Dani Offline on “Angel,” Touring, and Making Music on Her Own Terms
- Emma Zoe Polyak
- 4 days ago
- 8 min read
A couple of weeks ago, I ventured to MilkBoy in Philadelphia to catch an early show. It was a double headline bill, with Dani Offline and Claire Ernst. I was instantly captivated by Dani Offline’s crooning vocals and was elated to learn that she was in the process of releasing new music.
I had the chance to chat with her a couple days before the release of “Angel” about the release, tour, and her journey with music. From bonding over a shared appreciation for physical media – and a parallel will to unplug occasionally – to learning her favorite parts of playing live, our conversation took feathery wings of its own.
Emma Zoe Polyak: You just finished an East Coast tour – what was that like?
Dani Offline: Tour was great! I definitely felt like a real artist; it was my first time being on tour as a headliner. Three or four weeks before I went on the [headline] tour, I was opening for somebody, and that was my first time being on tour ever. So, it was kind of just a six- or seven-week period of being on the road. I’m really happy to be home, but I really enjoyed it. I feel like I learned a lot about myself and had a really nice time.
EZP: Did you approach the two tours differently?
DO: Yes, definitely. When being an opener, I feel like you’re always trying to take up as little space as possible. I see myself more in a student capacity, where I want to see the other artist’s set every night and really learn and study. I think that tour was nice because I was opening for this artist, Rum Gold, who I love. His tour was mostly on weekends, so I would fly out and then fly back, but I still got to stay at home. Whereas the tour where I was headlining with Claire Ernst, we were on the road consecutively for three weeks. So, it’s just a little bit of a different experience. I think this was the first time that I was thinking about my own tour and approaching it like practice.
EZP: That makes sense, did you have any favorite songs to play live?
DO: I really like playing “Desire” live. There’s just something about it where I feel like I can talk my shit, and that’s fun. I also really like “Feelings,” because for the live version I take a vocal solo, and it’s fun trying out different improvisational things each night.
I’m a little bit strict with myself in the sense that I like the set to be exactly the same, but there are moments of improvisation that are different each night, so I look forward to them the most.
EZP: Take me back a bit – how did you discover that you wanted to be an artist and create music? What was that journey like?
DO: That’s a really good question. It was my wish for a really long time – it was always my wish on birthdays, and on 11:11, ever since I was about eight. I would close my eyes and picture myself doing what I do now: making music, recording, filming music videos, going on tour. So, it was kind of funny being on tour and talking with my creative director and manager about edits and schedules, and being like, “oh wow, I achieved my dream from when I was eight.”
But it was also a dream I never really told anybody about. My parents have always had very high expectations for me, so it felt like a little fantasy. I would tell people I wanted to be an obstetrician-gynecologist, that was my front-facing answer. Funny enough, it was in college that I realized what I wanted to do and had the freedom to choose it. That’s when I started making music more seriously. I got involved in my school’s jazz program and really took to it.
I think it can be hard to figure out how to find the intersection of what you’re good at, what benefits the world, and what fulfills you personally. It can be hard to find a job that accomplishes all three. With medicine, it fulfilled two of them – it benefits the world, and it’s something I’m good at – but it didn’t fulfill me personally. I wasn’t really enjoying myself as much.
EZP: What drew you to the jazz realm within music? I think I read somewhere that you grew up listening to jazz – correct me if I’m wrong.
DO: Yeah, I did. I grew up listening to a lot of different kinds of music. I remember my dad telling me that Sarah Vaughan was his dad’s favorite artist. I never met my grandfather because he passed away when my dad was a teenager, but she always had this sense of mystery and allure to me. I loved her voice as a kid. As I was singing along to her music and learning how to sing, I think I emulated her in a way. I also listened to musicians inspired by jazz, like Jill Scott, A Tribe Called Quest, and Robert Glasper. I remember loving their albums as a kid and as a teenager.
When I went to school, the place where I could make music most seriously was in an institutional setting, and my school had a really strong jazz program. I had sung classically and done opera, but jazz was something I had never really studied. There was definitely a learning curve transitioning from classical to jazz, but I loved it. It combined the rigor and discipline of classical music with the improvisational, free-form nature of other music I enjoyed. I could also identify with it as Black music, which I connected to deeply. So, it just made sense. It was a combination of loving jazz and being in an academic environment where that was the option. There wasn’t, like, a hip-hop ensemble – you know what I mean? If you wanted to study music in that setting, you could learn jazz or classical. And I love jazz, so I feel really lucky to have studied it seriously.
EZP: Shifting to some of your new music, I know your debut EP was entirely self-produced and written – are you taking a similar approach with your new music?
DO: My new music is also self-produced, but I’ve been working with other people. I wrote all the songs and composed them, but I’ve been collaborating on production with two artists that I love, Vooo and Omari Jazz. It works well because we have a very aligned vision, and as a producer, it makes more sense for me to work closely with one or two people rather than many different producers.
EZP: I was going to ask about the challenges of doing everything independently, but it seems like that’s how you prefer it.
DO: Yeah, I think so. I like when an artist’s music really sounds like them – very particular and idiosyncratic. For me, I can only really get my sound if I’m making it myself.
In the past, I worked alone partly out of preference – I like making vulnerable, personal music – but also out of necessity. There just aren’t that many female producers. It can be hard to access those spaces as a woman, but I’m glad it never stopped me. I never thought, “All the producers I know are men, so I won’t try.” Instead, it made me want to do it myself.
EZP: I love that! What does your songwriting process look like?
DO: I usually start with lyrics. When I wrote my first song at 14, it started as a poem that I put to music. I’m always writing poetry or journaling, so I’ll pull from that. Then I sit at the piano or guitar and improvise, and match those words to music. It is usually just me and an instrument. Then I think about production as adornment. I see the lyrics, voice, and instrument as a sketch, and the production as the watercolor layered on top.
EZP: That’s always so fascinating to hear! I also wanted to talk about analog formats. You had cassettes for sale while on tour, and of course your artist name is Offline. What do analog formats mean to you?
DO: I just think they’re cool. That’s how I was introduced to music. My parents had me later in life, so even though streaming existed, they were still using CDs and flipping through those big cases. I also love analog recording techniques like recording to tape and vintage instruments. They have a warmth and texture that digital can’t fully replicate.
I love cassettes particularly because they’re affordable and portable. I love bringing my cassette player with me to places like the park and being able to be off my phone. I’m kind of an old-head curmudgeon about social media – I use it, but I don’t love it. Cassettes let me engage with music in a more tactile way.
EZP: I totally get that. I got into records through my dad’s collection, but I haven’t explored cassettes yet.
DO: You should! You can find great stuff and take them anywhere. My dream is to have a car with a cassette player. Also, growing up in Alabama, we’d lose power during storms, but we could still play cassettes. That gave me an appreciation for analog media.
EZP: I do think there’s a resurgence happening; people want to own their music and have that autonomy.
DO: Yes, totally.
EZP: I also wanted to ask about “Angel,” your newest single. Talk to me about that song.
DO: “Angel” was inspired by my boyfriend, who often calls me an angel, which is sweet, but I’m also a bit avoidant, and so I was scared of being idealized. I also study the Renaissance – I’m a bit of a Dante scholar – and I love depictions of angels, especially biblically accurate ones, which are terrifying, and I liked the imagery of them with huge wings and seven eyes, and I was interested in playing with that idea. To be loved is to be known, and that’s fucking terrifying, but also really divine.
EZP: That balance really comes through. I also watched the music video, what was that process like?
DO: It wasn’t my first video, but it was my first at that scale. We wanted to explore what it would look like for an angel to exist in real life, and how inconvenient that would be. Wings knocking things over, struggling to fit through spaces. It’s a bit humorous, but also abstract. I think it expands on the song’s idea, which is what I love in a music video.
EZP: How involved are you with visuals?
DO: I’m more of a music person, but I still have a strong opinion. With visuals, I like collaboration. I bring ideas, but I enjoy working with a director and creative director to push them further. While with music, I’m very specific and stubborn, with visuals, I’m more open.
EZP: To wrap up – what do you want listeners to take away from your music?
DO: I like to leave that open. Once music is out, it’s not really mine anymore, but I hope people feel transported. I want them to feel like they’re entering another world and maybe seeing their own life differently.
That’s what great art does, and I want to make great art.
