DAN GRAUL
LINK TO DOWNLOADABLE EPK ASSETS AND AUDIO FILES
CONTACT:
northernstrangers@gmail.com
GENRE:
Psychedelic Folk
HOMETOWN:
Los Angeles, CA
LINKS:
Linktree https://www.northernstrangers.com/linktree/
Official Website http://www.northernstrangers.com
Bandcamp http://www.dangraul.bandcamp.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DanGraulMusic/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/northernstrangers/
Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/user-640831676
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgm_Tt1uugUCLn3H_67JmxA
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/0KQ7GLhgij6iZWuAdi42xp?si=BHAn6tdLQy6DK7scU_EmpgApple Music https://music.apple.com/us/artist/dan-graul/1541451664
DAN GRAUL BIO:
Dan Graul (He/They) has long been driven by a desire to collaborate. He first found his spiritual artist, warrior-self singing in school choirs and small acapella groups. Dan’s passions moved him into theatre performance, as well as direction, production design and anything he could do to make a show. He built a life as a performer. He worked his way across the country through various tours and regional theatres, eventually landing him in Los Angeles.
Dan and his wife Rebecca met teaching musical theatre together at YADA (Youth Academy Of Dramatic Arts) in West Hollywood. From there, a fruitful creative relationship was born as well as a deep, true love. Today the pair live in LA with their three cats and a whole host of musical instruments. They created psychedelic folk band Northern Strangers, who built their reputation by playing Pink Floyd albums live and synced up with video projections around LA and on tour.
Dan also plays in psych improv group YHWH with Lee Harcourt and Pagan rock storytelling Half Tongue Tribe with David Lebarron.
Dan Is actively involved in the Los Angeles theatre community, serving as Sound Designer for theatrical productions at organziations like CSUN and Redink Ensemble. He also has been involved as a pit musician, playing guitar for live musicals like Coeurage Ensemble’s critically acclaimed 360 degree production of RENT, among others. Dan co-created the theatrical show Creationing, a pagan based experience aimed at getting the audience to create their own story and live the life they envision for themselves.
Dan has been recording and releasing music as a solo artist across digital streaming platforms, since releasing his solo debut Make America Love Again, a collection of psychedelic folk songs promoting peace, love and self reflection. He has additionally grown a collection of singles across the years on streaming platforms and physical media.
2026 holds more theatrical adventures, new solo music releases coming to digital streaming platforms and you can catch Dan playing live music around LA throughout the year.
PRESS RELEASE FOR BEAUTIFUL ANIMAL (ACOUSTIC)
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.”
PRESS RELEASE FOR THE SERPENT
The Serpent is an alt-country rock anthem with a fiery punk spirit. Dan Graul paints a dark call to arms, urging us to choose community over profits and to stand up for each other. Our society has a greed problem and it’s likely to crush the everyday people, upon whose backs the riches of the few are built. The visceral folk song calls on us all to stop idolizing the almighty dollar and find the real value of being in this life in our shared experience with each other. Capitalist corporate greed is killing us all, concentrating resources into the hands of few while the many are denied basic rights of humanity.. Desire for money and materialistic aims have infiltrated all facets of our society, business and politics at the potential expense of lives and livelihoods. We the people must stand up to those who seek to enrich themselves at the exploitation of others. We must choose each other. Those with power seek to divide us but as the song exclaims – if we stand divided, we might not make it out.
PRESS RELEASE FOR LET THE MUSIC PLAY
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 hat 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.
PRESS RELEASE FOR INFINITE LOVE
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.
PRESS RELEASE FOR BELTANE SONG
Beltane Song is a dreamy, heartfelt folk song about letting the wisdom and love of our ancestors guide us from the inside out. After a period of tremendous personal loss, Dan Graul is seeing the light from the fire within and letting that love feed and propel him forward. In the absence of a loved one we are forced to deal with a mixture of emotions that can vary intensely based on our beliefs and personal experience. Loss can be such an isolating, lonely journey but this song seeks to remind us that the fire from all the love, shared memories and impact of those we’ve lost will never extinguish. Important figures shape us in ways that we can really only know once they are gone from the physical plane. When we are forced to face great loss we can be illuminated to the parts of ourselves that exist solely because of the way those loved ones impacted us. We will all be remembered by those we impact and share our love with; and they in turn will go on to shape others and that love will keep flowing like a continuous river. That’s how we’ll live forever.
PRESS RELEASE FOR HEROES
Heroes is a fuzzy psychedelic song where Dan Graul chronicles a sort of evolution of self and mind. The tune began in an apartment in the late 2000’s, when Dan Graul and Chris Holz were fresh to Los Angeles and just beginning to experiment with expressing artistic thoughts via lyrics and jangly overdriven guitars. Fifteen or so years later, Graul came back to the song idea to give it an arc that only the perspective of time passed could have brought into view. The song plays out as a kind of funky alt rock distant cousin to John Lennon’s Working Class Hero – kin to the great song that extols the virtues not of the special or privileged few, but of the many hardworking people working hard to make a difference every day. The song is an anti celebrity worship anthem that seeks to empower the listener that you don’t need permission or “followers” to be a leader. We all have the power to create the kind of dynamic in the world that we wish to see, simply by being the example. Go forth Hero, and create the world in which you want to live. Put in more than you could ever take out, give to others and you’ll feel deep down that you’re doing it right. I’m an evolving living being/Once was living in a dream/Now I am awake.
PRESS RELEASE FOR THE TREE
Get lost to find your self! The Tree is a raucous psych folk bop about finding connection to the wildness within yourself. We are all a part of the natural world around us; and we can learn so much about ourselves by finding our place amongst the trees, animals, rocks, rivers, seas and earth. Dan Graul wrote the track on a hike in the Big Bear Lake mountains, pondering themes of connection, self doubt and ultimately surrender to the wildness and connectedness of all things.
PRESS RELEASE FOR BETTER ANGELS
Better Angels is a new psychedelic folk song from Dan Graul. The track is a somber meditation on making the choice to live in love rather than grievance. The song was written years ago, as Dan was walking around Boston and taking in the sites of American history that fill the city. Our history as humans is so long and complicated and there’s much reckoning to be had amongst all of it. The song begs the question – at what point do we finally own the historical harm we’ve done and move forward together as one? We can make the choice every day, in every interaction to act from a place of fear and grievance and keep the fight and oppression raging; or we can to act from love or our best intention. We mustn’t let our better angels be corrupted in the name of vengeance or retribution for perceived harm.
PRESS RELEASE FOR END IS THE BEGINNING
End Is The Beginning is a sprawling, psychedelic meditation on coming to terms with the unknown and unknowable. Dan Graul ruminates on what “the end” means in different spheres, finding that often the end of something is the beginning of another. This concept is illustrated in precipitation that becomes a river that becomes the sea, stars that burn out and still beam their light across the universe, trees that suffer damage from fire and find a way to thrive despite their scars and even successes or failures that become behaviors and cycles within our lives. Dan finds comfort in the idea that we’re all subject to the whims of the universe and that’s okay. The heavy chorus features the vocals of Will Norris and hits like karma coming home to smack you upside the head and remind you that you don’t know everything you think you do. The instrumental tears off into wailing guitars that scream like murder before winding down into a placid, meditative end, like the star burning itself out furiously until only it’s light remains to beam out from the center. The track features Dan’s band Northern Strangers – Rebecca Graul on vocals/keys, Will Norris on vocals/bass and Jonathan Santin on Drums.
PRESS RELEASE FOR TIMES WE HAD
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.
PRESS RELEASE FOR REMIND ME
Remind Me is a haunting new psychedelic folk song from Dan and Rebecca Graul. The duo came up with the concept for the track as they were hiking around one of the vortex points in Sedona, AZ. It was sparked with a discussion on how shoes keep us disconnected from the Earth; and now when you’re young you feel super connected because you’re always running around barefoot but the more “grown up” you become, the more disconnected you become as the advent of shoes keep you apart from the ground. The narrative of the song plays out with a person becoming detached from the natural world and the track unfolds into a duet between that voice and the loving spirit voice of the Earth. The track will release on 4/21/23 to celebrate Earth Day. The Remind Me EP features four songs, all inspired, derived or celebrating our Mother Earth. It’s a truly hippie affair, to be sure
PRESS RELEASE FOR GOLD TODAY
Gold Today is a fleeting, dreamy folk rock tune that’s over almost as soon as it began. It is a momentary glimpse of being in the moment, an encouragement to focus on living for today instead of basking in the warm afterglow of yesterday. Dan Graul combines folk, psychedelic rock and electronic elements in this jammy little nugget of consciousness to remind us that yesterday wasn’t as great as your memory makes it out to be – so be here, now and find the gold today.
PRESS RELEASE FOR CONSTELLATIONS
Constellations is a folk pop musical meditation inspired by an evening of stargazing in rural Missouri. Dan Graul wrote the song on a clear Summer night, sitting on his Mother’s back porch in some time at home between gigs. The song lacks traditional verse chorus structure, instead opting for a stream of consciousness style lyric that winds it’s way into a playful acoustic instrumental that soars off into a universe of reverse guitar feedback.
PRESS RELEASE FOR FEEL YOUR WAY
a jaunty psychedelic pop song with a dark Pink Floyd inspired edge
Feel Your Way commands its listener to stop overthinking and jump into the beautiful groove! Dan Graul’s newest release is a jaunty psychedelic pop song, with an anthemic chorus and R&B/Soul inspired vocal harmonies. The track culminates in a Pink Floyd inspired jam, where the band guides you through the spacey darkness of their collective consciousness before slapping you back into the funky, feel-good flow that begs you to bob your head and catch the vibe. Dan collaborated on writing the track with Will Norris, who initially brought the chord structure to the table and provided the groundwork that inspired an uplifting, truthful lyric and rollicking, fuzzy guitar hook. The collaboration continued when the two brought the song to pianist Rebecca Graul and drummer Jonathan Santin, who helped with fleshing out the arrangement and building the collective jam that brings the tune to its close. They recorded the track at The Compound Studio in Long Beach, CA with producer Antoine Arvizu. The song was originally released on Northern Stranger’s album Where The River Goes. The new release finds the song remastered by Graul and updated with a bolder, more modern polish.
PRESS RELEASE FOR DREAMS/LOVE AND LIGHT
The philosophy and musical influences of Dan Graul are on full display with Dreams/Love And Light. The track travels space, time and genre; hitting notes of country/folk attitude, psychedelic rock swagger, reggae groove and spacey new wave synth, set to a funky beat. Dan spins tales of personal past fears and dreams, and proclaims in an anthemic, affirmative chorus “don’t be scared, all things must change – you’ll never be prepared.” Ultimately, a solid dose of self understanding and forgiveness “the past is gone, when we move on – and find the love and light” brings the message of hope home and the lyrics give way to wailing, psych guitars. The track will be released on 9/23/22 on all digital streaming platforms.
PRESS RELEASE FOR LITTLE BLUE PLANET
Little Blue Planet is an anthemic love note to Mother Earth, wrapped in a psychedelic folk pop arrangement and delivered with a ton of heart. Dan and Rebecca Graul co-wrote the song based on the concept of “borrowing the love of the Earth” and all the implications that follow. The love is only borrowed, after all and must be returned one day. The duo recruited their friends from Half Tongue Tribe, a Pagan Rock/Storytelling project that Dan developed with writer/artist David LebBarro, to fill out the vibe and add to the vocal/percussion arrangements. Adam Chavira contributed flute, clarinet and saxophone; and Will Norris lays down the appropriate amount of country thump on the bass. The track releases in celebration of Earth Day on 4/22/22 to all digital streaming platforms.
PRESS RELEASE FOR MOUNTAIN SONG (AY-YO AY-YO)
Celebrate the unknowable questions! Our existential dread is not good or bad, the Mountain tells us that it simply IS. And it is something we can all share together. Dan and Rebecca Graul spread the gospel of the Mountain through a folky stomp groove on their new single. Mountain Song (Ay-Yo Ay-Yo) wraps heavy subject matter in a joyful, raucous arrangement that includes notes of rock, country/folk, psychedelia and pop.
Once upon a psychedelic day in the Morongo Valley near Joshua Tree CA, Dan and Rebecca found themselves face to face with a mountain on fire. They looked out over the smoky landscape and wondered if this mountain, which they called Captain Larry, could fear something like fire. To their surprise, the mountain answered back with the dry wisdom only an ancient perspective could bring. “The fires come, the fires go. That song is old.” Captain Larry shared thoughts on question after question with a sing-song tag of “Ay-Yo Ay-Yo,” as if it were, and always had been, all so simple. By the time sunset arrived, the smoke had cleared away to reveal the mountain in full majesty. The real life picture in front of Dan and Rebecca’s eyes, as well as the murky illusions inside their own minds, had gained much clarity and focus.
PRESS RELEASE FOR THIS MUST BE THE PLACE
Dan Graul combines psychedelic, spaced-out new wave vibes with a simple folk aesthetic on his cover of Talking Heads’ classic This Must Be The Place. The dreamy, futuristic track drops on August 19, 2021.
Dan and his band Northern Strangers frequently covered the song at live shows in Los Angeles, usually sticking close to the original arrangement they all loved so much. Dan saw an opportunity to bring a piece of himself and his vision to this new solo version. “I’ve always loved the unabashed, unashamed romantic optimism in the feeling and message of the song. David Byrne’s dreamy, non-sequitor lyrics make the song accessible on so many levels. It’s a track where you can bring your experiences to the table while listening to it and possibly have a different interpretation upon subsequent listens. Everyone can vibe with the song from their own perspective, no matter where they are in their own journey. It’s a song that will keep growing with you throughout time.”
PRESS RELEASE FOR WE ARE WILD
Connect to your wildness within! Trust your animal instincts! With his new single Dan Graul reminds you to tap into your primal love warrior and find your place as a part of the world.
We Are Wild was originally featured on Dan Graul’s solo debut Make America Love Again, released at the end of 2020. For this new incarnation of the track, Dan was able to bring back together most of the original lineup of his band Northern Strangers. Rebecca Graul collaborated on the songwriting for the track and is also featured on keys and backing vocals. Lee Harcourt smashes the drums and Will Norris lays down a bass line that gives the track a funky, melodic groove. The band cut their teeth playing Pink Floyd albums live around Los Angeles in the 2010’s. We Are Wild finds the group riding their psychedelic influences forward into the modern indie rock sphere.
PRESS RELEASE FOR EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED
Dan Graul has some personal thoughts on his latest single Everything Has Changed. “This song was written in the wake of losing my Mother very suddenly to leukemia. My entire world was upside down, everything changed when she went into the hospital, everything changed every time I received an update. When I arrived to be with her, everything changed from day to day until she passed within a week. I wrote this song about a month after she died, as an attempt to deal with what I was feeling and try to find some acceptance in the situation. I had no idea how appropriate this song would be going into the year 2020.”
Dan’s wife, Rebecca, directed and came up with the concept for the duo’s new music video for Everything Has Changed – out 2/12/21. The pair are big fans of Halloween, so much so that they held their wedding on October 31, 2015 and officially dubbed the day as “Grauloween.” After indulging in a glut of spooky monster movies during the quarantine version of Grauloween season of 2020, Rebecca had the thought to turn Everything Has Changed into a story about newly changed vampires for the music video. Follow along as two fresh vampires wake up and find that everything has changed, and maybe it’s not such a bad thing.
PRESS RELEASE FOR BEAUTIFUL ANIMAL
A personal story from Dan about a personal song: “I wrote Beautiful Animal as a wedding surprise for my wife Rebecca. We agreed to make each other wedding gifts instead of buying something and I had never written a song about her, so I decided that’s what I would do. After a few iterations, the song came to be Beautiful Animal. I sent the song out to a bunch of my musician friends, who I knew would be attending the wedding and asked them to learn it. As the one big surprise part of the day, that Rebecca hadn’t planned or been aware of, I assembled my merry band and we played the song for Rebecca. I hope others will find encouragement in this tune, as we are all beautiful animals perched and ready to unfurl our wings, we all have the power to be anything and do anything with our lives. We are resilient, amazing animals.”
PRESS RELEASE FOR PIONEERS
Dan Graul is set to release his solo debut album, “Make America Love Again” for Halloween 2020. The second single “Pioneers” is out 10/16/20, along with a music video for the track. “Pioneers” brings to mind the challenges that the first immigrants to America faced as they navigated the Oregon Trail to find a better life for their families. This willingness of immigrants to sacrifice and make a life is mirrored even today. As we move into the future and advance technologically, we should always remember the perseverance and determination of our ancestors; and heed their mistakes and lessons. We must be pioneers in our own rite and create a world that makes space for others who struggle and strive for more.
PRESS RELEASE FOR THE SERPENT
Ever seeking artistic collaboration, Dan Graul plays many roles in his life in Los Angeles, CA – musician, writer, theatre artist, filmmaker, storyteller, husband, witch… He preaches the importance of telling/listening to stories; and works to help others find their own artistic outlet, to let their voices be heard. Dan is a believer in the concept of Tribe and seeks to empower those around him through his music, projects and through working with others collaboratively. With the crushing societal circumstances we currently find ourselves in, Dan thought this the perfect time to release his debut solo album “Make America Love Again,” due out October 30th, 2020. The album is comprised of songs meant to inspire and remind us that we are powerful, beautiful humans meant to do more than play a selfish version of the game of life. The lead single “The Serpent,” due out October 2nd, 2020 is a psychedelic folk song that asks the listener to consider what kind of community we could build together, rather than feeling 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 had some personal thoughts to offer regarding the track –
“I wrote the track in 2016, during the last Presidential election cycle because I wanted to speak to the worship of money and the selfishness that plague our society. The track sums up that our future can be anything we want it to be, but we must choose to actively participate in the creation of that future and “fight for what’s right.” These are pertinent themes for 2020 and I thought this was an important message to get out, as we begin the process of an election where a fear mongering, tax evading billionaire President will try to convince us that we are each others’ enemies in an attempt to keep us fighting among ourselves and too distracted to see the real picture. I think the people have woken up, ready to fight the powers that exist to keep us in our “role;” and I truly hope this song will inspire others to exercise their voice and especially their vote.”
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