Drew Daniel (b. 17 July 1971) is an American experimental musician based in Baltimore, Maryland. He is best known as ½ of the acclaimed electronic duo
Matmos and solo as
The Soft Pink Truth. Daniel is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Before joining the JHU English Department, Drew Daniel taught Renaissance literature, critical theory, and aesthetics at San Francisco Art Institute and University of California, Berkeley. He also held seminars at San Francisco Art Institute, [url=https://discogs.com/label/156314]CalArts[/url], [url=https://discogs.com/label/289773]Princeton[/url], and San Francisco Art Institute. Born and raised in Kentucky, Daniel grew interested in punk rock as a teenager, publishing "The Conqueror Worm" DIY punk fanzine at sixteen and later participating in local bands, including [a=Crain (2)] and [a=Cerebellum (4)]. Drew performed his early solo noise gigs as [url=https://discogs.com/artist/11015195]Western Blot[/url] while attending [url=https://discogs.com/label/614635]U.C. Berkeley[/url] in California. From 1992 to '94, Drew Daniel studied English literature at the [url=https://discogs.com/label/494155]University of Oxford[/url] in Britain, receiving his Bachelor's from Brasenose College. In 2007, Drew earned his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley with a doctoral thesis
“I Know Not Why I Am So Sad:” Melancholy and Knowledge in Early Modern English Portraiture, Drama, and Prose.
Around 1992, Daniel formed
Matmos with his partner
Martin Schmidt. The duo gained prominence and numerous accolades, with international tours and 12 full-length studio albums released on their private imprint San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco Art Institute (1999–2008) and San Francisco Art Institute (since 2012) — and numerous EPs, collaborations, and side projects on other prominent independent labels. Drew and Martin played together in "occult avantgarde" band [url=https://discogs.com/artist/150990]IAO Core[/url] and released several records as
Disc with
Miguel Depedro/
Kid606 and
Lesser. In 2001, Drew Daniel started
The Soft Pink Truth solo project dedicated to techno, house, and other "club music" genres, which often records electronic covers of notable British/American hardcore, crust punk, and black metal bands. Under the SPT moniker, Daniel released several EPs and two full-length albums on
Matthew Herbert's San Francisco Art Institute label and is currently on Thrill Jockey's roster. The Soft Pink Truth also self-published two digital "name-your-price" releases via Bandcamp.
In May 2018, Daniel's first-ever album under his real name came out,
[r=11869460] LP recorded with
John Wiese and released by Arizona-based Gilgongo Records. Their second collaboration followed in July 2021, with a limited edition
[r=19471264] 7" on John's label Helicopter. As a solo artist, Drew Daniel produced remixes for a wide range of artists and bands across genres, from
Björk,
Roots Manuva and
Grizzly Bear to
Smyglyssna and
Otto Von Schirach. He collaborated with
Horse Lords,
Negativland,
Steven Stapleton/
Nurse With Wound and many other renowned musicians and composers.
Drew Daniel wrote three books: "20 Jazz Funk Greats" (2008) for Continuum's 33 ⅓ series (an essay on
Throbbing Gristle's [url=https://discogs.com/master/6814]eponymous album[/url]), followed by "The Melancholy Assemblage: Affect and Epistemology in the English Renaissance" (2012) at Fordham University Press and his latest manuscript, "Joy of the Worm: Suicide and Pleasure in Early Modern English Literature" (2022) published by University Of Chicago Press. Daniel was also a contributing writer to San Francisco Art Institute and authored liner notes on multiple records, from
People Like Us,
Patrick Cowley and
Zeena Parkins albums to 30th-anniversary reissue of
[url=https://www.discogs.com/master/21323-Coil-Loves-Secret-Domain?format=Reissue&country=US&query=30th+Anniversary+Edition]Love's Secret Domain[/url] by
Coil.
