Former Vacaville High track standout turns to music
Shell jumps at chance to record
“What a lot of my music is about is a lot of imagery based on the open fields I knew in Vacaville. Walking around in the open areas, thinking about ideas for songs ever since I was growing up. It finally was to the point where I could make those songs happen and bring them to life.”
— Danny Shell
Danny Shell’s personal best high jump at Vacaville High School was 6 foot, 8 inches.
Oddly, Shell’s top leap at Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo was also 6 foot, 8 inches.
“I plateaued,” Shell laughed.
Hey, his track exploits got him on the Cal-Poly team and that was good enough for Shell. And, apparently, his interests in high school and college wavered as much as his high jump bests.
“Solely focusing on sports and a group of friends to hang out with,” remembers Shell.
But once he graduated and anchored himself in Los Angeles, Shell took the plunge into music, an admitted interest in high school and college but never his No. 1 passion.
“That was the thing. I was always doing sports. That was the main focus. But I always loved music,” Shell said by phone Monday. “Me and my friends would make ‘joke music.’ At that point, nothing seemed too serious. It was all just for fun. I was always making beats and writing music.”
And if the former student at Orchard Elementary and Jepson Middle School zeroed in on music as much as he did sports?
“I think about that all the time; if I put all my efforts toward music. What would have happened? Maybe I would have gotten burned out like what I kind of did with sports,” Shell said. “It happened for a reason.”
It’s not as if Shell’s grandfather was a high jumper and his dad was a high jumper. It’s simply an accident that one day in middle school, “it was PE, the last period of the day, and they were bringing out the high jump pit. I just tried jumping and did well and kept showing up.”
If it wasn’t the high jump, it was the soccer field. It basically kept Shell out of trouble. Most of his shenanigans were limited to “goofing off in class; just laughing and getting sent out of class,” the 6-foot-3 Shell said. “I don’t think I did anything too bad.”
As much as Shell enjoyed growing up in Vacaville, he said he “loved” Cal-Poly, a mere 15 minutes from the Pacific Ocean and far from L.A. congestion.
“It was great. It was cool being very different than Vacaville but similar with the countryside and open areas,” said Shell, motivated to not only pursue music, but to create and arrange songs.
“What a lot of my music is about is a lot of imagery based on the open fields I knew in Vacaville,” he said. “Walking around in the open areas, thinking about ideas for songs ever since I was growing up. It finally was to the point where I could make those songs happen and bring them to life.”
Now based in the overstimulation of Los Angeles, Shell’s memories of Vacaville provide a musical escape with his songs.
“Being in Los Angeles, no longer having that free feeling, I was trying to put myself into a place I wanted to be which was Vacaville,” said Shell. “It was a spot I enjoyed more.”
Shell last returned to Vacaville around Christmas to visit his parents, who he declined to identify.
“I think they’d prefer to remain anonymous,” he chuckled.
Shell has an older brother, but wouldn’t say whether he was also musically-inclined.
“I wouldn’t want to diss him,” Shell said diplomatically.
Jumping into music recording has hardly gone to his head, with Shell acknowledging that “all of it was created in our house” with his roommate Ryan Dulude, the recording’s producer and engineer.
“It was just us,” Shell said, noting the tune, “Sourgrass,” was finished eight months ago, but “we were waiting for the right time to put it out.”
Shell’s first official single, “Vulture,” dropped Feb. 19. “Sourgrass,” plus the focus track, “Frozen Grape,” were released March 5.
Recording the music one thing. Describing it another.
“I don’t know. That’s one of the toughest parts. It’s fairly ‘genreless,’ which I think is where music is going,” Shell said. “I don’t know is is a correct genre.”
One thing Shell does know: Writing tunes beats working at an ice cream shop, which he did. And music surely is better than being a guinea pig for clinical trials on the impact of having shots of wine launched into his mouth through a tube with the effects on his brain documented in a CT scan.
Shell said the $60 wasn’t bad for 45 minutes of work. Actually, it was a $60 Target gift card.
“They didn’t want you to take cash and buy booze, even though I told them you can buy booze at Target,” Shell said. “It was bizarre.”
The weird part was the 7 a.m. start time, he said.
“Wine at 7 is not the best thing,” Shell said, believing his days of clinical trials on the effects of alcohol are over and his days — years? — of music are his future.
“From here it’s going immediately to the next album and get as much exposure as possible,” Shell said. “And keep releasing music.”
Oh, and those high school track teammates and core group of friends? No doubt there would be some giggling if they knew Shell’s music pursuit.
“They’d be like, ‘Danny singing? That doesn’t make any sense.’ That’s why I didn’t tell people for a while,” Shell said.
To stream “Sourgrass,” visit ffm.to/sourgrass