Danielle and her writing team went to work with the mindset of creating a summer-friendly song to reintroduce her to the music world. “We thought, ‘Let’s just write about a song where we don’t think about the lyrics too much and literally have the crowd dancing’,” she says of the writing process. One of the co-writers of “Sway” is Nashville-based Emily Weisband who quickly turned into one of Danielle’s closest industry friends and role models. Though Danielle was still finding her footing in the writing world, Emily was patient and supportive and helped to make her feel more confident in her abilities. So far, Danielle has gotten an astounding amount of positive feedback on “Sway,” and has been hitting radio stations and smaller venues to gives fans a taste of what’s to come. Showcasing new music can be stressful, especially when playing for fans who have waited so long, but several early favorites have emerged including “Worth It”. After spending so much time in the studio pushing her voice to the limit and honing her writing craft, Danielle wants her fans to fully appreciate this personal musical journey she is about to share. To maintain a sense of mystery and excitement, some songs will remain a secret until the official release later this year, including “Human Diary,” which she can’t wait for people to hear. “It’s a deep one but it’s definitely one of those songs that
you feel,” Danielle says. Though this is Danielle’s first time around writing such heartfelt songs, she’s a veteran when it comes to singing them. Last year, a spur of the moment pitch was presented to the young artist that she couldn’t turn down. Fellow country star Thomas Rhett was releasing a deluxe version of his album Tangled. On the 2015 version, a powerful track entitled “Playing With Fire” featured American Idol winner Jordan Sparks, but he wanted to record a new version with Danielle. As a Thomas Rhett fan, she was thrilled. Around the same time, Danielle and Thomas’s partnership blossomed even further. The two appeared on CMT’s Crossroads series, where country stars collaborate with artists of other genres such as pop and rock. On their episode, they joined forces with Nick Jonas to perform his song “Close”, much to the excitement of their fans. After the show aired, Danielle experienced a significant jump in her followers on social media as both Thomas and Nick’s fan armies took notice of her talent. After the success of the episode and “Playing With Fire,” Thomas invited Danielle to join his Home Team World Tour. Though she only appeared on weekends due to her hectic writing schedule, she learned a lot from the seasoned performer. Danielle was able to jump in on many of his tour bus writing sessions, and once they discovered a combined love of R&B, the two collaborated to write the track
“What Are We Doing”. After a lengthy period of not performing, Danielle admits she had butterflies in her stomach before getting onstage in front of massive crowds of Thomas Rhett fans. But again, practice makes perfect and the more shows she performed, the more comfortable she felt. Since her opening slots a few years ago, Danielle has noticed a big improvement in her stage presence. Each night on the Home Team Tour, she would follow Thomas’s lead to see how he reacted to different situations and kept the crowd engaged throughout the entire show. In addition to Thomas, she was able to draw inspiration from his tourmates Kelsey Ballerini and Russell Dickerson. “I would watch all of them every night and it was cool to mentally take notes for when I do my own show again,” she says. Though Danielle is still learning the various intricacies of the music industry, she isn’t alone in her quest to grow and find herself as an artist by getting her hands dirty behind the scenes. Over the past few years, there has been a significant influx of female singers looking to go beyond the microphone and immerse themselves in writing and production. When an artist is involved in every facet of creating an album, seeing the final product is that much sweeter. “I’m with the fans most of the time,” Danielle says. “I’m just so interested to see everything and I’m right in the middle of it.” NKD NKDMAG.COM
14