West Coast Rockers daysormay Discuss Their New Single “The Trend” and its Cool, DIY Music Video

Bringing you that laid back, West Coast flavour is the dynamic young trio known as daysormay, who recently released their latest single and music video for “The Trend.” Composed of lead singer and guitarist Aidan Andrews, bassist Nolan Bassett, and his brother and drummer Carson Bassett, the three have accomplished a lot for only being 21 years old. They have already released a full-length album and an EP, and have toured with bands such as Cold War Kids, Tessa Violet, Peach Pit, Walk Off The Earth, and Arkells.

“The Trend” is representative of the trio’s innovative songwriting and their growth since their previous releases. Like all great tracks, “The Trend” came together quickly for daysormay. The song was written when the guys had just come home from being on the road and Andrews was messing around with an interesting guitar sound he had developed overtop of a piano sample he and Carson had already discovered. It all came together just the way it should, with daysormay sounding tighter than they ever have.

To talk learn more about “The Trend,” its accompanying DIY music video, their favourite bands, and the attitude they’re taking towards the coming months, we recently had a chat with all three members of daysormay.

Your new single “The Trend” seems like it’s going to be a real breakthrough for you. Take us through the writing process. How was the song written and over what time period did it come together?

Aidan Andrews: “Thank you! The idea really got around. Carson and I had found the piano sample in the summer of 2018, right before going on tour. We were opening for Cold War Kids in the U.S., and the day after we got home I started trying to work the sample into something. The whole tour I had been working on trying to get this kind of nasty distorted and gated guitar sound, so that was my main focus initially when I got back home. The lyrics were mostly stream of consciousness, just turning the song up really loud in my room and dancing around, saying whatever came to mind, and then fitting words to those syllables.

I sent it over to Carson and Nolan a little later, and they went in on the production. The next time I heard it was with all the 808s and trippy little moments in the percussion, it was nuts. They did it all in like a day too, which is crazy. We recorded live drums and the acoustic guitar at a local studio in Vernon, BC, owned by an amazing guitarist named Rob Bardos (that’s his guitar solo at the end), and finished the vocals and details off at Tugboat Pl. in with Steve Bays, who has produced almost all of the new songs.”

Nolan Bassett: “Aidan pretty much said it all, but I just want to give an extra shout out to Rob Bardos. Such a great guy and he nailed the solo at the end. I think what stands out the most about ‘The Trend’ is the song’s production, which is really quite special.”

Did you work with anyone to help produce it or was this self-produced?

Andrews: “I appreciate that, thank you. This one was 90 percent self-produced, Steve helped us with transitions and a lot of the details. This song kind of acted as our first big experiment in production, and we learned a lot from the process of trying to piece it all together.”

Nolan Bassett: “This song is kind of unique in the way that the song was pretty much entirely written before Carson and I worked on it so when we went to go work on it we pretty much just looked at as if we were producing a song that Aidan had written so that was a good learning experience.”

The song combines a lot of different writing and production styles so I’m curious as to what vision you had for it. Did you initially envision this song sounding different than how it turned out or is the finished product pretty close to what you wanted it to be?

Andrews: “It’s actually pretty close to the initial idea. I really wanted to stick with my gut/instinctual ideas on this one to see where that would take the song, and it actually worked. Originally I just really wanted to have this big stack of distorted and choppy guitar. That sound was the goal, and the project was just the workbench to figure that out on at first. We knew we were starting to get interested in sounds like that, so we wanted this to be a big dive into that world.”

Along with the release of “The Trend” is an accompanying music video, all shot on an iPhone 11. The video has a fun, DIY feel. Did you just wing it when it came to filming the video or did you have a general idea going into the process?

Andrews: “We knew we wanted to shoot a music video on a phone, just to see if we make it look cool. Our friend Eli (Garlick) who we shoot a lot of photos with, showed me what data moshing was. He was doing it to photos but I wanted to try and make it work with video. So much of the video came together in the edit, I didn’t really sleep for like three days because I was trying to figure out how to corrupt the video files just the right amount to get that glitch effect. So yeah, I guess mostly winging it. We experimented in the song, so I wanted to experiment in the visual as well.”

Artwork for “The Trend” by daysormay

In the video, you see a lot of outdoor settings, filmed at night in Vancouver. Where in the city did you capture some of these shots?

Andrews: “Most of it is shot on a road out by the airport, towards Iona Beach. The rest is either in our van or just around our neighbourhood.”

You guys are still a pretty new band and I feel like you’re probably still finetuning your sound. How would you describe your music to a new listener?

Andrews: “It’s tough for me to say. There’s been a lot of indie pop, alt-pop, alt-rock, and stuff like that mentioned. I’m not just saying this to sound cool: we don’t really think about it. When we’re making music the only criteria is ‘is this cool?,’ and if the answer is yes then we go with it. We’re always trying to get each other to stop whatever it is we’re doing and pay attention, if that makes sense.”

What are some of the bands, or albums, that you would say were instrumental in helping you develop your sound?

Andrews: “I hesitate to try and list any because I feel like there are albums that probably influenced me years ago but that I’ve since forgotten about. I would like to get better at answering this question though, so four that I think helped guide me as a songwriter would be: Evil Friends by Portugal. The Man, Trente by Karim Ouellet, Thank You Happy Birthday by Cage The Elephant, and Violent by We Are The City.”

Nolan Bassett: “There are definitely too many to name. I would say that We Are The City was a big and early influence on us and Rush is the band that made me fall in love with music and the bass, I’m literally wearing a Rush shirt as I’m typing this.”

Carson Bassett: “Definitely too many to name for me, since it has been an evolution and my taste is still evolving. Some albums that were definitely instrumental are Rage Against the Machine, Portugal the Man., Lewis Del Mar, (Kanye West’s) The Life of Pablo, Jean Dawson, and so many more.”

“The Trend” is your second new single of the year, following up the February release of “Everything Is Changing.” Do you have more new singles on the horizon?

Andrews: “We do. The ones that are next up are my favourites, I’m super stoked for those to come out.”

Nolan Bassett: “Yes, I’m so excited for the singles that will come out after ‘The Trend.’ I think it’s our best music yet.”

Carson Bassett: “Yes we definitely have more, and I feel we are only getting started.”

With the spring arriving and the pandemic still very much a reality, it must be a weird time to be trying to move forward as a group. How are you approaching the coming months as a band? Are you just going to wait and see how things play out?

Andrews: “The band’s actually grown a decent amount during the pandemic. We’ve had more time to write and record, and we’ve been on the livestream vibe for a while now. It’s definitely a bit weird but I’m looking at it as more time to train for touring. It’s a chance to have more under our collective belt by the time we’re back out in the world.”

Nolan Bassett: “It’s definitely very weird and totally different to what we were doing before the pandemic but at the same time it’s allowed us to get closer to our fans and interact with them more and I’m so thankful for that. It’s such a cool community to be a part of and they all feel more like friends than fans. I can’t wait until we’re able to go back out on tour and play for them.”