Long Read // Daily J - For an up and coming band, every small milestone matters
Recently announced for the infamous All Points East festival, New Zealand-based Daily J will soon make their way to the U.K for the first time, playing the same day as acts such as The Postal Service, Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists and Phoenix.
“Some high-school bangers there for us”, exclaims frontman Jayden as he recalls listening to tracks such as Lisztomania with his brothers when they were younger: “That is a banger mate”.
Consisting of Jayden and his two brothers Jonny and Jesse, alongside longtime friend Rick on the drums, the Kiwi group has found themselves flourishing over the past few years with releases such as “Left Me Like Summer” and “Sunny Days” leading them to three tours around Australia.
“We’ve been playing together for a long time, we’re full-time musicians now so we have more time to play and write together and just sort of experiment more”.
When talking about acts that inspired them to get into music, Jayden doesn’t hesitate to name big names such as Arctic Monkeys, The Beatles and Amy Winehouse: “I think I can speak on the boys’ behalf as well, Arctic Monkeys being one of our favorite bands of all time, we saw them in Auckland a few years ago and it quite literally blew our minds”.
“Love their songwriting, it’s so descriptive the way it just paints a scene and it just makes you feel so cool.”
Aside from “a proper pint of Guinness”, Jayden suggests there will be further reasons than that and a set at All Points East for their lengthy travel to the U.K: “Well it’s certainly a long way to come for one gig isn’t it?”
For New Zealand artists, travelling to Australia is pretty special, let alone halfway across the world to play in Europe. Speaking about the local scene, Jayden describes it as “a little support system”.
“I think because New Zealand is so small, when a band releases a song on Spotify it’s not long before other artists pick it up and listen to it. I feel like it’s a really good community of bands here that we know personally.That’s the beauty of living in a small country.”
For an up and coming band, every small milestone matters, and for Daily J they have come fast in the past few years. Aside from releasing a double EP last year, the group also made it into the lineup of highly acclaimed Aussie music festival Laneway.
”It’s always been a goal for us and we were there January this year. It was a massive bucketlist, we felt like we were doing something right, and we had a great turnout, people singing our songs”.
“There’s been a few smaller shows along our journeys where the crowds’ really come through like that first Australian show. Just the feeling of being in another country”.
In respect to their upcoming travel to the U.K, he adds: “There’s obviously a few more milestones on the horizon which we’re pretty excited about.”
It’s moments like these which seem to really inspire the group, as Jayden recalls the story behind their latest single “Happy Slides”: “It’s kind of a song we started a long time ago, probably three years ago I was still working as a landscape builder, and he just sent me a little beat he made as we often do, I got really fizzed up by it and went around to his house in my high-vis, recorded the chorus.”
He goes on, “We toured Australia last year, and that was probably the longest time we’ve been away from home, and that feeling rolled in again of missing home and nostalgia and I wrote this verse to it and it just slotted in perfectly. So yeah that’s what the song is about really, just chilling with your friends doing something you love but also missing your home”.
Catch their powerful summer anthems if you’re headed to All Points East on Sunday, the 25th of August. And if not, keep your eyes peeled for more news to come about their travels to the U.K.
Words by Jay Cohen
Catch the band live at the following UK live dates:
Manchester – Thursday 22nd August 2024 - YES (Pink Room)
Bristol – Friday 23rd August 2024 - The Louisiana
London – Saturday 24th August – OMEARA
London – Sunday 25th August 2024 - All Points East Festival
