It’s a sunny afternoon in London, equally sunny on the east coast of the US as we discuss daydreamers. After a day of moving things into a proper studio and prepping for upcoming festivals with hard shell guitar cases and creature comforts, lead singer and guitarist Riley shares how writing sessions few and far between serendipitously formed the band that would eventually play festivals and accumulate nearly half a million monthly listeners in less than a year’s time.
“It just sort of clicked,” Riley explains, after watching footage of the four – consisting of Riley, Marco (guitar), Aurora (bass), and Jay (drums) – rehearse together. They all agreed they had to be a band and in hindsight realized the pressures of the industry were easier to cope with when surrounded by great people. Genuinely enjoying the company of your bandmates and being comfortable with them shows, online, on stage, and in real life shows. There’s a connection that is evident when bandmates actually get on well in and outside of the studio and despite them being fairly new, daydreamers foster that connection well. And when the band looks like they’re having fun, the fans typically follow suit.
After playing at Hyde Park, daydreamers and their front row fans embarked on varying side quests, hitting the various stages including Alfie Jukes and Good Neighbors. “I actually sent them a message before we had our TikTok moment. I was like ‘Guys how are you doing this? This is incredible! I love this!’ and then we had our own moment. It felt really good in the end, which is brilliant.” Filming the “TikTok moment” was anticlimactic and spontaneous. As Riley and Aurora were out, they decided to film something on the fly, in hopes of it reaching at least 200 people. 10.5 million views later, we later learn that Riley’s iPhone 7 was not equipped to handle the sheer volume of engagement the tease of their debut single “Call Me Up” had accumulated. “We were just waiting for a moment like that so it makes all the difference.”
While social media is a full time job, the real work lies within the studio walls. Work that is done in the studio is what the band is adamantly passionate about. Writing from a personal perspective and exaggerating it to make the track more universal is the formula so far and while each song still has a diary-entry quality to it, there is a reliability that resonates deeply with listeners. There’s a lot of cultural differences in dating and in music that daydreamers touches on in their music, setting them apart from the oldies that inspired them initially. Riley remarks, “I exist now, so I can write about now. I find that quite inspiring.” In emerging records, we still hear relics of old music intertwined with new sounds. We listen because content now resonates more with people right now than it used to. There is no superiority to it, just relativity. He elaborates to say, “I love music that’s timeless or isn’t reliant on trends or particular parts of production moves that you can make to make something sound interesting. I just love songs. That’s something that I do take so much inspiration from, like Bruce Springsteen, like Aztec Camera, The Cure.”
The bands newest song, “Don’t Delete My Number” cleverly recalls “Call Me Up”, though completely coincidental. The songs were actually written last year, within months of one another. The new single is inspired by the tried and true (but not nearly as effective as we wish it was) no contact rule – a rule that no one seems to follow, despite its good intentions. Despite the song calling back to a seemingly toxic place, Riley talks about his headspace while writing and producing it. “Writing feels addictive because you can’t control it,” he says, which contrasts dramatically with production, whose purpose is to serve the song, to take it from better to best.
For Riley, the essence of music is straightforward: “To have fun, to enjoy yourself, and to connect with people. I’m writing a song because I have a perspective I want to share and hope that others connect with it.” Soundtracking the rest of the summer and beyond, daydreamers surely has more to say and we are more than happy to listen.
Keep up with daydreamers: Instagram // TikTok // Spotify // YouTube // Website
