Niall Dailly is no stranger to the world of music. Over the past twenty-five years he’s honed his craft and continued to reflect and act upon what he himself honestly enjoys and is intrigued by. This inner North Star, and a certain fearlessness in the face of closed doors and untrodden paths, has taken him on quite the journey, from DJ Plus One to the group, Jack Beats, to today - when he launches his first Web3 project, Metamorphic, with the support of BeetsDAO.
Given Dailly’s familiarity with, and success in, the Web2 music industry, it made sense to ask the question of how his newest project ended up on the blockchain. Metamorphic is, after all, an audiovisual project centered on a 10 song electronic music album, instantiated in 100 unique immersive and interactive rooms (10 rooms with unique visuals for each song).
During a conversation with Dailly last week, he retraced his path into the metaverse. In 2018, he decided to step away from Jack Beats to do other things creatively. He began to work on something different, something that felt akin to “[jumping] off the cliff without a parachute;” and, as happens in free fall, things began to progress quickly. In the midst of this, some profound, beautiful shifts in his personal life came with the birth of his son and then his wife’s pregnancy with their daughter. Then, just as Dailly saw his nascent album come into full focus, the COVID-19 pandemic cloaked the world in uncertainty, and the world of live Web2 music became unmoored.
Dailly could easily have hunkered down to wait an indeterminate amount of time until the storm passed. He could also have chosen to try to fight the bleakness. Instead, he realized that the things he’d done well in the past were things from his heart, things he’d done out of a sense of gut instinct. Rather than sinking into despair or frustration, his gut told him to choose to see an opportunity for further exploration. In his own words, “if the environment for the live part of this doesn’t really exist, maybe there’s some more exploration to be done. [...] If we’re not relying on the live part of this, maybe it could go a bit further, and maybe it could get a bit more weird and wonderful, but I’m going to have to throw caution to the wind.”
What followed was another year of production where the album “got really weird and wonderful.” Dailly’s decision to take the project further brought him even more fully into a space where he was really excited about creating something that he would also genuinely enjoy listening to. The additional time also paved the way for a good friend to introduce him to people in DAOs. Though not a cryptonative, Dailly hopes his own journey into Web3 enfranchises people who also wonder what in the world a DAO is, those who may still be wary of the new landscape.
When Dailly met with BeetsDAO, he recognized in co-founder Jordan Garbis the kind of energy that it would take to truly see the project through in a way that fully honored Dailly’s creative decisions and ownership. From there, Alec D’Alelio made the connection to Async and we are absolutely honored to be a part of Metamorphic’s introduction to the world, with a collection of 100 NFTs being hosted on Async Market.
When it comes to advice for other musicians, Dailly emphasizes cultivating an attitude and “general acceptance that anything is possible.” So go ahead and take the leap, invest the time. Also, key in on your own interests, your own tastes. Metamorphic at its core is, to Dailly, “[an] honest response to [himself] in terms of music.”
For listeners, Dailly’s decision to not include vocals was deliberate. Without vocals, without words to provide guidance, he hopes to achieve his greatest ambition “for people to take it at face value and form their own story about it.”
It’s fitting, then, that the resulting project mirrors the creative process that birthed it - both somewhat chaotic, evolving from day to day, and nonlinear. Both utterly inspiring and, yes, weird and wonderful.
Only vetted buyers will be eligible for the 10-edition album mint. If you are interested in minting, register interest here and a team member will reach out to schedule an exclusive video session with the artist.
Written by Iona Childers for Async.
