We are two guys and two girls from Sydney. Lani and Caro went to high school together and Sam and Nev met growing up on the Northern Beaches. We’ve been playing as Day Ravies for two years. Our debut album Tussle is coming on October 11 and we’re touring it in October and November.
Your new song ‘I Don’t Mind’ has recently found its way online. Tell us a little bit about the track.
I Don’t Mind was written by Caroline de Dear, our bass player and vocalist. She also made the film clip. It’s one of the slower, gazier numbers on the album, so people who hear it have been making a lot of comparisons to your obvious shoegaze bands, but we also hopes it comes across as a nice three-minute pop song.
The song sounds much sleeker and more polished than ‘Double Act’ from last year. Besides the obvious upgrade in production, how do you think you guys have changed as musicians?
Haha… they’re actually from the same session. ‘Double Act’ sounded more lo-fi than we wanted so it has been mixed again for the album. This time it was mixed by the engineer (our friend Peter Beringer) who has done all final mixes on the album. The new mix should sound a little fuller, with less compression, and hopefully be more on a par sonically with ‘I Don’t Mind’.
‘I Don’t Mind’ is the second single from your forthcoming debut album, Tussle, out in October. What can we expect from the record?
It’s got 12 tracks that are all in a way poppy and drowned-in-sound but still totally different from each other. Three of us wrote the tracks so we’ve all contributed something a little different. But we expanded the ideas together, and we all like similar stuff and make similar stylistic decisions, so it gels (we hope!). I guess the whole thing sounds pretty ‘90s. There are gazey ballads, kraut-y pop songs and short jangly numbers. There is raucous, melodic guitar throughout the album, which is a pretty major feature. Our little Casio keyboard is there in most songs too. We’ve since replaced it with an analogue Yamaha synth and a ‘60s Acetone organ so our future recordings will probably be synth odysseys!
Lyrically what themes do you explore on the album?
There is a lot of relationship stuff, and early ‘20s finding-yourself stuff (it can’t be helped!) and some just pure nonsense… something we all relish. As a band I think we are on the outer of most of what is going on in the ‘scene’ and I feel like maybe that’s reflected in the lyrics too… being sort of odd or obtuse, from kind of an alienated POV… even though it wasn’t conscious. The lyrics really aren’t a focus in the mixes, but they’re there if you listen for them.
The band formed in 2011, you released an EP last year and now that you’re readying you debut for release do you think its been a long process getting to this point?
I think we took a big leap from the EP to the album, song-writing wise and also just in the quick decision to record an LP. The album has taken longer than we’d have liked, but that’s often just how it is. We recorded it last October to December in about 4 separate, mostly live sessions, so pretty quickly, but it took a long time to mix and master…. it was a pretty involved process. It was mixed on an analogue desk, track by track, to give it analogue warmth. It was well worth it though because we got it to sound how we wanted in the end.
For those that missed your East coast tour earlier this year, what can they expect from your live show?
Our live shows can be pretty noisy affairs, aka many sound guys’ worst nightmare. Nev (Matt Neville) drums hard and we all turn up; Sam makes his guitar feedback like an [expletive]… but we still keep it tasteful. We also try to write sets that showcase the diversity of the tunes, and we try to never play the same set twice if we can help it.
You’re playing The Farmer & The Owl in Wollongong in November. What drew you to this festival?
We were kindly asked by the festival organisers to play, and it lined up perfectly with our album tour dates. We don’t know what to expect from the festival but it’s clearly shaping up to be a cracker.
What are your plans for the rest of the year and early 2014?
The album is out October 11 and we’re touring it in October and November. We’re also recording a track for US/Peruvian compilation, and we’ll hopefully start laying down other tracks for future releases… but we know we’re being eager beavers.
Where we can see you play next, what releases do you have available and where can we get them?
Our physical EP from 2012 is sold out but it’s available for free download on Bandcamp: dayravies.bandcamp.com
Other than that, ‘Tussle’ will be available on vinyl and CD through Popfrenzy soooon.
Day Ravies Tour Dates:
October 6 – CANBERRA The Polish Club w/ The Cannanes (album launch) & Waterford
October 13 – SYDNEY Red Eye Records (In-Store)
October 24 – NEWCASTLE White’s Records w/ Summer flake, Unity Floors and Sad Faces
November 14 – MELBOURNE The John Curtain band room w/ Pearls, Pageants & Velcro
November 15 – ADELAIDE The Metro w/ Summer Flake, Bruff Superior and Body Horror
November 22 – SYDNEY The Red Rattler w/ Sounds Like Sunset, Chook Race & East River
November 23 – WOLLONGONG The Farmer and the Owl w/ The Drones, Dappled Cities, Harmony, Mother & Son & more…
November 29 – BRISBANE The Alhambra Lounge w/ Nite Fields, Barbiturates & Thigh Master
Listen to ‘I Don’t Mind’ here.
