Music Career

This article discusses Daniel's music career as a whole. For his music releases, see Discography.

Cover for Something More.

One of Daniel's most pursued life-long aspirations (and delusions) is to become a world-famous singer. With the help of his mentor, Bob Proctor, and occasionally others, Daniel has been able to produce multiple songs, although most of his discography has not been officially released. As of 2024, Daniel has published three official songs: Roaring Thunder (2021), Something More (2022) and Merry Go Round (2023).

The release of his music doesn't come without controversy, as it is believed that Daniel (or rather, Bob) simply buy the rights to a pre-existing song, providing nothing original except for vocals. It is also speculated that Daniel has not truly written any of the lyrics to his songs, given his limited vocabulary, which is most likely true given that most of Daniel's non-studio recorded songs are made by managers who tell him what to say over a beat. The truth behind these allegations cannot be confirmed at this time.

According to Daniel, it takes approximately two to four days to produce one song. The high cost of music production, in combination with his financial instability and housing crisis, has limited the amount of songs he's been able to create. From July 2021 to July 2022, Daniel claims to have made $400 from the song Roaring Thunder.

Daniel has claimed multiple times that he is a world-famous singer, claiming in an interview with Monkeyman that he had 800 million to 1.2 billion fans of his music, although being obviously untrue, because if it were true, it would mean that 10% of the world's population would know who Daniel is, when they obviously don't. According to an interview with Luke, Daniel genuinely believes he is a world-famous singer, mostly because he is regularly recognized in Denver. Luke says Daniel does not understand that he is infamous and no one genuinely likes his music, mainly due to his delusions.

Origins

Daniel seemed to be a passionate theater kid.

Daniel's interest in music can be tracked back to his childhood. In his childhood, Daniel would be enrolled in several musical theater productions. It in unclear who put him in these programs, but it is likely that his grandmother did, as she was the one who held custody over him during this time.

It is also worth noting that his mother, Elisabeth Shimer, had a keen interest in music. On her YouTube channel, she would share and post several covers of music. And just like her son, she shared delusions of having fans, although these delusions do not appear to be as severe as Daniel's. It is highly likely that this may have rubbed off on Daniel, as Elisabeth seemed to have an intense wants to be famous and have fans, going as far as attending photoshoots as if she was a real celebrity.

Musical Talent

Songwriting

Daniel shows off his songwriting prowess to an unknown individual.

In Daniel's CV, he mentions receiving voice lessons from someone named "Dulcimer," although it is unclear who that is.

Most, if not all, of Daniel's songwriting output has been him singing over lyrics that are, more often than not, not written by him. Before any of his official musical releases, most of Daniel's songs were written by Daniel himself and with most help coming from managers, although their quality easily falls flat compared to his studio recorded songs. Daniel has written only a few truly original songs, but the results are riddled with multiple issues.

Most of Daniel's lyrics appear to be somewhat autobiographical. The lyrics of Something More showed, although small, insight on Daniel's thought processes and struggles with schizophrenia, with its most quoted lyric being "I'm surrounded by people I don't see". In his song, Grace and I Freestyle, Daniel sings about his desire to date Grace VanderWaal and have sex with her even though at the time of release, she was still a minor. This song very well aligns with his unbridled lust for her, and funnily enough, the most repeated lyric is "sex".

Secondly, Daniel shows an inability to understand the mood or context of songs. A good songwriter uses lyrics that reflect the music and paint an emotional picture, which Daniel is incapable of. This is most notably shown in Daniel's song, Work, where its themes are seemingly all over the place, switching from being a partial cover of Work by Rihanna, before abruptly switching to sexual innuendos and asking the listener to twerk.

As talked about before, Daniel has a problem with repetition. In his song, I Love Peanuts, the aforementioned phrase is repeated multiple times, lyrics barely ever changing. This is also shown in the song STD Soaps, wherein Daniel repeats the phrase "I got the STD soaps, that's why we're cleaning, that's why we're shovin', that's why we're coking up". Lastly, in the song Birthday Boy, Daniel repeats the lyrics "I'm a birthday boy, I'm just working all day, and working all night", (which is quite ironic as Daniel has not worked a day in his life) along with the lyrics "It's the start of my birthday celebration". This would be fine if the instrumentals Daniels "sang" over weren't so repetitive, and if he actually changed up the lyrics once in a while.

Even more, Daniel's attempts at figurative language fall flat. In Gang Life, he boldly states "The bitch fell in love with me, pull her like a lasso, I nut on her face, turn that shit into a Picasso". In Running From My Past, Daniel sings, "All the sins that move against me, move past, moving past" and "I carry it up, like a past that I just forgot, and I carry you, like a weight on my jeans" which really begs the question as to what any of this means.

As for Daniel's other songs, they are mostly him covering already existing songs, although Daniel insists that these are serious compositions and never once implies that the lyrics are in no way written by him. Most notably, Daniel's cover of Wild Hearts by Keith Urban (which was subsequently leaked by Flexburger), and his cover of Sex with Me by Rihanna, although the only notable change are the backing tracks/instrumentals.

Singing

Daniel has a poor grasp on singing, which should be obvious given how much autotune and voice adjustment is used in his professionally recorded songs. Daniel, because of his delusions, has convinced himself that he is, in fact, a great singer who does not need any improvement in the field.

His voice is unusually high-pitched, and often extremely quiet. He also speaks with rarely any emotion, almost always monotone. These issues with his voice show in full force whenever Daniel attempts to sing. In his song, I Love Peanuts, Daniel does not "sing" so much as yell over the track. At other times, Daniel's emotionless voice pulls back from the tempo and nature of the song.

It is telling that not only does Daniel lack any sense of pitch in singing, but with melodies in general. This is evidenced in his cover of Old Town Road by Lil Nas X, where he (all but barely) tries to sing to the melody of it, but ends up with a wildly unrecognizable tune that only vaguely resembles the original song, which is only due to the backing track. And not even a minute in, Daniel completely abandons the original lyrics and begins singing about completely unrelated things.

When Daniel attempts to do a cappella, his voice is severely out of tune and barely matches the melody he wants. Daniel has trouble with tempo and entries, often pushing ahead or pulls back from the tempo of the song, making the whole musical composition fall apart.

Recording Method and Equipment

Daniel, announcing that he'll be booking another recording studio session.

Daniel's idea of making music is going to a recording studio in person and recording there, often deluded by ideas that he is a famous singer-songwriter, therefore he deserves to sing in a recording studio. This is odd, considering the huge losses in profit that come from it. More money (that Bob Proctor is spending, by the way) is spent booking and paying for these appointments than money earned from sales of Daniel's songs, which Daniel does not seem to understand at all, demanding this setup apart from others. Daniel is seemingly unaware of the incredible leaps and bounds that music recording has advanced and hasn't noticed that there are plenty of good multitrack sound editors available for free, and that going to a recording studio in person is not at all necessary.

Even when Daniel does not record his music in a studio, the quality is abysmal as Daniel uses his phone (which are often cheap models for less than 200 dollars) to record himself singing, even though it's extremely easy to record and make music on your phone.

There is always a huge quality loss when Daniel attempts to record on his phone, the audio being extremely hard to hear, most notably seen in Running from my Past, where Daniel is barely audible. The sound mixing on these songs could also use some work, as at most times, the instrumentals and backing tracks are always louder than Daniel's own voice.