Dan$on, whose real name is Dan, is a young Chinese singer and composer, based in Malaysia. He openly shared with us his history with music as well as the hardships he faced during his childhood and teenage years, before becoming the singer he is today: 

 

“I started my music journey at the age of 8. My mom signed me up for piano lessons and I totally didn’t like it because it requires a lot of practice, so it was never really my thing back then. I only started liking music a little bit more at the age of 9 because I won the first place in a school singing competition. Ever since then, I've told myself, and also my parents, that I was gonna be a singer in the future. However, it was turned down by my mom because Asian parents always expect their children to become some sort of professional. Despite that, I didn’t stop dreaming about becoming a singer. I took up guitar lesson at the age of 14 and I realized that I needed to be consistent with it. I worked hard to excel at the guitar at that period of time, and I went on stage after three months of classes. Aside of this, I joined choir to improve my singing skills during high school too.

 

Then, there was a major incident where my parents tried to stop me from performing. As I recall, I had band shows every few weeks, but there was one moment when my band mates stopped inviting me to perform. So I confronted them, and I was told that they had been asked by my parents to stop inviting me for any future performance. That hit me really hard, and I kind of stopped myself from getting involved with the music scene as I didn't have support from my family.

 

Even though I was not really involved with the music scene that much that time, I still sang casually at home whenever I could. I came to realize that I couldn't hit certain high notes. So it made me think that maybe I should sing something in my own range. So why not creating my own music instead of singing someone else's song? That's when I started making music, with my own guitar. It was a Chinese song.

 

Things didn’t really get serious until I started my university life.

At that time, I was really into hip hop music, and I watched a few videos on how producers make beats for rappers. So I thought, since people can actually make music with just a computer itself, I’m sure I can do it too. 

So then, I started making electronic music casually, until one day my long lost friend, Brendon, who is also a singer-songwriter, approached me. He told me to continue doing it cause I was good at it.

And because of his words, I didn’t stop doing. I made up my mind to make music as a living. To be honest, it was really hard at first, as no one would truly appreciate my work. But as times goes by, as I release more music, I can see that people around me are starting to show love to my stuff.

At the moment, I've been doing it consistently for two years, and more to come.”

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"Justin also inspired me through the way he walks through his career,

despite all the people shitting on him, he still comes back

stronger as ever. For someone who already had everything

at a young age, and didn’t let it stop him from doing what he always loves."

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To get to know more about him, we also asked him a few other questions:

 

What do you plan for your future projects? Can you tell us more about it? 

I'm currently preparing an album. However, it's still uncertain as to when it is going to be released, as this is actually a project from a good Sir from Atlanta, Georgia. He has a planning of signing me under his record label, probably after the whole pandemic season. As for my personal project, there's nothing really pending, mostly doing a lot of collabs and featuring. My current goal is to master my music producing skills as I'm taking courses for Music Engineering. I believe that as an artist, my task is far more than just singing and releasing songs. I want to be an all rounder artist, where I produce my own music and perform my own work.

 

Is there an artist you admire, who influences you in your daily life and why? 

Most of my singing style and writing style are influenced by Justin Bieber and Travis Scott. Justin's songs come in a unique way of arranging the melodies, listening to his songs are like riding on a roller coaster, you will never know how it ends but you will definitely know it's gonna end well. Justin also inspired me through the way he walks through his career, despite all the people shitting on him, he still comes back stronger as ever. For someone who already had everything at a young age, and didn’t let it stop him from doing what he always loves. I respect him 100%, and his passion for music.

 

As for Travis, his songs are 100% artistic. No doubt he makes trap music, but what separates him from the rest is his flow, his ad libs. I tend to love melodic rap more, and he is one of the pioneers in melodic rap. He also inspired me a lot on his work ethic. The way he works his way through all the hardships, like dropping out of college, getting kicked out of his family, just for the sake of his music. He even had to stay at his friend's apartment to make music. His dedication has made me realize, that as long as I don't stop making music, I will eventually make it up there. Keep the fire burning!

 

What can we wish you for your career?

I mean, all the best for me in my career? I wish that someday I will be on the same stage as both Justin and Travis.

 

If you need to say something to the ones who are supporting you and your music, what would it be?

Without all of you, I wouldn't be keep pushing myself to make more good music. Thank you all, I love all of you who have been there since day one.

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Dan$on is a young, talented, touching and honest artist. From now on, you will find his different projects on our home page as well as in our stories on Instagram, where a highlights section will be fully dedicated to him.

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Because MIA strives to promote independent young artists, you will also find Dan$on’s promotional content regularly on our website and social media.  

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