Full Access: Isn’t it amazing how something you can write can affect someone else’s life so much?
Dan: Well I think that is the power of music. That is why every musician you see around you is in music. I really kinda come from that hippie belief that music has the power to change. I really do. It changed my life. It made me figure out a direction of where I wanted to go and where I wanted to spend my life. To the songs I’ve heard that have healed me on the inside that I go to for comfort, that I go to, ya know, to be consoled and I think it’s such a powerful vehicle that it can be used to make you feel down, make you feel up. It can be used so much! But to me it’s the touching stories that I hear every day that really spur me on as a songwriter to try and, no matter what, stare that song down until you get that perfect lyric to describe the most horrifical situation. For me, that’s the art…it’s trying to find a really concise way to talk about a very, very complex problem…full of emotions, humanity, what we are, and I believe the song is the perfect vehicle for that.