Biography
Danny L. Harle stretches the boundaries of pop as a producer, remixer, and performer. He helped establish the influential PC Music collective, and his lively, colorful aesthetic — inspired by '90s dance-pop and early-2000s dance genres including gabber — played a key role in developing hyperpop while also influencing broader audiences. His respected solo projects, such as the Broken Flowers EP from 2015 and the 1UL EP released in 2017, along with his widespread production and remix contributions for musicians like 100 gecs, Charli XCX, Caroline Polachek, and Nile Rodgers, demonstrated how far his impact extended. In 2021, he explored this fusion of energetic sounds and conceptual depth further on his debut full-length album, Harlecore.
Harle took up the cello during childhood yet only discovered real enthusiasm for music at age 12, when he began playing bass after discovering Madness and Slipknot. At the Royal Academy of Music he joined the junior jazz ensemble (his father is saxophonist John Harle). He later studied music at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he created electronic pieces independently and reconnected with longtime friend A.G. Cook. Together they launched the experimental project Dux Content, whose earliest output included compositions written for the Disklavier plus the score for the animated film Heart of Death. Another early endeavor, 2012’s Dux Kidz, paired rhythms shaped by Cook and Harle with vocals from child singers.
Cook launched the PC Music label and collective in 2013, and Harle joined as one of its earliest participants, turning his attention to pop songwriting and production. Drawing from '90s dance-pop singles such as Corona’s “The Rhythm of the Night” and Haddaway’s “What Is Love,” his first single, “Broken Flowers,” surfaced in mid-2013 and helped establish PC Music’s distinctive style. The next year he supplied sound design for Tyburn Tree: Dark London, his father’s album with Marc Almond, issued the follow-up single “In My Dreams” featuring vocals by singer Raffy, and reworked Kero Kero Bonito’s “Sad Beat.” Late in 2014, Harle and Raffy delivered a cover of East 17’s 1994 Christmas chart-topper “Stay Another Day.”
Alongside remixes for Spector, Panda Bear, and Years & Years, the Broken Flowers EP appeared the following year. Its slightly revised title track reached Billboard’s Emerging Artists Chart in the U.S. and earned substantial airplay on BBC Radio 1 in the U.K. In 2016 Harle teamed with Caroline Polachek for May’s “Ashes of Love” and with Carly Rae Jepsen for August’s “Super Natural,” while also remixing tracks by Pentatonix and MNEK. During PC Music’s Month of Mayhem in May 2017, when the label issued a new piece daily, he unveiled the singles “1UL” and “Me4U,” both later collected on the 1UL EP. That same year he released “Never Thought” under the Danny Sunshine alias and the November Kitsuné collaboration “Bom Bom” with Australian rapper/singer Tkay Maidza, which quickly became a viral hit. He closed out 2017 with a remix of Charli XCX’s “After the Afterparty” and production on a track from her mixtape Number 1 Angel.
Harle stayed active as the decade ended. He enlisted Clairo for vocals on February 2018’s “Blue Angel” and appeared on a track from her Diary 001 EP that year. Although production, songwriting, and remix work for artists including Superfruit, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Ed Sheeran, and Whethan occupied much of his time, he resurfaced in September 2019 with “Part of Me,” a collaboration with PC Music veteran Hannah Diamond, and served as executive producer on Polachek’s album Pang from the same year. After contributing to acclaimed 2020 releases such as Rina Sawayama’s Sawayama and Charli XCX’s how i'm feeling now, plus Polachek’s cover of the Corrs’ “Breathless” and remixes for Georgia and 100 gecs, Harle stepped forward with his first full-length, Harlecore. This concept album, on which he assumed the personas of four DJs spinning hardcore, gabber, makina (a Spanish style akin to happy hardcore), and ambient music inside an alternate-universe club, arrived on Mad Decent in February 2021.
Harle took up the cello during childhood yet only discovered real enthusiasm for music at age 12, when he began playing bass after discovering Madness and Slipknot. At the Royal Academy of Music he joined the junior jazz ensemble (his father is saxophonist John Harle). He later studied music at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he created electronic pieces independently and reconnected with longtime friend A.G. Cook. Together they launched the experimental project Dux Content, whose earliest output included compositions written for the Disklavier plus the score for the animated film Heart of Death. Another early endeavor, 2012’s Dux Kidz, paired rhythms shaped by Cook and Harle with vocals from child singers.
Cook launched the PC Music label and collective in 2013, and Harle joined as one of its earliest participants, turning his attention to pop songwriting and production. Drawing from '90s dance-pop singles such as Corona’s “The Rhythm of the Night” and Haddaway’s “What Is Love,” his first single, “Broken Flowers,” surfaced in mid-2013 and helped establish PC Music’s distinctive style. The next year he supplied sound design for Tyburn Tree: Dark London, his father’s album with Marc Almond, issued the follow-up single “In My Dreams” featuring vocals by singer Raffy, and reworked Kero Kero Bonito’s “Sad Beat.” Late in 2014, Harle and Raffy delivered a cover of East 17’s 1994 Christmas chart-topper “Stay Another Day.”
Alongside remixes for Spector, Panda Bear, and Years & Years, the Broken Flowers EP appeared the following year. Its slightly revised title track reached Billboard’s Emerging Artists Chart in the U.S. and earned substantial airplay on BBC Radio 1 in the U.K. In 2016 Harle teamed with Caroline Polachek for May’s “Ashes of Love” and with Carly Rae Jepsen for August’s “Super Natural,” while also remixing tracks by Pentatonix and MNEK. During PC Music’s Month of Mayhem in May 2017, when the label issued a new piece daily, he unveiled the singles “1UL” and “Me4U,” both later collected on the 1UL EP. That same year he released “Never Thought” under the Danny Sunshine alias and the November Kitsuné collaboration “Bom Bom” with Australian rapper/singer Tkay Maidza, which quickly became a viral hit. He closed out 2017 with a remix of Charli XCX’s “After the Afterparty” and production on a track from her mixtape Number 1 Angel.
Harle stayed active as the decade ended. He enlisted Clairo for vocals on February 2018’s “Blue Angel” and appeared on a track from her Diary 001 EP that year. Although production, songwriting, and remix work for artists including Superfruit, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Ed Sheeran, and Whethan occupied much of his time, he resurfaced in September 2019 with “Part of Me,” a collaboration with PC Music veteran Hannah Diamond, and served as executive producer on Polachek’s album Pang from the same year. After contributing to acclaimed 2020 releases such as Rina Sawayama’s Sawayama and Charli XCX’s how i'm feeling now, plus Polachek’s cover of the Corrs’ “Breathless” and remixes for Georgia and 100 gecs, Harle stepped forward with his first full-length, Harlecore. This concept album, on which he assumed the personas of four DJs spinning hardcore, gabber, makina (a Spanish style akin to happy hardcore), and ambient music inside an alternate-universe club, arrived on Mad Decent in February 2021.
Albums
Singles
