Danny Hughes (DCPA) is an electronic music producer and DJ from Aledo, Texas. His story began like many musicians’ growing up. Born into a family of musicians, he learned to play the piano, trumpet, guitar, and work with production software in academic music programs as a kid. Danny built a solid foundation in the craft, but eventually pursued an accounting degree in college while at Texas Tech. After graduating in 2011, he worked as a CPA for 9 years in Dallas. Electronic music grew exponentially in the US during this time, prompting him to re-visit his place in the music world. Building an artist career was not easy with a full-time corporate job, but his varied background in business and music allowed him to quickly navigate the modern music industry and connect with those who believed in him, including a production team at Nimble Agency all the way from Amsterdam. From 2016-2020 Danny allocated most of his free time to building his artist career as DCPA, distributed over twenty tracks with Symphonic, traveled the world to attend major festivals, and in 2020 he made the decision to go full time into the music business.
Summer is here and we can't wait for all the LIVE music! Are you planning performing out LIVE anytime soon?
Thanks for having me on here! Summer is off to a hot start. I’ve been performing at weddings, graduation parties, bars and clubs. Recently I got to play at some amazing venues like Valhalla E-Lounge on 6th street Austin TX, and some off-the-grid venues in Texas Hill Country. Rather than scheduling a big tour, I’m currently standing by for more local shows while I work on my upcoming track releases and the overall direction for DCPA. After last year, when I was playing up to 3 residency gigs per week in the summer, I decided to take a break from aggressively pursuing weekly shows so that I could get ample studio time. It's easy to get caught up and blur the line between being an open format / commercial club DJ, and a producer trying to build on your own sound!
I’ll be starting a Mixcloud channel soon where I will start to upload DJ mixes. I don’t always record sets when I play live, I feel that the experience of a performance is more meaningful when ‘you had to be there’ as it happened; but I do want to deliver more content to my fans across the world, and the internet is the most efficient way to do it.
Tammy Miranda Music Productions always sends me great gigs down here, so I like to just dive into anything, even when something is spur of the moment. Fans can follow me on Songkick to receive updates on future shows as they come. Otherwise, be sure you’re following 'dcpamusic' on Instagram to keep up with my new songs, and any gigs in the Austin TX area! You never know when an artist might be making a surprise appearance in this town, the music scene is always churning. See below for links to all of my pages. Give us the most EPIC performance story you got! I think I’m going to hand this award to the 3 days of back to back performances I did at Cedar Street Courtyard in Austin TX in December 2021. I got the call and showed up Saturday night ready for a normal downtown crowd like I would on 6th street. Limos started rolling up with couples dressed to the nines, and it ended up as 3 straight nights of Sorority/Fraternity parties, about 300 raging college students each evening. The energy was electric, it was a University of Texas crowd but brought me back to my own days in college at Texas Tech over 10 years ago. The crowd vibed with my own tracks, remixes of popular music, and it was funny noting that they are mostly still jamming to a lot of the throwbacks from my time. By now, I'd say they are more 'classics' than throwbacks. To this day, you can’t go wrong with 80’s-00’s rock and pop hits. Now in the era of dance music, the revival of these songs can be mixed into many different genres. By the end of the weekend, I felt like I had re-lived my entire Senior year of college! The feeling was timeless and nostalgic for me, and the club had a great light and sound system. Your music is a VIBE! And we can't wait for MORE! Tell us about your latest release because we can't get ENOUGH!! Vibe is one of my favorite ways to categorize music, because vibes trigger our intuitive responses. I wake up sometimes with a melody already repeating in my head, as if I dreamt it and it continued to play out into the morning. Those are the songs I try to get down quickly – when my headspace is in a pure state of imagination, undisturbed. Usually, those melodies trigger the strongest emotions, or quickly attach to an experience of mine. When turned into a full track production, the vibe starts to really shine through and can be shaped into many forms. For this next track “I Feel It Too” the melody is sultry in nature, certainly romantic and yearning; but there is an essence of tragedy, with learning and growth that comes from it. It’s curious, forgiving, and passionate. It’s the burning of twin flames. Why did you feel like now was the time to release new music? My release plan has been more spaced out than when I started in 2016. At that time, I was working a corporate accounting job and in “idea” mode with my music. I collaborated more with outside producers on finishing the technical side of my tracks, as I pooled my prior music experience into the DCPA sound and developed my own production skillset. Once I left my accounting job and went full time into music, I knew I needed to DJ frequently as a source of income in Austin TX, which also took a lot of time and energy. I feel better equipped to release music in the back half of 2022. For this upcoming song “I Feel It Too”, I came up with the idea in April. I was almost ready to release a completely different track at the time, but sometimes you must redirect energy to a creative project when you feel the most sudden passion and inspiration for it. Rather than force a watered down or incomplete track, I decided I needed to capitalize on my intuition and get this one done. How has the release been for you? Honestly, mentally exhausting! However, it’s both a love and pain I want to feel. Music is a positive outlet no matter the emotion. I’ve taken the opportunity while writing this song to reflect on past experiences, relationships, and creative endeavors. The track should be out for streaming in July! What is the most sentimental response you have gotten from the music? The first time one of my listeners reached out with sentiment, it surprised me. I didn’t have a lot of play counts and hadn’t assimilated a large following yet, so wasn't expecting it. I believe it was 2017 when this individual DM’d me on Instagram and said my track “Living” had helped them through a really hard time in life. Given the powerful lyrics by Marcia (MISHA) Sondeijker, which revolve around existential growth, I imagine they were overcoming a lot of doubt and criticism in finding themselves as a person. With time I feel like we all observe and experience enough struggle that our empathic abilities grow stronger. It’s a mission of DCPA to define life through music, to diffuse negative energy and build strength in others. I feel people are taking self-care concepts more seriously now than ever, so hopefully my impact is growing on that front. Are you going to be able to recharge at all this summer or is it just GO TIME!! I think I’ve spent enough time recharging since the Holiday season ended, so NOW is go time for sure! Touring vs. Studio time!? Where is where you feel most at HOME? I’d say both! Whether I’m on stage or back at home in my studio, as long as I’m writing or mixing music and feeling the vibe, there is no place I’d rather be. Often-times my brain must counteract my body or vice-versa in order to maximize my time in front of an audience, or producing on my laptop. There's a trade-off either way, I just try to live in the moment. Give us the most rad line from your latest music to explain the piece of work or YOU! “I know you were trying so hard, we’ve got to save the world” is my favorite lyric and comes from the Jovani Occomi vocal sessions pack on Splice. What I like best about the line is how it represents a state of connectivity, lying dormant, but ready to take on its highest form. It’s like a soulmate connection which has faded but has returned stronger, with a deep understanding of the past, ready to fulfill its destiny in the universe. Socials and ALL the good stuff!! ⇒ Amazon ⇒ Apple Music ⇒ Audius ⇒ Beatport ⇒ Deezer ⇒ Facebook ⇒ FENIX360-iOS/Android App ⇒ Instagram ⇒ Pandora ⇒ Soundcloud ⇒ Spotify ⇒ Tidal ⇒ TikTok ⇒ Twitter ⇒ YouTube ⇒ Website