After kicking off as a project of Zak Rakitic while he was in Year 9 circa 2015, Day Dreamers are an alternative, grunge band from Melbourne.
The group's current line-up have been together since 2017, and the ensuring years have seen Day Dreamers build a solid local fan base, performing regularly in Melbourne's live scene as well as a number of local festivals.The quartet features Zak (singer, guitarist), as well as Nick Dordevic (singer, drummer), Daniel Lee (guitarist) and Jordan Rakitic (bassist).
After recording a number of songs throughout 2019-2020, Day Dreamers dropped their debut single 'Demo' in November last year.
Now they're ready to unveil their sophomore single, 'Peanut Butter'. Sophisticated, angular, low-fi indie college rock that bubbles with a fusion of alternative and grunge tones, there's also an indie pop sensibility to the melody that demands shoulder shimmies and head snaps.
There's also a simmering guitar solo ripped direct from the '80s coated in a modern grungy sheen reminiscent of Violent Soho.
"The lyrical theme is about feeling stagnant, getting into a self-destructive and cyclical rut of self-doubt, thinking that you're no longer good or useful at the things that made you 'special' or 'unique'," shares Nick, who wrote 'Peanut Butter'.
"Then by the end of the track, being so fed up where all that feels left is to embrace the chaos ('I'm headed nowhere fast, so round we go...'). "In terms of the overall sound, I'm a huge Soho fan so I really wanted to bring that sense of heavy chaos into the song while I know Zak brought in his Sunny Day Real Estate inspo into the song too."
Ahead of the song's release tomorrow (18 February), Scenestr is amped to premiere 'Peanut Butter' today. Enjoy.
Day Dreamers launch 'Peanut Butter' at The Cactus Room (Melbourne) 18 February with supports Champ Ruby and Ambulance.
The 'Peanut Butter' and 'Demo' singles form a bigger recording project that will become Day Dreamers' debut album, 'Blue Room', that's slated for release at some point in 2023.
"We started recording this project at the beginning of 2020 not foreseeing the coming Melbourne lockdowns," Zak says.
"So instead of waiting for restrictions to ease we spent our time writing and recording with whatever equipment we had on hand from each of our homes in iso, then we compiled all our parts together with a goal of just making something better than what we'd done not knowing that it would eventually be a 14-track album.
"I spent a lot of hours every day through iso, recording and rerecording vocal takes to get something good; my neighbours have gotten quite accustomed to my vocal squeeks."
Once lockdowns ended in 2022, Day Dreamers quickly got busy with a string of live shows.
"After the lockdowns we played non-stop throughout 2022 using every penny to save up to get our work mixed exactly how we wanted with the help of Peter 'Reggie' Bowman (Southern Sons)," adds Jordan.
"Luckily our followers also helped by funding our Kickstarter so we are very in debt to them and can't wait to show them just how good Reggie makes our smelly butts sound."
