The New York music maker talks songwriting, early days and running a label.
She Covered World Party's "Is It Like Today?" For Charity
"The lyrics are kind of about how no matter what time period there have always been wars and bloodshed — if it’s because of people’s different religions," she said. "But in the end, we all kind of want the same thing, peace, but I thought the lyrics were really great. And I was covering it, and I didn’t know if I was going to release it or anything. Originally I was going to put it up and have the proceeds go to the Sierra Club, which is an organization that protects wildlife and nature. All this news about Aleppo and just seeing pictures of what’s going on there. I thought that would be more prominent. And also the environment is important, but I called the Sierra Club. And they said they’ve been getting lots of donations since the election and because we have a president who doesn’t believe in climate change, we have to do something. So I reached out to the band World Party, and they said, “As long as it’s for a good cause,” they were okay with it. So I got the rights to license the song to put up for download. And it’s $5 to download the song, and all the proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders. So there’s just a donation button up on IsItLikeToday.com, and it goes directly to their PayPal.”
You can order it here.
She Owns Her Own Label
Danz isn't just a musician, DJ, producer and overall music maker, but she's also runs her own label.
"I have a licensing company that licenses all my songs for commercials," she began. "And one of my songs, 'Running' was in a Lexus commercial a few years ago. With the money from that commercial and the royalties, no labels were approaching me to sign me or anything. So I thought, 'Well, I have this money. But I'll put music out myself. I hired a PR company, distributor, a place to press vinyls. The whole thing. I have a lawyer/manager, who's helped me. There's so many elements I had to get. I put posters and billboards around the city. There's a lot that goes into this."