DAY IN DAY OUT is a progressive metal / metalcore band from Kearny, New Jersey. These guys reached out to me after my recent chats with their pals from GATHERER and OLA MADRID (both of which are amazing and really deserve your attention). Thanks to that move, you have a chance to check another interesting band from New Jersey, this time representing a slightly different genre and style. You can taste it below and even grab a copy of their new EP “Forgotten Youth” for free! That’s how nice they are, you see… feeding you with free meat. I know you’re used to grabbing free music, that’s how today’s music industry is set up. You cheap bastards! ;)
Anyway, check out their metal and hardcore influenced sounds and tell all your friends who dig tunes like these.
Hello, gentlemen. How are you? [smiles]
I’ve heard you have a nice djent-inspired vocals over there, I couldn’t miss the chance to discuss it with you [laughs]. How’s your brand new debut EP? How’s the feedback? Do you get a lot of hate mail similar to the funny YouTube comment I recalled?
Matt Bastos:
Hey, we’re great, thanks for having us! But yeah man, we’re not Djent enough. But in all seriousness, the response has been great. Everyone seems to really dig the EP. Only negative feedback we really get, other than us not having djent vocals, is the drum production.
Matt Whipple:
I’m definitely not influenced by djent, I strongly dislike it, so I could see why that dude was a little disappointed. We’re not even close to a djent band, so it’s kinda weird seeing us on that YouTube page, but they reached out to us, so I’m not complaining. That’s really the only time we’ve gotten harsh criticism.
I’m not a fan of compartmentalization, but at some point you have to call it somehow, right? You’ve been described at metal hardcore, post hardcore, progressive metalcore, atmospheric post hardcore, etc., etc. How would you label yourself if you were force to define the name? [smiles]
Matt Whipple:
I don’t even know what I’d label us. I just say I play in a metal or hardcore band. I guess we’re a metal band, but at the same time we have hardcore influence. We’re definitely not a hardcore band though.
Brian Pharai:
People can label us however they want, but we like to have a progressive mindset. That way we can kind of write what we want without any boundaries or limitations, without feeling the need to stick to a certain genre or label.
Has your style changed since the forming of DAY IN DAY OUT? It’s been 3 years since day one, right? Plenty of time to make several turns, I’d say.
Matt Whipple:
Yeah, the music we make has definitely changed and matured. I guess it has been almost 3 years, but I always feel like we’re a newer band because we only started playing shows in March.
Matt Bastos:
Our style is different from our previous demos for sure. Actually, it’s been a little over a year for playing shows, but we released our demo a little over 2 years ago. It’ll be 3 years by the end of this summer I believe. Time flies man.
Why did it take so long to release your debut EP?
Matt Whipple:
I think mainly because we were spending time playing shows and writing new material. We had already released a (terrible) demo EP, so we wanted to spend time playing shows, because that helps a lot more than recording new music, and people seemed to enjoy the demo songs anyways. On top of that, a lot of new stuff we wrote went unused because we didn’t feel it was the best we could write.
Matt Bastos:
Everyone had their own personal schedules and such that we had to work through when the band first started playing shows. Once things settled in, and it wasn’t this new thing anymore, we got to work with writing. We wrote maybe 12-15 songs and had even more riffs and ideas recorded, but they just didn’t make the cut. We re-wrote the whole EP three times I believe, the third being our final product. I think that we really found our sound with this release, but now we’re ready to progress even more. We don’t plan on writing the same album twice.
What about those leftovers? Any plans for a split perhaps? [smiles]
Matt Whipple:
I don’t think we’ll be using the leftover songs for any future releases. Maybe some really specific parts from one or two, but I feel it’s just not as good as whatever we’d write in the future. As for a split, we’re actually planning to do one. Not definite yet, but I’m pretty sure it’s happening, and it’s with some good friends of ours.
Yup, good idea. Save it for a 30th Anniversary exclusive b-sides collection [smiles].
You told me that everyone was recorded yourselves, aside from vocals who you did with Adam Cichocki (GATHERER). How come? Didn’t he let the rest of the boys in? [laughs]
Brian Pharai:
We felt Adam was a good choice to go to for vocals. He impacted Forgotten Youth a ton, vocally. As for the other instruments, we just did it on our own because we have the means to. It saves a ton of money, and it came out sounding pretty good.
Ok, so when can we expect a full length?
Matt Whipple:
Probably not anytime soon. I don’t think putting a lot of work and money into a full length is beneficial until you have the most amount of people possible to listen to it. Somewhere along the road, I’m sure we’ll do it, just not this year, for sure.
Matt Bastos:
Not until a label or something of that nature is able to fund us for one, most likely.
Brian Pharai:
Yeah, not until we’re signed to Nuclear Blast Europe and Metal Blade.
Oh, so it’s not that far from now [smiles].
Ok, I’m ever-interested in live show, so you really need to tell me everything about your experience playing shows. How many gigs have you had so far?
Matt Whipple:
Well, like I said before, we’ve only been playing shows since March, so we’ve playing I think like 10 or 11 shows so far. I think, personally, that’s my favorite part of being in the band, is the live aspect. It’s cool when people get really into it.
Matt Bastos:
We’ve played exactly 10 shows so far. We’ve booked more than 10 in the past, but we’ve been forced to drop due to illness or work-related issues. It’s not a lot, but we’ve made really good progress, I feel. We’re getting more and more recognition from other bands in New Jersey, and we have a weekend with COUNTERPARTS booked. I think a lot of the credit goes to our friend Anthony from ACI Entertainment and the EMA Agency for always backing us or helping us out, and our unique sound.
Do you have any plans to sign to a label sometime soon? Are you actively looking for one?
Matt Whipple:
No, it’s not a priority for us. For me, personally, I prefer being independent. Labels aren’t a big deal to me, especially smaller labels. A lot of them rip you off. We’re just playing music, doing shows, doing some tours, and if we get noticed, we get noticed. We have fun either way.
Matt Bastos:
We’re not label shopping. Maybe if we reach a point of recognition and heavy touring, then we might. We’re still small, and we’re not too fond of smaller labels who “sign” bands just for the sake of “signing” them. There are some awesome smaller labels that really do push bands out there and help them out a lot, but we’re not there yet.
Alright, guys. Before we finish, please tell me more about your local scene around Kearny, NJ. What’s good in your hood?
Matt Whipple:
Well, there really isn’t a local scene in Kearny. We play all over our state. I don’t think there’s really any specific scenes in certain towns, it’s all just one big thing. But it’s fun, you make friends and stuff. I guess the same as any other place that doesn’t have an incredible scene, but has a decent scene.
Are there any other local scenes that go ignored that you feel deserve special attention?
Matt Whipple:
Not really. New Jersey isn’t a super big state. You run into most of the bands actually doing stuff in the local scene at one point or another.
Alright, guys. Is there anything else that we should keep our eyes peeled on coming up?
Matt Whipple:
Yeah, we have a weekend tour with a cool band called COUNTERPARTS coming up. That’s in a few weeks. Other than that, we’ll probably release some new music over the summer.
Cool, let me know about it as soon as possible. Cheers from Poland!
The band issued the following statement a few days after we finished this interview:
Alright, so we’re gonna start writing new material in June. We will definitely be progressing and taking on a different sound. What do you guys like best about our sound, or more specifically, Forgotten Youth in general? Although it’s important to us to write music we want to write, disregarding what anyone else thinks, I think hearing from everyone else will bring some aspects to perspective that we may have overlooked.
