Hart moved to North Carolina in 2002 and, along with David Karsten Daniels, John Ribo, Perry Wright and Alex Lazara, founded the Bu Hanan record label.[9][13] He formed the band The Physics of Meaning, releasing two studio albums,[13] and toured eextensively with several bands. He played violin with The Polyphonic Spree, including opening for David Bowie in 2004.[14][9] He was also a member of St. Vincent's band from 2007 through 2010, and contributing to the albums Marry Me, Actor, and Strange Mercy.[5][6] He released his first solo record, The Orientalist, in 2011.[2] In 2013, his new band, Dark Rooms, released their eponymous debut album.[15] Hart also performed and recorded with the group Project Mastana, playing violin on their record Backroads to Bollywood.
In 2009, director David Lowery asked Hart to write two compositions for his first feature film, St. Nick. Since then, Hart has scored all of Lowery's films.[5][16][17]
In 2012, Hart scored Lowery's breakout feature Ain't Them Bodies Saints, and Hart was subsequently named one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 Faces of Independent Film" in 2013.[18] The score mixes chamber orchestral arrangements of strings and horns with more traditional folk instruments, such as the banjo, mandolin, kneeslaps and handclaps.[19][5][7]
Following the release of Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Hart scored half a dozen independent feature films over the next two years, including Comet (2014), Return to Sender (2015), Uncertain (2015), and Lost in the Sun (2015), Tumbledown (2015), and The Girlfriend Game (2015).
Hart and Lowery next teamed up in 2016 for Disney's Pete's Dragon, an adaptation of the 1977 musical film of the same name.[20] Hart's score was written for a 94-piece orchestra and 32-person choir, by far the largest ensemble for which Hart has written music. Hart composed the score in three months, working "seven days a week, eleven to twelve hours a day" to finish it in time.[21]
Hart's next project was Season One of Fox's TV series The Exorcist, which debuted on September 23, 2016, and is based on the William Peter Blatty novel of the same name.[22][23]
In February 2017, Hart was nominated for IFMCA's Breakthrough Composer of the Year, for his work on Pete's Dragon and television series The Exorcist.[24]
On March 28, 2017, Daniel Hart released his composition for the soundtrack to the podcast "S-Town".[25] The music is moody and brooding, and contemplative, a perfect foil to the subject matter of the podcast itself.
