Several years ago, I faced a dilemma, one that many others my age were going through. Where does a 30-something-year-old gay man belong? I was spending my life like Peter Pan, never wanting to grow up and burning the candle at both ends – torn between enjoying life with no rigid structure and creating my own rules or settling down and conforming to the norm. I felt lethargic and scared to make any positive changes and embark on new challenges. I was recently single, and I questioned where I belonged in society. What should I be doing? How should I be behaving?;
Unlike my previous two concept albums (Changing Stations in 2016 and Nocturnes in 2020), I wanted to go into this project with no firm agenda or fixed idea. A strict concept this time around would feel too restrictive, so instead, I wanted to create something that reflected the moods and emotions of the reality I was living in. It’s proclaimed that an artist ought to never repeat themselves, and should always desire to learn and grow artistically, so this mantra allowed me to have free reign over the topics I wanted to explore and force myself into experimentation.
Ultimately, WHEN THE DEVIL DRIVES explores the topic of my mental health ups and downs over the past few years. The hangovers/hangxiety, bad decisions, being stuck in an endless cycle of nostalgia that was contrasted with moments of serenity, calm and chill. This may sound like an oxymoron, but I found the juxtaposition of these conflicting emotions bonded well together and led to a foray of creativity.
When developing the ideas, I needed to test myself this time around and face some creative challenges that I either didn’t get around to previously (or felt too scared to venture). I had never dared to use vocals on any of my work before, let alone write original lyrics, but after a failed attempt at sampling a commercial song into one of my work-in-progress tracks, I enlisted the talent of my good friend Sadie, who provided vocals for the piece using lyrics I had written. This eventually became the album’s fourth track, a 90’s downtempo trip-hop inspired song ‘In This Moment for Days’, which, upon the album’s digital release in 2024, reached #26 on the iTunes Singles chart. This subsequently led the album to enter the iTunes Electronic Albums listings at #3 and made its way onto playlists across the globe.
On the track ‘RAGS’ (Regret, Anxiety, Guilt & Shame) I sampled a recording of a work printer after being captivated by the entrancing rhythmic patterns it uttered whilst it shot out reels of paperwork. I wanted this to symbolize the soundtrack of a Monday morning back at work after a weekend of debauchery. Throughout the track you can hear echoes of a hazy night out, layered with dramatic strings and repetitions of inner monologue.
People ask where I draw my inspirations from, and my answer is simply from all the artists and composers who shaped me throughout my teenage years. Parts of the record are laced with ethereal trip-hop moments reminiscent of Morcheeba, Röyksopp and Air (‘In Medias Res’, ‘DAMN’, and ‘The Sadness Won’t Last Forever’), whilst areas feature the electronic fusion of ideas created by The Avalanches and Goldfrapp in tracks like ‘Thisiswhyidontknowwhy’, ‘Down by Piccadilly East’ and ‘Sertraline Daydream’. One of my favourite classical composers was the minimalist French pianist Erik Satie, so I took a simplistic approach during the creation of the track ‘November’, which was shaped by the nostalgic yearning of Spring during a blue-skied Winter’s day in 2022.
The naming of the album was something that required deep thought, as I feel it should always encapsulate the body of work as a whole. “Needs must when the devil drives” is a Shakespearean proverb, which means that sometimes you have to do something you would rather not. I enjoyed the drama that this old-fashioned saying exuded. My owninterpretation of this quote was that it paid homage to the reckless decisions that are made whilst under the influence, but also the pressures given to you by society to act or behave in a certain way. As always, my hope for this album was to not only entertain the listener and provide material for them to relate to and enjoy (both artistically through the music and the design of the physical products) but for me to also continue feeling inspired to face new challenges and express myself artistically.
Physical variants of WHEN THE DEVIL DRIVES include coloured vinyl (crystal clear/opaque red split), red-based CD, plus red and gold cassettes, which are available from www.danielliamglyn.com on release from 21 March 2025
