New Music DNA - Pt. 3: Dragging Stat Significant’s Daniel Parris Out of His 2000s Rut

Can human curation beat the data that says music discovery dies at age 31?

Quick links for the busy:

1) My interview with Daniel Parris about the music he’s nostalgic for.
2) Daniel’s music DNA.
3) A preview of the mixtape of new music I made for him based on his nostalgic favorites.

Full playlist below the paywall for paid subscribers.

Chances are, if you’ve heard the grim statistic that we stop discovering new music in our early 30s, you learned about it because of

Daniel Parris

.

Daniel writes the stellar and increasingly popular Stat Significant, which caught most of our attention last year with the insightful (and very confronting!) meta-analysis, “When Do We Stop Finding New Music?”.

In that piece and its follow-up, “How Do Music Listening Habits Change With Age?” he not only twisted the knife into the hearts of all aging music lovers about why we aren’t as open-minded as we think we are, but gave himself an existential crisis in the process:

If you haven’t already, I’ll let you read his analyses (or my own lazy summary) at your leisure.¹

The point is, as somebody whose very raison d'être is to pull people out of musical ruts and show them just how worthwhile new music can be, I was absolutely itching to make him a mixtape that would show that he, too, could be the exception to the rule.

“I simply can’t find newly-released music that makes a meaningful impression.”

I mean, I can’t just let that slide, right? Thankfully, Daniel was game.

No More AI Curation, Please: An Interview with

Daniel Parris

Gabbie: As you wrote about last year in “When Do We Stop Finding New Music?,” it’s not just that you’re the exact age when people’s tastes are statistically most likely to calcify, but you are personally in a musical rut. Is that still true? Have you been seeking out new music any more since you wrote about it?

Daniel: I am still very much in a music rut. I’ve tried using different streaming services and new playlists, but I simply can’t find newly-released music that makes a meaningful impression. Each time I try a new tactic and achieve the same result, it’s just further proof that our ability to discover music is heavily driven by nature (vs. nurture).

Gabbie: Has any new music caught your attention recently (in a good way)? Or is it mostly off-putting? Why? What is new music missing for you?

Daniel: I wouldn’t say I find anything off-putting, per se. I try to avoid writing off youth culture because I was once young, and there were once adults in my life who couldn’t comprehend my love of Fall Out Boy or Usher. I can understand why someone might like Bad Bunny or Benson Boone without my dislike of certain music threatening my sense of self.

As far as new works that have caught my attention, I like Rex Orange County, Beach Bunny, Dayglow, Phoebe Bridgers, and a handful of indie acts that are sonically similar to LCD Soundsystem and other 2000s alternative.

Gabbie: What music are you most nostalgic for… apart from Green Day’s American Idiot, that is? Give me 5 of your favorite artists or bands that you had on constant repeat when you were in your teens and early 20s.

Daniel:

• Red Hot Chili Peppers

• Blink-182

• LCD Soundsystem

• Iron & Wine

• Robyn

Gabbie: What songs still trigger specific memories for you?

Daniel: Any Red Hot Chili Peppers song immediately takes me back to my childhood. I’ve loved this band since I was eight years old, and my enthusiasm for them has never wavered. “By the Way” and “Otherside” are two of my all-time favorite Chili Pepper songs.

I also find LCD Soundsystem’s "All My Friends" deeply moving, as it captures the bittersweet feeling of growing older and moving into a new phase of life. For some reason, this song hits the same in my early 30s as it did when I was in my early 20s.

Finally, any pop-punk song instantly transports me back to adolescence. As a teenager, I deeply identified with bands like Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance. Now, whenever I hear songs like “Welcome to the Black Parade” or “Sugar, We’re Going Down,” I’m immediately flooded with memories of teenage angst.

Gabbie: Do you have any musical gaps you have always meant to fill?

Daniel: I've never naturally connected with rap and hip-hop, which feels like a missed opportunity given the genre's cultural prominence and incredible artistic output. I can listen to Kendrick Lamar and deeply respect his craft, yet I'm still not instinctively drawn to his music. As dumb as it sounds: I really want to like rap music, and it simply has never taken.

I was raised on classic rock (Bruce Springsteen, Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc.), and I imagine those formative years primed me for my current music tastes.

Gabbie: What's your go-to karaoke or shower song?

Daniel: “Budapest” by George Ezra. He’s got a deep voice, so I can actually hit the notes.

Gabbie: What’s your guilty pleasure genre, artist, album, or song?

Daniel: I really love Broadway. My sister used to be a professional actress, so Broadway was a fixture of my household growing up. Some examples: Les Mis, Avenue Q, Book of Mormon.

Gabbie: Tell me about how you listen to music. Where, when, with whom, and for what purpose?

I typically listen to music while working, using Pandora, Spotify, or AccuRadio. Although I don't love that music has become a utility as part of my workday, it certainly beats sitting in silence. I also genuinely enjoy listening to music while on walks.

Gabbie: Which band do you really wish had made more songs or records? Alternately, is there a band you wish had made more music in a particular era of their career?

Not a particularly novel answer, but I wish The Beatles made more music. There’s a beauty to finality and closure, but I also would not turn down five more Beatles albums.

LCD Soundsystem has released music since coming out of retirement, but their recent work feels artistically disconnected from their earlier songs—so perhaps part of me wishes they'd never retired at all.

I also would appreciate it if Frank Ocean could make music more quickly while maintaining the same artistic integrity and mystery, but now I’m just being selfish.

Gabbie: What's your ultimate goal for the playlist I'm going to be making for you?

Daniel: Honestly, I’m just excited to have music curated for me by another human being as opposed to an algorithm. I dislike letting Spotify dictate my listening habits, and I’m also tired of repeatedly choosing the same artists (over and over again), so just the sheer act of receiving recommendations from another human person will be great.

You want playlists? I got (free) playlists.

Spotify, Apple, Tidal, Amazon, Youtube.

Daniel’s Music DNA

In some ways, I feel like the first two parts of this series have been the run-up to this, the main event.²

Daniel is more than just the perfect interview subject and playlist-ee I envisioned for New Music DNA. He’s also the ideal New Bands for Old Heads reader: somebody who is sick of his own music, (theoretically) open to new sounds, but still unable to break out of the comfort of his own nostalgia.

“Should I go out of my way to sample new channels (and be brave!) while rating novel songs more favorably? Or should I deepen my appreciation for well-worn favorites, savoring every replay of "Welcome to the Black Parade" and "Californication"?”

-Daniel’s final thoughts on “How Do Music Listening Habits Change With Age?”

It is an honor and a pleasure (and a real challenge, I must say) to craft a playlist of new songs that will help Daniel avoid the agonizing decision of whether to return to old favorites or dive into uncharted territory.

Briefly, Daniel’s musical DNA has the following elements:

• Pop-punk (Blink-182, MCR, Fall Out Boy)

• Indie-pop, dance-punk, + dance-pop (LCD Soundsystem, Robyn)

• Hip-hop + R&B (aspirational and a musical gap to some degree, but also: Frank Ocean, Usher)

• Classic rock + Americana (The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen)

• Showtunes

• Indie-folk (Iron & Wine, Phoebe Bridgers)

• Alt-rock, funk, or whatever the hell RHCP was

My goal is to capture these in new(er) music, and cross my fingers that they resonate.

If I did my job right, the new music I’m sharing will give him the familiarity he craves while still pushing him out of his comfort zone.

A preview of the songs I curated

1. SLOPE - “True Blue”

I was tired of recommending Turnstile to Red Hot Chili Pepper fans, not just because they’re the obvious choice but because they are practically mainstream in their notoriety at this point (their new record has gotten eye-rolling levels of hype). In short, I wanted to dig deeper. Slope is so plainly inspired by RHCP that they might be too on the nose (especially on this particular track, which tells the listener to “suck my kiss a thousand times”), but my god that funky slap bass is infectious.

2. Jeff Rosenstock - “LIKED U BETTER”

I must say, the entire playlist I made is packed to the brim with incredible new pop-punk music. But it would be a mistake not to feature the inimitable Jeff Rosenstock, whose music is so deeply entrenched across every era and region of punk, pop-punk, emo, and ska that he should be required listening for anyone who was obsessed with the scene back in the early 2000s.

3. Geese - “Cowboy Nudes”

Anybody raised on classic rock, especially Springsteen and the Rolling Stones, can’t miss the most recent Geese release, 2023’s 3D Country. This is a kind of sweet spot between Exile on Main St. and Born to Run — twangy, a little alt-country, and fully rock’n’roll.

4. Mk.gee - “Alesis”

Daniel is right that Frank Ocean is elusive and releases music at a frustratingly infrequent pace. But while I wouldn’t exactly call Mk.gee one of his protégés, he was featured on Blonded Radio back in 2018, which safely qualifies as a seal of approval. Ocean’s influences are hard to ignore, and I’m hoping that the entirety of Mk.gee’s critically acclaimed Two Star & The Dream Police can tide Daniel over until Frank Ocean finally releases new material.

5. Master Peace - “I Might Be Fake”

The Dare would be the more obvious choice for LCD Soundsystem fans (and I do adore him), but I thought I’d return to his less sardonic British equivalent. This particular track does double duty because it features Georgia, whose solo work I threw in elsewhere on the mixtape — she’s such a satisfying fit for any Robyn fan. The resulting track is a fresh take on recession-era sleaze.

6. Boys Go to Jupiter - “Lovers Always Lose”

I don’t think this is the first time I’ve buried this confession deep down in an article where I hope nobody will notice: I hate musical theater. Forgive me. That makes it difficult to recommend Broadway-style music to the rest of humanity who aren’t joy-hating curmudgeons like myself. I think I did okay here, though: Boys Go to Jupiter have all the earnestness, theatricality, and gorgeous vocals you’d expect from a Broadway show, but with a strong pop backbone.

7. McKinley Dixon - “Could’ve Been Different”

Daniel says hip-hop never quite “takes,” so I picked a track that pulls heavily from other genres. This is the closing track from Dixon’s phenomenal new release Magic, Alive!, which showcases his wide range of influences. Drawing as much from jazz as it does from rap, there is such a strong storytelling element to all of Dixon’s music that I’m hopeful it will bridge the gap.

8. Searows - “House Song”

There are a lot of artists to recommend to an Iron & Wine or Phoebe Bridgers fan. Ethel Cain. Skullcrusher. Squirrel Flower. I chose Searows because of the finger-picked guitar that brought back my nostalgia for that distinct sound of mid-naughties folk revival. You know, the full “Garden State” experience.

There are (coincidentally?!) 31 more tracks on Daniel’s playlist, a healthy mix of pop-punk, dance-pop, sunshine pop (to give him a little taste of the Beatles), and a touch of hip-hop/R&B. Two hours and fifteen minutes should be enough to get him through a solid chunk of his work day and provide enough variety that at least one or two songs will surely stick.³

Want the full playlist? Keep scrolling.