Daron Murphy
Co-Founder, Creative Director, COO

For the past two decades, Daron Murphy has brought his skills as a writer, composer, musician, and producer to the creation of cutting edge content in almost every form of media, from film, television, and radio to print and online publishing to recording and live performance across the world.

Daron co-founded ART NOT WAR in December, 2011 after two years as principal of the creative and production team responsible for all television, radio, and online video content for MoveOn.org, one of history’s largest and most successful progressive advocacy groups. His work builds on a decade’s experience writing scripts, producing video, and composing original music for groups like Avaaz, Color of Change, Moms Rising, Rebuild the Dream, The ACLU, SEIU and many more.

Daron is the former research chief for the Condé Nast’s Men’s Vogue. As a journalist and editor, Daron’s contributed writing and reporting to publications like The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, I.D., Entertainment Weekly, and Vibe. And as a composer, Daron’s created and performed original scores for feature documentaries like Henry Louis Gates Jr’s Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise, Vanessa Hope’s All Eyes and Ears, Naomi Wolf’s The End of America, short films like Julia Stiles’ Raving, starring Zooey Deschanel, and television advocacy spots like VoteVets.org’s “Bring Them Home,” directed by Oliver Stone.

In 2006, after spending a year touring the world as guitarist for electronic music icon, Moby, Daron founded a music production company, Gowanus Sound Initiative, creating original scores for commercial clients like Expedia, UPS, and Converse. As a live performer, he’s shared the stage with Lou Reed, Public Enemy’s Chuck D., Jane’s Addiction’s Perry Farrell, Kris Kristofferson, Bettye Lavette, the B-52’s, Rufus Wainwright, Norah Jones, and Donovan. And his rock band, the Little Death, has been praised by such luminaries as David Lynch, who invited the group–along with Sheryl Crow and Eddie Vedder–to share the bill with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr at the 2009 “Change Begins Within” benefit concert at Radio Music Hall.

Before Daron entered the world of progressive politics and professional music, he spent five years as a founding editor and multimedia producer at Word.com, one of the earliest and most influential online magazines. The site was called “iconoclastic” by Wired and “the best magazine on the web” by The Wall Street Journal. By the time of its dissolution in 2000, Daron had participated in the creation of Word’s Webby-nominated online videogame (Sissyfight 2000) and co-edited the site’s critically acclaimed book (Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs), excerpted in The New Yorker and called “amazing” by USA Today.