Daily J - Scatterbrains (Interview)

“We’ll do this till we die, we wanna tour the world, we wanna be remembered as a bloody good band”

10 min read

In nine shimmering tracks, Scatterbrains perfectly encapsulates the feeling of Summer; bottling up ice-cold nostalgia, youth, love and optimism into a timeless mixtape destined to soundtrack your past, present and future. That bottle, bursting with bliss, has washed onto the shores of the UK, just waiting to be popped.

We sat down with the band to talk about all things album, touring, and how they'd love to be remembered.

Read Transcript:

Charlie: Hi, guys! It's great to have you here. A bit of background before we kick off. For those of you who haven't heard your tunes, and there are some class tunes, on this album, introduce each of yourselves, and how you describe your music.

Daily J: Well, we are Daily J, and we’ve got Jesse, Rick and Jayden in here. The new album, Scatterbrains. I think it's sort of a mix of indie rock, psychedelic rock, a bit of pop, and electronic pop as well. It's sort of a mixed bag, but, still staying true to the Daily J way. Catchy as hell lyrics and melodies and guitars.

Charlie: Well said. Well said. And you guys have been going for a while now. Right? Like, a few of you are brothers. Am I right in saying? I feel like you mentioned it on stage. You know, is this something that you always wanted to do, or was it kind of an organic, you know, let's start band?

Daily J: So, three of us are brothers, as you mentioned, and, we, always, you know, just loved music growing up. We had a very musical mother, and family and upbringing. So I feel like it was always sort of in the back of our mind that, it was something we wanted to do. I mean, at the start of it, it was just the love for it. But, as you get older and you need to try to find your way in life and get a career, it was pretty obvious that music was that way. So we decided to move up to Auckland, the three of us, and, none of us played drums very well, so we needed a drummer, and that's where we met this fella here, Rick. And, yeah, the rest is history. Rick turned up with a box of beer to a recording studio and already learned a couple of the tunes. So, yeah, just, it's amazing. Shipped us away. It was great.

Charlie: So we're here today, for the new album, Scatterbrains. Onto the record itself, there's a lot to unpick. I wanna start with the name. Scatterbrains as a phrase is quite chaotic. Where did that name come from for the album?

Daily J: Naming an album is never easy. It's like coming up with a band name. It's quite hard, and we've always gone along with the idea of not naming ours after a track on the album. We sort of just tried to sum up the overall theme and vibe. So Scatterbrains is, yeah, I guess, like, some of the songs are a bit older like we’ve been sitting on for a while, and some are new.

And when we started piecing the album together, we noticed that there was just a real reflective sort of theme, it's got everything that someone goes through in life. So it's just like an ode to the man in the mirror. Sometimes you're scattered to be true and, you have good days and you have bad days. Some are more chaotic, some are peaceful. So we feel like the song's got a bit of everything and we sort of just came away feeling like, you know, we had a whole bunch of names but that sort of represented the music and the story.

Charlie: What were the other names out of interest?

Daily J: One was Retro Future. Yeah. What's another one? Rico, you’ve got a whole list on you? Yeah. I can't remember the next thing. So I'm trying to figure that list out after a while. It was getting a bit chaotic. Yeah. Scatterbrains felt right at the time. I think that was the first one that we landed on, and then did a full circle of every single word. And then we came back to that, and it felt the most natural and true to the songs and album. We could see what's there. We couldn't find anything better. And also the imagery as well, we had so many ideas around the album cover and, yeah, just that was wonderful from the get-go. We had to stop second-guessing ourselves.

Charlie: Awesome. So in our review, we've described it as bottling up summer and then sending it onto the sea to be given to the world, which I think is quite a nice way of describing it. Because it feels very sunny listening. It feels like you've captured summer perfectly and all the ups and downs that come with that.

And especially right now in the UK, like I said earlier, it's so dark. People are craving that kind of vibe, so it's a perfect time. Like, has this warm, upbeat sound come from your upbringing? And were there any artists that you listened to whilst putting this together?

Daily J: Yeah. I mean, I suppose. I think it's been a lot of our upbringing and, the music we listened to. There were definitely a lot of very positive messages behind it and, very, down to earth and, realistic. We all grew up by the sea as well, like, Ricca. Yeah. Ricco Burke grew up in Coromandel and we boys in Kaikoura Coast. So Yeah. All East Coast guys. And, in New Zealand, we had, like, unreal summers. So well, yeah. Naturally, it sort of has just influenced us. Some artists as well that we love and we sound like a broken record now, but Tame Impala and Mac DeMarco, The Kooks, you know, sort of…

Charlie: Good choices.

Daily J: Yeah. How about you, Rico? Yeah. I don't know. I think, like, yeah, it's just a natural sound for us as well. It's just not a thought-out thing. And I think when I joined the band, I noticed there was a real positive summery feeling to all the tracks as well, and that really captured me. And so that's why I was drawn to this band so much. And, yeah, I think it's just the natural vibe we have within us that we are just quite keen to have a positive feel and summery time to the songs. And to be honest, I didn't even know if this album was quite so much like that, so it's nice to hear.

Charlie: No. It is. Yeah. It is. But it feels like a nice progression from the previous one. So, I mean, from our perspective, I feel like you've cracked the formula with pretty much all the tracks on here, especially Sunday Stitches and Daydreamer are two of my favourites. And I mean, you can't get them out of your head. They are perfect summer songs for those moments. Is there a song on the album that you're particularly proud of, or one that, started the rest of the album?

Daily J: I mean we've got the latest track we're focusing on a bit for this release is actually For Your Leisure, which I think represents a bit of the journey of the album. Not necessarily, like, anyone's favourite or anything, but I think it just sets a tone for Scatterbrains a little bit. And, yeah, it's just a new energy we were trying to translate to this album, and I think it sets the tone across the board for the rest. But, yeah, we all love, like, Daydreamer and, you know, those sorts of types of songs as well. It’ll be fun to play live. We're really excited about just the energy we're bringing to these songs, and, hopefully, that translates really well in our live performance. I think that's one thing we wanna bring to crowds is some new energy. Yeah. Some more upbeat songs.

I suppose one to add to that, one thing is that we sat on a lot of these songs for quite a while, over quite a few years, and we always knew there was something special in them, but just couldn't quite unlock. They were all like, maybe you did some rewrites of it and whatnot. And, so I think just, based on what you were saying, like, what are we most proud of? I think just the fact that we got all these songs together as a collective work, you know, and putting them out. But there was a lot of hours of just, you know, a lot of….bit of a pain in the ass to get some songs across, you know, a lot of hours.

Charlie: How did you guys unpick that? Was that through the live shows that you found your way with the songs?

Daily J: We don't typically play songs unreleased live. We have a Dropbox folder just full of probably…I'm not even kidding…150 demos. But they're not all finished songs. They're often just verses and chorus. So I mean, when we came to select this album. We just all went for a deep dive and selected our 20 favourites, and then wrote a big list on the whiteboard, and we all hit our butt. Which was not easy.

But then, we selected the ones that sort of felt cohesive, and we always sort of had a lot of potential and we love, but yeah. Not necessarily fully developed. So, yeah, I think we had the luxury of a bit more time this time, working with Joe, a bit more budget. So we're able to really just, almost record an album like maybe how you used to do it in the days. You know? A lot of it was multitrack, but a lot of it was just jamming and sort of bringing the songs together in preproduction, which was a new way of doing it for us. We've been working kind of a long time, but, time and money have never been, you know, as any upcoming artist, it's tough. It's a whole new experience.

Charlie: Yeah. No. Totally. Just on that, you mentioned, you know, the live shows. You know, we saw you over the summer last year. You guys were in London for All Points East and then OMEARA as well. There was a very positive vibe in the room. It was very, upbeat. The audience loved it. And I was interested in, how that feels knowing that your music is translating so far in London from the many miles away you are.

Daily J: Yeah. Right. It's insane. Yeah. That was incredible. That show was definitely a highlight. I couldn't believe the reaction, to be honest. It was a bit euphoric to see everyone just so into it and singing along and just yeah. It felt like we'd been waiting to do that show for a while. Yeah. To see the crowd come.

It was amazing. I remember, at one point in the show asking how many Kiwis we’d got in the crowd. Like, fully expecting it to be half the crowd, you know, but there was, like, bugger all. And I was like, oh, that was dead and quiet. I was like, how many Brits? You know? And the whole crowd erupted and we weren't expecting it. It did take us away. It is insane when you think about it. It's the other side of the world.

If you're from London, maybe you wouldn't quite gather the scale, you know, but when you come from the outside of the world, all you hear about is from, like, the bands that you love that have gone and played in London. You know? So it's a real, it's a real destination spot. So we were just stoked. It's unbelievable.

Charlie: An icon a venue as well. Was that your first time playing in The UK?

Daily J: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Charlie: Damn. Big show. Who was it that decided to hand the fruit out? I'm pretty sure fruits were being handed out at the front. I didn't manage to grab any. Who came up with that idea?

Daily J: Oh, we're we're a proud rugby country in New Zealand. Yeah. Rugby is always half-time. You know, we brought, you know, half-time fruit, half-time oranges. Yeah. I can't believe that. We've done it at a few shows. To be honest, it's just that we all need a breather. So it's more for us. It's a nice way to get amongst the crowd and see who's in there really. Just try something unique.

Charlie: On that while we're on live shows, I feel like the album is perfect for festivals. And you've got your upcoming tour in Australia and New Zealand. But have you got any plans coming back to the UK?

Daily J: Definitely on the to-do list. We're trying to sort, yeah, we would love to hit The UK and Europe a bit, again, maybe this year if possible. Just sort of seeing what we can do with the funds, really. But, The US has also been calling out for us for quite some years as well, so would love to try and tackle both. But, yeah, it's just a long way. I think after the last run, we'd love to just do another sort of even bigger run and maybe tackle some like European sort of spots as well. It's, you know, our goals, big goals this year for sure.

Charlie: Is there somewhere specific?

Daily J: We’ve been toying about coming back in September. It is early days, but we've looked at doing, the same similar run-in in the UK again but then adding on Amsterdam, Paris, and a few in Finland. Few hotspots out there.

It's all early days, and we're all a bit green on it, but we're trying to get back over there. We loved it last time, so we’ve got to try and build on it. As long as people buy the tickets, we can keep coming.

Charlie: Yeah. They will. They definitely will over here. We've talked about the album. We've talked about yourselves. We've talked about the live shows. I've just got one big question. The album is a lot about nostalgia and reflection. How do you guys want to be remembered?

Daily J: We've always been out of our writing and just, like you say, like, just whatever it feels or whatever we're going for at the moment. So I think we'd love to be remembered as just a true band staying true to our roots. Yeah. With a killer live show. Yeah. I know that sounds probably like we said before, but have a bit of substance to us, you know, like, and music's a bit more, like you know, has a bit more depth than, you know, some some pop sort of songs or something maybe.

We actually write bridges. So yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I would love to be remembered in a positive light as, sunny Daily J that always makes you happy and makes you feel something at the same time, I guess. Yeah. About the songs? Yeah. Something that makes you wanna listen again. Or it makes you nostalgic because, that's what music does, isn't it?

Charlie: It does transport you somewhere.

Daily J: Yeah. We have big dreams. We'll do this until we die. So we wanna be just the goats just like anyone else. We wanna tour the world, we wanna be remembered as a bloody, bloody good band.

Charlie: That's cool, man. It's been lovely chatting to you guys. Scatterbrains, it's a great record. It's out now, and I think it's one that we'll be listening to a lot over the next few months. I think people are gonna love it, to be honest. Thanks for your time, and I'll catch you guys soon.

Daily J: See you, Charlie. Thanks!

*Please note this transcript has been generated.

You can read our full review of ‘Scatterbrains’ here.

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