Daye Jack just got back to Los Angeles after going on a 30-city tour with Pell on a sprinter bus. We touched base with him before and during his tour and discuss his new funk-infused track, "Finish Line."
DIANE: What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming month-long tour with Pell?
DAYE: I’ve been looking forward to playing a show in Atlanta since I started trying to get my music going. We’ve been on the tour for over a month now. The show in Atlanta was insane and still my personal favorite moment. It was old friends, new fans and love all around.
Is this the first time you’ll be touring around on a sprinter bus? “It is. I did a quick three-show tour with the Underachievers last year and that was the longest tour I’d been on till this one. This is a little over 30 dates driving across the country in a sprinter, like diving in head first.”
What are you going to make sure you take with you on the tourbus? “Off top, I have to have headphones and Carmex to survive, but that’s everyday.”
Your story of getting into Music is pretty interesting because you produced your first mixtape “Hello World” during your first Fall semester at New York University while you were studying Computer Science. Fast forward to 2016: You’re now living in Los Angeles, released your “Soul Glitch” EP in 2015, and preparing to hit the road for a national 30-city tour. How are you adjusting to everything going on? “I honestly didn’t think I’d get to this point making demos in my bedroom in Atlanta then in a dorm room in New York. I’m adjusting well… I just want more of everything. I want to play more shows, put out more music and see where all of this goes.”
Do you have any pre-recording studio rituals? “I’ve been working with Mike Elizondo on my upcoming album. We take a listening break either before we start working or as we’re working to just play stuff for an hour. It has been mostly in the vein of Curtis Mayfield, Michael Jackson, Prince… Mike put me on to Jaco. Outside of that – a cup of coffee and I’m good to go.”
Can you tell our SUSPEND readers that anecdote you told me during our shoot, about the lady who mistook you for Diddy and gave you a ring she designed and made in Bali? “I was in the back of The Troubadour watching a band play. An older lady at least in her 60’s comes up to me and asks if I make music and I say yes. She asks if I’m a rapper, and then tells me about a time years ago when she was talking to two guys at a show and one of them turned out to be Diddy. She then tells me that I look like money, gives me ring she made in Bali out of a silver coin, and leaves the show. It was tight.”
How did you come up with the idea behind your latest track, “Finish Line”? “Sonically, I wanted to make something that was inspired by what was on the radio in the early 2000s – which is my favorite period of music – that’s what I grew up on. All the art for “Finish Line” is inspired by the movie Juno. The song is about being unique and also entitled enough to know that you deserve to win. Stay away from they. Let’s win more.”
Daye Jack photographed by © DIane Abapo / SUSPEND Magazine.
