Whilst it seems on Spotify that he’s only been releasing since the beginning of this year, Michigan-based experimental and programming genius Danny Peck is nothing short of a veteran when it comes to production. He’s gone by at least two previous artist names in the past: dep and A Defiant Heart, and his releases there total in the dozens. Having stripped back said monikers, however, Peck’s new releases are also a totally new style. His latest album (he’s had three epics already between January and July 2024), Where Hope Goes, Fear Follows, however, supplies a heady mix of wall of sound-style composition and contemplative melodies, but there’s more to it than meets the ear.
More innovator than veteran, Peck began his musical journey somewhat on accident in the late 90s. As a programmer in the early days of MS-DOS in the literal wild west of software development, he recognised the potential of MS-DOS for creating musical trackers to make compositions. Eventually moving to Windows, he continued this tracking method to make hundreds of compositions which were classically arranged but structured by computers. Producers who work almost entirely on digital programs nowadays know what these trackers look like and it’s as easy as point-and-click and you have a whole orchestral layout, but imagine creating those trackers in order to arrange your layout. It’s not just writing within the musical staff; it’s building the staff and the track at the same time. He even did a TEDx about it:
Peck used these methods, making his own trackers, up until 2023, and it worked impressively well. Lush, orchestral and full of depth, the work he produced under dep and A Defiant Heart were on the level with the best video game an film soundtracks. What changed? To Peck, te answer seems to be ‘everything’.
My wife and I moved to a small town in Michigan, and I decided, by both necessity and intuition, that it was time to start over. I built my studio from the ground up, replaced all of my existing software, started over with new hardware and equipment. I kept my trusty Korg piano keyboard, but everything else was a complete reinvention.
I moved on from tracker-driven music making software. For me, this was the key. Tracker sequencers, I realized, forced me into a rigid grid, stifling my creativity, and forcing me down the same path with each song again and again. Everything I made, to me largely sounded and felt the same. I needed a change.
The techniques Peck developed that were once so innovative suddenly felt limiting to Peck, so, like any programmer who recognises when his programs are no longer serving their purpose, he scrapped them. The result seems to be something more honest, emotive and genuine to how the artist is feeling right now. This is not only exemplified by the fact that he wrote and dropped three albums’ worth of work in less than a year, but in the music itself and the transformative process that seemed to happen. With his first album under his own name being entitled I’ve Never Felt Like this Before, it seems the new journey was one Peck needed to embark on for himself. Luckily his listeners also get to reap the benefits.
Where Hope Goes, Fear Follows sees Peck following the curve of that journey and all the unknown things we face when embarking on a new path, musical or otherwise. An existential journey that covers a multitude of genres whilst examining the arc of life and perception through said genres, the tracklist vacillates from classical piano arrangements to M83-like dream pop to get its point across. Listeners can feel both the freedom and trepidation Peck feels in trying to portray his thoughts through these new musical methods, but that only heightens the visceral experience of it. Anyone who’s gone through a major life change, a trauma or even has a simple moment of sonder, becoming painfully aware of existence, will feel what Peck is saying without any words.
Where Hope Goes, Fear Follows’ is about starting over, it’s about growing older and facing one’s intensifying thoughts around legacy and mortality. I made this while going through a lot of changes in my life, and honestly it’s also a lifetime culmination of my own creative process.
With the changes he’s made, Peck’s work only continues to expand that creative process and the creations themselves. Where Hope Goes, Fear Follows is the answer to its own question: life is both cyclical and finite, but the most important thing is that we’re happy with what we’ve created and we’ve learned something whilst creating.
Where Hope Goes, Fear Follows is out now and can be Streamed on Spotify or purchased on Bandcamp. Click here for more videos (and there are some really cool ones) on Danny Peck’s YouTube channel.