Meet Dan Whitlam

If Olivia Dean, Arlo Parks or Loyle Carner live on your playlists, let us introduce you to Dan Whitlam.

Chocolatey vocals. Catchy riffs. Proper sex appeal, the grown up kind.

Music that feels warm, intimate and emotionally switched on, not loud, not try hard.

Dan Whitlam sits at the intersection of spoken word, soul and modern production. His work is narrative led, intimate and quietly magnetic. Where others perform at you, he speaks to you. Piano led moments soften into broken beats. The writing lands with clarity and restraint.

His story gives the work its depth, but it’s never exploited. On his way to an acting audition in London, Dan intervened in a street fight and was stabbed in a knife attack. Recovery changed everything. During that period he began writing poetry as a way of making sense of what had happened. Music followed later, as a framework for those words rather than the focus.

That foundation shows. His writing is empathetic rather than angry. Reflective rather than dramatic. Themes of connection, vulnerability and belonging run through everything he makes. You feel understood rather than impressed.

That honesty has found an audience. Whitlam has built a following of more than 800,000 across social platforms, sold out shows including London’s KOKO, and earned praise from artists and tastemakers who value substance over hype. BBC 6Music support has followed naturally.

His debut album Strangers (Again) lands next month. Fourteen tracks featuring Raphaella, Tamzene, SAPPHIRE and Jordan Mackampa, exploring the spaces between people, how we drift apart and how we find our way back. It’s a record that rewards listening properly, phone down, attention on.

Before the album arrives, Glasgow gets a rare chance to experience him up close with an in store performance at Assai Records on 18 February.

Warm. Human. Properly felt.

Hood approved.