How To Make Pop Music Weird And Wonderful

There’s something to be said for naming your band after a slight bastardisation of the name of one of the greatest pop musicians ever. Sydney’s Day Ravies — Sam Wilkinson, Matt Nev, Caroline de Dear and Lani Crooks — formed in Sydney’s ever-present and progressive indie scene and bonded over a love of vinyl, DIY aesthetics and, of course, classic pop.

“Lani and Sam started the band a while ago, after both playing in other bands before that,” de Dear explains. “They were playing a lot more shoegazey, psych stuff back then, and they decided they wanted to start a pop band. I went to school with Lani, and Matt and I joined the band based mostly on the fact that we all had the same taste in music. We all basically had this interest in the quirky, arty, homemade side of pop music, and the way you can still do something different in the confines of pop.”

"We all basically had this interest in the quirky, arty, homemade side of pop music, and the way you can still do something different in the confines of pop.”

More than just being a band based on a mutual liking of certain bands, though, de Dear is quick to point out their chemistry comes from a keen sense of appreciation for “the same kinds of things that appear in a much broader collection of music,” as she puts it. So much more than a simple ode to ‘80s/‘90s shoegaze-driven pop — clearly one of if not their major influence — Day Ravies capture the essence and mechanics of what makes those kinds of songs tick.

“I think for me, texturally, those eras are really interesting. And I think there was a lot of experimentation going on in terms of people producing their own slightly askew music. Music that might have had pop influences but is a little out of place when it comes to mainstream music. I think that sort of energy and excitement around producing your own music really comes through in the bands of those eras. Sort of re-inventing pop music and making it weird and wonderful.”

New LP, Liminal States, harks back to the glory days of Australian indie pop but in a decidedly lo-fi mode. The love is clearly there — shades of The Go-Betweens and Triffids bubbling through.

“We actually recorded three of the tracks just straight onto an eight-track,” de Dear admits. “We recorded on a mixture of media, and we’re sort of experimental in the way that we recorded and produced the album. We didn’t want one tone for the whole album, and we didn’t want any hard and fast rules as to how we would record it either. So some of it was done in a studio, same in parts, some live on the eight-track. I think a lot of what the album is comes from that use of technology and production. You get that warm, analogue sound but through a bunch of different ways, and I think that’s a great way to capture the sounds we love.”