Interview: Delilah Daybreaks

Jarod

Mar 18, 2021

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Answers by Doyle Alexander

What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music what would you be doing today?

Well from a young age I saw my dad playing guitar and thought it was super cool so that’s why I originally got into playing guitar. As for what I would have done if I didn’t start playing guitar, singing, and writing songs I think I would have probably would have become a teacher or something like that.

What do you like to do when you’re not playing music and how does that influence your creativity?

I really like watching hockey, and I’m really into reading as well. I would say reading comes through in my word choice more than anything, I read a lot of books about early American history from the 1600s to the 1830s, and sometimes I’ll read a graphic novel like Watchmen, Hellboy, or something like that.

How long has your band been around?

We’ve been around for a bit over five years now, but we’ve only been super active for about the last three.

Where are you based out of and how did that influence your music?

We’re from Minneapolis Minnesota which I would say is a pretty eclectic place and I think that really shows through in all of our influences. I mean you have Mycah who’s into 90’s hip-hop and also loves Ghost, Owen who is super into metal and likes too many genres to keep track of, and I really like stuff like Jawbreaker, Descendents, and Fugazi, but I also love The Cure, Weezer, and Taylor Swift. So I would say our city influences how we are aware of all kinds of music, as well as having a place like First Ave where all kinds of awesome artists and bands come through. I would say that’s sort of the biggest influence our city has had on us.

How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean to you.

I was just talking to Mycah and he had asked me if I would still listen to Slipknot if they wore pink jumpsuits and were called Delilah Daybreakers, so I asked him if the music would be the same and I told him that the name would be kind of cool if you took the ER off the end, and it just kinda stuck from there.

Tell me about the best and worst shows you have played.

The best show that I’ve ever played was back in the April of 2019, I remember that the show wasn’t sold out or anything but it was the tightest the band has sounded live and I remember everyone who was there having a great time. The worst show that the band has played was probably the first show we played, everything I remember about that show was horrible. I remember my guitar going extremely out of tune in the second song we played so Mycah has to stall while I switched guitars. I also remember everyone getting lost in the last song we played towards the ending, and we played an awful cover of Why Bother by Weezer. My guitar kept feeding back in the chorus and I absolutely blew that solo.

Tell me about your favorite venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to play that you haven't already?

I love playing The Garage in Burnsville, it’s where we played our first show so regardless of how the show went it’s still super special to me. I would love to play First Avenue one day, the best shows I’ve ever been to were there and it’s overall just a super special place that is a symbol of home for me.

If you could play any show with any lineup who would be on the ticket?

I’ve thought about this before, it would be Delilah Daybreaks, Alkaline Trio, and Descendents. It would be so much fun to play with my two biggest inspirations and to hopefully show them and tell them how they changed my life.

What is some advice that you would give to someone who is just getting into playing in a band?

Try to find your own sound, and be prepared to feel lost and kinda like “why the hell am I even trying”. All of that stuff is completely normal to feel but after trial and error, you will hit your stride and go from there.

If you could go back in time and give yourselves advice, what would it be?

Be prepared for 2020… just kidding. If I really could do that I would probably tell myself to be a bit more open-minded. Of course, that is something some people get with age but from thirteen to sixteen I was a massive asshole, and I really needed a kick in the ass to straighten up. I was probably the worst person to hang out with and must have been such a headache.

Of your songs which one means the most to you and why?

For me, it’s our song Confessional. That song has some of my most personal and honest lyrics and it’s also really fun to play too. It also just captures everything I wanted to do in this band in the early years so it has a special place in my heart and probably always will.

Which songs are your favorite to play and which get requested the most?

My favorite song to play live is probably Really just for how fast and intense that song is, and the one that gets requested the most is easily Whatever. That song has always been the most requested ever since it came out, and I wouldn’t doubt if it stayed like that for quite a bit longer.

What is the creative process for the band, and what inspires you to write your music?

So it’s changed up recently, it used to be me coming to the guys with a skeleton of a song, and then they would just kind of build it from there. Now it’s a lot more collaborative from the start, it could be anyone in the band writing a riff and then we all give our input from there. The lyrics and mainly are Mycah and me, and Owen helps with all of the musical parts and he is a wizard of music theory and all of the super technical stuff that goes into writing. As far as inspirations for writing I would say my biggest one is life and my daily experiences. The stuff that I can’t get off of my mind or stuff that I’m struggling to express. I’ve always used music as a way to deal with my feelings, so no matter how good or bad life is I’m always probably writing about whatever I’m feeling at the time.

What kinds of messages do you like to get across in your music?

I don’t necessarily have any universal message, I just want our music to be looked at as an outlet and to be used as something positive that helps someone through their day. I want our music to help pick people up when they’re at their lowest points like music has done for me.

Do you ever have disagreements in your band, and how do you get past them?

Not really, we’re kind of three different versions of the same dude. The biggest disagreements always come out in rehearsal or recording which usually turns into all of us laughing our asses off.

What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that's coming up?

Friday, March 19th we are re-releasing our EP Redacted with these new mixes that sound absolutely great. We also have a live stream that we will be announcing very soon, that should be super fun!