Dan Duminy has successfully reinvented himself as a pop singer-songwriter with clear intention – Texx and the City

When I began this interview with Dan Duminy (real name Daniel Wesley Duminy), the South African-born singer-songwriter seemed like an enigma. With only a handful of singles released before 2024 that were more hip-hop oriented (one with Nasty C and two with Blxckie and Crowned Yung), I was surprised to hear his first single of the year, “In My Head.”

If you take the best parts of a repentant Justin Bieber from the time around Purpose (2015) and crossed it with The Kid Laroi’s cathartic emo mixtape Fuck love (2020) you get a good feel for where “In My Head” fits in the pop spectrum.

It’s a typical song about heartbreak, but damn, it’s got a catchy melody. And the production is as slick as any global top 40 hit. It’s got that sexy LA feel, which makes sense when you learn that Dan has lived and worked in the City of Angels for the past four years.

“So, I was in LA working on an album with a woman named Diane Warren,” Dan tells me casually when I ask him what he was doing in LA for four years. Excuse me? Diane Warren, an American songwriting treasure??

Dan is very casual about the backstory. “I’ve been working on this album for the last four years with Diane and her main producer and engineer AC Burrell. AC saw the music video I made for ‘With Us’ and contacted me and said we should work together. I should come to LA and do a session to see if we hit it off. So I did and we ended up working out of her main studio in Hollywood. So I was lucky enough to get to know her and make music with her. She has about three songs on my upcoming album, so yeah. I was working on making music and developing myself as an artist.”

Although I love South Africa, it probably isn’t my first choice of home when I’m living and working with Diane Warren in LA, so I wonder why Dan decided to come back.

“When I lived in LA, I dated a girl from Cape Town –”

Stories that start like this never end well.

“- and we went back to South Africa for a month to visit her family. On the way back we had a stopover in Atlanta and then her visa was rejected and taken away from her. So I was faced with the decision of whether to leave my partner behind or support her and go home with her. So I did that and came back with the plan to go back to LA after her visa was sorted out… but then we split up,” he laughs to soften the blow, but I already knew where this was going.

“It was a very strange time,” he tells me bluntly. “I’m a big believer in trusting what God has planned, even in the worst of times. When I was in Atlanta, Blxckie was there too, so at least I was able to leave the airport and get some sleep. And when I got back, my aunt called me and said, ‘I know none of this makes sense to you, I just want you to know that there’s a bigger plan being revealed to you.'”

“And when I was struggling with the breakup at home, Hey Neighbour called me and said, ‘Please come over and perform here.’ Then Nasty C called me again and said, ‘Come on tour with me.’ So much was happening for me musically and things started to make sense to me. I did so much behind the scenes for so long in LA getting everything ready and when I came back to SA I almost got a little more flowers.”

“So I decided to give myself some time to rediscover who I was before that relationship by focusing on my mental and physical health and really pushing everything in terms of my music and my personal life to the limit. And that’s where I am today, and I’m grateful for that,” he says, exhaling deeply. The kind of exhale makes me think that this has been a longer process than he would have liked, but the state he’s in now is entirely positive.

His new single, “You Don’t Know Me,” recorded with best friend Jordan James, is rooted in Dan’s desire to make music that resonates with listeners. “It’s about being who you want to be and not worrying about what others might say, think or feel. They don’t know me anyway! And it just reinforces that you should be who you want to be because in reality, only a few close friends and family members know the real person,” he explains.

The music video for “You Don’t Know Me,” shot in Japan by Ntando Butho, is by far the most impactful video Dan has released and cleverly reflects the single’s intent. “I’m giving everyone a video that’s more in the style of a vlog or documentary so they can get to know me a little bit better. It captures the memories, the good times and the bad, and it shows me as Dan, who I am as a person.”

The video captures the neon lights and intense hustle and bustle of Japan’s big cities well. Dan acknowledges that Japan was a huge culture shock for him, but there were poignant moments during his chaotic trip. “I had a really good moment in Japan when I was with a friend I met there. His name is Hiroki,” Dan begins. “Hiroki doesn’t speak a word of English, but he told me he liked Lil Uzi. And one of my friends in LA has an unreleased song with Lil Uzi, so I played it for him. And even though the song was in English, the smile on Hiroki’s face was like the song was in Japanese. And that’s the power of music, it’s a real feeling.”

The way I feel after he tells me that story is just the general vibe I get from Dan – this really warm and fuzzy feeling. Be prepared for it to linger.