Danz CM

Danielle Johnson was born in Rock Hill, New York and raised in both Rock Hill and Woodridge in the Catskill Mountains area.[8][9] At the age of 17, she started her own music blog titled Mewzick and she posted from November 2006 until January 2009.[10] From July 2009[11] until July 2016[12] she blogged on her site zDanz.

At the age of 18, she moved to New York City to attend Hunter College[8] and became a DJ at places such as the Tribeca Grand Hotel (now The Roxy Hotel) and Ruff Club at The Annex.[13] According to Johnson, she was a "pretty terrible student", trying to afford rent and the expensive city living by working late nights at a restaurant and DJing. She was withdrawn from all her classes.[14]

Computer Magic at TNT Backstory Lounge, Brooklyn 6/10/2017

In 2010 at the age of 21, Johnson moved with her mother in Florida.[14] Unsure what she wanted to do career-wise, she applied for many jobs but couldn't get one.[14] In her downtime, she downloaded the DAW Ableton Live and learned on her own how to make music.[14] One of the first songs she completed was "Running", done in a closet on a laptop with a cheap microphone.[14] She reminisced about her first attempts at making music: "I remember showing my mom the music I made and she was like 'How did you do this?' I just thought everyone could write music. I didn’t know anything I did was special. It was kind of hard for me to believe. It was like a lightbulb went off after that. I would just make one song after the next and put it up online. And I realized – geez, maybe this is what I was meant to do all along."[14]

She picked the moniker Computer Magic, a name derived from a quote by Viv Savage in This Is Spinal Tap: "quite exciting this computer magic!".[4][5] Talking about her moniker, Johnson said: "In the beginning I didn't know what to call myself. I was so uncomfortable in my own skin, was so sure no one would believe it was just one person making the music (This was like ten years ago when there weren't as many bedroom pop artists), wanted to incite the idea that it was a band, so I named it Computer Magic. I wanted to detract the attention from myself. The music I thought was great, but I didn't think I was great, so I needed that separation. Sad really when you think about it."[14]

In 2010, Johnson returned to New York City and she worked retail and restaurants again, but this time making music on the side.[14] She started releasing her own songs as free download on her sites zDanz and TheComputerMagic[15] and compiled those songs on various EPs: Hiding From Our Time (2010), Hiding From More of Our Time (2010), Electronic Fences (2011), Get a Job (2011), Spectronic (2011), Orion (2012, released through Kitsune), A Million Years / Another Science (2013), Extra Stuff (2014), Dreams of Better Days (2015).

In 2011, Computer Magic contributed with a cover of the song "Take It or Leave It" by The Strokes for the Stereogum-curated cover album Stereogum Presents... Stroked: A Tribute to Is This It.[16] In the same year she was featured on New Band of the Week on The Guardian[17] and on the Radar Tip of the Day column on NME.[18]

Her debut studio album, Davos, was released on October 16, 2015. Johnson wrote all songs of this album, except "All Day" credited to her, Brian Robertson and Brian Hancock III.[19][20] Most of the production, engineering and mixing has been done by Atomic Heart Studios in New York, NY by Claudius Mittendorfer.[19] The title Davos is a homage to a now-decrepit ski resort where Johnson grew up in upstate New York, where her father worked and still resides, although the ski resort closed when Johnson was 3 years old.[20][21] 3 music videos were released to promote this album: "Be Fair" (filmed in Trona Pinnacles[21]), "Hudson", and "Fuzz".

Danz in the Fuzz music video

On October 7, 2016, Johnson released the 5-songs EP Obscure but Visible. She mentioned on Stereogum: "I wrote the Obscure but Visible EP upstate this past Spring / Summer. I think the general feeling for the EP was an open one. In a way, I wanted it to feel lighthearted. I tried to showcase a few different songwriting styles of what I do, too."[22] She made music videos for 4 songs from this EP: "Dimensions", "Gone for the Weekend", "Lonely Like We Are", and "Been Waiting".

In 2017, Johnson and the musician Cody Crump collaborated on a side project called Cody & Danz. They released the EP Only the Hits on July 14, 2017, by Channel 9 Records digitally and on a limited edition cassette.[23] They made music videos for the songs "Make It in America" and "So Small". On December 15, 2017, Johnson released the compilation Super Rare which included early tracks, Japan exclusives and rarities.[24]

On February 23, 2018, Computer Magic released her second album, Danz, titled after her nickname. According to her, this album is her most personal out of any other record she made. She drew inspiration from her life and characters from films or books. Danz was supported by four music videos: "Amnesia", "Ordinary Life (Message from an A.I. Girlfriend)" (with a concept by Johnson and the director Anise Mariko),[25] "Perfect Game", and "Clouds".

On March 20, 2020, Johnson released the compilation COVERS 2010–20 which consists of 6 cover versions of songs by No Doubt, Mac DeMarco, Sun Ra, Mark James (famously performed by Elvis Presley), Julee Cruise, and Raf (famously covered by Laura Branigan).[26]

In August 2020, Johnson announced on W Magazine that she had changed her alias from Computer Magic to Danz CM.[6] Discussing on her official Facebook page the reasons of the moniker change, she mentioned: "I wanted to change it because I outgrew Computer Magic. I outgrew the shy bedroom pop girl a long time ago. Computer Magic might mean something different to you, but to me it represents a skin that I need to shed. So if Charmander is like Computer Magic, Charizard is Danz CM. I kept the CM in there. I hope that makes the change easier. It's not a rebranding it is just me growing."[14]

Her third studio album, The Absurdity of Human Existence, will be released on March 12, 2021. Danz wrote, produced and recorded the album, Claudius Mittendorfer mixed it and Joe Laporta mastered it.[27] Speaking about the album, Danz said that she went through an existential crisis: she experienced feelings of self-doubt, went through an extreme low, was about to break and contemplated the human existence. All that inspired her to write "songs of sadness, songs about falling in love, songs about death, songs about wanting something more out of life." According to her: "it was diving both the deepest I could go emotionally meanwhile perfecting every sound – listening repeatedly to every second, making sure it was perfect and pushing myself."[27]

The first single and music video (filmed in Death Valley[27]) from Absurdity, "Idea of You", was premiered on YouTube on December 11, 2020.[28] The second single, "Domino", was released on January 22, 2021.[29]

Johnson has composed numerous songs for commercials in Japan for companies such as Panasonic, Body Mainte, and two separate commercials for QP Half and QP Sesame Dressing.[30]

Her song "Running (Hiding Version)", was used in two separate television commercials for Aria Resort and Casino and Lexus.[31]

She has modeled clothes for Sofia Coppola's Japanese clothing company Milkfed,[32] and in 2017 was in the fall catalog for the skate clothing brand X-Girl, founded by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon in the 1990s.[33]

In 2020, Danz made the soundtrack for the documentary The Map about the a major redesign of the New York City subway map.[34]

In 2015, Johnson started her own New York based record label, Channel 9 Records, to release merchandise and her own music on limited edition vinyls and cassettes. She originally funded the label with music licensing.[35]

In January 6, 2019, Johnson started posting on the Instagram page Synth History about synthesizers.[36] In 2020, Johnson founded the media brand, podcast and site Synth History, besides the Instagram page. She has interviewed Oneohtrix Point Never, James Murphy, Vince Clarke, Rick Wakeman, Suzanne Ciani, Pete Townshend, Chromeo, Gary Numan. The first narrative podcast episode was released in August 2020 on musician and composer Wendy Carlos.[2]

• Computer Magic – Davos (2015)
• Computer Magic – Danz (2018)
• Danz CM – The Absurdity of Human Existence (2021)

• Computer Magic – Spectro (2010)
• Computer Magic – Hiding From Our Time (2010)
• Computer Magic – Hiding From More of Our Time (2010)
• Computer Magic – Electronic Fences (2011) [vinyl + digital]
• Computer Magic – Get a Job (2011)
• Computer Magic – Spectronic (2011)
• Computer Magic – Orion (2012)
• Computer Magic – A Million Years / Another Science (2013) [vinyl + digital]
• Computer Magic – Extra Stuff (2014) [vinyl + digital]
• Computer Magic – Dreams of Better Days (2015)
• Computer Magic – Obscure but Visible (2016) [vinyl + digital + CD]
• Cody & Danz – Just the Hits (2017)

• Computer Magic – Super Rare (2017)
• Computer Magic – COVERS 2010–20 (2020)

• Computer Magic – Scientific Experience (2012)
• Computer Magic – Phonetics (2013)
• Computer Magic – Mindstate (2015)
• Computer Magic – Davos (Japan Edition) (2015)
• Computer Magic – Danz (Japan Edition) (2018)
• Computer Magic – Super Rare (Japan Edition) (2018)

• AAAMYYY feat. Computer Magic – "Z"
• Futurecop! feat. Computer Magic – "Star"
• Le Matos feat. Computer Magic – "Cold Summer"
• Le Matos feat. Computer Magic – "The Sounds of Nora"

• BRONCHO – "Boys Got to Go" (Computer Magic Remix)
• Cody Crump – "Friendzone" (Computer Magic Remix)

• Computer Magic – "The End of Time" (2011)
• Computer Magic – "Running" (2011)
• Computer Magic – "Trinity" (2012)
• Computer Magic – "A Million Years" (2013)
• Computer Magic – "Moving Forward" (2013)
• Computer Magic – "All I Ever Wanted" (2014)
• Computer Magic – "Mindstate" (2015)
• Computer Magic – "Be Fair" (2015)
• Computer Magic – "Hudson" (2015)
• Computer Magic – "Fuzz" (2016)
• Computer Magic – "Dimensions" (2016)
• Computer Magic – "Gone for the Weekend" (2016)
• Computer Magic – "Lonely Like We Are" (2016)
• Computer Magic – "Been Waiting" (2017)
• Cody & Danz – "Make It in America" (2017)
• Cody & Danz – "So Small" (2017)
• Computer Magic – "Ordinary Life (Message From an A.I. Girlfriend)" (2018)
• Computer Magic – "Amnesia" (2018)
• Computer Magic – "Clouds" (2018)
• Computer Magic – "Perfect Game" (2018)
• Computer Magic – "Suspicious Minds" (2019)
• Computer Magic – "Dreams of Better Days (Don't Pass Me By)" (2020)
• Danz CM – "Idea of You" (2020)