While many know the talented Jordan Rakei for his genre-blurring soul / R&B/ electronic musical explorations, there’s another side to the New Zealand-born, London-based artist that’s all about letting loose on the dancefloor. Enter Dan Kye, Rakei’s longtime alias dedicated to the groovier realms of house, broken beat, and other club-constructed sounds. 

As Rakei took his soulful singer/songwriter persona to new heights with his fourth album ‘What We Call Life’, the duality of his creative output is more apparent than ever. The Dan Kye project offers a freewheeling counterpart to the introspective, forward-thinking vibes of his aptly-named solo work. 

“When I’m making a Dan Kye song, I’m having more fun with it and when I’m making a Jordan [Rakei] song, I’m like ‘is this something that I’m going to take to the next level?'” Rakei explains in an interview with The Student Pocket Guide. “With Dan Kye I make a beat and I’m just going ‘cool, that beat needs a bass line.’ It’s a much more expressive experience.” 

While his critically-acclaimed albums like ‘Cloak’ and ‘Origin’ revealed an artist pushing the boundaries of soul and hip-hop through adventurous songwriting and production, Dan Kye is all about crafting infectious grooves for the club. It’s a crucial distinction that allows Rakei to fully embrace the duality of his musical persona. 

“There are so many layers to the Jordan thing,” he says. “But with Dan Kye, it’s just upbeat party vibes.” 

Dan Kye first emerged in 2016 with the ‘Joy, Ease, Lightness’ EP, kicking off a partnership with the esteemed Rhythm Section label. Four years later, he returned with the acclaimed ‘Small Moments’ LP, further showcasing his dance-leaning alter ego’s laidback yet meticulously crafted sonic aesthetic. 

As he worked to carve out a distinct musical identity for Dan Kye, one removed from the more high-concept headspace of his Jordan Rakei output, he found himself amassing a dedicated fanbase unaware of his other creative work. 

“I was doing a Dan Kye show and it was a really early nightclub show and someone came up to me and said: ‘good work, keep at it, you’re going to go places,'” Rakei recounts. “I said that this was my side project, and I am Jordan Rakei, I make soul music and they were like ‘I don’t like soul music.’ So they were just Dan Kye fans, they didn’t even know who I was!” 

It’s a dynamic that both amuses and inspires Rakei, who is fully committed to ensuring Dan Kye maintains its own distinct energy and appeal, separate from his more high-profile output. He intentionally avoids overthinking or getting too self-serious when operating in this creative lane. 

“I never want to take it seriously,” Rakei says of his Dan Kye persona. “I still want to have the energy of like I’m doing this for fun and I’m not trying to think of it as a brand.” 

That being said, he’s been seeing the potential for Dan Kye to become more than just a side thing. Thanks to dance music’s wider commercial appeal and lower touring costs compared to his band-backed Jordan Rakei shows, Rakei’s manager and inner circle have remarked that “Dan Kye weirdly has more potential than Jordan.” 

It’s an admittedly “weird” thought for Rakei, but one he’s open to entertaining as he continues building out Dan Kye’s catalog and identity in the years ahead. He can already envision high-profile collaborations, like teaming up with a vocalist like Lianne La Havas. 

“It would be cool hearing her in a dance music environment,” Rakei muses. 

While he’s focused on promoting his new Jordan Rakei album for now, Rakei confirms “I imagine I’m going to be working on some Dan Kye stuff” once that cycle is underway. The prospect of his club-construct alias potentially outgrowing or superseding his original musical persona isn’t something he’s necessarily striving for, but he’s not ruling it out either. 

“It would be funny if my side project was bigger than Jordan Rakei one day,” he says with a laugh. 

No matter which creative hat he’s wearing, Rakei’s core approach to music-making remains rooted in a spirit of restless experimentation, emotional authenticity, and an aversion to being pigeonholed. It’s what has allowed him to cultivate two distinct musical personalities unified by his own unique artistic vision. 

“I remember from a young age leaving university and being like ‘I don’t want to be pigeonholed into being a soul singer,'” Rakei reflects. “I think my voice is soulful, so I was like OK, my voice is doing the soulful thing. Then I love electronic music, I love jazz music; it’s just basically me loving so many different types of music and because I am my own producer, I’m able to take a little bit of each thing and put it in my own music.

With Dan Kye, that musical alchemy is centered on exploring the boundaries of contemporary club music through a dancefloor-oriented lens. It’s a side of Rakei’s artistry that first took shape in 2016 with the ‘Joy, Ease, Lightness’ EP, which found him putting his own spin on the soulful house and broken beat renaissance. 

As he began releasing more music as Dan Kye, it quickly became apparent that this was more than just a one-off side project or a casual departure from his main solo work. A cohesive, critically-acclaimed full-length, the aforementioned ‘Small Moments’, solidified Dan Kye’s place as an essential piece of Rakei’s overall creative identity. 

The malleability and versatility of the Dan Kye moniker provides the perfect canvas for Rakei to flex his club music muscles free from any constraints or expectations. He can craft the type of effortlessly smooth, low-key bangers that made ‘Small Moments’ such a delightful collection, or potentially take things into more populist, radio-friendly territory down the line. 

No matter which way Dan Kye evolves from here, you can expect it to be a pure, uncut serving of dancefloor heat from one of music’s most intriguing and multifaceted artists. As Rakei puts it so succinctly when summing up the distinction between his two contrasting musical personas: “Dan Kye is more dance, house, and jazz. It’s just upbeat party vibes.” 

What more could anyone want from a club-focused side project? With Jordan Rakei bringing his inimitable talents to Dan Kye, the dancefloor is bound to be in a constant state of rapture whenever he makes his presence felt in that realm.