"Alex hated the band Pray for Rain at that time. We were much more of a pop band than punk band, and not his thing at all. I remember the same night I handed Alex the demos for Sid & Nancy he told me 'you should quit Pray for Rain, man! ... join a band like the Red Hot Chili Peppers.'"
—Dan Wool

Originally from St. Louis Missouri where he played in the punk rock band The Strikers, Daniel Dixon Wool is a San Francisco-based composer and sound designer who has worked in New York, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City and Anhui China creating scores for broadcast television projects, multichannel-audio theme park installations and more than 35 feature films, including multiple films for writer/director Alex Cox.

Wool first gained notoriety as the principal composer in the soundtrack-group Pray for Rain (original members Gary Brown, Paul Trupin, James Woody). From 2010 to 2021 Dan collaborated with filmmaker and legendary special effects artist Phil Tippett to create the score for Tippett's epic stop-motion feature film, Mad God. Dan has also worked extensively creating sound and music for international and domestic advertising and sound branding and also as sound-designer for short films and documentaries, including several for the BBC and Channel 4 (UK). As a music producer, and engineer, Dan has collaborated with international artists such as Bernie Worrell (Parliament-Funkadelic), Philip Chevron and James Fearnley (The Pogues); Debra Harry (Blondie); and many Bay-Area artists, including All My Pretty Ones, Meredith Axelrod, essence, The Glowing Stars, Indianna Hale, Joe Lewis, The Mermen and Kally Price.

In the Arts, Dan has created scores and sound-design compositions for The Architecture and Design Museum (A+D Museum), Los Angeles, Amy Seiwert's Imagery Dance (Sketch Series), AXIS Dance Company, Liss Fain Dance, RAWdance, choreographer Sonsherée Giles, choreographer Alice Sheppard and Ballet de la Compasión. In 2018 his music and sound design work for Phil Tippett and Lucy Raven's experimental film OUT THERE screened at MoMA (NYC). He has also worked as a sound engineer and sound-designer on dance-compositions with composer Beth Custer (Joe Goode, Jo Kreiter), composer Rob Reich (Circus Bella, Gaucho, Tin Hat). Dan has performed in composer Jem Finer's "Longplayer" installation, sponsored by the Longnow Foundation at YBCA. For the years 2015 thru 2018 Dan was engaged by the U.S. Olympic Synchronized Swimming Team for ongoing composition and musical services.

In 2023 Dan was nominated for an Annie Award (International Animation Society Award) for Best Music In An Animated Feature Film for his score for Phil Tippett's Mad God. Dan has twice been nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award (Izzie Award), in 2017 for his work with Liss Fain Dance, and in 2013 for his work with AXIS Dance Company. In 2014 Dan received an award from Bay Area Dance Watch (Blessay Award) for "Best Dance Soundtrack."

Wool is the brother of screenwriter/electrician/gardener Abbe Wool, who wrote Sid and Nancy with Alex Cox while Dan created the score. Wool says on his blog: "By the time I gave him the demos he and my sister were at the tail end of an epically acrimonious relationship, both professionally and romantically, and were barely speaking to one another (they've since forgiven and forgotten) so I didn't think Alex would be all that open to my compositions. However, despite all that he loved them! So much so that he called me a few weeks later from England, where post-production was being done, and asked if I would bring Pray for Rain to London to score the film. Joe Strummer and The Pogues were also contributing music and the production company wanted everyone in the same city." Wool is also the stepbrother to Los Angeles musician Zander Schloss (Circle Jerks, Joe Strummer) and St. Louis luminary Chip Schloss.

'Taxi to Heaven' by Pray for Rain, from the film Sid and Nancy (1986).