Dani Offline tries her hand at the game of love with “ouch!”

“Why be an artist if we can’t enjoy the things we create?” It’s a question that summarises the viral Substack “everyone wants to be a DJ, no one wants to dance”, written by Dani Offline. As we sit down in anticipation of her debut LP, out now, it’s clear that enjoyment through participation in art is central to her creative philosophy. A self-produced, self-sustained artist, Dani Offline is a cultural polyglot. Her music expresses a broader artistic worldview that traverses music, her 'offline soul' Substack, and her PhD in Comparative Literature. An early musical enthusiast, kindergarten piano classes planted a nascent love. Despite her admission that “I wasn’t always the best student”, she would continue to study piano throughout high school. Engagement in the jazz program at Princeton University further sharpened her musical identity. “I had some classical training in choirs growing up, but studying jazz really opened my eyes to what it could look like to create music and improvise,” she explains. “I think my taste and style have really been shaped by that experience, as well as the music my parents played in the car growing up. A lot of jazz, 70s soul, classic R&B, that sor...