Bio
Hey, I’m Dan – and I’m White Eyes. I’ve been making music for over 15 years and my goal is bring the most violent elements of metal music to the world of dubstep.
Of course, I’m not the first person to do this, but I was lucky enough to start producing back when deathstep and minatory were just being established and refined, and I’d like to think I’m one of the ‘household names’ of this extremely niche genre.
I started my journey back in 2002, picking up a guitar after developing a taste for nu-metal – putting off lessons until a few years later. From there, I established a few bands with friends and started getting into more and more extreme music (staring with Metallica, slowly evolving to Fear Factory, Arch Enemy, The Berzerker, Sikth, Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Meshuggah to name a few). For my 17th birthday – I got a macbook so I could record some ideas at home and start properly ‘writing’ some music and making some very amateur recordings. As I’d starting working part-time jobs around this time – doing multiple guitar takes after work didn’t appeal much, so I found myself spending more and more time ‘programming’ drums for my tracks.
Around this time, a close friend (and drummer of the band) introduced me to dubstep (Caspa & Rusko – FabricLive.37 and some very early Skrillex projects), this instantly caught my ear – and within a week I had a cracked version of Native Instruments ‘Massive’ VST and a point to make!
After a few years of learning, refining my sound and building a small following on Soundcloud, I was blown away to receive a message from a tiny label wanting to release some White Eyes (check out Railgun) this was the push I needed to take this a bit more seriously.
A few months later, I noticed some dubstep taking a ‘darker’ turn – after hearing Mantis’ ‘Futures’ EP, I knew this was the sound I had been seeking for so long! Other influential artists like Static:Reset (Code:Pandorum/INHUMAN’s older project), Trampa, Bratkilla and heavier dubstep artists starting gaining popularity around this time too… Maybe the birth of deathstep?
Again, a few months more and I managed to catch the attention of the infamous label ‘Plague Born‘, where I released a track on a compilation, a few remixes and my ‘breakthrough’ EP Monolith, all alongside the creators of the ‘Minatory’ genre: Atomize, MOTH, Osiriz, Kretan and Cretin. While I’ve never really set out to make ‘pure’ Mintory music (apart from a few tracks), I usually get put into this category due to this early phase of my music (has it’s pros and cons I guess!). Not too longer after this, I worked with Multikill Recordings on a new (Abraxas5 EP) while exploring a more robotic sound design
From there, I decided to bring back my metal influences and start working on a concept album… While I look back on Cataclysm with a very critical ear now – I almost gave up… I had got so sloppy at playing guitar, had ideas for 12 tracks but was never satisfied with my sound design, and when tracks finally moved out of the idea phase and into a ‘mixed’ track, it was clear I had no idea what I was doing… I reached out to Tengraphs for a few lessons which helped me reach a resolution and learn a few new techniques and eventually managed to finish the album. I had every intention of trying to get this album on a label, but none of my regular contacts were interested so I decided to self-release. While the Cataclysm album took nearly 2 years – this really pushed me to look at my whole process of writing tracks.
During writing Cataclysm, I’d faced a few personal battles – I’d lost my dad to cancer, as well as undergoing some major surgery for my crohns disease. Far from ideal, but I came out the other side of these a stronger person, I worked on a few tracks and collaborations while taking some time out to focus on myself. The self released Divine EP and Drown EP on Visum Collective reflect the start of finding ‘my sound’ as White Eyes… Which brings us to about 2019.
I’m sure a lot of people experienced a lot of similar 2020, but the whole COVID/lockdown situation totally changed my day-to-day, confined to the same 4 walls for working, relaxing and sleeping (and everything else between) took a massive toll on my creative side, and I think I only managed to make 3 tracks the whole year. Organising your wedding is also something I would not recommend during a pandemic.
After realising how unproductive I’d been in late 2020, I decided to start up the notoriously difficult 2nd album (also to ‘right my wrongs’ made in Cataclysm). After many months of working with 16 collaborators and slaving away on 9 original tracks, I’m so happy with how well Rites of Abaddon turned out and how well it was received by my fanbase.
Which brings us to now! Verses of Abaddon is taking shape nicely. What was going to be a release just for the remix competition winners is evolving into another 25+ track album that I’m sure is going to be just as successful and heavy as Rites.
Beyond that, the next plan is for an EP of 100% White Eyes tracks with even more metal – I’m breaking the 8 string out and taking a lot of inspiration from Mick Gordon and his DOOM soundtrack to fuse cinematic soundscapes, djent style technical metal and the signature White Eyes deathstep sound to create a whole new direction.
So keep it locked… and keep it heavy!
Q&A
Collab Bro?
As you may have seen above, I’ve just finished an album with 16 other people, and am working on an album with at least another 10 collaborators so far, as well as some remix commissions… So I’m probably not taking on many more collaborations for a while. Of course – drop into my Discord/Soundcloud/Instagram/Facebook messages if you want to ask – and if I like your music enough, I’ll schedule some time to work with you!
Will you work on a remix/appear on this compilation?
Same as above, ask me – and I’ll let you know
How do you make X sound?
Drop into one of my Twitch streams or book in a lesson – I’ll help you out!
What DAWs/VSTs/Plugins do you use?
I use a Macbook Pro and stick to Logic Pro X as my DAW of choice. I use a lot of stock stuff from Logic like the compressor, reverbs, amp sims, Phat FX and Alchemy too. 99% of my bass sound design is Xfer Serum, and some essential Native instruments plugins (and Kontakt libraries) I use a lot are: Heavyocity Damage, Heavyocity Symphonic Destruction, Eastwest Hollywood Choirs and Straylight.
What do you do outside of music?
I’ve been working in IT since leaving school, and I’m currently working as an escalation engineer for a Linux-based software company. I play a lot of games outside of work and music (hack and slash, RPGs are my usual choices), and I love cooking. I also spend a lot of time with my wife (Raech) and 2 cats (Storm and Gambit) just enjoying life.
I want to know more about you!
You can pick up The Rise of Deathstep by Sushma Biswas for a detailed interview, expanding more on my past, as well as another interview on her YouTube channel. If there’s anything else you want to know – drop me an email or message on any of the socials and I’ll get back to you.