On The Loop: daysormay - Local Wolves

Music

Local Wolves
Sep, 19 2024

Daysormay’s sound has something decidedly larger than the quiet life that surrounds their hometown of Vernon, British Columbia, a small hub nestled amid valleys and tranquil lakes. Aidan, Carson, and Nolan, three childhood friends, grew up against a scenic backdrop with an abundance of natural recreation opportunities. In fact, their first encounter occurred during a cross country ski lesson at 7 years old when their parents introduced the young boys to one another. Nearly two decades later, they are huddled around a single laptop in their apartment in Vancouver, barely fitting into frame on the call, as they divulge the details of their new sophomore album, Moderation.

From snow day playmates to bandmates creating music in the exact room the Weeknd recorded his debut album in Toronto, the boys have come a long way. When asked about where they envision listeners queuing up this new record, lead singer Aidan advises to listen to this album “either driving at sunset really loud or sitting at the beach at dusk time — and listen to it on headphones.” He trails off for a moment before adding, “one other option is go to an industrial warehouse and blast it.”

The juxtaposition this imagery conjures is a harbinger of the musical exploration and freedom the boys allowed themselves this time around as a group that had previously felt limited by their own pressure to conform to the sounds expected of a ‘band’.

“For this new album, we threw that all out the window and just wanted to make whatever we liked and whatever we thought was cool. We all really like hip hop and electronic sounds, and stuff that a band would not traditionally make,” comments Nolan, the group’s bassist. Aidan recalls listening to more esoteric material during the writing of this album, drawing inspiration from experimental sound design and music you would hear at art installations.

Beyond the audacious production choices, this new album also recounts more personal dealings with relationships, grief, and our state of existence in an overwhelming age of information. The trio’s conversation traversed many topics including lyrical nods to David Bowie interviews, memorably grueling video shoots on a mountain, and songs they wish they wrote (you may be surprised).

Can you tell us about the concept or theme of your new album Moderation? What is the significance of the color red?

Aidan: [With Moderation], we had the name before we had any of the music. It just feels like that’s what the next album should be called. [It’s] about being a person that’s alive during this time and having access to so much information, and just being bombarded with stuff all the time and trying to make the right choices in your relationships with yourself, with the internet, and with other people. And the color red is dope.

You mentioned reemerging as very different people in the last two years with new goals and priorities, how are some of those changes reflected in this album?

Aidan: I had one source of motivation for a very long time and it was fear. I was motivated by a fear of failure, a fear of not realizing potential. I just burnt out around the time the last album came out. There were a lot of things I realized that I was neglecting in my life. I also felt like I was maybe not the best brother or the best son. I went and did a bunch of stuff, traveled and just consumed a lot of art without thinking “how do I fit this in, how do I make this into my thing?” I was just trying to build the reservoir back up.

Nolan: I think “Just Existing” was a culmination of a long period of time, and a lot of the music we were making for it had to fit this box we had in our heads, so I think we put some limitations on ourselves as far as sound choice and production.

Carson: [We] definitely [had] more freedom [on this album], making it from a place of does it resonate with me right now, does this feel real. I think that allowed a new perspective on making music.

What’s the creative process behind writing this album as a group of three?

Nolan: [It will usually happen one of two ways.] For example, [with] one of the songs on the album called “Everybody,” Aidan showed it to [Carson and I]. It was just vocals, acoustic guitar, and we’re like ‘that’s great’. We put our own little touches on it, making it more of a finished thing. “Simmer” is the other version of that where Carson and I made a beat and then Aidan put some vocals on it.

Was there a particular artist or album that you had on repeat during the process of creating this album?

Carson: I was listening to a lot of electronic music, like Arca, Hudson Mohawke, but then on the flipside listening to older albums like the first Rage Against the Machine album and Black Sabbath, some older 70s soul and blues. It was all over the place, very encompassing. I think one big throughline between all of those genres is the song writing and its strong feeling. I think that helped us hone in on each song we wanted to create and just make each one strong-feeling.

Did any real-life events or personal experiences inspire particular tracks off of this album?

Aidan: The last song is called “All I Have.” It’s about my relationship with my grandfather on my dad’s side. I loved him very much and I was very close with him, we had an older album named after him. When he died I didn’t know what to do and why I wasn’t feeling anything. I always felt very guilty about that. I just put that away for a long time and when I finally did burn out on the last album and decided to take a break and go do other things, that just came back up for me and it felt like something I could finally talk about in the music.

With your first album, you will sometimes leave an idea untouched for a long time before returning to finish the writing. What song took the longest to complete on this project?

Nolan: I think the song that took the longest to complete is this song called “Buzzing.” We started it in 2019. We worked on it, forgot about it, opened it up again, kept doing that up until the end, it was kind of a pain. I think we finally finished it maybe ten days ago.

Aidan: We sampled the original song and sped it up, some of the chords are the same, so you can kind of tell, but if you were to hear the very first version, [and compare it with the final song] I wouldn’t even know how to [get there].

What’s the most memorable place you recorded your latest album?

Carson: We worked in this studio in Toronto called House of Balloons That’s where the Weeknd made his first album in the same room.

Aidan: We were also in Robert’s Creek on the Sunshine Coast and that was where we wrote a lot of songs for the album. It was just on the ocean and nobody was around. A lot of the days, I just sat on the beach for a long time and then we got back into the house and made something. We made “Simmer,” “Auto,” and “Everybody” that way.

I noticed that your music videos are highly creative and feel like an important part of the band’s artistry. What’s the process of developing the concept behind these videos?

Aidan: It’s kind of the bane of my existence and these guys can attest to that. I’m very obsessive with the visual side of things. I really love when there’s a world being built around [the music]. That’s why we want to do visuals for every song. When it comes to the bigger videos, it’s usually just listening to the song and being like “it would be sick if this happened!” We have an ongoing moodboard of ideas and shots. Sometimes I just go through that while the song is playing and pick shots out.

What’s the craziest thing you have done for a music video?

Carson: In the “Everything is Changing” video [from the last album], we have this giant PA set up and we needed different batteries for charging. We needed a generator, but we were shooting at the top of this mountain and we had to go up and down [by foot]. There’s no road access, so we had to hike 15 minutes one way. We started at 5am, we finished bringing everything up by 7am, we shot all day and then we had to come down [with all the equipment].

What are you hoping listeners take away from Moderation?

Aidan: I hope they can listen to it all in one go, get the arc of it and kind of understand a bit of what I was trying to communicate lyrically. I just hope it can fit into their lives however they need it to and if it inspires them to do something or to get better, that’s all I can ask for.