Daan Dawg

NEW SONG RELEASE!

Persephone is often remembered as the daughter taken into the underworld, but the ancient Greeks also saw her very differently. Over time she became something far more powerful: the Queen of the Underworld, ruling beside Hades over the realm where every mortal soul eventually arrives.

This song explores that darker side of the myth. Not the innocent maiden of spring, but the woman who became one of the most formidable queens in Greek mythology.

What has always fascinated me about Persephone is that she belongs to two worlds: the living and the dead. Few figures in mythology carry that kind of duality.

2 days ago | [YT] | 0

Daan Dawg

NEW SONG RELEASE!

The Phoenix has fascinated people for thousands of years. A single, solitary bird that lives for centuries, builds a nest of rare spices, and passes its life into the next Phoenix. Not just a story about rising from ashes, but about time itself moving in cycles.

For this piece I went back to the ancient accounts, especially the description recorded by Herodotus. In the old tradition, the young Phoenix carries the ashes of the previous one to Heliopolis. That detail always struck me as powerful: even a creature of fire honors what came before it.

This new track tells the legend from the Phoenix’s own perspective, reflecting on centuries of watching empires rise and fall, knowing that the cycle will continue long after any kingdom fades.

Hope you enjoy this journey into one of the most enduring myths of the ancient world.

1 week ago | [YT] | 1

Daan Dawg

NEW UPLOAD!

This time I turned to Irish folklore and the haunting legend of the Bean Sí, better known as the Banshee.

In the old stories, the Banshee is not a monster and she does not bring death. She mourns it. Her cry carries across the hills when someone from an ancient Irish bloodline is close to their final breath.

For this piece I imagined her voice itself. Not as a horror figure, but as an eternal witness who has watched generations rise and fall, bound to sing the final lament before fate arrives.

Let me know what you think of this interpretation of one of Ireland’s most famous legends.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

Daan Dawg

NEW SONG RELEASE - The Executioner of Paris (French Revolution)

Charles-Henri Sanson was the official executioner of Paris during the French Revolution. He did not rise from the streets with a banner in his hand. He inherited his role. The Sanson family had served as executioners for generations under the French monarchy. It was a profession bound to the state, not to ideology.



Before 1789, Sanson carried out death sentences in the name of the king. When the Revolution dismantled the old order, he did not disappear. He remained in office, now serving the Republic.



In 1792, France adopted the guillotine as its official method of execution. It was presented as a humane reform. One swift blade, equal for all. No more botched sword strokes. No distinction between noble and commoner. Equality before death became a symbol of revolutionary justice.


On 21 January 1793, Sanson oversaw the execution of King Louis XVI at the Place de la Révolution. Later that year, he was present at the execution of Marie Antoinette. The monarchy had fallen. The Republic was consolidating power.


Between 1793 and 1794, during the Reign of Terror, executions in Paris intensified. Death sentences were issued by the Revolutionary Tribunal. Sanson carried them out. Some days, dozens were executed in succession. What had once been rare became routine. What had been framed as justice became procedure.


Sanson did not sentence the condemned. He did not draft laws. He did not sit among the revolutionaries. He operated the mechanism of the state, as he had done under the crown.


He served the king.
Then he executed the king.
He served the Republic.
Then he executed its enemies.

He survived the Terror.


This song explores the evolution of duty in a time when authority itself was changing, and asks a question that echoes far beyond 18th-century France:


When the law transforms, does obedience remain neutral?

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

Daan Dawg

NEW SONG RELEASE - Chasing the Monsters Out of My Head

This song is about my mental journey while being treated for pancreatic cancer. When I first spoke about it, I framed it like a battle. I used warrior language because I needed something strong enough to hold it.

And I meant it.

But I also don’t naturally see myself as a fighter.

During the day, I can stand upright. I can endure what needs to be endured. I can reassure others. But the real fight often happens at night, when it’s quiet, when there’s no brave face left to wear, and the thoughts get loud.

Chasing the Monsters Out of My Head isn’t about heroic victory. It’s about that private battle. The one in my own mind. The one where strength sometimes looks like simply staying.

The strongest moments aren’t always visible.

Sometimes strength is just making it through the night.

3 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 2

Daan Dawg

NEW SONG RELEASE - NÜWA'S TEARS (CHINESE MYTHOLOGY)

The sky shattered. Fire fell. Floods rose.

NÜWA’S TEARS is a new original track inspired by the ancient Chinese legend of Nüwa, the goddess who repaired the broken heavens with five-colored stones after cosmic chaos tore the world apart.

I wrote this from her perspective, not as a distant deity, but as the one who stayed when everything collapsed. She does not create a perfect world again. She patches it. She stabilizes it. She leaves it scarred, but alive.

Some myths are about conquest.
This one is about repair.

Daan Dawg

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

Daan Dawg

NEW SONG RELEASE - HERCULES

This old school rock song tells the story from inside the myth, through the Twelve Labours, one task after another. Not as grand heroic quests, but as trials that simply had to be completed. Finish one, and the next is already waiting.

I leaned into the rhythm of endurance that runs through the story, because that’s what has kept Hercules alive in myth for so long. If you enjoy grounded, myth-faithful storytelling, I think you’ll feel at home with this one.

As always, thank you for being here and for listening!

Daan Dawg

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

Daan Dawg

Hi friends! Thank you so much for giving me the time to process my diagnosis and to create space in my head for new songs.

I have faith in my medical team, and I am preparing to become “fighting fit” before my first chemo starts.

I find a lot of inspiration in the historical characters I write songs about.

This weekend, I’m working on a song about HERCULES, focusing on a long series of seemingly impossible tasks. That feels very close to home right now, with the daunting road of cancer treatment ahead of me.

I hope you’ll find the same inspiration in this song, to help you get through whatever may be clouding your day.

The lyrics are finished, and I’m now working on the music. I’ll upload later this weekend.

Daan Dawg

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 19

Daan Dawg

I’ve uploaded a video today that’s different from what I usually post here.

For the first time, I’m on camera, speaking without a script. I talk about who I am behind the songs on this channel, why I write the way I do, and how everything I create is connected to where I am now. My music, my life, and my recent pancreatic cancer diagnosis are not separate things anymore, so the video doesn’t try to separate them either.

This is not a performance, not a polished update, and not medical advice. It’s simply an honest starting point. Raw, unstructured, and exactly where I am right now.

The music will continue. Creating songs makes me happy, and I need that.
Alongside that, I’ll also be documenting this process in separate videos, because when this entered my life, I found very little that showed what it actually feels like to be in the middle of it.

If this video isn’t for you, that’s completely okay.

If it is, you are not alone.

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 3

Daan Dawg

One Day at a Time was written at the very beginning of my fight with pancreatic cancer.

Nothing is resolved yet. There is no outcome to look back on, no clarity about what comes next. I am still in the middle of tests, treatments, waiting, and not knowing. Living with that uncertainty is its own kind of battle. Your body feels unreliable, your future feels suspended, and even hope becomes something you handle carefully, afraid to break it.

I was raised religious but lost my faith long ago. Facing serious illness has not suddenly restored it. Instead, it has left me standing somewhere in between: not believing, not rejecting, but searching. Reaching back toward faith not with confidence, but with doubt, fear, and a quiet hope that maybe I was wrong to let it go completely.

The Serenity Prayer sits at the heart of this song because it expresses exactly where I am right now. Accepting what I cannot change. Trying to find courage where fear is louder. Hoping for wisdom when everything feels blurred. The prayer is included in full, unchanged, because it is not something I claim to fully believe. It is something I am daring to speak anyway.

The verses around it reflect what the beginning of this journey feels like: the loss of control, the anger, the exhaustion, and the effort it takes to stay present when the future is uncertain. This is not a song about healing, miracles, or answers. It is a song about standing at the start of something terrifying and choosing, somehow, to keep going.

If you are newly diagnosed, living with serious illness, or struggling with faith in the face of fear, this song is for you. Not as reassurance. Not as a promise. Just as a companion.

I don’t know how this ends.
All I know is that today, I am still here.

1 month ago | [YT] | 1