, time-traveling romantic tailing the spirit itself.
Born in a quiet town in Iowa, he grew up chasing invisible things: codes in books, echoes in movies, half-sentences in songs. English found himself glued to the radio from an early age and, after picking up guitar at 10, language and sound conspired.
Following a move to New York City, Dan released his first album “Fruit Boy” in 2018 followed by 2020’s “In Grace” EP. His newest offering, Sky Record (June 2025), is his second full-length album and continues to expand upon and probe the depths explored in his previous work. The music is part confession, part séance— lush spells where the sacred and the stained trade places. Emotions arrive in disguises: tenderness (smoke), grief (rhythm), silence (a cathedral on the verge of collapse).
In addition to his solo work, Dan moonlights as a guitarist for beloved NYC rock outfit Porches and is often to be found collaborating with his cousin Melody English.
Born in a quiet town in Iowa, he grew up chasing invisible things: codes in books, echoes in movies, half-sentences in songs. English found himself glued to the radio from an early age and, after picking up guitar at 10, language and sound conspired.
Following a move to New York City, Dan released his first album “Fruit Boy” in 2018 followed by 2020’s “In Grace” EP. His newest offering, Sky Record (June 2025), is his second full-length album and continues to expand upon and probe the depths explored in his previous work. The music is part confession, part séance— lush spells where the sacred and the stained trade places. Emotions arrive in disguises: tenderness (smoke), grief (rhythm), silence (a cathedral on the verge of collapse).
In addition to his solo work, Dan moonlights as a guitarist for beloved NYC rock outfit Porches and is often to be found collaborating with his cousin Melody English.
