The Full Story

My dad used to play The Beach Boys’ Endless Summer a lot when I was little. I'd listen to "The Warmth of the Sun" over and over, lying on the floor, drawing and dreaming. Looking back, it's clear that's how it all started. That falsetto. Those harmonies.

When I was 25, I mashed up Endless Summer with the '80s new wave and hair metal I grew up on, and out came my first record, Blue Pop. The guy from my tiny record label called it "power pop." I’d never heard the term, but I liked it. It sounded fizzy.

Listen to Blue Pop

The album got stellar reviews for an indie. The coolest was from AllMusic, who called it "...among the best guitar-pop albums of the '90s..." I had songs placed in TV shows like Felicity and Undergrads on MTV. I won a passionate fanbase.

I was invited to one of Miles Copeland's songwriting retreats at his castle in France, where I co-wrote a song called "Christmas Morning" that showed up on the Universal compilation A Country Superstar Christmas 4 alongside Vince Gill, Travis Tritt, and Dolly Parton. CDNOW called it "...one of the finest new tunes of this holiday season."

I formed a band called The Adam Daniel Frequency and we worked the LA club scene. We wore suits. I went blonde. It was good times.

And then... I disappeared. Dealing with some health issues, I spent the next few years unable to do much more than read. I got really into the intersection of spirituality, science, and art. I started a blog about it called Poetic Interconnections. I liked writing so much I began a novel.

Visit Poetic Interconnections

When I finally came back to LA, I had a backlog of songs I'd written since Blue Pop. Unsigned now, I had no way to properly record them, so I whipped up some album cover art and just released the demos.

Listen to 4-track demos: The Adam Daniel Frequency

Listen to 4-track demos: Where You Are EP

Eventually, I finished my novel, decided I didn't like it, shelved it, and started giving talks about Poetic Interconnections instead. That led to my creating and teaching a class called "Spirituality, Science, and the Creative Process" at Otis College of Art and Design.

I was an art school professor. I still can't believe it.

Learn more about Spirituality, Science, and the Creative Process

It was amazing leading a class of artists in exploring their creative lives. They produced gorgeous work based on each week’s theme: duality, energy, emergence, chaos, evolution, actualization.

There was only one musician in class, a guitarist, and she used a delay pedal to compose a piece inspired by fractals and infinity that blew my mind.

Meantime, I started writing and performing with an alt-country side project called The Flutterbies, and two of our cuts were placed in that sad, beautiful, Oscar-winning George Clooney movie The Descendants. That began a string of good film/TV placements and sessions, including playing guitar for the Screen Actors Guild Awards and doing fistfuls of shred metal cues for Ultimate Fighting Championship.

See all film/TV and session credits

I got hired as a piano man at Ivan Kane's Cafe Wa s in Hollywood, spending 3-4 nights a week crooning viby ballad versions of Foo Fighters and Britney Spears songs to hipsters and celebs. The piano was on a rotating platform. I thought I’d get dizzy, but never did.

I joined a nonprofit called Rock the Classroom, teaching inner city 4th and 5th graders to craft their own hilarious lyrics to Beatles and Miley Cyrus songs. Topics were inspired by their own life experience and what they were learning in class.

We taught them narrative flow, meter, and rhyme scheme. I snuck in lessons about stank face and how to do a big rock finish.

Best gig ever.

In 2012 I decided I should finally follow up Blue Pop properly. So I bought Logic and some plugins, souped up my MacBook Pro refurb with extra RAM, and set to work songwriting, arranging, producing, performing, recording, mixing, and mastering all by myself.

Yes, I’m a control freak.

It's why I also started doing my own web design, graphic design, and bio writing.

Turns out, those are marketable skills, and the branding and design shop I started with them kept me in boutique guitars and amps the next ten years.

Anyway, it took awhile to finish the album, mostly because my daughter was born halfway through recording it, but in July 2013 I finally released Pop, Baby—a grab bag of Elton John piano, glam rock guitars, Beach Boys vocal stacks, and new wave synth candy. All my favorite things.

Listen to Pop, Baby

Now that I had a home studio, I started producing some great artists. I wrote and recorded more songs for possible sync or sale, and Nashville Songwriters Association named me "One to Watch."

I was invited to become a member of The Tribe, a collective of studio and touring musicians including members of Badfinger, Wilson Phillips, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Epic shows, with all proceeds going to charity.

I also started doing more sideman work as a guitarist, bassist, and keyboardist, most notably playing guitar behind The Drifters and The Coasters—a dream gig for a classic pop nut like me.

And then... 2020. I got through the pandemic doing some online performing and playing a lot of ambient blues guitar in my bedroom. I also developed a fuzz pedal addiction. We cope how we cope.

And now? I've been laying somewhat low the past few years, but energy's building and the smart money says this: More music. More writing and teaching. More art, always.

The Full Story

My dad used to play The Beach Boys’ Endless Summer a lot when I was little. I'd listen to "The Warmth of the Sun" over and over, lying on the floor, drawing and dreaming. Looking back, it's clear that's how it all started. That falsetto. Those harmonies.

When I was 25, I mashed up Endless Summer with the '80s new wave and hair metal I grew up on, and out came my first record, Blue Pop. The guy from my tiny record label called it "power pop." I’d never heard the term, but I liked it. It sounded fizzy.

The album got stellar reviews for an indie. The coolest was from AllMusic, who called it "...among the best guitar-pop albums of the '90s..." I had songs placed in TV shows like Felicity and Undergrads on MTV. I won a passionate fanbase.

I formed a band called The Adam Daniel Frequency and we worked the LA club scene. We wore suits. I went blonde. It was good times.

And then... I disappeared. Dealing with some health issues, I spent the next few years unable to do much more than read. I got really into the intersection of spirituality, science, and art. I started a blog about it called Poetic Interconnections. I liked writing so much I began a novel.

When I finally came back to LA, I had a backlog of songs I'd written since Blue Pop. Unsigned now, I had no way to properly record them, so I whipped up some album cover art and just released the demos.

Eventually, I finished my novel, decided I didn't like it, shelved it, and started giving talks about Poetic Interconnections instead. That led to my creating and teaching a class called "Spirituality, Science, and the Creative Process" at Otis College of Art and Design.

I was an art school professor. I still can't believe it.

It was amazing leading a class of artists in exploring their creative lives. They produced gorgeous work based on each week’s theme: duality, energy, emergence, chaos, evolution, actualization.

There was only one musician in class, a guitarist, and she used a delay pedal to compose a piece inspired by fractals and infinity that blew my mind.

I got hired as a piano man at Ivan Kane's Cafe Wa s in Hollywood, spending 3-4 nights a week crooning viby ballad versions of Foo Fighters and Britney Spears songs to hipsters and celebs. The piano was on a rotating platform. I thought I’d get dizzy, but never did.

I joined a nonprofit called Rock the Classroom, teaching inner city 4th and 5th graders to craft their own hilarious lyrics to Beatles and Miley Cyrus songs. Topics were inspired by their own life experience and what they were learning in class.

We taught them narrative flow, meter, and rhyme scheme. I snuck in lessons about stank face and how to do a big rock finish.

Best gig ever.

In 2012 I decided I should finally follow up Blue Pop properly. So I bought Logic and some plugins, souped up my MacBook Pro refurb with extra RAM, and set to work songwriting, arranging, producing, performing, recording, mixing, and mastering all by myself.

Yes, I’m a control freak.

It's why I also started doing my own web design, graphic design, and bio writing.

Turns out, those are marketable skills, and the branding and design shop I started with them kept me in boutique guitars and amps the next ten years.

Anyway, it took awhile to finish the album, mostly because my daughter was born halfway through recording it, but in July 2013 I finally released Pop, Baby—a grab bag of Elton John piano, glam rock guitars, Beach Boys vocal stacks, and new wave synth candy. All my favorite things.

Now that I had a home studio, I started producing some great artists. I wrote and recorded more songs for possible sync or sale, and Nashville Songwriters Association named me "One to Watch."

I was invited to become a member of The Tribe, a collective of studio and touring musicians including members of Badfinger, Wilson Phillips, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Epic shows, with all proceeds going to charity.

I also started doing more sideman work as a guitarist, bassist, and keyboardist, most notably playing guitar behind The Drifters and The Coasters—a dream gig for a classic pop nut like me.

And then... 2020. I got through the pandemic doing some online performing and playing a lot of ambient blues guitar in my bedroom. I also developed a fuzz pedal addiction. We cope how we cope.

And now? I've been laying somewhat low the past few years, but energy's building and the smart money says this: More music. More writing and teaching. More art, always.

© — 2025