Dan Whitlam Adds One More Page to “Strangers (Again)”
A poet who found his voice after the worst day of his teenage life keeps writing for anyone who needs company.
Dan Whitlam has said the point of his music is simple: “I want people to not feel alone in their worries and anxieties.” The deluxe edition of his debut album, Strangers (Again), opens with a new song, “Still Care 4 U,” and adds live recordings from his sold-out Roundhouse headline show.
“I want people to not feel alone in their worries and anxieties.”
Dan Whitlam, to Clash
The Song
“Still Care 4 U” is short, just over two minutes, and it opens the deluxe edition of Strangers (Again), which Needwant released on July 29. The original album came out in February: fourteen tracks, with guests including Raphaella, Tamzene, SAPPHIRE, Jordan Mackampa, Ellysse Mason, and Fractures. The deluxe grows it to seventeen, adding this new song and two live recordings from his Roundhouse show.
Dan Whitlam works words first. He writes to a metronome, around 120 BPM when he is aiming for a house groove and 90 to 95 for boom-bap, then brings the lyrics to producers in Bath and London. Spoken word over piano, garage, and electronic beats is a hard thing to make feel natural. In his hands it sounds like a friend talking you through a long night.
Strangers (Again) is also the first time he wrote seriously about losing his mother. That gives every song on it, the new one included, a weight that never tips into heaviness.
The Poet
Dan Whitlam’s story as a writer starts with the hardest day of his teenage life. At 16, he was stabbed twice in the back in a gang attack in Islington. His first poem was about it, and BBC Radio 4 picked it up. “I fell in love with the audio world,” he said later. It is remarkable that something that painful became the start of a life’s work.
In 2025 he published his first poetry collection, I Don’t Want To Settle: Words For A Lost Generation, and recorded the audiobook himself. He launched the album with a sold-out night at Rough Trade East, where he asked fans to write notes to their younger selves. Those notes became a fanzine, sold only with 100 signed vinyl copies. That is the kind of artist he is. Even the merch is about making people feel seen.
Start Here
Start with “Still Care 4 U,” then play Strangers (Again) from the top. If you have ever needed someone to say the thing you could not, Dan Whitlam is a very good person to have in your headphones.
Photo
Courtesy of Dan Whitlam.
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