A Day In The
Life Of Daine
What is youth called to the present? To disrupt what is expected even when feeling multiple? Do we beckon above for guidance, or do we continue forward into a horizon knowing what lies is even more ageless and numerous than we could ever realize? Cherishing the day is a snapshot of one’s life. Time disrupts mid-identity and offers a place we never thought we could imagine, like entering the day with no expectation. Like an unforeseen dream, something happens. Unfolding and eternal, we are able to be many different things, yet continually ourselves by the end of the day.
Emerging from the singular and everywhere, internal and external, 19-year-old Melbourne artist daine remains floating and reflective. Bound to the mortal coil, time is something to be whispered to. Captured by the likes of renowned “indie sleaze” photographer Cobrasnake, daine’s life is captured and immortalized. Being at home is a sense of movement. From smoking a cig next to a pile of yesterday’s TJ’s haul remains to jumping on top of ATMs and spiraling staircases, Cobra follows daine’s corner of life. A day eternalized by friends, music, and soft LA glam stretching from morning to night; images that present a life being lived to its fullest. Running into Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon, umru, Petal Supply, and Sad Boys’ Yung Gud, time can be kind in the company of real joy.
Feeling a path through the numbing miasma of COVID uncertainty, daine keeps true. Tender to her roots in midwestern emo, yet braided into the future through contemporary electronic and emo-pop, daine exists in an experiment of love for sound and self. The age of instant gratification and constant distraction was never so pronounced and we are left with no discernable way of coping. Yet, daine remains a voice for those who seek recognition outside the often fraught world of pop. Defining a connection of the past through a series of selves that did not work out, daine works out a sonic world of the individual experiencing multitudes through the everyday. Working out emotions through confessions of low moods and negativity, keeping tabs on your best self is valuable when moving through an unheaded worldwide phenomenon.
In sonic heaven made present, daine speaks to history and calls upon the singularity for advice on the future. On her debut project Quantum Jumping, daine thinks out loud. Working with regular collaborators Circle Pitt and Seattle’s Into It. Over It., daine experiments with tracks like “cemetery dreams” and “glitter” where pages are torn from an ongoing diary teeming with secrets, unrequited daydreams, and loneliness. Documenting thoughts beyond the loop of wanting what we do not have. Conjuring an undercurrent digital energy of intangible hints from the ether, what bleeds out is real and deserves to be nurtured every day.
Interview by Jasmine ReikoPhotographed by The Cobrasnake
Zane and I have been working on this magazine and exploring music together we’re both into. He was telling me you grew up around some extreme music from punk to scene kid stuff, and now going into pop. I was wondering what that bridge is, taking your music from emo to pop. I know you work with both, but how did that initially become?
I think it’s not a huge gap. It was pretty seamless. I never realized I was making pop music, I just was. I think pop music is kind of anything and if you’re writing solid, catchy music, I guess it’s considered pop music.
I feel Midwest Emo is such a niche American thing, it’s a whole different kind of emo music and I hear it in your music. What drew you to that particular sound and scene?
Probably the internet. It’s good guitar music, I like a good guitar, and it was music that sounded good. It’s my favorite genre, always.
When did you get into that?
Probably when I was 13, 14. Australia didn’t have Midwest Emo bands, but we had music that was inspired by that, so we had a decent scene.
With your new mixtape, you were collaborating with Into Over It. How did you start doing that with them?
We just reached out to them.
How did you begin listening to them?
They’re icons!!! I’ve been listening to them since I was 13. They’re it.
Was the process seamless? How did it work, did you send parts over the Internet?
I would say it was not seamless. It is hard to work over the Internet.
How is it being a girl doing this? Is there any gatekeeper energy? I feel when I was going to shows and stuff like this, it wasn’t bro-y, but it was majority guys…like being the only girl in the room.
The scene in Melbourne had a lot of girls, I was always comfortable at shows. Being a musician in general and being a woman, I have to work ten times harder than my peers and I’ve watched my peers get praised for things I get criticized for. I get called an industry plant every single day. If I was an industry plant, I’d at least be a big one.
Yeah. Like it’s a weird niche to be an industry plant for. That’s a lot of calculation. And it’s not like they can’t just trust you. There just has to be another way.
For real! Like a niche industry plant.
I think it’s not a huge gap. It was pretty seamless. I never realized I was making pop music, I just was. I think pop music is kind of anything and if you’re writing solid, catchy music, I guess it’s considered pop music.
I feel Midwest Emo is such a niche American thing, it’s a whole different kind of emo music and I hear it in your music. What drew you to that particular sound and scene?
Probably the internet. It’s good guitar music, I like a good guitar, and it was music that sounded good. It’s my favorite genre, always.
When did you get into that?
Probably when I was 13, 14. Australia didn’t have Midwest Emo bands, but we had music that was inspired by that, so we had a decent scene.
With your new mixtape, you were collaborating with Into Over It. How did you start doing that with them?
We just reached out to them.
How did you begin listening to them?
They’re icons!!! I’ve been listening to them since I was 13. They’re it.
Was the process seamless? How did it work, did you send parts over the Internet?
I would say it was not seamless. It is hard to work over the Internet.
How is it being a girl doing this? Is there any gatekeeper energy? I feel when I was going to shows and stuff like this, it wasn’t bro-y, but it was majority guys…like being the only girl in the room.
The scene in Melbourne had a lot of girls, I was always comfortable at shows. Being a musician in general and being a woman, I have to work ten times harder than my peers and I’ve watched my peers get praised for things I get criticized for. I get called an industry plant every single day. If I was an industry plant, I’d at least be a big one.
Yeah. Like it’s a weird niche to be an industry plant for. That’s a lot of calculation. And it’s not like they can’t just trust you. There just has to be another way.
For real! Like a niche industry plant.