Recording artist Daniel Saint Black still calls himself “a little cowboy kid from the middle of nowhere in North New Mexico.” You might have heard of the town of Algodones — a few miles north of Bernalillo situated along the Rio Grande — and Black says there were probably only about 100 people living there when he was growing up. He remembers riding horses, raising chickens and goats and enjoying a quiet life in the country but says he always had a massive dream, and music was always a part of it. He says he’s thankful that after going to college in Arizona and trying to fit into a mold, he thought would make him socially acceptable, he realized he was terrible at school, and it pushed him toward the thing he’s most gifted at: making music.
In 2019 he moved to Nashville, and that jump started a trip that led him to write, produce and record his own songs. He’s performed at the Grand Ole Opry, headlined sold-out shows around the country and had early commercial success — his debut single had over 100,000 streams its first week. Today he lives in L.A. and continues to chase the dream, but he’s doing his best to stay grateful along the way and always “give a little bit more than [he] takes.” Jan. 12 he will be performing at The Launchpad with Kevin Herig, another local artist. The tour is promoting Black’s soon-to-be-released Straight Line record, and he gave The Paper. a peek into how it all began.
The Paper.: Do you always tell people, “Keep the shiny side up?”
I always do! That’s a catch phrase that I stole from my dad. My dad’s like the most positive person that I know, and he always says that. I try to keep it pretty kind if at all possible. I think the world has plenty of the other thing going on.
At what age did you move from Algodones to Albuquerque?
Most of my childhood, all the way up until I was like 18, I lived in Algodones, and we commuted from Algodones into Albuquerque for school. I graduated high school, I went to Mesa College in Arizona for two years, played some tennis out there, and that’s when I started kind of bouncing around.
It’s such a small place, you know? I still think about a lot of the scenery. There’s a tree nursery out there right off the highway, and I still think about the vibes of being out there. I think the spirit of the Southwest — that dreamy, hopeful, nostalgic kind of vibe [in my music] — is really inspired by the landscape and the sunrises and the sunsets for sure. It was such an interesting dynamic to grow up in, which I really appreciate. I think it shaped me in a cool way. I have friends who grew up in a neighborhood where it was only white people, and I feel like their experience was vastly different from what mine was growing up.
You play guitar as well, did you learn from your family?
We had a family friend when I was growing up that taught me a little bit of guitar. I would go over to his house and get guitar lessons. His name was Tom Weldon. He gave me my first guitar and got me all set up, and then he passed me off to another lady by the name of Pat. I went to her for years, and we did recitals and the whole thing. It was mainly classical guitar. It was definitely a fun way to grow up.
Is it fair to say that you’re a pop artist? It’s kind of hard to pin down your sound.
Yeah, definitely fair to say pop. You could say pop, you could say indie-pop. When people ask me, I like to say, “If pop had a soul.”
What spurred you to cover [Creedence Clearwater Revival’s] “Fortunate Son?”
Both my parents always liked classic rock — that ’70s era rock — Doobie Brothers, Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, CCR, all that stuff. When we first got to Nashville, I was kind of cutting my teeth with learning how to produce stuff, and I just stumbled across this progression on the piano. I turned it into a synth sound and I was like, “Man, this would be a really cool cover.” That song came to mind because I always thought it was such a badass song. So I thought, “Maybe I’ll take a shot at it,” and I think it came out really cool.
That song was popular during Trump’s campaign, I wondered if maybe that might have had anything to do with it.
Interesting. The cover would have come out right around then. I’m not 100% sure if that’s right on timing, but there is no connection whatsoever. I’m actually not the best about following politics, it typically kind of bums me out.
I noticed that you had a collab with Avril Lavigne. How did that come about?
One of the first friends that I made in Nashville was my buddy Tommee Profitt, who’s a really big producer. At the time I was really trying everything possible to be around music, and Tommee was doing a bunch of songs with Avril, and he asked me to to track some guitars on a song for her. I actually got together with a buddy of mine and we came up with some guitar sounds and had a lot of fun. It was such a fun experience and definitely a treat just to be included.
In addition to being a recording artist, you are also a producer. Did you want to talk about that experience?
I’ve ended up producing a lot of my own records so a lot of the sound that you hear behind my Lonely Hearts album that came out in ’23 and my Straight Line record that’s on the way out now, I produced most of it. There’s a collaboration track that I put out called “Love Again,” and I produced that. I had my friend Abigail Osborn sing on that one with me so it’s a duet, which I really love doing. That one will be on the record, but it’s already out now as a single. I also have produced some really fun kind of one-off tracks. He’s getting ready to do his first world tour right now, and he’s such an incredible human being. I got the chance to work with him on some stuff, super, super fun and we were able to make some memories and some great songs as well.
What’s it like having your twin brother as your manager?
Because I lived in Nashville, we really haven’t been able to hang out a whole lot the last five years. We grew up obviously as twins do: we did everything together. We were best friends — and at times, worst enemies — but mostly best friends. Moving to LA has brought a really awesome fresh life to our relationship, because now I can just be like, “Hey, do you want to drive out and just come hang?” and we’ll play some tennis and cook some food.
This tour is my first proper headlining tour. He’s been doing some tour managing for Subaru and for some other stuff the last couple years, so I hit him up and asked him to come out and tour manage for this run of shows. I’m really thankful he said yes and we get to hang out, eat some good food and make some memories.
Do you miss the food in Albuquerque?
Oh my gosh, so much! I still have my connects. When I know people from New Mexico are coming through, I always say, “Hey, I’m gonna need some green chili. I’m gonna need some of the goodness.” I miss the little mom and pop family restaurants where you can get huevos rancheros. It’s just not the same anywhere else. In Tennessee their version of an enchilada is such a sad, sad comparison to what we’ve got in New Mexico. In a lot of ways it’s a really magical place, for sure.
I read that you got some of your musical experience from playing in church.
I grew up going to a Baptist church in Albuquerque. When I got older, I got super into skateboarding and there’s a church in Albuquerque called Calvary. They have a crazy skate park over there, so I was there too much. After college when I really got into the music thing, Calvary created a space for me to try different stuff and to learn how to arrange and lead bands and write songs. I was able to kind of cut my teeth a lot there in that setting.
Is your music Christian music?
I try to take the approach with my songs of being accessible to any human being anywhere. [The songs are] not really specifically about anything that would use a certain verbiage or language. I think my faith is a massive part of where the songs come from, but I definitely wouldn’t call it Christian music. I think the craziest [the subject matter] gets is just me talking about dealing with the ups and downs of life. As far as themes go, I would say there’s definitely romance, but I think it’s very poetically done, and there’s nothing explicit in nature.
It’s really important for me, especially in Albuquerque, to be able to share this record and these songs with the people that I love and people that are from where I’m from. The biggest thing to communicate is to invite people to come out and hear the continuation of the story.