Not unlike many other bands throughout the years, the seeds of Portland, Oregon's Daydream were planted during a jam session. "Ian [Makau] and I started jamming in late 2017," vocalist Alix Beyer wrote No Echo via email last week. "We wanted to start a bass-driven, noise punk band. Tyler moved to Portland around that time and we tried him out and it completely changed that initial idea.
"Tyler and I have known each other 12-13 years at this point, him being from Minneapolis and me from Chicago, our bands would play with each other in each other's cities over the years. But once the three of us got going, writing was very easy and seamless and we had our first record written and recorded by the time of our first show.
When it comes to their sound, Daydream isn't the easiest band to categorize, though it all rips in its own twisted way. "Tyler has a very distinct, wacky, garage-y punk/psych rock style of playing and we took that and the noise punk idea and ran with it and tried to make psych-rock sort of inspired hardcore," Alix explained. "I think we all have a variety of influences that combined absolutely do not make sense but I think we’ve been able to make something interesting enough that feels like a sound that is ours and not too many different things all over the place.
"There is definitely a lot of intention in creating more of an overall experience with this band than more pure release or aggression. We love a lot of the art-ier Toxic State Records releases, UK peace punk, and Brown Sugar, which I feel like all shine through at different moments."
Daydream recently released their third album, a unique and kickass collection called Reaching for Eternity:
Alix spoke a bit about the songs on the new record: "The lyrics follow a similar narrative that was started in the first record, but more realized in the second record, Mystic Operative. It’s a loose storyline based around this character of the 'mystic operative and a post-war hellscape."
"I wanted the lyrics to evoke the feeling of an anxiety-filled bad acid trip, not really knowing who you are or who the 'enemy' is and the lines being constantly blurred or changed."
The singer continued: "The third record references both the first and second record intentionally in the lyrics too to try to create a sense of confusion around time and place, as well as to bring things back and forth, creating more of a non-linear reality/experience.:
When it comes to their local music scene, Allix seems excited about their community there. "The PNW at large has some amazing bands and Portland itself has a lot of great bands! Ian and Alix have another band called Atomic Prey that will have a demo out soon, and I have another band called Lazer Bullet that will have a record out soon also on Blackwater. Other great projects are Reek Minds, Fugitive Bubble, Puerta Negra, Chueko, Physique, etc."
Reaching for Eternity is out now via Black Water Records (US) and Sabotage Records (EU).
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