Staff Stories // Danny

At Method Coffee Roasters we’ve always appreciated the creative souls amongst us. Whether you’re a natural extrovert or like to express yourself through art, design or musical interests, I guess we’ve all got an artistic side. Sometimes this creativity shines through a bit brighter and sharing what’s inside our heads and hearts becomes crucial - when people are inspired to take that step further with their art it’s something to celebrate.

Amongst our team we’re lucky enough to have a very creative and talented bunch of people, many of us are involved in all kinds of exciting projects alongside what we get up to here; Danny Drew is one of those people.

Danny’s been a part of the MCR family for a couple of years now, before working with us he was a regular customer at the Roastery Cafe - as he reminded me recently him and his dog Willow visited the Arch pretty much every day for a coffee and cake! Danny started doing some barista work with us at the end of 2019 and he’s now a part of our ‘roast and pack’ crew - helping Tre to ensure the best beans get out to our coffee family in good time.

We’re all pretty keen music fans here and I’ve wanted to catch up with Danny and talk all things Danny Drew for a while; he’s got a new EP being released next month, so it seemed like the perfect time …

Words by Danny Drew

I usually only drink one cup of coffee a day, so I always make sure it’s a good one! At the moment I’m really enjoying our Kenyan coffee, I like the fruit notes in the Kiambara.

I miss making espresso. If I’m at home I do make the effort of grinding my own beans and then I tend to brew using a stovetop because it’s quick and easy.

I used to drink green tea or jasmine tea. I don’t think it was until I was 17 or 18 that I tried a ‘proper’ coffee, somewhere on the Amalfi coast - I’m not sure it agreed with me; It was a very dark Italian roast and I needed the toilet soon after drinking it!!

When I’m working in the packing room I usually have music playing. A bit of sing-along with Frank or maybe Cerys on Radio 6 if it’s a Sunday.

Music and art were a big part of growing up. Both my parents were very passionate about these things. My first musical memories would probably be something by Elvis - my parents were big fans. My Dad had an incredible collection of Elvis records. I remember hearing The Big Chair by Tears for Fears for the first time, in the car as a kid. Everybody Wants To Rule The World - that was a song that made me want to make music.

I like a song to tell a story. I’d describe myself as a singer songwriter but I love all aspects of the process; from the instrumentation to the production. I always knew that I wanted to be able to understand as much as I could about making and recording music.

On my new EP I write and play guitar, piano, bass and keys. I wrote the drum track too but a friend of mine recorded the live percussion for me.

The record is called Dawn, it’s a selection of five songs that I’ve written over the past five years.

Using Abbey Road Studios was a dream come true. I was lucky enough to get Dawn mastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road, it was incredible to work with someone whose been in the business as long as him - he started out as a runner for Pink Floyd. 

I can’t wait to get my music out there but I’ve always wanted to do it properly, I want to be in this for the long-term. I’d love to be able to play the new material out when that’s possible again. I’m signed up with an A&R and distribution company called AWAL

My vocal coach told me something the other day ... A proper cup of coffee in a copper coffee pot.

Dawn will be released at the end of May. Follow Danny at @dannydrewmusic