Every Brick | Dan Whitehouse shares the delicate joy of fatherhood
There’s no doubt that a piano and a heart-ful of love can leave fingerprints of emtion and story in your heart. This is where we are with Dan Whitehouse and new single Every Brick – a piano ballad about fatherhood across continents.
Every year, Wolverhampton songwriter Dan Whitehouse flies to Japan to spend 90 days with his son. He arrives mid-December, in time for Christmas, and stays until mid-March, just long enough to celebrate his son’s birthday. Then comes the goodbye.
Excitement and dread
“The weeks leading up to his birthday are a heady mix of excitement and dread,” says Dan. “Excitement for the gifts I’ll present to him and the special day we will share, and dread at the goodbye that will follow. That explains the opening line: ‘Is there something I could say to you / is there a gift that I could give?’”
Love as a house
Every Brick – recorded live with pianist David O’Brien – imagines love as a house, built over months and years of trips, days out, video calls, Wolverhampton Wanderers matches and bowls of ramen.
It’s the latest single from Dan’s forthcoming album Only Love, a stripped-back collection of piano-and-voice songs about fatherhood, distance and devotion.
Emotional geography
Only Love is an album of piano and voice, performed without overdubs or second takes. Its songs are built from the unvarnished truth of Dan’s life: separation, fatherhood, longing, discipline and the strange emotional geography of loving across continents.
Listen to and buy Every Brick
LIVE DATES 2026 – get your tickets | Dan Whitehouse – linktree
Only Love Album preview tour
June 11: The White Room, Durham
June 19: St Edith Folk, Sevenoaks (w/ Gustaf Ljunggren)
June 21: The Stables 2, Milton Keynes (w/ Gustaf Ljunggren & Chris Cleverley)
June 26: Malvern Cube (co-head w/ Eliza Marshall)
June 27: Chesterfield Acoustic Events (w/ Gustaf Ljunggren)
June 28: Album launch Glee Club, Birmingham (w/ David O’Brien, Gustaf Ljunggren, Jasmine Gardosi)
Songwriting Retreat – Between The Lines
September: Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking, Stroud w/ Jasmine Gardosi
Only Love Album tour – more dates tbc
October 6: Storyhouse, Chester (w/ Polly Paulsuma)
October 16: Prohibition Rooms, Liverpool (w/ Polly Paulsuma)
October 18: Green Note, London (w/ Polly Paulsuma)
October 23: The Arc, Winchester (w/ Polly Paulsuma)
October 24: Guildford Institute
October 29: Ashburton Arts Centre
October 30: The David Hall, South Petherton
December 6: Symphony Hall, Birmingham End Of Year Review
Only Love will be released across all digital platforms and https://danwhitehouse.bandcamp.com/music
top image: A father’s wish. Courtesy of Peter James Millson
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