Daniel Ferguson

“I always try and play with people much better than myself. It's easy to think that you're good enough if you're the best person in the band, but it forces you to improve when you are the worst."

Up n’ Comin’ NI is proud to introduce another skilled artist: Daniel Ferguson! Daniel is originally from Dungannon, but now lives in Derry. 

From the age of 5, Daniel described himself as “a massive listener. I used to go through all of my dad’s CD's and records and listen to them start to finish while trying to sing along.” Daniel started his musical journey by playing the drums after getting a drum kit for Christmas. “I then moved on to guitar after getting guitar hero for the Wii. I discovered ‘Slash’ which took me in a completely different direction.” From 10 years old until about 15, Daniel taught himself the guitar. He then gave up music for sport, but decided to take it up again when he decided to do a music degree at university.

Daniel is a massive John Mayer fan and draws lots of his inspiration from him. “Anyone that knows me knows how much I like him. Honourable mentions also have to go to the Beach Boys and the Beatles. The Beach Boys are 100% the catalyst for my love of music. All of my favourite artists have inspired my music in different ways. John Mayer and David Gilmour guitar wise, the Beach Boys for their vocal harmonies and the Beatles for their song writing and experimental nature.”

While Daniel doesn’t play in a specific band, he does say, “I generally pull in the same people to play each time. They would know the songs already and I'm used to playing and communicating with them on stage.”

“I think my proudest achievements are still to come.” The creative industries are all extremely competitive and require every individual to keep evolving and creating. It is up to you to constantly improve and remain relevant.

Daniel’s style has evolved in a few musical directions and is now becoming even harder to define. “My early songs are very blues orientated. The next couple were heavily influenced by country. After that, instrumentation changed to be more 'pop' like but still was reliant on guitar. My new stuff is a massive mixture. There are horns, guitars, synth, heavily effected guitar, a choir, etc. Pretty much anything I wanted. I don’t want to hold anything back and so far, I really like it.” A unique quality of Daniel’s new music is the fact that he ignores the ‘boundaries’ set by different musical genres. “My old stuff was definitely trying to stay between the lines. I’ve grown out of that I think. I just want to make music that I enjoy listening to so that maybe others will too.” 

Daniel has quite a unique style of writing music, in that, he never writes with collaborators. “I feel like I’m too stubborn to compromise. If I didn’t like something, I really wouldn’t want it to be kept in.” Writing alone allows artists to explore and engage with their own musical ideas. “Initially, I would have a melody, or a lyric and I would record it in my voice notes. I then put chords to it, then sit and write a song. If I don’t 'finish' it all structurally in one sitting, then I'll not go back to it. Lyrics often change and I would tweak it to make it better but if 90% of it isn’t complete in the first sitting then I rarely go back to it.”

When asked, Daniel said his music is “heavily” influenced by his own life. “A lot of songs start on a certain subject then change direction as I come up with new lyrics. If something rhymes, but it takes it in another direction, I usually let it happen. If you get stuck on what you want the song to be about, then you don’t let your brain do its thing. A lot of the things you write about tend to be subconscious thought anyway. I think a lot of people would like to think that we're in touch with our thoughts and feelings but, for me, things come out in a song that I would never say to anyone in a conversation and that’s what I like about it.”

Like lots of musicians, Daniel doesn’t just gig around Northern Ireland. He quite often gigs in Liverpool too. In fact, one of his favourite gigs was his ‘Irish House’ gig in Liverpool. “Everyone was just going nuts. It gave me massive energy and was just thoroughly enjoyable.”

Daniel also brought up the issue of playing gigs with your own original music. I think as an audience, and industry, we should try and encourage the skill of both writing and performing original music. Often people enjoy listening to music that they can sing along to, but in doing this we are stumping other people’s talent. Rather than another rendition of ‘Yesterday’ (with more that 1,600 recorded covers), we should encourage new music and hear what new artists have to say.   

So what does Daniel’s future look like?

“Hopefully touring with my own music and building a fanbase.” While Daniel says he has a lot of things lined up with the release of his new EP, he is in no rush. “I want to make sure it’s exactly the way I want it first. I don't want to rush it and regret not doing it right. Keep your eyes and ears peeled!

Make sure you follow him and keep up to date with all his songs, events and gigs: 

Spotify: Daniel Ferguson

Instagram: Daniel_ferguson_official

Facebook: Daniel Ferguson