Elijah Beaty (The Grin) and Peter Hansen, who hail from Orange County California, comprise the new post-punk project Daydreams. They make their debut with the Silent Hill-inspired quote “Dead People Don’t Cry”: a lush, Cure-like track – with some delicious nods to The Style Council and Gene Loves Jezebel for good measure. Fuzzy jangling guitars and a dizzying bassline anchor the song as it journeys into an expansive soundscape. Daydreams’ lo-fi, DIY approach makes it difficult to pinpoint when the song was written – its deep roots in the past meld with present-day topicality.
“With the direction of our other band The Grin gearing more towards experimental post-punk, we wanted to still have a project to make our original sound without interfering with the evolving sound of our other band,” they say. Taking a quote from the Silent Hill Franchise “Dead People Don’t Cry,” is the song we chose to release first.
The accompanying video, a narrative nightwalk with the vibe of a forgotten VHS tape from the bottom shelf at the rental shop, was self-directed. Unlike the usual approach of throwing together a montage of scenes, Daydreams goes for a more cinematic, pensive approach. The protagonist is a guy who needs some time alone to himself to sort out the big mysteries of life with a smoke and a stroll, and the video gives him that space. It has the authentic flavour of those early 80s videos when the medium was finding its first steps.
Set your heart ablaze and watch below:
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