Dani Darling shares lyric video for lonely quarantine song 'S+M,' talks performing live shows during a pandemic

For her new video, Ann Arbor singer-songwriter Dani Darling goes full lo-fi bedroom pop — literally. She recorded a timelapse of herself during a recent night in, a familiar sight for many of us during the coronavirus quarantine: strumming on her guitar, and toggling between checking both her phone and computer.

That matches perfectly with the lyrics for the song, "S+M," a play on being in an unhealthy relationship with social media.

"I'm going too far I'm aware/ Is there someone out there?/ Tell me how to get off/ I just want to get off," she sings, and yeah, we couldn't agree more.

"The song is about being dependent on social media to remedy loneliness and isolation, and how that dependency can get toxic when it's all you have," she tells Metro Times. "It's a simple, honest look at what stay-in-place looks like for an artist with canceled shows, or for anyone who has been by themselves a lot lately."

Darling, who was named one of the Metro Times Bands to Watch earlier this year, says she's releasing songs online ahead of her next EP, Reverie, which she wants to drop later this summer. But timing is hard, she says, because she wants to have a record release show, though she's still not entirely sure how to pull it off with the pandemic still going on.

She's tried a few different approaches to live shows so far, performing at two outdoor events so the audience could maintain social distancing. (At an outdoor Juneteenth block party in Ypsilanti, Darling says, "I ended up crying in the middle of Marvin Gaye, the solidarity was very emo.")

For her next show, which takes place starting at 6 p.m. on Saturday, July 11, Darling is performing at Ypsilanti's Grove Studios. While a small number of tickets are being sold and organizers are advising the audience members to wear masks and keep six feet of distance, the concert will also be livestreamed so people can watch it from the safety of their own homes.

More information on the event is here.

You can watch the video for "S+M" below:


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