I was born and mostly raised in Dallas, TX. My birthday is May 5th, 1979. For the first couple of years doing TSiMH I was a freelancer who worked from home for all number of clients doing various computery tasks. My work history is a mixed bag of graphic design/production, video/audio editing/mastering, interactive/web development, .coms, ad agencies, and all sorts of other similar hoo-haw. Basically I'm your regular Macintosh Renaissance Man. For me, the most money came from building websites, but I also did my fair share of interactive kiosk, dvd-rom/video, pre-press work, as well as shooting and editing video.

Starting in January of 2006 I began a full-time job doing mostly graphic design and production for a forthcoming interactive TV service (which is kind of funny since I don't even have normal cable, and don't really even desire it... but whatever). So now I have benefits and make a lot more money, but as is always the case, have less free time. Fortunately, the more rigid schedule is about the only drawback, as thru a strange quirk of fait I still work from home, and also like everyone I (virtually) work with a lot.

I moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn in August of 2002 with my girlfriend Kelli. There was a special all-talking episode about how Kelli and I met and also about They Might Be Giants. We had a cat named Senator Pink Ears, until he had an accident and tragically ended up dying on January 20th, 2008. There is an episode of TSiMH mostly about the Senator, which also features Kelli briefly. Kelli is originally from New Orleans, and her family still lives there, so we visit when possible (all of them now live in Mandeville, a suburb of New Orleans, and were not badly effected by Katrina). In January of 2007 Kelli and I were forced to move from our Park Slope apartment when our landlords cashed out and sold their brownstone to a family who didn't want tenants. We now live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in an awesome loft. There was a special episode regarding the move on December 30th, 2006 (our move date).

My mom is a teacher, as was her mom and is one of my two sisters. My dad was the editor of the United Methodist Reporter and a reverend, tho he really only preached by special engagement. Both of my parents were children of Methodist ministers who's parents were the same. So from a family tree standpoint I'm about as steeped in Methodism as one could be. I feel obligated to point out that my family's brand of Christianity was (for the most part) very liberal. My dad died in 1991, and my mom remarried in 1997 to a guy who is not (whew) a reverend. Much to my family's chagrin I'm sure, I am a fervent atheist. I leave the prostalitizing to the religious, but if you're curious as to my views on the subject I'd suggest reading Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation (Amazon) which is a quick read and tells you most everything you need to know.

I have other websites, most notably one for a club I originally formed in high school with my friend Alan, called The Wompedy Club. It's an activist club of sorts, tho it's activeness has decreased substantially over time, largely due to geography. But in our day, we did all sorts of stuff, ranging from making satirical videos to making VERY elaborate free halloween haunted houses for kids, to producing anti-gun christmas cards and putting them on store's shelves. You can read all about the stuff we did, and watch videos and more, at wompedy.com

If you have any further questions about me, or TSiMH in general, you can contact me by emailing the address which is presented below in what looks like a button, but is merely a graphic. You'll have to type it in yourself. Sorry about that.

Thanks for checking out The Sounds in My Head! I like to say, and often do, "it's a bi-weekly music podcast featuring songs and bands you might have missed." It was weekly for the 2004, 2005, and 2006 seasons, but starting in Season 4 (2007) I cut back a bit.

Everything you hear on the show is selected by me, Daniel, as TSiMH is entirely a one-man operation. All of the music I play I buy myself, and I have no sponsorship of any kind -- translation: I'm not making any money in any way whatsoever from this. I recommend everything based on my honest opinion, and try my damnedest to provide links where you can buy whatever I play.

The show is purely a hobby. I started doing it in May of 2004 (several months before the first "podcasts" were distributed). So The Sounds in My Head wasn't always a podcast, as I didn't even know there was such a thing until late 2004. Initially the show was just an "audio file you can download and listen to". I typically described it as being "like a radio show, but without all that radio business." In January of 2005 I got my act together and got the RSS feed going on, at which point I became a "podcaster."

The format of TSiMH is basically: Opening Sweeper, Song, I Talk, Song, Sound Clip (of something non-musical I also don't think people should miss be it for political or humor reasons but most often both), Song, I Talk, Song, Sound Clip, Song, etc. Eventually there are closing credtis. I try to change the opening sequence for the show once every couple of months, as I like having a fresh opening, but editing one together is often quite time consuming. The music in the opening sequence is the only music I don't credit anywhere, and curiously no one has ever inquired as to what any of it is, so I guess that's not problem. Should you ever wonder, you can email and ask. The music which I talk over during the show is always credited during, apropriately, the end credits. The music I talk over is frequently thematic in some way or another even when the show doesn't have a theme.

There is no schedule for "special" episodes, which are ones where I typically have a theme of some kind, and don't concern myself as much with trying to expose people to new bands so much as find songs that I like a lot which fit into said theme. If you have any awesome ideas for a special episode, feel free to tell me about them.

There have been a number of "Special Guest-Hosted" episodes of TSiMH, these have included: Andy (in New Zealand), Ling, Kelli, Lane, Neil Hohmann (of Ritmo Latino), Doug (from Australia), and Rob Walker (author and NY Times Magazine columnist).

I record the audio for the show using an Audio-Technica AT4047 microphone, and edit it together in Apple's Final Cut Pro on a Mac Pro. TSiMH is distributed as an AAC compressed in 128k in stereo, and has been since the first episode. I initially used AAC because it was a lot like MP3 but the quality was better at a lower bitrate/filesize. But on June 27, 2005 I switched from the standard ".m4a" AAC format to the new iTunes-only "enhanced" podcast format, which allows me to add chapters with album art, and embedded links

The website was overhauled at the start of Season 5 (2008). It was re-designed by me with assistance from Kelli in an effort to make it better looking and also to make it easier to find what you are looking for. Before that the site was updated in October 2005 to include "search," "comments," and so on. This was accomplished with some help getting the backend going from my friend Mark, using MODx. It's set up in a really cool way, but I hardly understand how any of the coolest aspects work behind the scenes. All I know is that it's very easy for me to use, modify, add shows, etc. I hope you like it as much as I do.

If you have any further questions about me, or TSiMH in general, you can contact me by emailing the address which is presented below in what looks like a button, but is merely a graphic. You'll have to type it in yourself. Sorry about that.