A Chat with Displaced Stranger (11.02.26)
A rising talent in the US music scene, singer-songwriter Displaced Stranger (also known as Don Sullivan) brings a refreshing, unique sound to audiences across the globe. Penned, performed, and produced by the Lynden-based multi-instrumentalist, Displaced Stranger, recently released an intriguing debut album, Grounding, featuring the tracks ‘Golden Hour’ and ‘Emerald Giant’. We speak with him about the new album, what music means to him, and much more.
OSR: A cliché question, but who is the person behind Displaced Stranger? How did Displaced Stranger come about?
Displaced Stranger: So, Displaced Stranger was kind of a culmination of years in the making. I’ve been a guitarist for about 30 years, but only seriously for the past 5 or so. Otherwise, I’d use it to noodle about on and fidget (Autism Spectrum does that to a person, lol). One day last year, I realized I had a lot of things in my head that I needed to get out and could only get it out with music, so I grabbed my MPC and my guitar and jammed out a 5-song EP. My son was so impressed with it, and to be fair, it was the first time I had really heard myself recorded in a format that said, “You know, this whole music thing isn’t so far-fetched.” So, I decided to plug into another album.
The first EP I wrote was off of C major, and each song goes to the next mode in the diatonic series (with the exception of E, where I used phrygian dominant, since I’m not Metallica and can’t make phrygian sound good, lol). So, I like having easter eggs in my music. For the full-length album, I found a distillery out of Northern California, Redwood Empire, and having sampled their products (they are truly amazing examples of American whiskey), I was inspired by their art, ethos, and vibe. And so off I went. I recorded 4 songs based on their products, and by the time I was done with those, had inspiration for 8 more songs. I hooked up with Corallo Records on Groover as the project took shape, and the rest is history.
OSR: You mention that your album, Grounding, is an entirely one-man project; from writing and performance to recording and production, it’s just you. What can you tell us about creating the album as a single individual without any outside contributions? What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them?
Displaced Stranger: So, one of the biggest challenges is trying to figure out how to be dynamic in that situation. It’s kind of difficult if you don’t have the voices of other musicians in the room, so you have to figure out how to put a different hat on for every part of the song. You almost have to be able to, I don’t know if dissociate is the right word for it, but it feels like it is. You have to dissociate, and for a moment, you aren’t “Don the guitarist.” You’re “Don the bassist.” Then you’re “Don the keyboard guy.” So, you have to kind of force yourself into this place where you ask, “What do I want people to hear the most?” and then “Who has to play in the background?” And among that milieu, you then have to figure out “how can I make this sound like a bunch of different people playing at once instead of one guy just layering tracks?”
That said, though, one benefit to recording like this is that you can make every piece of the track reflect exactly what YOU want it to in that moment. So, that gives you an insane level of freedom to experiment.
OSR: What can you tell us about Grounding? Is there a particular theme or backstory to the album?
Displaced Stranger: So, I’m kind of an old guy to be a music rookie. I’m 47, and one of the things I ran into a lot before now was “I don’t really have enough to say to make it worthwhile for anyone to listen to me. I’m just kind of… me, which isn’t much.” After time, though, the heartaches and realities set in… the mistakes you made you regret, the pain you experience from loss, broken views of what you thought life was going to be like against the backdrop of what it turned into. But even among that, there’s hope. There are good moments. There are times that you can feel God smiling on you, even in the sadness, even in the heartaches, and you’re like, “Man, this one moment was enough to keep me going.” We don’t realize that the pains we have gone through, as well as the good moments, are what make us who we are, for better or worse. Scripture says that (and I’m paraphrasing here) that all things good and bad work for good in the lives of believers. It’s hard to see that when you’re in the middle of it all, but I truly believe that to be the case. So this album is all about being able to rest in the bad as well as the good, and realize that it all plays a part in making us the people we are.
OSR: What does music mean to you?
Displaced Stranger: Music is how I speak or how I listen when I can’t verbalize, which is pretty often. I’m not good at speaking. I have a hard time figuring out exactly what I want to say, I often freeze when I speak, and I can’t really grab the words I want out of my head. When I have a guitar on me, I feel completely free to express what I want when I want. I find it frees the tongue in a way I’d never experience otherwise.
OSR: What do you hope people take from Grounding? What do you take from it?
Displaced Stranger: I want it to be an album where people are left with the sense that “hey, it’s ok, this guy feels beat up too. But he still sees good there in this world.” I feel like there’s so much negativity in the world that it’s hard to see the good. It takes a significant effort to hunt down the beauty of a dew drop on a summer morning, or a sunset that makes you feel like you could step right off the side of a mesa in New Mexico, and your next footstep is in heaven. I want people to say that.
OSR: If you had to introduce a listener to your music, which song from the album would you recommend?
Displaced Stranger: Hmm… that’s a great question. I love ‘Golden Hour’. I wrote it from remembering a state of near ecstasy, staring at a sunset. It is always going to be a very special song for me, because I don’t think I could ever capture beauty and admiration quite so succinctly ever again. If you’re more of a rocker type, I would recommend ‘Emerald Giant’. I was in a Song of Solomon kick when I wrote that, and kind of thought, “How would Solomon write this today?” It was probably the song I stretched out the most on the fretboard. I’m not a “weedly, weedly” guy, but sometimes you have to let the fingers play.
OSR: What is more challenging: melody or lyrics?
Displaced Stranger: Lol, both. I say that because it can be completely the truth. There are times when I can come up with the perfect chord progression, melody, and then bang my head on lyrics. So, full disclosure, the descending E minor variations I strum in ‘Emerald Giant’ swam around in my head for 20 years. It was last year before I could figure out something to even say with it. Then sometimes, I cough up lyrics in minutes, like ‘Golden Hour’, and then spend hours trying to come up with a melody. So, it just depends on where my head is at in the moment.
OSR: What can we expect from Displaced Stranger in the future?
Displaced Stranger: I have an idea for an all-acoustic EP I want to knock out, just me and my Taylor. Thematically, it’s going to be a little lighter in some ways, and in other ways, a little more… I don’t know, hopeless? Maybe not hopeless, but forlorn? I have about 7 songs already shaped into the bones of a song, and a cover I want to do. Mostly, I want to experiment with the idea of “can I write just a darn good song that doesn’t need anything other than me and a guitar?”
OSR: Do you have a message for our readers?
Displaced Stranger: Be the salt and light you want in the world. Kindness and love are so much easier on the soul than bitterness. Everybody has their own story, you included, and you have the power to make of that story what you want. Choose kindness and love!
Many thanks to Displaced Stranger for speaking with us. Find out more about Displaced Stranger on his Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
