“Some artists have a sixth sense for fashion: it comes to them. Danny Goo is one. For years he’s been honing a pop-punk/sad-rap cocktail that’s now suddenly super-hot. Dropping on Atoned Music on July 15, his sophomore EP Butterflies makes an ultra-authentic grab for mainstream ubiquity alongside the likes of Machine Gun Kelly, Travis Barker, and Avril Lavigne.”

Yep. Pop-Punk Is definitely back. Hell, some might say it never really went away.

Rarely is the genre a one-person thing -and it technically never is when it comes to recording and playing live- but for pop-punk and rap hybrid powerhouse performer Danny Goo, holding the reins for this project makes the most sense, as it is all deeply personal every step of the way.

Though I often associate Pop-Punk with an upbeat tongue-in-cheek vibe, one cannot forget that there’s often a huge element of vulnerability involved, which is where elements of emocore and such come into play. “This EP’s just me and my whole life story; moments in my life that I remember vividly and that affect me a lot,” Danny says“Most of it is relationship stuff – I’m a very, like, passionate, in-love kind of guy.”

The five-song EP is Danny’s sophomore in the Goo-verse of releases through Atoned Music. This release follows after Danny and his co-creator/producer JoJo Centineo moved from Dallas to Los Angeles and recruited the help of guitarist and producer Kevin “Thrasher” Gruft, well-remembered as a collaborator of both Travis Barker and Avril Lavigne -just so you know that you can expect quite a bit of legit pedigree’d sound up in here.

Though I mentioned an element of emo here and there, don’t go in expecting too many heart-wrenching screams of despair, nor for the EP to wallow in too much melodrama. The record is actually quite optimistic and uplifting almost the entire length through, opting to celebrate the emotional intensity of falling in and out of love, cherishing the lows, and swimming in the highs as it were.
You’ll find quite a bit of emotional giddiness in the EP, but all of it is well earned and never whiny. The main focus of the record is the bittersweet experiences of young love, however, it all flows from a place of wisdom and acceptance, more so than it does from angst and confusion. In a way, I feel as though this is a songwriting innovation for the genre that moves things in a more midwestern post-emo direction.

An avowed and hopeless romantic, Danny Goo’s crowning piece is the titular “Butterflies”, the final song of the EP that condenses everything up to that point and encourages us to embrace vulnerability, to embrace what we feel as an integral part of what being alive’s for -the good and the bad- “I want people to feel like they’re not alone,” he says of the song, simultaneously leading by example in this proposition of being genuinely open. “I was very straight-up with how I felt and I want to encourage people to be them – to be unapologetically them.” He finalizes.

So go out there. Put on this EP and let yourself feel Butterflies again. It feels hella good.

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