Daniel Seavey Surprise-Releases ‘Dancing in the Dark’ EP

Daniel-Seavey-credit-Brandon-Phillips - Credit: Brandon Phillips*
Daniel-Seavey-credit-Brandon-Phillips - Credit: Brandon Phillips*

Daniel Seavey is delivering on his promise of new music. On Friday, the former Why Don’t We member surprise-released his debut EP, Dancing in the Dark, featuring seven songs, most of which he self-wrote and produced.

The EP features previously released singles “I Tried,” “Runaway,” and “Can We Pretend That We’re Good?” It also includes the airy “Give It a Week,” guitar-driven “Nothing Compares,” along with EP opener “Fall Into You.”

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In a letter he posted to social media shortly after the EP dropped, Seavey addressed the legal battle with Why Don’t We’s former management company. (The group went on hiatus last summer.)

“Earlier this year I took some big legal risks to attempt to free myself from my managers (the same ones that I believe broke up my band). I simply wanted to leave the past behind and continue forward with a solo carreer,” wrote the singer. “Everyday for the last 6 months has been a battle. All I want is to be a light for others and make music.”

He added that despite the obstacles, his “faith and hope” in himself helped him get to where he is today. “BECAUSE I’M FINALLY FREE AND WILL NEVER BE STOPPED AGAIN!!!,” he wrote, before concluding: “And to David Loeffler and Steve Miller directly, as Judge Barash said himself: You Don’t Own Me.”

The singer announced that he’d be releasing an EP in an interview with Rolling Stone earlier this year, though he had named it Dancing in the Light instead of Dark. “For myself and for my sanity, I’m going to be so authentically me,” he told Rolling Stone in January. “If it hurts me, I can at least die knowing I did that for myself because I needed to.”

Seavey embarked on his debut tour, Introducing Daniel Seavey, earlier this year, where he played “Fall Into You” and “Leave Me Alone” for the first time.

“When the band broke up, I could have let it turn me into a vegetable and it would’ve actually been easier,” he said. “But I did not waste a minute. I started working [on music] and for the first time, I decided to do it. It wasn’t someone telling me to do it. I wanted to do it.”

Dancing in the Dark Track List

1. “Fall Into You”
2. “Give It a Week”
3. “Nothing Compares”
4. “Can We Pretend That We’re Good?”
5. “I Tried”
6. “Leave Me Alone”
7. “Runaway”

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