Interview with DAYZIES: ‘Hearing people singing it back to me makes me proud for my daughter, she’s one of the best moments’

Newcastle-based alt-rock band DAYZIES are gearing up to release their next single ‘Eskimo’ around July.

The band comprises Liam Parker (vocals and rhythm guitar), Francis Murray (bass), Mark Hardingham (lead guitar) and, most recently, Josh Mitchel (drums). Parker went to school with Murray and Mitchel. He also skateboarded with Mitchel a few years ago and acted as his roadie when he was 15: ‘Frankie and I were in a band, Northbound, in college, we’d just broken up with our girlfriends and needed something to do,’ Parker laughed. ‘The joinmyband.com website, that’s how we found Mark.’ Parker came up with their band name back in 2017: ‘I was sat in my flat, feeling “dayze”, I didn’t know how to spell it (laughs) but I thought it could be a good band name!’

Parker describes ‘Eskimo’ as ‘a Goldilocks between ‘I Love It’ and ‘Short Lived Romance’: ‘It’s about relationships, ‘eskimo’ is a nickname for an ex-girlfriend who had a parka with this big hood like an eskimo,’ he said. ‘I called her my eskimo. It’s a bit more punky indie with lots of guitars.’

As the track goes: “She said it’s all in my head and I can’t think straight. And she’s making it hard for me to concentrate. My feet are tired, my knees are weak and it’s getting cold, please stop making a scene, my little Eskimo.”

‘It’s a reminder of how much technology has interfered with our ability to communicate on a human level’

Earlier this month, they released ‘I Love It’, an incredibly catchy and tight song, coming in at just two and a half minutes. Mitchel’s energetic drumming and the raunchy bass line pull the song along, as do Parker’s cheeky, story-driven lyrics, ending the song with a jubilant “I love it”: ‘The song was written about getting back into the dating scene the old fashioned way and without the aid of dating apps,’ Parker said. ‘Trying to find the confidence in yourself to speak to that someone you’ve been making eye contact with all night. It’s a reminder of how much technology has interfered with our ability to communicate on a human level. There’s a lot of fuzz on the track, Mark does a lot of squeals on the guitar.’ There’s also a jangly background sound that I can’t identify and I ask him what it is: ‘That sort of gun-cocking noise, that’s a sort of shaker that you rub with your hand, beads, I can’t remember what that instrument’s called now but I thought that would sound cool in it, so we kind of added that in as well.’

As the track kicks off: “When I see ya lookin’, my little something, seen those eyes across the room, well, I say, I wanna see you soon. ‘Cos I’ve been lookin’ for ya and I’ve been searchin’ for ya, and I’ve been getting a little frickin’, frickin’, frickin’, frickin’, frickin’, frickin’ freaky.”

It’s a good example of a song that they jammed into fruition: ‘The song started in the practice room, I just started noodling about with that “da da di dah” and we thought we could make something from it. It has a sexy feel,’ he said. Ultimately, the song was inspired by his own relationships and those of Murray: ‘Me and Frankie came out of our relationships. My past few relationships have been from dating apps. Going into bars, it’s not really socially acceptable to be friendly, to just go up to people, they’re suspicious (laughs). The first verse, it’s about seeing someone you like, the second verse is about what’s in my head, trying to build that confidence back up to go and talk to her. And then when I went to speak to her, she’d gone home! I never did meet her (laughs).’

I tell him that I love their retro, poppy artwork for the track, which turns out to have been put together by Nostalgia Kid: ‘The artwork was designed by myself, it was Nostalgia Kid who took the photographs. It was just going to be an upside down heart to show that I’m still trying to work out that romance thing (laughs) but I didn’t know how to visualise it. With the television, it works well. I love it, I love the colour scheme.’

Amazingly, sometimes Parker can hear the whole song in his head: ‘With writing songs, it’s different every time. I normally get them just in my head. I’ll hear the bass, the drums, the melody line, the guitar parts and try and hum it and record that. It kind of elaborates from there. There are some times, like with ‘I Love It’, where we came up with the riff first and the lyrics will come after.’

‘It’s the most heartfelt song we have’

Their debut single ‘Short Lived Romance’, which they released last year, has the same kind of energy, yet the vulnerable, introspective lyrics about the disintegration of a relationship are in stark contrast to the jangly, sunny melody: ‘It’s the most heartfelt song we have,’ Parker said. ‘I write the songs to get my emotions out. It’s about my relationship, my daughter is involved. She’s two, she lives in Scotland now, which makes it much harder to see her. Hearing people singing it back to me makes me proud for my daughter, she’s one of the best moments. I wanted it to be a “happy sad” song. My voice cracks when I sing it, it’s so emotional.’ I ask him if it’s hard to sing live. ‘It’s easier to sing it with the band, as it is, but it would be much harder if it was just me up there,’ he said.

As the song goes: “So what’s my life become? My heart is breaking. And what did I do wrong? Was I mistaken? And now I’m all messed up. And you’re still hating. Oh, what did I do wrong?”

Musical talent clearly runs in the family as both of his parents have been in bands: ‘I mostly did the roadie-ing for my dad to begin with, they were both in bands together and separately growing up,’ he said. ‘My dad did a lot of touring and things like that as well. Sitting on the sidelines, roadie-ing, I picked up a lot of things doing that. I taught myself to play drums and ended up in a band called Palm Beach , that was after Northbound. I stopped playing drums when I started DAYZIES. I got a lot of my musical influences from my dad and my mum as well, growing up. I did music at college and at school as well. I did a bit of dabbling at school but thought I was kind of rubbish, so didn’t bother. It wasn’t until I got to college that I picked things up. We had guitars at home, so I’d noodled about on them but I’m not really trained properly. My dad’s a singer, my mum’s a singer as well.’

DAYZIES are now working on their debut EP, scheduled for release early next year. In addition to ‘I Love It’ and ‘Short Lived Romance’, the EP will include the unreleased tracks ‘Eskimo’, “Which Way To Go?’ and ‘Juice’: ‘Which Way To Go’, we play it in the live shows, it always goes down well. ‘Juice’ has got that sexy ‘I Love It’, Jack White/Electric Six vibe. I need to work with him, to cross that off my bucket list (laughs). I love Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix was a god. George Harrison by himself, David Bowie. I love Foo Fighters – I’ve seen them live four times!’

These influences have fed into their upcoming EP: ‘Jack White, Kurt Cobain, a lot of our songs in the set are quite grungy,’ he said. ‘Our song ‘Away Now’, people seem to dig it when we play it live, it’s got a Queens of the Stone Age vibe. I love Josh Homme, he’s good friends with the Foos. I grew up listening to Jarvis Cocker, you’ll hear that in the new songs. And The Libertines have been a big influence, Pete Doherty is a genius. We’re hoping to get on his tour that he’s asked for support on! His new stuff is more like his old “Albion’ stuff, he’s doing more of that sort of thing.’

‘Taylor’s son, he was so good at that tribute, he brought a tear to my eye’

We get chatting about just how good Foo Fighters are, mentioning the tribute concert to Taylor Hawkins last year and what a bittersweet experience it was to watch it: ‘Taylor’s son, he was so good at that tribute, he brought a tear to my eye,’ he said. ‘He HAS to drum for the Foos, no-one else could fill Taylor’s shoes, it’s what Dave Grohl would want, isn’t it?’

DAYZIES had a big year last year, supporting artists such as Andrew Cushin, DEADLETTER, BILK, Shambolics, The Native, The Feens & Rosellas. I ask him who he’d most like to go for a pint with: ‘I’d rather have a Last Supper like Jesus with all the ones I just mentioned (laughs). Alive, it’s got to be Jack White, it has to be. I could sit and listen to him and not even open my mouth. Dead, Bowie or Kurt Cobain so I could see what was going on in his head.’

His funniest moment onstage sounds a bit hairy: ‘We did play one gig at Anarchy Brewery and I thought I would look cool putting my foot on the monitor at the front of the stage. That went (laughs), there was a barrier in front of the stage but I went with the monitor, tried to keep myself up and managed to kind of jump over the barrier, staying on my feet but I jarred my back and carried on with the rest of the show. That was pretty funny and we had a fun time talking about it afterwards! Every gig is funny in its own right, we’re all there for the laugh at the end of the day and enjoying ourselves.’

Parker’s dream line up would be as raucous as they are: ‘Pulp, Nirvana, the Foos, Queens of the Stone Age – Dave Grohl’s gonna be knackered (laughs). Did I say Jack White yet? Let’s put The Libertines on there. I’ll put Oasis on there but there’s no chance of them getting back together – dead or alive!’

(Top photo from left to right: Francis, Mark, Liam and Josh. Photo credit: Nostalgia Kid.)