Cousin Dan: Outer Space Dance Odyssey

By: Stephen Wilkins

Originally published November 29, 2016 by Plasma Magazine 

Cousin Dan puts on an unmistakable live show filled with smoke wafting in the air, laser beams penetrating your mind and unearthly feats of cosmic strength. His live shows are an outer space dance rock odyssey, whether there are five or five hundred people in the audience. He brings his own hand made dance floor that is equipped with lights reminiscent of the disco era, a smoke machine and enough balloons to drown the crowd. All of this has made Cousin Dan into the local Atlanta legend that we know today.

Since meeting Dan earlier this year I have spent many hours working on music, talking philosophy, politics, culture, the rise of his alter ego Cousin Dan and planning this year’s Plasma Fest. One of the most notable things about him is how down to Earth he is once he steps off stage. Dan’s personality isn’t as intense as his stage persona but, that energy is channeled into his work ethic. Cousin Dan doesn’t do anything half-assed.

Daniel Scoggins, also known as Cousin Dan, is a transplant from Dallas, Texas, who moved here to attend S.C.A.D. in 2008 to study art and design. Dan moved to Atlanta at the height of the indie rock scene and right before EDM had made its resurgence in the form of dubstep. Cousin Dan started out as a response to Atlanta’s lackluster live music scene. “I had been 21 for enough years to start seeing bands and stuff and thought man this shit is boring..,” he told me over beers in his basement turned home studio. Thus Cousin Dan was born. It didn’t take long for Scoggins to develop his onstage persona. “I don’t think I went for more than a year without having what Cousin Dan is now.” Some of Dan’s stage props have changed throughout the years but the energy is still the same. “I knew that being on stage as one guy I had to be entertaining.” PHRASING.