Life & Work with Danielfromyesterday of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielfromyesterday

Hi danielfromyesterday, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
2000 – new millennium, the subject completed gestation and was issued a birth certificate

2005 – the subject was documented playing random piano keys and singing nonsense

2008 – the subject began studying music at an afterschool program

2012 – the subject was invited to compose a short piece for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra

2013 – the subject was introduced to GarageBand, and created a handful of depressing heavy metal songs

2014 – the subject took part in a rock band summer camp, playing drums with other teenagers

2017 – the subject began making shitty trap beats on his MacBook

2018 – the subject traveled to Los Angeles to pursue an “education”

2021 – the subject began to work as an audio engineer at various Los Angeles music studios

2023 – the subject released their first audiovisual project, suitably named b_e_g_i_n_n_i_n_g_s

2024 – the subject released PROCESS and EROSION, cementing their abstract, monochrome, geometric visual aesthetic and furthering their exploration into leftfield electronic music

2025 – the subject participated in The Other Art Fair LA, bringing an interactive version of their EROSION visualizer to the hands of the public

2025 – the subject has released 2 of 12 projects for the 2025 fiscal year. these can be found on their website: danielfromyesterday.com

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
yes, it has been a smooth road. i suffer no problems or obstacles. anything that stands in my way is instantly obliterated by god. i am chosen, i have infinite resources and capabilities, and my skills are rivaled only by my own intellect. in addition to these material and personal blessings, i am also incredibly humble. this humility serves to draw even more followers into my aura of influence and good-will. anyone who takes any sort of issue with me is inherently jealous and hateful, for i am a righteous agent of the divine, and i make no mistakes in my execution of justice. whatever you have seen of me, you were always meant to see. whatever you do not know, it is a closely guarded secret. all answers will come exactly when they are intended to. if you have witnessed me falter, know that it was only a deliberate ruse to present myself as human and relatable. i do not need nor care to invent some heart-wrenching story of how i was scared or nervous about my prospects until my community rallied around me in support. i have nothing to complain about except my own choices. everything has been provided for me, and my success is inevitable.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
i make monochrome audio-reactive digital art and leftfield electronic music.

i like to think that my work bridges the gap between experimental and conventional music: i don’t shy away from the all-powerful synth bass, and i enjoy greatly the exciting drums and breakbeats that modern music has to offer. my experimentation is found in between the lines: subtle subversions of expectations, slightly jilted vocal samples, glitched-out moments that make you question the fidelity of your sound system. listening to my music, you might catch yourself dancing, or just lost in thought.

my visual art is an exciting new branch of my creative process. i begin by making music, i then create abstract audio visualizers that dance in time to the drums, bass, and glitched out vocals. i record the animations while experimenting with unpredictable aspects of the visual network, then go frame-by-frame to find key moments that speak to me. i collect the most powerful images and get them printed large scale on high-density fiberboard. it’s quite satisfying to hold a physical incarnation of a digital image in your hands.

this February, i had the privilege of debuting my visual art at The Other Art Fair LA. this was a really cool event hosted by Saatchi Art with over a hundred incredibly talented artists showing various visual media. i brought some hardboard prints from the luma key and EROSION series, as well as an interactive visualizer for people to play with. i’m really proud of these pieces, and i’m also proud of the incredibly pretentious art-speak description i wrote for them:

“this work speaks to the tenuous relationship between humans and data; our propensity for making sense of patterns; and the beauty of the void. the artist uses a node-based animation software (TouchDesigner) to sculpt 3-dimensional particle clouds from stochastic color data, which are then rendered as 2-dimensional images. the practice of transfiguring pure noise data into art is a form of making “something” out of “nothing”. the existence of art that is both abstract and beautiful is a testament to the creative power of even the average mind, as well as the ability of each individual to extract their own unique sense of meaning from the same experience. the monochrome nature of the image highlights the geometry and faithfully represents its origin as binary data: each pixel is either “on” (1: white), or “off” (0: black). only with millions of pixels arranged intentionally can we begin to discern a familiar (or unfamiliar) shape.”

my newest series is exploring more liquid textures and glitched out greyscale themes. i’ve been using more feedback loops inside of TouchDesigner to create digital waterfalls of noise. you can see some of those images, as well as my EROSION and luma key series, on my website: danielfromyesterday.com

i like to think that i make art for the sake of art. when someone is able to see the same beauty that i see in a abstract collection of dots, i am more certain that we are not all that different. for me, it is incredibly important that my art be original and sincere, as it serves as an expression of my individuality. with this in mind, i am always trying to offer something new, something not seen before. if i am successful in my work, then i have inspired both your intellectual curiosity and your intuitive, emotional spirit. i think this combination is what makes us uniquely human among god’s creatures.

i find that abstract art is the best vehicle for transmitting these ideas: it highlights our natural propensity to find form in the formless, meaning in random noise, and the art woven in between the pixels. with each project, i aim to work until i have burned away any trace of myself in the art that i see before me. of course, each piece is personal, and it is inextricably tied to me, but my style is meant to be otherworldly so as to be universal.

Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
no book has changed my life like Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki. this humble collection of ideas outlining the principles of Zen Buddhism managed to jolt me out of an atheistic stupor of irreverence. among the vast assortment of philosophies and religions, Zen Buddhism provides a simple and intuitive path to understanding ourselves and our lives. for a Zen Buddhist, there is nothing more important than posture and breathing: everything else is superfluous and will develop naturally from our divine nature, provided we are able to get out of our own way (that’s what all the sitting and breathing is for). while there is a lifetime of work between myself and enlightenment, setting just one foot on the path is a liberation in itself. in a few words, the book has taught me to be disciplined, principled, forgiving, open-minded, and most importantly, to be kind.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://danielfromyesterday.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielfromyesterday/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@danielfromyesterday/videos

Image Credits
Stacie Carte @shotbystacie
Casey Jingco @kc.kingco