Project Description

Interview with
MICHAEL DAY

(October 2020)

Interviewer – Vicky Hebbs

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You make your music as both a soloist and a five-piece band. How would you describe the sound of Michael Day? Would alt-folk aptly describe your genre?
The Sound of Michael Day would fall into the alt/folk genre, however, it could also fall into some other subgenres of rock or folk. Potentially Indie Rock (Not technically a genre but kind of has become one). It also has some roots flavours. 

Did you grow up listening to a lot of folk and alternative music? How has the music of your youth or childhood influenced the music you are producing today?
Haha, I didn’t actually listen to much music early on, I first got into music listening to Green Day and Good Charlotte, haha so that hasn’t had a huge impact. However, mid high school, I discovered John Butler and that triggered my interest in this acoustic folk/roots genre. Along with JBT I also found Newton Faulkner who was a big influence on the way I think about creating. Along with this kind of music, I listened to a lot of classical music through school, so this has had a huge impact on my understanding of composition. 

Your new single, ‘Storm’ is out now! Its lyrics are very emotive and philosophical, while the instrumentals are characterised by lingering harmonies and a solid rolling beat. Can you share the origins of the single, particularly the lyrics?
So, I had some friends over one night in 2017/2018, and I was pretty worn out so I sat down and wrote ‘Storm’. I was super tired and didn’t want to think in the confines of music theory, specifically, I just wanted to play what I heard. In order to do this, I needed to confuse myself so I didn’t think about the theory, so I completely detuned my guitar to this tuning; C G C F G D.
Lyrically, Storm is quite emotive and philosophical in my thinking, I was thinking about how we discuss opposing viewpoints and view other people. The lyrics came partly from a desire for people to be able to have discussions from very differing points of view, but still hold respect and love for each other as fellow humans. 

When I listened to the single, I was struck by its beautiful darkness, and the intense energy that propels the beat. Did you set out to make such a dark and brooding song, or did that sound emerge in the recording process?
Storm was intentionally an emotive and dark piece. It already had a dark sound when I wrote it, however, the magical darkness you hear is because of the Ear Wizard Andy Lawson from Debaser Studio! We sat down at the start of the session and discussed the vibe of the piece. We used a few different reference tracks to give Andy the sort of feel we were going for. 
Andy was great at listening to our vision for the piece and He really made that vision come to life.

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What was the writing and recording process of ‘Storm’ like? Did you write it all on your own or collaboratively?
Our current set up for Michael Day looks like myself as the song writer, and then I’ll bring the piece to the group and We’ll flesh it out with the instruments.
Storm is one of the quickest songs I’ve written, I wrote it in one or maybe two evenings. We also recorded Storm in one day at Andy’s place.
Recording with Andy was a great process, He was able to understand our how we were hearing things and able to suggest things accordingly. He really helped create the embellishing ambient guitar lines and haunting vocals of the piece. 

What does the single mean to you? And what do you hope it will mean to listeners; what do you hope they will take away from the song?
This Single is something I’m really proud of as an Artist. I’ve had a dream to create music for a number of years and this is like a big accomplishment of that dream. I’ve really enjoyed working with the band and with so many people in the Industry to accomplish this and for me it just feels like the start of something. I’m really excited to keep creating music.  
For my listeners, I hope the music I create would be enjoyable for them both artistically and on some level intellectually as well. I’m unsure what I’d hope people would take away from Storm, I like that people can take their own meaning away from songs, yet at the same time I love that music can challenge people. If people could take one thing away from Storm, it would be that we need to be prepared to have conversations with people and have huge disagreements, but still value and respect them as fellow humans.

Your single launch for ‘Storm’ is coming up on October 30th at The Sewing Room in Perth. What can fans expect at the single launch?
We’re very excited for our Single Launch on the 30th! I’m not just excited to be playing, but also for the two support acts we have playing.
We have two friends, whose musical journeys I’ve been following for a while and have a huge respect for their Song Writing. 
Lucas Jones is a beautiful lyricist and folk musician, formerly performing with ‘These Winters Nights’. 
Cecilia Brandolini has an incredible voice and is a great keys player! Not only will Cecilia grace us with Her great wonderful tunes, but She will be joined by a Violist and a Cellist player!  
Fans should expect a night of gorgeous folk tunes, beautiful colours and ………

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What do you love most about performing live? Do you have any more live performances planned for this year after the single launch?
I love performing live, and even more with the band. I love that music can captivate people and their imaginations and make you feel things. I love that as humans we can come together to create such beautiful sounds with our voices and instruments.
The Week after on the 6th of November I will be playing an intimate backyard show put on by Rob Molli which should be grand! There’s a bunch of cool artists playing the same night as well. 

Your debut single, ‘Guildford’, was released earlier in the year. How does your latest song follow on or perhaps even evolve from ‘Guildford’?
In my opinion, Storm is a big step up from Guildford. To be honest, I feel like the Song Writing is much better in Storm. I’m really excited to keep creating songs and developing my sound.
In my head both Storm and Guildford are almost different emotions of my personality or different feelings or moods, they have some similarities in their lyrical construction but their moods are very different haha. 

I loved the upbeat folk beat of ‘Guildford’. What inspired you to write the song?
Guildford was inspired by two things.
Firstly, on a musical scale, I really wanted to write a song with a complex time signature, so I chose 5/8 and also 4/4 so sometimes you’ll be counting to 5 and other times to 4. I did this deliberate timing difference to go along with the lyrical concept of the song, so the idea behind Guildford was to say ‘hey look how we miss the obvious things in our lives’, The Chorus has this strong obvious 4/4 timing, while the verses have this 5/8 ‘head in the clouds’ sort of feel.  
Secondly, Guildford was written because I was at a mate’s house in Guildford and a plane flew over, and it was seriously loud to Me because I don’t live under a flight path, however for my friend, He didn’t even notice because He was so use it. So I really liked that metaphor I guess.

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Looking back at the release of ‘Guildford’, is there anything you learned or did not expect about releasing your first single? Did you do anything differently the second time around?
I sort of used Guildford to discover the process of releasing music, from it I learnt that it’s really important to have a plan for releasing your music, not just go to a distributor and get it put up on Spotify, there’s more of a process. The best thing I was taught was to finish my song, it’s artwork, and everything else and give myself 3 months to plan the release. Doing this meant I had plenty of time to get
press things sorted. It was fairly hard trying to figure a bunch of things out on my own, however for Storm, because I had released before, I was much more relaxed during the process. 

Are you working on any more new music at the moment? Can fans expect any more new releases?
I am currently working on two more singles and have plans in place for a small 3 track EP. These will be released next year. I then have some plans for another EP and a small album, but that’s for the future! :) 

Where do you see the music of Michael Day progressing over time? Do you have any major plans or goals for your music career which you are always looking towards?
I have a few long-term, maybe pipe dreams, for my music and also a few smaller achievable goals.
My smaller goals are simple and achievable. One goal was simply to complete a single and release it, which was completed at the release of Guildford. I have a few other smaller goals such as: Selling out a small show, and selling a small amount of CDs, along with these include recording the next few singles and EPs. 
Some long-term goals are: to get a piece of music into a film or television series, and play an Australian Music Festival.

Ideally, I’d love to be creating music and have a supportive fan base. I’m currently thinking along the lines of crowd funding so fans could potentially be apart of the creative process. I’m hoping as an Artist I can be creative in my creations and create music that people enjoy with their ears, minds and souls.

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Check out MICHAEL DAY below
Bandcamp – Facebook – Instagram – Twitter 

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AMNPLIFY – DB

Dave Bruce

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Hope you enjoy yourself here and find something that hits you somewhere.