Stream: Dan Sadin, ‘Sucker’

Kevin Bronson on October 2nd, 2019

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Singer-songwriter Dan Sadin has spent 10 years playing, writing and performing with artists such as FRENSHIP, Holychild, MØ, Jessie Ware, Sabrina Claudio and Talker but it wasn’t until last year that he released his debut EP. He professes to be a little awkward, “terrible at small talk” and overly self-conscious about measuring up to others’ expectations. So making his own musical statement took some soul-searching.

Sadin addresses those feelings in his new single “Sucker,” an earnest, rollicking classic rocker that speaks to his “need for a deeper connection with the world around me and myself,” he says. The song springs from a common disconnect — the difference between the life you see yourself living and how you perceive others are viewing you.

“I had been feeling lost, caught up in a very surface-level existence,” the songwriter explains. “I was overwhelmed with anxiety created by ignoring the things in life that really mattered to me, that were a part of my core, because I felt like I had to live up to cultural, communal and familial expectations. I felt like I had to be my own curator of what other people think is a ‘perfect life.’ And while I knew that living like that might be a way to receive instant gratification, it was also a way to avoid being with myself. Living in a world of curated successes and one-dimensional projections, only seeing what people want you to see or hear, I was riddled with anxiety about how I compare with someone else’s end product. As a result, I believed that this end goal, whatever it might be, should be something immediate when it really isn’t. I don’t see someone else’s journey, their deep, dark demons … but that’s the exciting part! That’s the part that I live for. That’s the part that makes us all human and connects us together.”

In the end, he adds, “Sucker” connects with “my 5-year-old self who was in perfect alignment with his dreams, his feelings and who he was. It is meant to honor that part of myself that craves the real talk, the real connections — not just surface-level interactions. And it’s a helpful reminder to not take myself too seriously.”

||| Stream: “Sucker”