Exposed Vocals Interviews The Days We Don’t
The Days We Don’t is a Kent-based independent alternative English rock band, demonstrating influences from the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Arctic Monkeys and Royal Blood. Having formed in a school basement in 2013, the band started off as a 4-piece, bringing in a lead guitar for their debut EP ‘Noise Complaint’, which was released in February of 2015.
They began writing their own music as soon as they formed, debuting their single Strangers, which features on their first EP, at their very first gig at the Tunbridge Wells Forum. Since that set, The Days We Dont have returned to The Forum a number of times, even breaking the record for most tickets sold by a local independent band, for their first ever headline show.
2016 saw a change in the line-up for the band, with a new lead guitarist and drummer bringing different influences and character with them. However, the pressure was on for the newcomers, as their first gig with The Days We Dont was representing the UK in Berlin in the Global Battle of the Bands competition. In spite of on-stage technical difficulties, which rendered the rhythm guitar useless during their first song, The Days We Dont managed to secure 2nd place in the public vote.
The band is now looking to the future, with the hopes of finding representation and pushing their music careers to the next level, as well as preparing to release a debut album.
You can find us on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/the-days-we-dont/tracks
Our Eps Noise Complaint and Counting Sheep can also be found on iTunes, Spotify and Google Play.
Please visit www.thedayswedont.co.uk for more about us a band, as well as our blog, photos and videos of us over the past two years.
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
Henry: When the band started, we were all local, living in Kent, and we met at our secondary school in Tonbridge. Id say everyone in the band has such a love and respect for music; we are all heavily influenced by it and rely on it massively to get through the day. I think we all envision ourselves being a part of that process, reaching out to people all over the world and, for me, the idea that one of our songs might brighten someones day, just as some songs brighten mine, is such an amazing thought.
The band started with myself and a friend called James just jamming with our old drummer, Neicho. Unfortunately, James decided not to stay with us, but by that time we had found Adam, our bassist. Now, it may seem unbelievable, but Adam was not always a bassist but someone had to take one for the team and I conveniently had a bass guitar lying around, so he had no excuse really! When we got Matt in for vocals, he initially thought he was going to be the drummer, but when he saw Neicho on the drumming stool and an empty slot in front of the microphone, he kinda guessed what was up. Before Matt joined, I was (reluctantly) going to be the vocalist, and we had already written our first song Darkest Hour, so I showed Matt the melody and lyrics and got him to try and sing it. So, it turned out Matt could only really sing with an Irish twang at first, which led to me and Adam in tears every time he opened his mouth to this day I can still hear Matts impersonation of a leprechaun, and even he knows he’ll never live it down!
We brought Dom in as lead guitar shortly after our first ever gig, which was at the Tunbridge Wells Forum, and he added such an integral layer to our music, as well as being a great character in the band. When Dom and Neicho left the band after 6th form, Matt, Adam and I stuck together, even though I was at uni and the other two were on gap years. That was when I met Jamie, our new lead guitarist and the bands token Northerner and he really lived up to the Northern stereotype in Berlin with a fresh pint in his hand every time I turned around! Matt met Rudd, our drummer, because he was in a band that supported us in one of our previous gigs, and he happily stepped up to help us out when we went to Berlin to represent the UK. Since then I just told him he was in the band and there was no escape, but I think he was pretty happy to hear it!
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
Henry: Well I think thats the question on all of our minds! If I remember correctly, we were all sort of firing out potential band names on The Days We Whatsapp (yes, that is the bands group chat name), but none of them stood out. The main culprit amongst the disagreements was Neicho, who naturally is unimpressed by everything. I was at a loss, so messaged him privately with a bunch of random names until eventually I stumbled upon The Days We Dont I dont know where it came from but Neicho liked it, so it stuck!
Thats the true story of the band name, but everyone always asks The days we dont what?, pointing out the fact that our name sounds unfinished. However, if I were to be really pretentious about this, I would say that the unfinished nature of our name reflects the strict rules and regulations of modern society: we are always told Dont do this and Dont do that I mean one of the most used words nowadays is Dont which is a shame.
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
Henry: In my opinion, online streaming is a bit of a double edged sword, as you could argue that the accessibility of it diminishes the value of the music, but then it allows more people to hear and enjoy it which surely increases value? I guess it depends on whether youre in it for the money or the music, and nowadays it has become all too much about the money.
As a band, we just love the idea that some people out there like our music and are willing to support us. We do have our music on iTunes and Spotify but we also have the majority of our songs on Soundcloud so that it can be freely enjoyed. At this stage, we arent so driven by money, but its a completely different story when you need to put food on the table.
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
Henry: If you want to make it in the music industry, I think you need to take a step back and almost view your band as a business in itself. Thats not to say suddenly hire a load of lawyers and accountants or whatever, but if you look at it rationally then youll find it much easier to move forward.
Also, one thing that really struck me was the importance of an online presence; with the internet being what it is, you could be forgiven for thinking that if you dont have an online presence you basically dont exist. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube you name it they all play a vital role in the music industry, I mean Justin Bieber was discovered through YouTube! For local bands, try starting off by networking with other local bands and supporting them in gigs, as well as getting them to support you when its your turn to headline. Dont see other bands as competition, rather brothers and sisters, because we are all in the same boat.
Business aside though, you have to enjoy the music you play you have to feel connected to it in a way that you dont get with just listening to music.
Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?
Henry: Yes. I would say that I, personally, am responsible for about 80% of mistakes made up on stage, but theyre never anything too serious, more like playing the wrong note or getting the timing wrong or in one instance just playing completely the wrong thing!
You have to realise that no one is really going to judge you for making mistakes up on stage, no matter how severe they might be, rather, people focus on how you pull off making that mistake (that is if they even noticed you made a mistake, which from my experience they dont). My advice would be if you make a mistake, act like nothing happened. Just keep playing- hopefully the right thing- and keep having fun! If you make a mistake that ruins the song, have the confidence to face up to it, take the mic and say I f****d that up, lets try it again and own your mistake, because the crowd is going to respond to honesty and comedy much better than embarrassment and awkwardness.
Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?
Henry: We have yet to go on tour as were still building our foundations locally, but I remember one you might say interesting thing happening during our first headline show at The Forum.
Picture this: the crowd is going mental and moshing to their hearts content over Strangers, our first released single, there is one guy, Seamus, crowd surfing and cheering and everyone was having fun when all of a sudden a shoe lands on stage. It turns out that this shoe belonged to Seamus, so I picked it up and threw it back to him At least thats what I thought I was doing, but with the lights in my eyes I threw this shoe a bit far to the left of where Seamus was, and it ended up absolutely smacking a poor girl (who turned out to be the daughter of Matts English teacher) square in the face. Indeed, there was a muddy shoe print left on this poor girls face, and I saw her run into the girls bathroom.
So, me being me, I didnt want to lose my cool and had to think of something to say to break the awkwardness whilst everyone was getting over the fact that I had indeed thrown a shoe at a girls face, I took the mic off Matt, looked into the crowd and said Id like to apologise to the girl whose face I hit with that shoe it was purely in the name of rock and roll.
Day. Saved.
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
Henry: We actually all have different inspiration when it comes to writing our music, for example Im big into Feeder and Manchester Orchestra, whereas Adam is basically in love with Radiohead, and Matt listens to Royal Blood and much heavier music. I think we take all of our inspirations and find a middle ground through which we can write a song.
The actual process for writing a song usually starts off with me or Adam coming up with guitar or bass riffs. From there when we are jamming as a band we work around the parts we like and hopefully create something halfway decent!
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
Henry: Matt has been very dedicated to creating our online presence, by designing our website and maintaining that, but I think we all have a part to play in our Facebook and Twitter whenever one of us has something witty or useful to say we post it. We have also had a lot of help from others, especially our friend Chase who has helped us with our online stuff as well as being our merch man at gigs.
Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?
Henry: If you looked hard enough you might find some Avril Lavigne classics on my mp3, but on the whole I would say I have a pretty non-embarrassing music taste!
Although, I heard through the grapevine Adam has an undying love for The Wiggles
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
Henry: I have always wondered what it would be like to just completely disappear drop off the radar without trace or warning. In my year off I think I would use it to travel around and do some scuba diving, and generally just explore the more natural parts of the world. I have also always wanted to spend some time in an isolated Himalayan Buddhist monastery, but only if I can bring my guitar I cant be away from my guitars for too long otherwise I get withdrawal symptoms!
Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?
Henry: At the stage we are right now, I would say that our equipment is sophisticated enough, but when I can I am planning on upgrading the pedals on my pedalboard as well as finally buying a Noise Gate; my amp is a Blackstar, and as soon as it turns on it produces this constant high pitched hum which the guys absolutely hate! When the shop sold me the amp they recommended I buy a Noise Gate to prevent the humming but I didnt realise how bad it was until Matt asked me if my amp was broken
Also Im pretty sure Adams bass guitar has died, which doesnt matter right now as he is currently driving through Europe and the Middle East to Mongolia on a charity event called the Mongol Rally, but I think we should look into a replacement.
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Henry: We use Twitter and Facebook to promote our music and gigs, and we really rely on our fans helping us get our music out there, which we are always grateful for.
Weve also had some radio airplay as well as a radio interview which was very exciting! But once again, we got all of this through our Twitter account, which is probably our most important medium for music promotion.
Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?
Henry: For me, I would love to play Coachella. It looks like the most amazing music festival with such a wide variety of music and a wonderful atmosphere.
I have said from the start; the day I meet Dave Grohl my life is complete, so I think playing with Foo Fighters would be my dream! I would also love to do a set with Queens of the Stone Age, as I love their music, and Josh Homme is ginger Jesus after all!
Exposed Vocals: So, whats next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
Henry: Right now, Matt and I are writing and sharing new material between us, but were kind of stuck at the moment with Adam the other side of the world. However, as soon as he gets back we are going to start writing seriously and try to find gigs all over the country The Days We Dont – coming to a town near you!
Exposed Vocals: If you werent making music, what would you be doing?
Henry: I am a massive fan of languages, doing French and Mandarin at university, so maybe Id be looking into work abroad or something, but to be honest I dont think any of us in the band can imagine ourselves in an office job, and the thought of not making music doesnt really work in my mind!
Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?
Henry: Eminem, Curtain Call. I was about 8 or 9, and all I remember thinking was what does fack mean? I went through a massive rap phase, getting into Biggie and Tupac and NWA before I woke up one day and decided I preferred rock. I can remember the exact time I started liking rock, but I remember Billy Talent helped me transition into the rock music I love today.
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
Henry: Being in a band means that youre not alone, so the pressure of music responsibilities is divided. I cant say Ive struggled too bad with juggling music and work- I see music as an escape from the real world, so whatever we do it doesnt feel pressured; everyone needs something to lose themselves in.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
Henry: 2016 isnt going to be the most exciting year for us, although earlier on we did represent the UK in the Global Battle of the Bands competition in Berlin which was such an amazing experience, and Id like to thank everyone who helped us get to that stage: we wouldnt have made it this far without you guys!
But unfortunately with Adam on his travels and then him and Matt starting their first year at university we havent got a lot actually booked, mainly working on an album and hopefully getting some gigs further afield.
