Artist Spotlight – Interview with Daysormay – UMass Dartmouth's Student Newspaper

(Image Self-Photographed)

Staff Writer: Rena Danho

Daysormay is an alternative/indie band that hails from Vancouver, Canada. The band members are Carson Bassett on drums, Nolan Bassett on bass, and Aidan Andrews as lead singer.

If you haven’t heard about this band, now is the time to start listening.

Daysormay currently has a small selection, with around 55,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, one album, and one EP presently released, but once you start listening, you won’t be able to stop.

Seeing Daysormay live is a hypnotic experience, as they have an incredible stage presence. With so much energy and production put into their performances, you won’t want to blink.

Andrews enters the crowd during his performance (Image Self-Photographed)

I was pleased to be able to interview Daysormay and supply both new and old fans with an inside look into the band.

What inspired you to make music?

Andrews: “I started doing it because I thought it would be cool to copy artists that I looked up to, and then continued to do it because I found it really helpful. It was a really good outlet, and it’s continued to be that. It’s inspiring to get better, and it’s a way to process things I’m trying to deal with or things I don’t fully understand.”

C. Bassett: “I don’t write the words, but for the music kinda similar, I feel like it’s such a nice escape from whatever is going on in my life or in the world, but also when we were just starting there wasn’t much to do in such a small town. It was just like something fun to do with friends and we were really focused on it and it was really fun to do.”

Who is your biggest inspiration for music?

Andrews: “I mean overall when I found Tyler the Creator and Odd Future, that attitude, the DIY, that’s probably been the one artist that stuck, that’s been consistently motivating for me. Just his attitude and his desire to be involved in every aspect of the process and not just the music.”

C. Bassett: “Mine’s Rage Against the Machine. It’s my favorite band. I was just like they had it all for me, little 12-year-old me. The message was really good even though I didn’t fully understand it when I was 12, but the playing and just like the sound of the album and the artwork, it was just like, damn that’s what I wanna do.”

N. Bassett: “I don’t really have an answer because I feel like, for me, It’s always changing. I always get inspired by little bits and pieces of things, and I don’t have one person in particular.”

What is the music-making process like?

N. Bassett: “Most recently it’s been kind of a mixture of things. We have a few songs that started from a beat, or some others ones that just started from something Andrews was working on. Just putting pieces that are missing into them. So if we have the music we have to find the vocals, and like if we have the vocals and the cords look good together we have to figure out production and instrumentation. It’s having one piece and filling in the rest.”

How much did covid affect the band and making/creating music?

Andrews: “A lot, but not all in a negative way. We just moved in together a few months before everything. I think that because we were able to be together all the time we were doing a lot of live streams and doing a lot of not as much writing as you would probably expect. Just being around each other a lot there’s like a lot of time and opportunities for content, and being present online together. Then we were always able to be working on stuff and it did start to get kind of tough to always be in the same room all the time. First few years were good but it’s figuring out and getting better at balancing. The no-touring-thing wasn’t as bad, it was kind of a blessing in disguise.”

N. Bassett: “During Covid, we were working on the release of the album. A lot of the time, we would just make and work on videos or promotional stuff for the album. We couldn’t go to work, couldn’t do anything else so we could focus all our time on that. It was a big blessing. That was like my memories from the initial lockdown working on videos.”

Andrews: “And lots of sitting on a desk in front of a computer.”

C. Bassett: “We went through a big Minecraft phase.”

Is there a reason behind the name Daysormay?

N. Bassett: “Well we were naming the band, and we were running into the problem where every band name was taken. We decided we should look at words from different languages, and we all went to French immersion school so we started thinking of french words. Daysormay is an anglicized spelling of Desormais which means from now on.”

On Spotify, your top song is “Just Existing.” Do you think this suits your band as the most popular song, or do you wish it was a different song?

C. Bassett: “I kinda wish ‘Ego’ was number one because I feel like we all love that one.”

Andrews: “I think it’s representative of us at a certain point, but I think it’s a small part of the sound now, and it’s a good introduction to us, and then they can get into the weirder stuff.”

How was touring with Tessa Violet, and did it influence any direction you want to go in with the band, any music?

Andrews: “I don’t know if it influenced the new music. Maybe a little, but I feel like playing songs in front of people while you’re making music causes a different state of mind rather than when you’re indoors making music. I’m sure it has in some ways seeing how certain parts of songs bounce off an audience compared to another. Self consciously it has affected us, we’re definitely making more energetic stuff.”

Is there a song that’s more personal than the others for one or all of you?

Andrews: “They’re all about something from my life, but on the new album ‘Just Existing’ or ‘Satellite.’ If we’re going back probably ‘Dissolution Sound.’ Something about sad songs that the sad sounding ones are the ones that make me cry there’s something there.”

C. Bassett: “It’s definitely more in the words like ‘Thank you and Goodnight’ the chords feel really sad.”

N. Bassett: “‘Satellite,’ I just love ‘Satellite’ because it’s so emotional. It has a really good emotional arc in the music and the lyrics.”

Do you have a favorite song to perform?

Andrews: “‘Ego’ was really fun because I get to go climb something. ‘Satellite’ is fun, too. Especially when the vocal sample comes in, it’s like this big moment. I feel like that’s the song where I have a second to breathe and look around.”

C. Bassett: “‘Satellite’ may be my favorite because I can take a break. It’s not the hardest drum beat in the whole song. ‘Just Existing’ is very fast and hard to play because it’s so fast and constant, and the other ones are fun like ‘25,’ but with ‘Satellite’ you can just enjoy playing with everyone, and look around and soak it in.”

Where do you guys hope to see yourselves in the future with your music?

Andrews: “The ultimate goal is to be creative for a living and not have to work a day job or something that you’re not passionate about in order to sustain. I mean, there’s smaller goals or more specific goals, like I want to sell out a tour or collaborate with this person and this person. Ultimately I think our version of success is being able to do this for a living. Whether that means our music or working with other people’s music, doing visual stuff. Just the ability to be creative.”