Danny Ocean Wants You to See His ‘Darker’ Side on New Song ‘Istanbul’

Danny Ocean got rid of the hat, let his hair grow out, and sports some leather in the visualizer for his newest single “Istanbul.” The track serves as a new taste of the “darker Danny” he hopes to showcase on his album @Dannocean by Danny Ocean, out Feb. 17. Ocean premiered the one-take, motorcycle-blazoned visualizer Sunday with Rolling Stone.

But don’t be confused, “I don’t drive a motorcycle,” the Venezuelan singer tells Rolling Stone with a laugh. “It’s not my thing, but it looks cool! I’ve never done something like that. It was actually my girlfriend who told me that it would ve cool if we did something with a motorcycle.”

In the alt-trap song, a heartbroken Ocean sings to a past love who left without a warning — even after he lied and sacrificed a lot for them as he asks, “¿Qué me faltó? ¿En qué te falté?” (In English: “What was I missing? What didn’t I do for you?”)

“This is a new Danny,” Ocean says. “It’s a different Danny with his original essence. This is a grown-up, darker Danny.” The track serves a slower, darker twist from his smash hit “Rehuso” and “Dembow” from his 2019 Caribbean-infused album 54+1.

Preparing his new record was a challenging journey for the singer. “The process of this album has been love and hate,” he admits. “It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to say, the stories I wanted to write, visually how I wanted to express myself.”

It’s a change from 54+1, in which he rarely showed his own image and let the music speak for itself. “For this album, I wanted to show my face,” he says, adding that traveling and having conversations with folks around the world influenced his record. “It’s been a ride. I needed to live to write.”

“Istanbul” follows the punk-rock “Rubia sol morena” late last year and his collaboration with Leo Rizzi, “Amapolas.”