From Vernon, British Columbia, indie trio daysormay match punchy vocals with catchy rhythms. I talked to them about their musical influences, band dynamic, and hopes for 2019.
ALTANGELES: How did you guys meet each other and how did you start the band?
We all got together when we were in grade school, like 8 or 9 years old, through a Cross – Country Skiing program. When we were about 11 years old, the three of us started playing Green Day covers together and then that evolved into trying to write songs ourselves and it just kept going.
Who would you say are your main influences?
That’s always a tough question, we all listen to pretty different things and we don’t all like the same stuff. The overlap between our tastes is where the music comes from, it’s definitely a melting pot situation.
What are each of your roles in the band?
Nolan plays bass, synth, and sings. Carson plays drums/percussion. Aidan sings and plays guitar, keys, and ukulele.
What is your songwriting process like?
We all write. It’s really collaborative, and we practice the “try every single idea” technique as much as we can. Often there are patches where the majority of the ideas are coming from the same one or two people for a little while, but then it always changes up. That’s the cool thing about songwriting though, you can never really predict where an idea will come from. Keeps us on our toes for sure.
How is playing frequent shows in Vancouver important to growing the band’s audience outside of the city?
A lot of important shows that have helped us progress have happened in Vancouver, we’ve built a lot of our team from playing shows there. It’s the closest place to us where there’s really any music industry stuff happening, so we’re there a lot. Sometimes it’s helpful for us to live away from distractions, even the smallest amount can throw you off track if you’re not careful.
You’ve already played some pretty impressive headlines overseas and in Canada. What would you say is your favorite part of touring?
Seeing new places and meeting new people is always cool, but making those human connections from the stage with total strangers in the audience will never get old. If you think about it, touring is kind of a strange thing. I feel like we’re travelling to far-away places to basically make eye contact with people that don’t know us, in the hopes that they become people that know us. That’s just me, though.
How do you differ from other up-and-coming indie projects?
To be specific, I think how we structure our songs is a big one (though I am speaking with our unreleased music in mind). Since we started writing songs we’ve been messing with the conventional structure/arrangement of a song, it’s a pretty natural thing to us.
How do you feel about the steady emergence of Canadian artists (Alvvays, The Zolas, etc.) on the international indie scene?
It’s always great to see Canadian bands getting the credit they deserve, Canada can be a pretty challenging place to come up as a band.
What bands are you guys listening to right now?
Dominic Fike, Les Louanges, JPEGMAFIA, Jon Bellion, SOPHIE, Grimes, SZA, Anderson .Paak, Chance the Rapper, Boniface, Billie Eilish, Boy Pablo, Vulfpeck.
If you were a cover band, which band would you cover? What would you call yourselves?
Our cover band would be called Hooked on Phoenix and we would only cover Phoenix.
What are your hopes for the new year, and what can we expect from daysormay in 2019?
A lot of new music and a lot of touring. We want to build on everything we started in 2018 and never slow down. The goal is to always outdo ourselves.
What do you want people to know about daysormay?
We’re here to be ourselves and do whatever we want. Whether that’s in the music, lyrics, videos, or shows. We want to do something different and make people feel something new.
