Starfighter (City In The Sky) is the newest single from Dan Graul’s acoustic album titled Don’t Be Afraid. The song is a mediation on the feeling of safety or the idea of security. The song came about after a conversation with a friend about a trip to Vancouver and their “high tech security” that got Dan thinking on that phrase and the concept of personal safety and security and what does it mean to “feel safe.” This song was written in 2006, a time that had very different connotations around security but Dan feels like the concept has continued to evolve with the times. In the wake of AI what does security vs. personal safety and privacy feel like? What does it mean to “feel safe” as a working class American, as our billionaires are racing to space, actively talking about moving there and settling other planets, and actively building underground bunkers in remote areas of the country? We live in interesting times and this song seems to be keeping on theme as it ages. Safety is an illusion and Dan Graul is here to tell you Don’t Be Afraid.
Everything Has Changed is a psych folk exploration that celebrates change and finds joy in grief. The track is the newest single from Dan Graul’s new album Don’t Be Afraid. Dan wrote the song as an avenue to help himself move forward in the wake of losing his mother. Graul often uses music as a vehicle to examine his own emotional turmoil in a more objective way; and this one certainly came from tackling a tough, dark moment. Dan hopes others will find some solace in celebrating the change and singing along. In times of darkness, the love inside will light the way.
Dan Graul’s forthcoming album is Don’t Be Afraid. Dan wanted to present a set of songs performed and arranged simply, as if you were there in the room with him. There’s no grand production or extravagant arrangement on these songs, as they seek to highlight the basic building blocks of the music: songwriting, emotion, intention and execution in the moment. In the face of the mountains of AI slop polluting our lives and a culture of bigger, faster, louder; Dan wanted to make something tangibly human and empathetic because ultimately that’s what he himself is seeking to connect with. Don’t Be Afraid will feature a mix of Dan’s older and newer songs, some of these were songs originally recorded with Northern Strangers, some never previously recorded and some are brand new pieces altogether. Dan will be releasing the album track by track over the rest of 2026.
What Will Become Of You is the second track to release from Dan Graul’s new album Don’t Be Afraid. The song is a psychedelic meditation on the way fear and doubt have a way of invading our thoughts and seeping into our fabric of being, unless they are confronted. The song is largely inspired by 60’s psychedelic music like early Pink Floyd and The Doors. In the song, the singer acts as a kind of persistent antagonizing voice who is presenting dark ideas and scenes that plant a seed of uncertainty. Dan wrote the song at a period in life when he was working through personal anxiety and self doubt. Throughout his life, he has continually used songwriting as a method to explore darkness and find a way through tough mental times. Dan has long found a safe outlet in music as a vehicle to put the dark thoughts outside of himself and listen back to them from a more objective point of view. With the greater perspective, the scary ideas are never quite as scary as when they are just festering unexplored and half imagined.
Dan Graul’s forthcoming album is called Don’t Be Afraid. Dan wanted to present a set of songs performed and arranged simply, as if you were there in the room with him. There’s no grand production or extravagant arrangement on these songs, as they seek to highlight the basic building blocks of the music: songwriting, emotion, intention and execution in the moment. In the face of the mountains of AI slop polluting our lives and a culture of bigger, faster, louder; Dan wanted to make something tangibly human and empathetic because ultimately that’s what he himself is seeking to connect with. Don’t Be Afraid will feature a mix of Dan’s older and newer songs, some of these were songs originally recorded with Northern Strangers, some never previously recorded and some are brand new pieces altogether. Dan will be releasing the album track by track over the rest of 2026.
Don’t Be Afraid is a heartfelt folk song that yearns for a more evolved world, beyond imagined divisions and barriers. Dan Graul wrote the song, with the thought that if people could put down the false categories we fill ourselves into and then we could truly see each other with respect and equality in coexistence. The song comes from an entirely optimistic point of view about a kind of recognition that is easily within reach but always just around the corner and back a few steps. It stays grounded in the present with a passionate call to empowerment against fear.
Don’t Be Afraid is the title track from Dan Graul’s upcoming new album. Dan wanted to present a set of songs performed and arranged simply, as if you were there in the room with him. There’s no grand production or extravagant arrangement on these songs, as they seek to highlight the basic building blocks of the music: songwriting, emotion, intention and execution in the moment. In the face of the mountains of AI slop polluting our lives and a culture of bigger, faster, louder; Dan wanted to make something tangibly human and empathetic because ultimately that’s what he himself is seeking to connect with. Don’t Be Afraid will feature a mix of Dan’s older and newer songs, some of these were songs originally recorded with Northern Strangers, some never previously recorded and some are brand new pieces altogether. Dan will be releasing the album track by track over the rest of 2026.
Beautiful Animal is a romantic alt-rock tinged folk ballad about deep, true love, kinship and the endless potential of us. Dan Graul wrote the psychedelic love song for his wife Rebecca and surprised her with a lineup of their friends all playing it live on their wedding day. Halloween 2025 marked their 10th wedding anniversary, Grauloween as they call it. Dan has reworked the arrangement of the song and added a new section of lyrics evoking a yearning call of dedication to love, echoing off a mountain for all to witness. Though the track was written for a very specific audience of one, Dan had this to say of its universal relevance – “I hope others will find encouragement in this tune, as we are all beautiful animals perched and ready to unfurl our spectacular wings at any moment. We all have the power to be anything and do anything with our lives. We are resilient, amazing animals of the human kind and our potential is boundless, especially when we look to act from a place of love and understanding. Love is the action that truly lasts and transcends.”
Beautiful Animal is a romantic folk ballad about deep, true love, kinship and the endless potential of us. Dan Graul wrote the psychedelic love song for his wife Rebecca and surprised her with a lineup of their friends all playing it live on their wedding day. Halloween 2025 marked their 10th wedding anniversary, Grauloween as they call it. Dan has reworked the arrangement of the song and added a new section of lyrics evoking a yearning call of dedication to love, echoing off a mountain for all to witness. Though the track was written for a very specific audience of one, Dan had this to say of its universal relevance – “I hope others will find encouragement in this tune, as we are all beautiful animals perched and ready to unfurl our spectacular wings at any moment. We all have the power to be anything and do anything with our lives. We are resilient, amazing animals of the human kind and our potential is boundless, especially when we look to act from a place of love and understanding. Love is the action that truly lasts and transcends.”
Infinite Love is a fuzzy, psychedelic art pop song that eschews the language of trad love songs in favor of a more practical take. The newest track from Dan Graul explores notions of what love and support look like from a real world perspective, in a long standing relationship. Dan sought to ask the question “how can I best support my partner through tough times?” The answer that came was “be there – for better, for worse.” It can be easy to mislead yourself into thinking that you can make someone happy or be the answer to all of their problems, when the reality is that each of us is responsible for our own contentment. Each of us is on our own journey and perhaps the best we can do is be present and steadfast to those we love. Real love is not like the movies or pop music, it’s a journey of constant change and mutual reinvestment in one another.
Let The Music Play is a folk rock testimonial to the power of music and its ability to help us be present. Dan Graul’s first track of 2025 is fueled by sorrow but filled with cathartic joy. In a personal moment of great grief, Graul thought to himself “How do I go on from here? What helps me rise out of the sludge of depression that follows loss after loss of loved ones?” When it arrived, the answer seemed so simple – just sing. Do the thing that has always allowed you to put your mind aside and be in the now.
Graul has these thoughts to offer on the song.
“In a period of five years, I had lost my mother, followed by my grandmother. My wife lost her grandmother, who was also a pivotal, loving figure in my life. We lost three little cats that we loved furiously. Together we endured a great amount of personal strife, not to mention the uncertainty of a pandemic that also happened during that time.
This song was born in the wake of all the loss and uncertainty of that period of life. In the face of all that happened, I recognized that I still had so much that was well worth being present for; and music is something that has always brought me to the now – by singing, playing, listening, dancing, engaging and seemingly just getting lost in it. I have pursued art all my life because it has given me a vessel to express hard and great feelings that otherwise would have remained bottled up inside. I have helped others pursue art, so they could experience that same relief. In this moment, it was just what I needed to come back to – just sing.”
The connection that music can bring is the other big revelation in Let The Music Play. You can’t enjoy a song and not feel a kinship to others who also enjoy that song. You can’t dance to your favorite band in a crowd at a live show and not feel the vibe of everyone else in the room. You can’t sing or play music with other humans and not feel a deep, meaningful bond on the other side of that experience. Connection with others brings us into the present moment and helps us find relief in times of trouble or sorrow.
So sing along to the song; and do it with a friend (or a few), feel your feelings together and experience the present moment because it’s only here right now.
The Serpent is a fiery psychedelic folk song that asks the listener to consider what kind of community we could be building together if we weren’t being forced to live in the divisions of class, race, sex and anything else the powers that be can throw our way to keep us apart. Dan Graul speaks to the worship of money and the selfishness that plague our society and surmises that our future can be anything we want it to be, but we must choose to actively participate in the creation of that future.
The Serpent is out 9/29/23 across all streaming platforms.
Times We Had is a nostalgic and dreamy piece of psychedelic folk pop that was written standing on my front porch when I had just moved to Los Angeles. I was staring at a blank sky with all the stars drowned out by vast amounts of light pollution. It was like a metaphor for what was going on inside me as I took my first steps along my journey to who I have become since then – still living in Los Angeles but much more confident in self, and again seeing the stars on a much more regular basis.
The Sky At Night EP contains Constellations and Times We Had. These two songs have always felt like sister songs to me. Constellations was written on my Mom’s back porch in Missouri at a time when I was about to move away and feeling empowered and emboldened, as if the universe was presenting itself to me. Times We Had as written from a much more uncertain perspective but was born from a similar place.
