Daniel Jacobson
Daniel Jacobson, known professionally as ZOiD, is an Irish guitarist, producer, and educator, known for his compositional style that combines jazz with electronic music elements.
Born and raised in a Jewish family in Dublin, Daniel grew up in a warm, open-minded home, the meeting point of two worlds, shaped by his South African-born father, David and his Dublin-born mother, Yvonne. After winning his first award in 1995 for the UN Year of Tolerance Dublin Schools Competition for four overdubbed guitar compositions titled “Tolerance,” he switched gears to the Yamaha CS1X, and the electronic music world followed. Since then, he has released seven albums, dozens of EPs, and scores of singles, built a Dublin-based guitar school, and launched electronic music courses.
His music draws on jazz roots, such as Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, while absorbing the unpredictable rhythms of electronic musicians like Aphex Twin, placing Daniel among the most distinctive musicians and producers in contemporary Irish electronic music.
How It All Began
At thirteen, Daniel picked up a white Aria Pro II electric guitar. Two years later, a composition called ‘Tolerance’ earned him a trip to the UN General Assembly in New York. In 1996, he was awarded the Newpark Feis Senior Repertoire First Prize, and in 1998, he received the “Best New Producer” award from Riddim-Event Guide Magazine. By eighteen, he had been recognised across three distinct disciplines: composition, performance, and production, a range that would define his career.
From 1998 through to 2025, Daniel’s music attracted consistent recognition from Ireland’s leading cultural institutions, including multiple Arts Council bursaries and project awards, as well as funding from Trinity College Dublin and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, for compositional work, international development, residencies, and the production of new electronic jazz repertoire. In 2024 alone, he released a single every month, delivering thirteen in total, and he opened 2025 with his seventh album, Industrial Wind Quartet.
ZOiD
The moniker ZOiD emerged between 2004 and 2005 and has since become the umbrella for all his electronic music releases, productions, remixes, and educational work. In 2022, he founded Zoitrax, a record label championing unknown artists and left-field music.
His YouTube channel @iamzoid embodies the same spirit: musical analysis of artists like Aphex Twin and Squarepusher, conversations with fellow musicians, and perspectives on the wider music world, all carried with a practical charm that naturally invites discussion. Daily life as ZOiD lives on Instagram @zoid999, where gig updates, live snippets, and his musical wisdom and wisecracks find their home.
Career
In 2000, Daniel co-founded Diatribe Records, which grew into one of Ireland’s most prominent contemporary music labels, run by Daniel’s brother, jazz drummer Matthew Jacobson, and Dublin-based saxophonist Nick Roth.
Trained under Irish composer Ronan Guilfoyle, he earned a Performance Diploma with Jazz Skills from Newpark Music Centre in 2002 and a Master’s degree in Music and Media Technologies from Trinity College Dublin in 2006. Now based in Bristol since 2024, he still plays jazz regularly, its influence running quietly through his electronic work.
On the electronic music side, he learned directly from legendary producers Dan Curtin, Funk d’Void, and Red Rack’em before stepping into that role himself, mentoring emerging producers to find their own distinctive sound.
As a composer, his work has crossed into film and interactive media, scoring the game themes for Enver Studios’ Mad Max MPG (2023), themes for an animated short film, Parts Lost And Found (2024) by Tatiana Kozar, and Home Call (2025), a short film by Jeremy Hanlon.
On the teaching side, he ran Ultimate School of Music, the Dublin-based guitar school he founded, from 2014 to 2024, before shifting to a more focused model through Daniel Jacobson Guitar Academy, working one-to-one with students on technique, foundations, and expressive playing. Under ZOiD, he has run online courses, mentorship programmes, and workshops for beatmakers and electronic musicians, including Foundations of Electronic Music, Music Theory for Electronic Musicmakers, and ZIMM (ZOiD’s Inspired Musicmakers Membership), offered in cycles via his newsletter and zoid.ie.
In 2026, he launched ZOiD’s Artist Incubator, a membership programme designed to help electronic musicmakers develop their sound and finish four tracks in 90 days, followed by ongoing support and discussion.
Major Releases
Daniel’s debut album, ZOiD Vs The Jazz Musicians of Ireland Vol. 1 (2007), signalled his arrival in the electronic music landscape, collaborating with Irish jazz musicians on each of its eight tracks, with titles such as “ZoiD Versus Tommy Halferty”, “ZoiD Versus Sean Carpio”, and “ZoiD Versus Mike Nielsen”, echoing the duality at the heart of his music.
In the years that followed, he released music across several respected labels, including the Berlin-based Metamorphic Recordings, for Dexaphonic EP in 2022, the Dublin-based Winthorpe Electronics, for The Pin Row Acid EP (2023), and his own label Zoitrax, for ZONGS (2022), Internal Space Elements (2023), and Industrial Wind Quartet (2025).
In 2024, he returned to the VS concept with ZOiD Vs Musicians Vol. 2, collaborating with musicians like drummer Matthew Jacobson, vocalist Jenna Harris, and guitarist Niwel Tsumbu, seventeen years on from the original and just as unrelenting.
Through Zoitrax, Daniel has championed a wider circle of artists, releasing Internal Space Element (2023) with Irish musicians, the debut album of Mexican-American producer Caleb Peinado, Music for eSports, two EPs by Japanese artist Gyazai Gyozo, Mutant Tank and Neon Nights (2024), and two EPs by WONKS, Scratch Robotics and Shadow Tactics (2025).
Selection of releases:
Zoid Versus Jazz Musicians of Ireland (album)(2007) Diatribe/D1
Lyphyz Drumdrops EP (2013) Boy Scout Audio
Troonax EP (2013) Alkalinear Recordings
Nebulous Concrete (album)(2018) Zoitrax
ZONGS (album)2022 Zoitrax
Vera EP 2022 Frontend Synthetics
Dexaphonic EP 12” Vinyl, Metamorphic Records (2022)
The Pin Row Acid EP, 12” Vinyl, Winthorpe Electronics, (2023)
Internal Space Element (Voices, String Quartet and Electronics), CD+Digi, Zoitrax (2023)
ZOiD Vs Musicians Vol 2 (feat. Niwel Tsumbu, Matthew Jacobson, Jenna Harris, Catherine Sikora and more) Vinyl + Digi Zoitrax (2024)
Industrial Wind Quartet (feat. Cassiopeia Wind Quintet) Vinyl + Digi Zoitrax (2025)
Press Quotes:
“a free-spirited, jazz-tinged electronic wizard” Philip Neeson, Hypnagogue
“either the future of jazz or the end of jazz as we know it” Cormac Larkin, Sunday Tribune
“wonderful future-bop realms” Jim Carroll, Irish Times
“a masterful balance of electronics with musicians” Electronica Musica Blog
“an exception to the norm… he produces beautiful tracks” James Hendicott
Dexaphonic EP Reviews:
“From the outset this promised to be something special and unsurprisingly it does not disappoint at all. If you like your electronic music full of soul, warmth, and depth with a truly forward feel then this is for you.” Neil Martin, Timeline Music
“ZOiD has carved a slice of Irish dance music history for himself as joins Metamorphic Recordings, his record lies aside dance music royalty” Max Heyraud, Four Four Magazine
Bandcamp Best Electronic of June (Joe Muggs)
“Detroit-style techno has always fused easily with jazz, but it’s been a little while since it did so as joyously as these tracks from Dubliner ZOID”
Cacophonous Bling:
“Metamorphic releases have always been a byword for deep, emotive house/techno and this latest release from Dublin’s Zoid feeds into the pervasive narrative with two tunes that operate on a level previously only known to those with a predilection for the finer things in life; such as fine wines, Belgian chocolates and chicken in a basket.”