David Karsten Daniels (born in Lubbock, TX, on 20 August 1979) is an American singer-songwriter with an affinity for "slow-creeping songs" that explore life & death, family dynamics, religion, neuroscience, the nature of change and the natural world.

Now based in Dallas (by way of Alabama, North Carolina, Oregon, and San Francisco), his music relays a personal history of diverse musical experiences - among them, a childhood of hymn singing, membership of a high school jazz band, and formal university training in composition, theory, free improvisation, and performance art. For several years, Daniels travelled throughout Texas and France recording quietly in small rooms, where his formal training began to give way to four-track experimentation, juxtaposing the phase pieces and improvisation of his academic life with lo-fi acoustic compositions. This itinerant approach to recording produced his first two albums ('The Mayflower' 2000; 'Out From Under Ligne 4', 2001) , which employ the use of whatever (non)instruments were at hand, such as dropped coins and pencil scratches in place of drum kits, or lyrics composed by rearranging the contents of the daily newspaper.

Daniels finished his studies and spent the subsequent year in Portland, Oregon, briefly experimenting with a laptop before moving to North Carolina with Daniel Hart and Alex Lazara to found the Bu_Hanan Collective. There, while giving his first two albums a wider release, he wrote and recorded the self-released album, 'Angles' (2004), as well as contributing to the records of the collective’s other bands.

Since then, Daniels’s work has come increasingly into focus. With his debut, 'Sharp Teeth' (released by FatCat January 2007), gone are the noise freakouts, drum programming, and obsessions with Steve Reich and John Cage. In their places are songs in which his guitar and voice are the foundational elements fleshed out by up to nineteen musicians and at least as many instruments.

Following his debut, Daniels played live (largely in the USA, with a smattering of European shows) and did more writing and recording - the fruits of which can be heard on his 'Fear Of Flying' LP, released in April 2008. ‘Fear of Flying’ is a somewhat different proposition to 'Sharp Teeth', spreading itself over a more diverse sonic terrain.

Daniels scored additional music for Frightened Rabbit’s Christmas single, a re-issue of ‘It’s Christmas So We Will Stop’, released in December 2008. June 2010 saw the release of 'I Mean To Live Here Still' album, a full-length written and recorded with Richmond, VA's 9-piece jazz ensemble Fight the Big Bull.

Daniels released his first largely instrumental album The Four Immeasurable Minds in 2015. In 2016 he released two records, the lo-fi full length "The Teacher" using field recordings and then his 9th studio release "Kaleidoscope", an EP released May 19, 2016. A Single, Rules for Rules, was released in November 2019. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.