Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Mayo.
Hi Daniel, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I never for a second thought to myself that i would try to pursue music so consistently back when i first started. Before i even touched a microphone, it was a longtime friend of mine that was pursuing music in high school, (still talk to him to this day) and i always used to be so intrigued in how someone so to-themselves and normal mannered could just simply leave the general population, sit down in a room away from the world and create art that can express those thoughts and emotions that people genuinely can relate to in ways that cant be replicated by just talking to someone. with me being young and curious, and him having a small studio setup at his house, of course i wanted to try to make some songs just to not feel left out, very unserious songs of course. From that day on, i was hooked. Everything clicked to me and how much music actually has been a MAJOR part of my life, even since i was a child. Inheriting Pop/RnB aspects from listening to 106.5 Baltimore in the car with my parents on anywhere and everywhere,
Hip-hop/Rap and EDM aspects from friends with a WIDE variety of music tastes, and Country twang/aspects from living and visiting my HOME hometown of Tuskegee, Alabama. Then COVID hit. and all glory be to god, i wad stuck in my room where i decided to make use of the time, and i finally learned how to make MUSIC. Making the beat, writing my own lyrics, taught myself how to sing, mix, engineer, the whole 9 yards. It wasn’t until 2 years ago when i decided to try to actually make a project that would make ACTUAL contact with your heart, your soul, and your mind. APOLLO, a 13 track album, aiming for every emotion in your body, aiming for a sound that people have compared to established artists such as The Weeknd, Drake, Playboi Carti, Ken Carson or like Calvin Harris, Ellie Goulding, and MANY many more in all ranges of music. This has left me so much room to grow and try all new styles and sounds which has finally started to pin me down and help me find MY sound, It didnt take long for me to realize that alot of my music has the “voice of an angel, words from the devil” implementation, and people have caught on pretty quick. I just wanted to make something people have ACTUALLY never heard of. Every piece of the production serves a purpose in making you feel how i feel. down to how loud one single note is, or even how many layers of singing you hear. some days you might hear only 1 me on a song, some songs you might hear 8. I want my music to take you away from all 5 of your senses, and bring out the one feeling you couldn’t let out all along. Whether you’re infuriated, depressed, in love, locker room pregame, going on a late night drive, you name it, I have it. This music has successfully thrown people into a space where all 5 or your senses disconnect from the rest of the world, and reconnect directly to any song that you’re hearing from me. Your sense of sight shows a whole new world, your sense of hearing expands significantly to hear every sound as each sound is as detrimental to your soul as the next. your taste and smell will act as if you are dosing on psychedelics, purposefully finding exactly what that “feeling” that you’re listening to tasted like in your life, and replicating it to help remind you what it could look like when brought to life. Your sense of touch makes every last nerve in your body remind you exactly how you felt in certain times that any said song from me reminds you of, like feeling extreme heat peeling your skin from making it out of a building fire alive from listening to a song that makes you feel like an avenger, or even the freezing cold air on your skin from feeling alone and not having the warmth of anybody or anything close around you. Every sense is used, Every. Last. One. This is Audio Reality.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Every single day has been a new struggle since 2013, the passing of my father. Ever since then it’s been a real-life day-to-day constant ultimatum if i still want to be a part of this world anymore. Left and right every single day since then for these last 13 years, it has been a new issue waiting for me no matter the scale. From a hole in my sock to being trapped in a car with airbags everywhere and losing my only source of income all in one week. But honorable mention goes to being a rising artist in a small town, not a-lot of connections, job isn’t that great, my whole family on the brink of cars getting repo’d and house going on foreclosure, the list just goes on and on and the effect it has had on me and my family has been devastating, but for some very odd reason, nothing has yet to pull me away from music. everyday I wake up and think about it everywhere i go, which has made me know i would never leave music. it has brought me so many opportunities but, i know for a fact i’m doing this to save myself in the end. i find it so hard trying to express myself to people, even my own mother, who I would literally die a million times over for, my siblings, significant other, etc. and i still haven’t gotten the courage to find therapy but for some reason whenever i’m behind that screen and microphone, its like i’m reading the Percy Jackson books for the first time, I actually feel like I’m in a whole other world that was created to bend reality in all way, shapes and forms.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
You will NEVER hear two of the same sounds from me. every song you hear has a new feeling, a new way of expressing it, a new story, a new sound. One thing that everyone can account for, everyone knows that no matter how random the song sounds, there is always a meaning behind that, and theres beauty in knowing that people listen to my music knowing it means something, and immediately clicks to them, and they always relate to what im saying. Win-win. In an industry with everyone having a similar, high pitched, almost incomprehensible voice on the same generic sounding beats and having that be the “trail” for all underground artists, i wanted to see if my “different” could actually be good. Hard hitting beats, relatable, straight to the point lyrics, “comforting-to-remember” sound that is hard to forget, and production that continuously sets the bar with every release, I am finally confident enough to share it to the world, and I always tell people, you’re not obligated to take a listen, but if you do, i GUARANTEE you would never look back. 2026-2027 will be the years of finally discovering myself and finally getting back on the stage and giving everyone the Audio Reality experience they deserve.
What are your plans for the future?
We are gonna take this to the next level. Working on music collaborating with smaller artists around the country to show them the piece(s) i feel they are missing on there music. it doesn’t matter who they are or how the original music sounds, i want to put my voice on everything to show the whole world that i’m not just gonna be a flash in the pan, run of the mill clone of another musician, and that in the future, they will know its me without having to even think. I want every last person to have atleast one way of finding out that I’m a part of a project without having to deep search.
Within the next year, i have a plan in place to go to open mics around this city of baltimore enough to gather a significant audience to hold my own show, and like i said earlier, give people the Audio Reality experience they deserve.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://flow.page/kotagt?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZnRzaAUE56xwZG9mAmZkaWQWUNqmi17jTuHaE25qtmeramDoU37N_GV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDzEyNDAyNDU3NDI4NzQxNAABp609rrslUzxfxGnW-pbaJuecNlxQln-sLu_EaemEeYpGUhGaDr-YkufWVlcU_aem_L0golJd6wLYKqjMw3g11wQ
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kotagt?igsi=bXcxbWFza203OXV1&utm_source=qr
- Twitter: https://x.com/kotagt_?s=11&t=Es39U1Wlk0eXenJw5fE0rQ
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@kotagt?si=F3TRYOkOQSpqeR3C
- Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/7E5RgzYyPJQbBt1tiN
