You may remember the review I did of daydreamer’s latest EP Senses. After listening to the Senses EP, I craved more and not just more music. I wanted to delve more into the artist himself. I racked my brains for questions, sifting through the usual ones.
How did you get started with music? Do you play instruments? What is your creative process? What was the first electronic dance music track that influenced you? What do you think about the direction of [genre/conversation piece of the year]?
I didn’t want to ask those questions though. I was more interested in the person behind the producer. One look at his Tumblr and my mind set off neural fireworks. There’s animation, color, Pokémon, and personality. The Spotify playlist daydreamer links on his Soundcloud page gives you a peek into the musical rivers he flows down, providing cuts from M83, Skylar Spence, Purity Ring, Chrome Sparks, Porter Robinson, Nigel Good, The M Machine, Mat Zo, Justice, Lorde, Fleet Floxes, Daft Punk, and Slow Magic to name a few. daydreamer is an artist’s artist.
Needing a break, I put my brainstorming session on pause to revisit daydreamer’s Twitter, the social media account he is most active on. It’s amazing what you can glean from a Twitter feed. A lot of artists hire people to handle their social media and make posts. Still others just don’t bother with it at all. I appreciate the artists who take the time to be human beings and engage with social media. What follows is an interview with daydreamer who was kind enough to let me pick his brain.
On Twitter I noticed the tweet where you listed seven of your favorite games. What game’s music did you really identify with, if any?
I think aesthetically I really identified with Okami, Jet Set Radio, and some of the Pokemon games. However, emotionally I really identified with Kingdom Hearts and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. Specifically, the first two Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games. The stories in those games just really struck a chord with me.
What acts (electronic or non electronic) influence you? Who (what artists) are you feeling right now?
Quite a few to both of those questions! Beyonce is a huge influence. She inspires me to really push myself as an artist. I also love Kanye West, Gorillaz, Baths, Daft Punk, Justice, Jon Hopkins, etc… I mean the list is endless there. A few artists I’m definitely feeling at the moment are Billboard, flor, and Pomrad. I’ve been kind of on a little bit of a funk odyssey lately.
I checked out your latest remix of Galantis’s No Money. It has a nice, funky nu disco feel to it. I’m feeling the funk on that one, but I noticed people going back and forth about clipping in the comments section of the track. Funny how people will pick things apart over the smallest nuances instead of just enjoying music for what it is.
Thank you! I think it’s interesting how people are pretty divided on it. Things like clipping are an aesthetic choice to me. I personally enjoy it. I think I just find it more frustrating that I even need to justify it in the first place. It’s fine though! Everyone has their own tastes. You like what you like.
Are you looking to expand beyond the realm of production into djing or are you content with being a producer?
Yah definitely! My main thing will always be production, however I really want to do live things later. I’ve been trying to pull together my own live show as of late, but I think I just want to expand my discography a little more first.
If you could bring back any group and unbreak them up, who would it be?
Pendulum immediately comes to mind. However, a big one for me is The Postal Service. “Give Up” is still a fantastic album 13 years later. I always wish they would come back.
If you could form a supergroup, who or what would it consist of?
A friend of mine came up with this idea and its a group consisting of Bon Iver, James Blake, and Frank Ocean. Those three people together in one group would probably create the album of the decade.
Can you tell me more about the art behind the Senses EP? I loved it about as much as the music on it!
The art was done by incredible Erica Lahaie who was shown to me by a friend. The main artwork was something I just imagined when thinking about the essence of the EP. How the character is kind of unaware that there is glass flying directly towards them, it expresses how I was very unaware as to what was about to hit me. Those things being problems mainly with creative identity. The story of whole EP was me struggling with myself and trying to figure out who I was as an artist and person. And to me that whole experience was very jarring and I wanted the artwork to express just that.
Besides music production, what else are you into?
I’m very into fashion. I don’t ever really have the money to spend on fashion, but I plan on doing so in the future. I’m also planning on creating some clothes of my own. I’ve wanted to do so for quite a while and I feel like I’m starting to have a fairly clear vision for my own clothes.
Pineapples on pizza or nah?
I think I would be down, but I’d prefer to just have all-meat pizza more than anything else. Pineapple by itself is very, very good though.
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I was listening to electronic dance music without even knowing it when I was listening to Jock Jams in the 90s. Fast forward to my senior year in high school and I had discovered Fatboy Slim. I have been listening to edm ever since and love writing about new sounds, good sounds, and the music that makes us move.
