Daniel Pickard Drops Debut Album 'Behaviour' via AWAL

Daniel Pickard has released his debut album Behaviour as a single today, October 23, 2026, distributed independently through AWAL. The 10-track album arrives alongside a new single and visualizer for "Room Service," and a headline show booked for November in East London.

Behaviour draws on French pop, Italo disco, and film score textures across songs set in locations ranging from a nineteenth-century gay brothel to a São Paulo airport to an office stocked with IKEA furniture. The album was co-produced by Max Prior and recorded across several London studios, including Toast in Kensal Rise, the studio of producer Craig Silvey (known for his work with Baxter Dury and Jarvis Cocker). Drums were tracked at Hoxa HQ in West Hampstead, engineered by Dani Spragg. The album was mastered in Paris by Antoine Chabert, whose credits include Charlotte Gainsbourg, Christine and the Queens, and Daft Punk.

Contributors include composer and violinist Owen Pallett, known for his work with Arcade Fire, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Pet Shop Boys. Composer Michael Stein, one of the composers behind the Stranger Things score, also appears on the record. Synth parts came in from composer Alex Ball in Bristol, Carlos Trilha Müller in Brazil, and Stein in Texas. Vocals on lead single "Heartbeats the Flaw" feature French artist Mahault. Grammy-winning mixer Eduardo De La Paz handled vocal mixing.

What Is on the 'Behaviour' Album and Who Made It

Pickard began writing Behaviour during the first UK Covid lockdown in 2020 while isolating with family in Coventry, his hometown before he relocated to London. He is a former member of the art-pop band Half Loon, which he co-founded in 2013 alongside Charlie Heaton, now known for his role in Stranger Things. The band released an EP, toured, and disbanded in 2017.

The album's ten tracks are:

1. First Past the Pose 2. Nominee 3. Catastrophe 4. Heartbeats the Flaw 5. Interlude 6. São Paulo 7. MD is a Pervert 8. Room Service 9. A Bum Suspected of Murder 10. Love on a Lie

"Love on a Lie" was originally written in 2011 after the end of Pickard's first serious relationship, while he was in Sardinia. The album's range of reference points includes Sébastien Tellier, Daft Punk, L'Impératrice, Ellie et Jacno, and producer SebastiAn.

The two singles that preceded the album's release each drew coverage from music outlets. "Heartbeats the Flaw" was included in Rolling Stone's "Songs You Need To Know" series. "Nominee" was covered by The Needle Drop and The Line of Best Fit. Both tracks have official visualizers: "Heartbeats the Flaw" was directed by Axel Gillot, and the "Nominee" visualizer was directed by Ben Poulton.

The new single "Room Service" comes with a visualizer filmed on a nighttime bike ride along a stretch of East London between Stoke Newington and Dalston. Pickard passes the Rochester Castle pub, the Rio Cinema, and a business called Survivor. On the song's concept, Pickard says: "I'm not talking about a specific experience. I'm just imagining I'm surrounded by everyone who disturbs me and makes me feel awful." He adds: "I'm joking, but I'm imagining I'm killing them all."

When Daniel Pickard Plays London: November 18 at Altar in Leytonstone

On November 18, Pickard will headline at Altar, described in the press release as a new independent venue inside a bar and record shop in Leytonstone, East London. He will be joined by Lister Rider Home. Tickets are available through the links on Pickard's official channels.

If you are in the LA independent music scene and tracking what a well-built debut campaign looks like, this one is worth studying. Pickard spent the lockdown period reaching out directly to collaborators like Pallett and Stein while they had open schedules, recorded across multiple studios with a mix of local and remote contributors, and released three singles with distinct visualizers before the album dropped. Each single landed a different media outlet. The distribution came through AWAL, one of the more artist-friendly options for independent releases at scale. None of that required a major label. It required planning, relationships, and patience over several years.

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Behaviour is out now on all major streaming platforms. Pickard is on Instagram, YouTube, Bandcamp, and his official website. Press is handled by Big Hassle Media.