Dax made her ‘pop’ musical debut in 1979, three weeks of joining the group Amii Toytal and the Croixroads – this was a pseudonym for the Lemon Kittens – as keyboardist, flautist and saxophonist. It was their first gig and took place at Reading University’s Student Union ‘Airport’ Bar. Karl Blake from the Lemon Kittens had met her some three weeks earlier after he read an article about her in a local newspaper. Blake was in urgent need of an artist, so he attended the next meeting of Dax’s arts group and was introduced to her. Upon learning that she could also play saxophone and flute, he immediately recruited her for the band; in addition, he also got her to agree to do the cover artwork for the planned release. She ended up doing the cover artwork for all of Lemon Kittens releases.

In early 1982, after the Lemon Kittens went into “extended hibernation”, Dax embarked on her solo career, recording and producing the albums Pop-Eyes (1983) wherein she played all the instruments herself, initially released on the IRC [Initial Recording Company] label with her own art cover, and re-released on Awesome Records with a Holly Warburton cover. On the mini-album that followed Jesus Egg That Wept (1984), she was aided on some tracks by Karl Blake or David Knight. Her third album Inky Bloaters (1987), cemented her collaborative recording work with David Knight; this as well as various EPs, up to that time, were released on the label Awesome Records. In 1988, she signed with Sire Records, which released her album Dark Adapted Eye, which contained material from her previous recordings.

In 1984, she made her first film appearance as the Wolfgirl (a non-speaking role) in The Company of Wolves by Neil Jordan. In 1988, her film credits came to include writing music for the short avant-garde film Axel by Nigel Wingrove.

In 1989, Dax appeared on the Channel 4 show Star Test, where she was interviewed for 30 minutes by “computer”.

In 1990, she released her one major-label studio album, Blast the Human Flower, produced by Stephen Street, except for the tracks “Bayou” and “Daisy”, which they produced together. The album’s single, “Tomorrow Never Knows”, joined “Blue Christmas” (her cover of an Elvis Presley tune), “Kites” by Simon Dupree and the Big Sound (during the Lemon Kittens period) and “Hate On Sight”, a track by Shock Headed Peters (included on her Comatose etc. release) as an addition to her covers of other artists’ work. Her last two album releases were in 1995 and consisted of a career retrospective double-album entitled Comatose Non-Reaction: The Thwarted Pop Career of Danielle Dax and an EP of new avant-garde and almost completely instrumental material called Timber Tongue (both on her own Biter Of Thorpe label). Dax’s career in the music business then went on indefinite hiatus and is often referred to as a ‘retirement’.

Since 1996, she has worked in interior design and has appeared several times on the BBC interior design show Homefront, where she won the Designer of the Year Award.