daysormay
daysormay — Transcript
Conversation between Eric Chan & Aidan Andrews & Carson Bassett & Nolan Bassett.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity, spelling, and readability. Music excerpts are noted where they appear in the episode.
Cold open
daysormay: We just have to be more intentional now. We don’t have a bunch of spare time like we did as kids, so you have to really carve out time to make music or to rehearse. I think it’s forced us to be a bit more intentional. We’re actually choosing to do it now.
Music excerpt
Eric Chan: I’m Eric Chan, and this is Inlet Wire, your direct line to BC artists.
Today we’ve got Aidan, Carson, and Nolan from the band daysormay.
They’ve been making music together since they were kids, but this episode is not really about how the band started. It’s about what happens after years of writing together — when time gets tighter, when songs get heavier, and when a band starts learning what really needs to stay in the song.
daysormay: We grew up cross-country skiing. As kids, our parents put us in ski lessons, and we ended up being in the same group for one of them. We became friends through that.
Then we happened to get into music at the same time, roughly. We were learning our instruments all together at the same time, so it was kind of a random coincidence.
Eric Chan: When a band starts that young, time feels different. The band is just there. Later, as adults, it becomes something else — something you have to make room for, something you have to keep choosing.
daysormay: So much changes when you go from being a kid to an adult. Even just making meals, and having a different flow per day.
I think it is about how we are able to still be creative and inject the same ambition and goals we want to achieve, while also doing adult things. That has been the hardest.
We have to be more intentional now. We don’t have a bunch of spare time like we did as kids, so you have to carve out time to make music, or to rehearse, or whatever.
It has forced us to be more intentional. We are choosing to do it now, and choosing to work other things around that.
Eric Chan: And that change starts to show up in the writing. Less chasing every sound, less building around the edges, and more asking what the song actually needs.
daysormay: I would hope we have gotten better at songwriting and production, but our priorities have changed in terms of what we are looking for, especially when we start an idea.
We are trying to build things more around the songwriting now. When we were younger, there was a tendency to get distracted with production and sound design.
It is more song-focused now.
I think now we are really trying to present a concise version of ourselves to the world. We know more who we are and how we want to present ourselves. It took us a really long time to figure that out.
Music excerpt
Eric Chan: For daysormay, Ableton — the audio software they write and build in — became part of the band’s language. It opened up new sounds, new shapes, new ways into a song. But it also gave them endless ways to add more.
daysormay: We mostly do stuff in Ableton, and then we do it on our instruments later, often. It has been huge for us. It completely changed how we work.
Lately, we have been trying to get back into playing together and jamming, then bringing it into Ableton and going back the other way.
I am sure there are certain sound design things we picked up only because they were possible in Ableton — the warping, and the way it sounds when you pitch stuff up and down.
We used to be on Logic before. I don’t know why we switched. It was because of Chin Injeti. Changed everything.
For me, I like being able to see everything, and then mute a ton of stuff, and see what really needs to be there and what does not need to be there.
We are trying to be guitar, bass, drums, and vocals first right now, with the cool sound design stuff we have learned along the way.
When you are working in Ableton like that, it is really easy to get carried away and add way too much stuff. I like being able to do too much, and then strip it back.
Eric Chan: Then the songs have to leave the screen. On stage, everything becomes more direct. The production is still there, but the song has to survive on its core: drums, bass, guitar, and voice.
daysormay: When we play live, we use tracks. Initially, that was because we wanted to keep all the sounds that we made in the DAW.
But there was a point, maybe last year, where it started to get a lot heavier. I was playing guitar more, and it started to be more about the core instruments: drums, bass, guitar, and vocals.
The tracks got reduced to ear candy or transitions and stuff.
Now, I think we are writing a little bit more with the live show in mind. With every song, we try to do a live arrangement of it and keep the things that feel truly essential to the song. Anything else can change.
As long as that core thing is there, we can build around that. We have tended to make them heavier and hit harder.
Eric Chan: Sometimes the sound changes because of something you can actually hold. That was one of the reasons I wanted to talk to daysormay. I noticed them playing aluminium guitar and bass — something I have been using for over a decade — and it made me curious, not just about the gear itself, but about what happens when the instrument starts pushing you in a different direction.
daysormay: I don’t think “STREETFIGHT” or “DELETER” would have happened without those.
It made us focus on those parts more. Whatever the pickups are, even when they are clean, they sound dirty. They are very aggressive and loud instruments, so it has definitely changed how we approach guitar and bass parts. It makes us want to use them more too.
I look at it and think, this is the coolest thing I own and probably will ever own.
Music excerpt
Eric Chan: Eventually, they put it into words. Not exactly rock, not exactly pop, not just electronic either. Something heavier, but still built around the songs.
daysormay: We are a band, and underneath everything, we have always been basically a rock band. But we don’t really listen to that kind of music. A lot of our influences are outside of that genre.
What we are trying to do is make some sort of hybrid sound of those things — like a band that knows how to use the computer.
We all love pop writing and song structure, but we love distortion and really hard-hitting drums.
Eric Chan: Underneath the sound, there is still the relationship. Three people who have learned that trust is not always agreeing right away. Sometimes, it is giving the idea a chance to be heard.
daysormay: It always ends up being like someone was right in the end. It is about talking through and trying everyone’s ideas to the maximum.
We do not really fight over it. We disagree, but with an open mind.
We usually try the idea. We try all the ideas. We actually try them musically instead of just talking about them. It usually works out.
We have been doing it long enough that we can have an open environment for ideas.
We trust each other.
Eric Chan: Near the end, I asked about songs that still carry a strong memory for them. Two different kinds of memories came up.
daysormay: For me, I might say “Ego.” I have a lot of memories attached to making that song.
I remember Aidan playing the first demo he had and being like, this is crazy, and a wild idea. I wanted to figure it out.
Every step along the way, all the stuff we added just got cooler and cooler. I still love playing that song, and a lot of people who have been fans of the band for a while really love it.
It feels very us.
The whole process was nice. It felt like us being very comfortable and very creative.
Let’s say “UV.”
We used to all live together in this house with no AC, and we were writing that song in the summer. I remember it was super hot in the house and kind of dark for some reason. We were all in the studio, just sweating a ton.
That song just sounds like that to me. I really loved that, so that is what it is for me.
Eric Chan: With daysormay, the interesting part is not just how much the sound can change. It is how much can still feel like the band after everything gets pulled apart and put back together.
The computer, the instruments, the room, the people in it.
And the question underneath it all: what actually needs to be there?
I’m Eric Chan, and this is Inlet Wire, your direct line to BC artists.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability. Any transcription errors are ours.