So what exactly has DLK aka Daniel Forsyth been doing for the last few years? Firstly, there was a lot of soul searching. After being thrust into the music industry spotlight, he lost his joy for music and needed some time to himself. He travelled to the Middle East and went surfing in Sri Lanka in order to regain some perspective.
Unfortunately during this time, Daniel had a traumatic motorcycle accident that resulted in a dislocated and fractured shoulder causing complete loss of movement in his right arm. It was many months before he regained his movement. During this time of personal growth and learning, he enrolled himself into university to study to be an English teacher. It was at this point he wanted to forget about music all together.
The one day without any warning, he felt a keen desire to look back through the 50+ demos that he had recorded previously, bring them back to life and share them. He found immense enjoyment in the hard work of rediscovering the songs. The result of all this is the LP Daniel Lee Kendall Is Dead 12 tracks from his journey that Daniel is particularly proud of.
So what we’re read you travelled around the Middle East and Sri Lanka in order to ‘gain perspective’ do you mind explaining to us what the ‘perspective’ was and did you find it?
“Music wasn’t working for me the way I was doing it. I had 40 -50 songs, but management didn’t feel like there was a strong enough single to support an album, and I didn’t have the balls to say “well I want to put them out anyway.” I thought travelling might inspire me,but I only got 1 song out of the whole trip. The perspective I found was that if music was killing my soul I didn’t want music.”
During the journey to create this new record you unfortunately had a pretty serious motorcycle accident, can you tell us about what happened?
“I had just come back from Sri Lanka and wasn’t doing anything particularly exciting at the time. I had my license test the next day so afriend and I went out for a ride. He had just bought a new bike. He gave me ago but it was way more powerful than mine, and I got a little too confident too quickly. After five minutes of exhilaration I took a corner too quickly,ended wide, and rode head on into a Subaru Forrester. I blacked out, so all I remember was “uh oh” and the next I knew I was looking up at blue sky.”
How did it affect your guitar playing? Did you have to re-learn how to play?
“I lost all nerve function in my right arm. I couldn’t move my hand at all for about a week. I remember the first time my finger did the tiniest little movement and I burst into tears. I didn’t have to re-learn,but it just took a while to get the finite movement back. I finger pluck a lot, and that was probably part of the reason my hand recovered so well.”
Was there ever a point where you questioned whether you’d play music again?
“When I was under the x-ray machine, or whatever machine I was under, I mused upon how I would play music if I didn’t have a hand, but not playing or singing never really entered my mind.”
Do you have any tips for other musicians who are trying to get back into music after facing hardships?
“Forget any thought of music giving you anything other than the simple joys it offers. Start playing or making music again solely for the pleasure and enjoyment it gives you. If you can’t do that,throw it into the sea. If it is in you, it will arise organically from within when you are ready.”
Also during this time you enrolled to be an English teacher, what were the motivations behind that?
“I had to give up music, because I was hating it. I said to it “I’m sure you and I can be good together, but right now you’re suffocating me, and my soul is suffering, and that’s not why I love you.” I sent music to the sea in the hope that it would return to me, and while it was at sea I thought studying would be a good idea. So I gave English teaching a go.”
We read that you had recorded over 50 new songs during the writing process for your upcoming LP Daniel Lee Kendall IsDead, what happened to all those songs that didn’t make the cut?
“Well it wasn’t so much the writing process for this album as it was that over a period of 2-3 years all the songs I had written added up to about 50… The ones left behind are sitting on my computer. I actually really like about 30 of them. So does my mum. Maybe I can do another album called Daniel Lee Kendall: Still Dead or something.”
The title of you new album Daniel Lee Kendall Is Dead is a pretty strong one, can you tell us a little about the meaning behind it?
“It’s the end of a chapter. These songs are old. I wanted to release them years ago. Now I don’t feel connected to them. I feel like such a different person to the person that wrote these songs. It’s as though someone else wrote them. My name is Daniel Lee Kendall Forsyth .DLK became a persona. He didn’t feel authentic to me anymore. So I killed him.”
Once The LP is out what’s next for you?
“I’ll finish off uni for the year, I’ve got the The Funeral Tour in November. And I’m hoping I can lock myself up over the summer again and make musical love once more. But only if it feels good.”
‘The Funeral Tour’ Dates
Thursday, November 13 | Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane
Friday, November 14 | The Shebeen Bandroom, Melbourne
Saturday, November 29 | Loo Loo’s Warehouse, Central Coast
Friday, December 5 | Brighton Up Bar, Sydney
For tickets and info visit, Daniel’s Facebook page
