The Daze have been making music for over two years and are continuing to make noise in Dunedin’s music scene. Formed in their hall in first-year, the band’s made up of Sam (he/him) on guitar and vocals, Ollie (he/him) on drums, Vere (he/him) on bass and vocals, and Alex (he/him) on guitar. The band started off with a different lineup initially with Alex later joining the group. Critic Te Ārohi sat down with the band to chat about their start, upcoming singles, and wanting a couch on stage.
All the members shared similar music interests and started to jam together in halls (Ollie was a subwarden). “He wasn’t allowed to drink when we were on stage which was funny,” remarks Vere, with Sam adding, “He was trying to relive his glory days.”
The band played their first gig at Next in Line, which quickly put together after a previous member signed them up for the competition. “It was rough,” says Sam, “We figured it out quickly enough.” Ollie adds, “The first time we played the set the whole way through was that night.” Vere was approached to play bass for the band, despite not touching his bass for four months. Alex joined the band this year, with an audition ultimatum that if he took his shirt off he was in the band. As evident by this article, he is now in the band.
Sam is the main songwriter and orchestrator of the band. “I spend hours a day sitting behind a guitar seeing what comes out, and if I like it I’ll develop it [...] it happens every now and then [that] I get a cool musical idea and throw it out to the band and they help out with it.” There are various other processes like jamming, as well as Sam hunkering down and churning out a complete song to give to the band. Vere’s songwriting process differs. “Usually I’ll write down something stupid that would make for a great song name or concept and go from there,” he says.
The band cites Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground as influences. They also mention Oasis and how their ‘wall of sound’ approach to making music has impacted the band sonically. The Daze, whose music doesn’t adhere to any one genre, usually markets themselves as “hard hitting alternative rock”.
The band has spent a lot of time recording in bedrooms, the Uni studios, and Southlink Productions. The Daze plans to release an EP by October that is mainly produced by Sam. “It will close in more on what our sound will be," says Vere. The band plan to line up some shows for the release of the EP and are quite keen to have a couch on stage. “All of us lounging on it playing our tunes would be sweet,” says Ollie.
You can follow The Daze on Instagram @the.daze.band to see any upcoming gigs and releases.