Going into this interview with Dan Duminy (real name Daniel Wesley Duminy), the South African-born singer-songwriter struck me as a bit of an enigma. With only a handful of singles out pre-2024 that were more hip-hop-focused (one featuring Nasty C and two featuring Blxckie and Crowned Yung), I was taken by surprise when I listened to his first single of the year, “In My Head”.
If you took the best parts of a repentant Justin Bieber circa Purpose (2015), and crossed it with The Kid Laroi’s cathartic emo mixtape F*ck Love (2020), you’d get a good feel for where “In My Head” sits on the pop spectrum.
It’s a quintessential heartbreak track, but damn it’s got a catchy melody. And the production is just as slick as any global Top 40 hit. It’s got that sexy LA-feel to it, which makes sense when you find out that Dan spent the last four years living and working in the City of Angels.
“So I was in LA working on an album with a lady named Diane Warren,” Dan tells me nonchalantly when I ask him what he was doing in LA for four years. Excuse me? American songwriting treasure, Diane Warren??
Dan’s very casual with the backstory. “I’ve been working on this album for the last four years alongside Diane and her main producer and engineer, AC Burrell. AC saw the music video I did for ‘With Us’ and got a hold of me and said we should work together, and that I should come to LA and we can have a session and see if we connect. So I did, and we ended up working from her main studio in Hollywood, so I was blessed to meet her and make music with her. She has about three songs on my upcoming album, so yeah. I was working on making music and developing as an artist.”
Now as much as I love South Africa, if I’m living and working in LA alongside Diane Warren, chances are home isn’t at the top of my mind, so I’m curious as to why Dan decided to come back.
“When I was living in LA I was in a relationship with a girl who was from Cape Town–”
Stories that start like this never end well.
“–and we came back to South Africa for a month to see her family. On the way home we had a layover in Atlanta, and then her Visa got declined and taken away. So I was left with the choice of, do I leave my partner behind, or do I support her and go back home with her? So that’s what I did, I came back, with the plan of going back to LA after her visa gets sorted out… but then we broke up,” he laughs to soften the blow, but I already knew where that was going.
“It was a very weird time,” he tells me bluntly. “I’m a big believer in trusting what God has planned, even in the worst of times. So when I was in Atlanta, Blxckie was there too, so at least I was able to leave the airport and go get some sleep. And when I came back my aunt called me and said, ‘I know none of this makes sense to you, I just want you to know that a greater plan will be revealed to you’.”
“And back at home while I was dealing with the break up, Hey Neighbour hit me up and said, ‘Please come perform here’. Then Nasty C hit me up again and said, ‘Come on tour with me’. So much was happening for me musically and things were starting to make sense to me. In LA I was doing so much behind the scenes for so long trying to get everything ready, and coming back to SA I was almost given my flowers a little bit more.”
“So I decided to give myself a bit of time to rediscover who I was before this relationship, by focusing on my mental health, my physical health and really pushing everything regarding my music and my personal life to the T. And that’s where I am today, I am grateful,” he says on a low exhale, the kind of exhale that makes me think this was a longer process than he would have liked, but the space he’s in now is wholly positive.
His new single “You Don’t Know Me”, made alongside his best friend Jordan James, is rooted in Dan’s desire to create music that resonates deeply with listeners. “It’s about being who you want to be and not worrying about what anyone may say or think or feel, they don’t know me anyway! And it just highlights that you should be who you want, because realistically only few close friends and family know the real you,” he explains.
The music video for “You Don’t Know Me”, shot in Japan by Ntando Butho, is easily the most effective video that Dan’s released, mirroring the single’s intention smartly. “I’m giving everyone a video that’s more a vlog or documentary style, so that they can get to know me a little bit better. It captures the memories, the good and the bad times, and it shows me as Dan, who I am as a person.”
The video does well in capturing the neon lights and intense rush of Japan’s big cities. Dan’s clear about the fact that Japan was a huge culture shock to his system, but within his chaotic trip, there were poignant reflections. “I had a really good moment in Japan when I was with a friend I’d met there, his name is Hiroki,” Dan begins. “Now Hiroki doesn’t speak a word of English, but he told me that he liked Lil Uzi. And one of my friends in LA has an unreleased song with Lil Uzi, so I played it for him. And even though the song was in English, the smile on Hiroki’s face was like the song was in Japanese. And that’s the power of music, it’s a real feeling.”
The way I feel after he tells me that story is just the general vibe I get from Dan – that real warm and fuzzy feeling. Get ready for it to resonate.
