Stereo Six: Junko Daydream Conjures Up a List of Their Utmost Influential Albums

Heavy is what Junko Daydream specializes in. Loud, raw, and emotional, the Canadian band recently released their latest single “A House That God Built.” With their obvious talent and approach to writing and recording, the group found a big believer in Cancer Bats guitarist and founder Scott Middleton. Middleton felt so enthusiastic about the band that he oversaw the recording process for “A House That God Built.” Passionate and extremely heartfelt, the song looks at the feelings of guilt and shame that can be associated with having a disability.

Incorporating elements of post-hardcore, emo, shoegaze, and nu-metal, Junko Daydream’s aim is to bring that frenetic energy from playing live in front of a crowd and implant it into their recordings. Although they are rooted in punk rock, the guys are out to challenge the preconceptions of what punk rock is and what people think it should be.

To learn more about their musical roots, Junko Daydream join us today for a new Stereo Six in which they describe six of their favourite records of all time, including one interesting curveball you may not have expected.

1. Alexisonfire – Crisis (2006, Distort Entertainment)

“Crisis is a classic in our genre, and in our opinion, the band’s best album. That’s saying a lot considering we love all of them. It’s the type of album you listen to in one sitting to get the full experience because a lot of the tracks fade into one another and complement each other expertly as one cohesive piece of art.”

2. Defeater – Travels (2008, Topshelf Records)

“A big holdover from the early days of post/melodic hardcore. Travels hits you in the chest with raw vocals and huge guitars but also knows when to pull back. They have a really great dynamic balance to their sound, considering there is a man screaming his heart out on every track.”

Artwork for the albums Junko Daydream lists in this Stereo Six

3. Pup – The Dream is Over (2016, SideOneDummy, Royal Mountain)

“The Dream Is Over is one of the most cohesive punk albums we’ve ever heard. From the first track to the last every song serves its purpose, and they all rip. The arrangements and depth within tracks like ‘Sleep in Heat’ and ‘Doubts’ is something you don’t usually find in punk genres and make the album worth coming back to over, and over, and over, and over, and over.”

4. Cancer Bats – Dead Set on Living (2012, Distort)

“We all grew up listening to Cancer Bats and going to their shows. Their music served as one of the first introductions a lot of had to really heavy music. The songwriting on this album is excellent and the riffs are massive. So massive, in fact, that we hired the man that wrote them to produce and record our most recent single, ‘A House That God Built.’”

5. Listener – Wooden Hearts (2010, Self-Released)

“This is a great album to listen to if you want to feel worse at the end than when you started. Listener is a great poet and his live performances are extremely emotional and heavy. The intensity that he approaches music with influences how we approach our own writing process.”

6. Curveball: Father John Misty – Fear Fun (2012, Sub Pop)

“This album is completely outside of our genre, but great songs are great songs. J. Tillman is a masterful songwriter and lyricist and there are many things we can learn from him and others outside of our genre. We love ‘Fun Times in Babylon’ and we know all the harmonies. Seriously.”

Artwork for the song “A House that God Built” by Junko Daydream