FEATURE: Spotlight: daine — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Joe Brennan

daine

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ON this occasion…

I am spotlighting the Filipino-Australian artist daine. She is a fantastic artist who had a big 2020 and has made some impressive moves in 2021. I have only recently come across her music. She is someone who is going to go a long way. A terrifically inventive and fascinating Pop artist, make sure that you follow her (links are at the bottom of this feature). I am going to bring some interviews in, so that we get a clearer picture of who daine is and where she has come from. Last year, The Line of Best Fit highlighted an artist on the rise. Daine remarked how the lack of support she got from fellow artists earlier on affected her:

“Recent single “Ascension” was in fact the first song daine ever wrote. Remembering the demo version she explains how it’s really slow and sad and that back then her voice sounded “so different.” With its melodies and lyrics intact, the first batch of music she produced came from a place of heartbreak.

“Everything’s old,” she says, explaining the origins of the handful of singles she’s dropped so far. “I wrote a shit tonne of music when I was heartbroken in Year 10… and that’s what my team wants to put out, so we’re re-jigging all of them.” Reworking the tracks, daine admits sometimes it gets weird “because a lot of the lyrics don’t make sense to me now.” Looking back at another demo she references the line “running ‘round the city high as fuck,” saying “I haven’t smoked weed since I was like 16, like there’s no way that I’m keeping this verse, it’s not me.”

Sharing her moody debut single “Picking Flowers” back in May this year daine says the initial lack of recognition she got from fellow artists “sucked over big time,” but as the track grew across social media and following the subsequent release of its follow-up “My Way Out” she began to see a new wave of fans jumping aboard. “People I never even thought I’d get to talk to are like ‘hey I love your music’,” she explains, “people I’m listening to a lot at the moment are following me and fucking with my music and asking to collab, it’s been crazy.”

It’s this peer-to-peer support daine has been craving ever since she began putting her demos on Soundcloud. “Before I had my team I had two songs out, I didn’t really care about music that much, I was super caught up with school,” daine divulges. Taking on music full time, as a career, meant she had all the time in the world to focus on it and in an instant she says “music became the centre of my universe.”

A place to channel the frustrations and experiences of her personal life, daine explains “I’ve had two long term relationships crash in the past three years… but it makes really good music and I feel like it helps me grow as a person.” The second of which is fuelling a new intensely creative period. “I wrote all this fucking anrgy music in two months and I’ve got heaps of it and I wanna drop it,” she reveals. “It’s all hyperpop, glitchcore and screaming in my bedroom, but I’m really excited about it and can’t wait until I’m allowed to put it out.”

Somewhere daine may or may not tease new music is through her online club night Nocturne. Hosting their inaugural event on Halloween this year, a guest appearance from Charli XCX made it the must-see online event of the night. It also happened to be daine’s debut live performance. Recorded in her bedroom, she laughs about the difficulties of setting up her own rig, but notes that working in her room has “been a fun learning curve” and given her a confidence boost on the more practical, tech side of production”.

The Forty-Five chatted with daine earlier this year. Among other things, they discussed Hyperpop and its perception – daine also revealed how what it has been like trying to carve her own path in the industry:

“‘Hyperpop’ itself has become a dirty word. It’s an umbrella term that melts anything experimental that happens to be online into the same sludge without acknowledging their nuances. “I think it makes me cringe a little bit — it makes everybody cringe,” says daine. “I feel like everyone’s like, ‘Oh, I hate hyperpop. I’m not hyperpop because it doesn’t really have a definition’ — but I feel like I was definitely part of the SoundCloud community. When emo-rap fizzled out, all the SoundCloud kids went towards this more intense sound. I think they are the same scene, but it had just evolved. I’d say, more than anything, I’m in the realm of internet kids.”

But hyperpop remains a closely guarded territory — not by the artists of the scene, but by the fans themselves. “I think there’s a lot of gatekeeping,” daine admits. It’s a feeling echoed by glaive, one of the scene’s essential artists (who also happens to only be in eleventh grade). “But they’re not gatekeeping my music — they’re gatekeeping to keep me out of it,” she says. “Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, you’re an industry plant! You don’t belong in this!’, saying my music sucks. Stuff like, ‘You’re the least original one here. All of this is fabricated. You’re not actually a part of the community that you make yourself out to be in!’ — which is hurtful. I’ve been doing this SoundCloud shit since I was fifteen, and while it has been slow, it’s not like I faked anything. But it would be cool if people were trying to gatekeep my music though! That’d be funny — that’s how I’d know people care.”

Everyone’s like ‘Oh, you’re an industry plant! You don’t belong in this!’ which is hurtful. I’ve been doing this SoundCloud shit since I was fifteen, and while it has been slow, it’s not like I faked anything

Trying to carve a space of her own, having to repeatedly insist on her integrity as an artist, has been taxing for daine. While her image graced the cover of Spotify’s hyperpop playlist, which is prime real estate for anyone in the scene with its 200,000 followers, down in the trenches of Reddit, daine’s presence has been met with resistance, from fans of Swedish SoundCloud rap collectives Sad Boys and Drain Gang whose members boast the likes of Yung Lean, Bladee and Ecco2k. Much of the discussion was about how the playlist is homogenised and reductive to artists who get lumped in with the genre for making anything remotely experimental. But some took shots at daine herself.

The kickback is something she finds not only embarrassing – but ironic. “There’s a huge misogynistic and sort of elitist attitude around Drain Gang fanbase”, she says, quick to point out that this is a culture very separate from the artists themselves. “They’re so mad that I’m doing this cringe hyperpop thing – but I think they’re just pissed off that a teenage girl is doing something that’s somewhat Drain-adjacent. Not even, though! I get why the hyperpop playlist is suggested next to Bladee.” She feels that Dylan Brady used a very Mechatok-sounding synth, a producer who has worked extensively with the Drain Gang rapper. “My jaw dropped when I saw the Reddit thing, because Bladee has listened to my demos. He likes my demos. Mechatok messaged me about the song and said he loved it. Like, oh my god, Drain Gang themselves fuck with the music, but the fans are like, ‘Oh, this is cringe!’, like I swear they don’t even know what Drain Gang is about!”

PHOTO CREDIT: Joe Brennan

The hate is something daine confesses she doesn’t handle very well. Her mentor, Charli XCX, has been the best person to look to for guidance. They met at Melbourne’s Laneway Festival backstage and bonded over playing mini-golf together. “She’s just a great support and an iconic Leo woman in my life,” she says. “She’s got the quickest, smartest pop brain ever. She really knows how to work melodies and write catchy lyrics, so I think having her there for thoughts on music is great, but on a more personal level, she helps me deal with hate and criticism. When I was sixteen, I was really dragged through the fucking dirt, whether it’s online or not. So yeah, I appreciate her guidance.”

daine is rightfully protective of her identity as an artist, but even more so of her progress. She tells me she was at a car dealership the other day (she’s learning to drive, although she almost crashed the car in a lesson switching lanes), and her dad told the salesperson that his daughter was a singer. “The guy asked, ‘Oh, is she famous?’ and my dad was like, ‘Oh, no. She’s getting there!’. Like, I don’t know… if someone tries to say that, like I haven’t really grinded shit and made it somewhere, I will get defensive. It changes day to day. Sometimes I doubt myself, and then the next day I’ll be like, ‘I’m the fucking shit!’” she laughs.

Growing up, daine always felt very much like an outsider – “and I still do”, she says. “I don’t think I was accepted. There was always a lot of pushback from my teachers or my peers, or literally anyone. But I had always pushed back against authority… I know that sounds like really cringe punk-type bait, but I just really wanted to do my own thing. Music has made that possible for me. Now, my day to day life is on my own terms, and it’s great.”

Success, to daine, is simple. “I would say I’m successful, but I’m not rich,” she says. “I think success is about putting stuff out that you’re happy with, and feeling supported and cared for, which I already have, like, times a million. But at the same time, I want to keep working because I’ve got to have them thousands round my neck.” Already, she is calculating her next move, with two more singles lined up to complete the double A-side for ‘boys wanna txt’; she’s alighted on hyperpop for a moment, but it’s far from her final destination. “I feel like I’m only at like 2% of my potential,” she insists. “I know that there’s a lot more to come”.

I am going to wrap up soon enough. There are so many interesting articles and interviews where we get to learn so much about an arresting and hugely promising young talent. Upset spoke with daine in August. I have selected some sections from the interview that caught my eye:

“There's a dark pop majesty to the visuals that accompany daine's music, from the futuristic gauzy sci-fi desert hinterland of her debut track 'Picking Flowers' to the gothic synth-pop of 'Bloody Knees', with its dystopian neon cityscapes. But it's the playful horrorcore electronic nightmare of her last single 'boys wanna txt' which brings daine herself into the light of clear focus for the first time, as she gazes passively straight into the camera before the screen gets warped and mangled in a glitchy fever mirroring the tone of the track. There's the constant push and pull of sadness and isolation in her music, cleverly tempered with just the right hint to light to make her music truly disorienting and compelling.

The fascination with darker sounds goes back to her earliest musical loves. "I grew up going to a lot of hardcore shows," she says. "The Melbourne scene was really inspiring for me. I listened to a lot of the classic Midwest emo bands growing up, like Tigers Jaw and American Football, and that kind of made me a bit of a moody person," she laughs. "Maybe I was already a moody person, I don't know. I was quite melancholy. That translates in my sound. People don't believe me, but I'm actually a really happy person! I just like to sing sad songs because they pack more of an emotional punch. I try to sprinkle some hopeful lyrics in there."

PHOTO CREDIT: Joe Brennan

She laughs as she ponders her propensity to mention blood a lot in her songs as an example of creeping darkness."It's kind of grim, but it's such a visually stark concept. In my song 'Bloody Knees' where I say 'Look down and see dark red in the snow', the only time you're ever thinking of red-stained snow is blood." Her songs are filled with otherworldly imagery and ghostly apparitions. "I like spiritual motifs like angels, angel numbers, synchronicity and dreams. Leaving your body. I find concepts like that to be really visually engaging."

Summer 2021 marks an interesting pivot point in daine's musical career. Her earliest music was firmly rooted in that emo aesthetic, lo-fi and primarily composed on guitar. Gradually, she incorporated more of an experimental electronic edge to her music. She collaborated with different producers, including PC Music founder and all-around electronic pioneer Danny L Harle on the stunning dark pop electro ballad 'Angel Numbers'. This embracing of futuristic electronic sounds culminated in her last single, 'boys wanna txt', a full-blown hyperpop banger featuring key artist in the scene ericdoa, and produced by hyperpop figurehead, and one-half of 100 gecs, Dylan Brady. It's a striking pivot point in daine's career so far.

PHOTO CREDIT: Joe Brennan

Rather than seeing herself as a hyperpop artist despite featuring in all the attendant playlists and the song having the playful, inventive hallmarks of the genre at its best, daine sees the track as more of a loving tribute and experiment to recognise a community that embraced her and shares some of her musical values. Rather than box herself in as a hyperpop artist, she instead sees it as a creative impulse that can influence her own music and different tastes in a positive way. "I'm not annoyed by it because I'm really connected to the hyperpop community," she explains. "That scene has been so supportive and welcoming to me. I love all the artists, like ericdoa, Ethel Cain and 8485. I'm not super angry at people comparing me to a sound that isn't really me. I think it's something that will easily pass me by. 'boys wanna txt' is the most recent, so people think that that's my defining sound, but I'm going to have songs that I'm going to release later that will surpass that, and then I'll be defined by that sound. It's ever-evolving." As she explains, it's just as much the passion of the people involved that drew her to the sound as much as the sonics. "I've always been drawn to a community whether it's like the hardcore scene growing up or the emo-rap SoundCloud scene as I got older, and now hyperpop is that group of people for me."

While the world was on pause for the last 18 months though, daine has established her own performing festival online, which acts as a safe space for like-minded and progressive artists to perform and express themselves. Community is everything for daine, and this was her way of giving back and representing a diverse and fluid community that may otherwise have been marginalised. Notable performers she has engaged have been future pop icons Charli and Hannah Diamond, as well as new wave hyperpop experimentalists like Brevin Kim, Harvest and 8485. She calls it Nocturne. "A lot of people in the hyperpop community or the SoundCloud community or the new wave of DIY electronica, a lot of these artists are queer or neurodivergent or have had rough upbringings and being able to make music and express yourself is something that connects everybody."

PHOTO CREDIT: Joe Brennan

Within this community are people who will shape and define alternative pop culture for years to come. They represent a new way of working and a new attitude. Respectful to the icons who have gone before them but not content to rehash the past, they want to shape a new future, and daine is right at the heart of it. "Everyone is super talented and super creative and pushing boundaries for what we expect in music," she says passionately. "In recent years, people have been bored because there's been no innovation or no room for innovation in music," she continues. "Hyperpop is the response to that boredom. Why not make everything crazy, and in that way, it has been inspiring."

For daine, there's no better time for her to be making music than in 2021. "It's boring to do the same thing over and over again that's been done a million times before. A lot of people can have more complex sonic identities now. There are no rules. You can have a trap beat with a guitar. You couldn't have done that 20 years ago. I think the fact we can now is awesome, and we have all these incredible mini genres that you can't even describe”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Rosepure

COOL Accidents interviewed daine back in October last year. We got to find out about her family and whether music was an important part of her earlier life:

“I know you’re big on wellbeing and veganism and crystals and stuff, has that helped bring a sense of constancy to this turbulent year?

I think that grounds me through anything ever. Yeah, of course. It's definitely constancy like anything. Yeah, I guess just like waking up in the morning, having a green smoothie, going for a walk, listening to frequencies or whatever, it just makes you feel better. I think it's just like any other self-care habit. It's good.

So in this interview, I really wanted to go right back and learn about your story into music because I find your trap meets Midwest emo influence super interesting. I grew up a punk kid myself, so take me from the top – how did you get into these bands, how old were you?

The more I think about it, yeah, actually, it's kind of weird, but I think I was like 11 or 12? I saw State Champs live with Neck Deep, and I was like, ‘okay, this is it. This is my pop punk phase.’ But once I got to like, 13 I was like, ‘wait a minute, pop punk is kind of cringe. There’s more emo stuff that has like more layers and like, less annoying American accents.’ With pop punk, I still like, know every song that comes on, word for word! They get nostalgia points, it’s still good, but I won’t admit it!

What were you like in school? Were you in a band or take music as a subject; were your friends all music lovers?

I did take music as a subject and I wanted so badly to be in a band. But like, stylistically, I don't think anyone was into the same sort of stuff that I was. And I tried to start a band with like, two of my friends and it failed miserably. We had no idea what we were doing. And I was like, ‘you know what, this is just easier to do on my own.’ So I just started writing. It's like, I didn't even want to be a singer. I'd never wanted to be in that position. But it was like, ‘I can't make a band, so I guess I'm just gonna have to do it all myself.’ That's why I think maybe I'm lacking the confidence as a vocalist, because it is just sort of like a necessity rather than like, something I wanted to do.

Is your family musical too? I know you have a Filipino background and music is such a big part of the culture.

I wish! No, no, no one has like any idea about anything musical. But I guess it's kind of good, it’s my little world.

What’s the goal for you musically and career wise, is it to make this Midwest emo/trap fusion palatable to the masses, or do you wanna move into a more mainstream rap world eventually, or do you wanna front an emo trap band – have you thought that far?

I think I'm already sort of like, blending it into the mainstream. I don't know whether that was my intention. I think maybe it was, because I guess no one has really done the whole sort of like underground rap thing into the mainstream, except maybe like Juice WRLD or Lil Peep. And I was a determined, fiery, 15-year-old going, 'wait, a girl hasn't done this, like, I should do this.' But now I feel like my sound is becoming a little bit more pop-leaning and a little bit more mainstream. And everyone's saying, ‘I don't hear the emo influence, or I didn't even hear the trap influence. Like, this is just like sad pop music,’ and I'm like, oh, whatever. But yeah, I still think it's like, underground. I still think you know, when I'm writing with my guitar, it's heavily emo-influenced, so that's where it's coming from.

Who is an artist that we would be super surprised to know that you love?

All right, let's have a look at my recently saved Spotify. I love Darcy Baylis, we're definitely gonna work on something when he comes back to Melbourne. Okay, there’s some Rihanna which people wouldn’t think I’d pick, there’s multiple Rihannas. There’s some Britney Spears in here. City Girls, Chief Keef, Taylor Swift, it’s a mess!”.

Prior to round off, I have an interview from NME that is worth sourcing. They tipped her as one of their artists to watch in 2021.In September, they caught up with a protegee of Charli XCX who is making big strides:

“Is your music deliberately escapist?

“I want Daine to represent a world to escape to, where people can go and not feel trapped in the horrible, capitalist machine that is real life. Writing music blocks everything out for me and I really hope I can be that coping mechanism for other people. I don’t want people to see me as this relatable person, though. We have so many people to relate to on the internet because everyone overshares everything. When they listen to my music, I want people to feel like they’re escaping to the future or this different realm.”

So, you’re not an “industry plant”, then?

“There’s nothing wrong with someone using pre-existing money and fame, as long as you own that. I get mad about being called an industry plant, though, because I don’t want people derailing my story. I didn’t have anything. I was at a horrible public school, crying every day. Music was my lifeline to get out and I held onto that for dear life. I tried so hard to find a label and find the support to make music my job. There was no pre-existing clout. I’m signed to a major label and people ask how I can do that unless I’ve got connections, but nope, I just make good music.”

How has the lack of live shows affected your music?

“So much. I’ve had my first shows rescheduled five times now and it feels like a big chunk of what I do is missing. I find myself asking, ‘Am I a proper artist?’ or ‘Am I able to do this in a real-life setting, or am I just a niche internet person?’ There’s a little bit of imposter syndrome, but that’s a common theme with a lot of the kids who have launched their careers during COVID. It’s so crazy to see these pandemic babies whose first shows are massive gigs like Lollapalooza. I feel like I’m on that arc, so hopefully that imposter syndrome goes away. As soon as Australia opens up, I’m going to book way bigger venues and really push myself. I really need to go at it.”

How confident are you?

“When I’m recording and writing I have my moments, but I also have months where I am terrified of stepping up to the mic. In terms of creative direction, though, I’m super-confident. I know exactly how I want to push things forward. I think this project is going to be pretty massive. It might take a long time, but I’ve got a clear vision of where it will go”.

A tremendous teen artist who is someone everyone should be aware of, make sure that you investigate daine. I hope that she gets to tour in the U.K. and brings her music here. I can guarantee that you will like her material. Such is its power and potency, you will be hooked straight away. Her career might be relatively young, though it is clear that daine is here…