As the end of the year approaches and the sun starts to make an appearance, it can only mean one thing- Good Things Festival is right around the corner. Kicking off in Melbourne this Friday, there’s no better time to catch up with one of the most exciting bands on the lineup. Dayseeker have spent the past decade cementing their place in the modern post-hardcore scene, balancing cinematic heaviness with vulnerability. Their latest record Creature In The Black Night has pushed that duality further than ever before, and with the group returning to Australia this week for a run of festival dates as well as two headline shows, fans are about to see this new era brought to life on stage. It also arrives during a moment of transition for the band, with the recent departure of long-time guitarist Gina Sgambelluri marking the end of a chapter as well as a new beginning.
Talking about the record, there’s a quiet confidence in the way that lead vocalist Rory Rodriguez frames its release. “We feel like it’s the best piece of work that we’ve ever put out in our careers. It’s always interesting- you can read 1000 comments that are positive and then you see one saying, ‘this is the worst thing in the world’, and for some reason that one tends to stick out… Looking back on it though, I feel believe at my core that it’s a good record and it’s so personal to me. So we’re excited it’s out and we’re grateful that it’s out.”
That sense of personal connection plays directly into its sonic direction. What started as an instinctive shift away from the brighter tones of Dark Sun evolved into something far moodier and more stylistically daring. As the writing continued, the band began noticing a thread linking everything together. “I had this mindset that I just wanted to do a darker sounding record on this one because it felt like Dark Sun was a little more pop and major chord-leaning with a lot of happy tones even though the content behind it is really sad. But I didn’t really anticipate it was going to fall into this spooky horror theme. We wrote a couple of the first songs and then we really loved how they sounded, and then I think we got to five or six songs into the record and then realised that there was a full cohesion. We just kind of ran with it and just leaned into other stuff that I could write about metaphorically, like zombies or shapeshifters of vampires, without trying to be too on the nose about it.”
One of the biggest creative turning points came right at the beginning, shaping not only a standout track but the overall mindset of the project. Reflecting on the early days of writing, they look back on “Pale Moonlight” as a structural and creative spark. “We did a co-write for “Pale Moonlight” which was the very first song we wrote for the record with out friend Tyler Smith. He had this whole thing where he said, ‘we have to give this session a name before we even start putting music down and I’d love to think about what you want you want to write the song about before we even get to the instrumentation’. He had a few random demos in a folder, and he has his own song about a deal with the devil, but his was more rooted in when you sign a record deal, but I didn’t hear the metaphor in the same way. I liked the idea of making a deal with the devil so I threw my own spin on it. That was a cool key moment because I felt like it changed the way I looked at songwriting for the whole rest of the record.”
Of course, not every moment in the studio is effortless. Some of the fan favourite tracks came from the most creatively draining sessions, as Rodriguez recalls. “I remember feeling really, really burnt out when we were in the middle of writing “Nocturnal Remedy” and we were second-guessing it so much and writing and re-writing it. I think it’s a great song, but it’s funny- I sent the record around to a few friends and they’d go, ‘”Nocturnal Remedy” though!’ and I didn’t know that one was going to be a highlight and it feels like that’s the most favoured non-single that we released and so I think that’s a nice moment for us.”
Choosing singles was an equally challenging task, largely because they felt that the album was stacked with potential standouts. “Out of the 11 tracks, I feel like 8 of them could have been singles is we wanted to push them in their own weird way.” Rodriguez explains. “”Pale Moonlight” was the first sone we wrote so I felt like it was the freshest that we were, creatively, because we hadn’t really written anything else. It felt like a really good middle ground between having a lot of heavy production focus elements in the beginning but then it’s just a good rock song once you get into the first chorus.”
And now, with the record fully out in the world, Dayseeker get ready to bring it to Australia- a place where they’ve steadily built a genuine and loyal presence. Though their early tours were far from glamorous, they definitely make for some good stories. “I just always think about our first touring experience- we were supporting Thornhill and we were just in a van and it was just the band and this one guy who was the driver but he was also helping to sell merch- poor dude. I gotta be honest, that was a really brutal touring experience, just cause the gaps between cities are so vast. We would finish a show at midnight, get to the hotel at like 1 a.m, and then we’d get up at 4 a.m to drive 10 hours to the next city.”
But the long drives and small stages have paid off, leading to sol-out rooms and an Aussie fanbase that could give their US crowds a run for their money in size and passion. “Whether it was Australia or any other country we’ve invested into, it’s like a plant that you keep watering and you hope it’ll grow. And I really feel like we’ve seen that where we supported Beartooth and Pierce The Veil and then we headlined for the first time and sol out every show. Some were one to two thousand cap rooms so those were very surreal experiences because you always expect to be smaller overseas. It’s such a cool an beautiful thing to feel like we can play to just as many people in Australia as we can in the States.”
As Dayseeker pack their bags for Australia later this week, they’re stepping into a new phase – new music, new momentum and a slightly new line-up. Festival-goers will be among the first to witness this new chapter live.
Good Things kicks off in Melbourne this Friday December 5th, before hitting Sydney on the 6th and Brisbane on the 7th. Dayseeker will also play two sold out headline shows- one in Melbourne on December 3rd and one in Brisbane on December 9th.
If you’ve been on the fence about grabbing Good Things Tickets, you’d better stop sleeping on it because tickets are currently sitting at over 90% sold out. Avoid the FOMO and grab your tickets HERE.
Header photo credit: Artist Supplied
