The award for earworm of the month of April goes to Daily J‘s Black Lagoon. What a great tune by a literal band of brothers, Jesse, Jayden and Jonny Paul, and their brother from another mother Rick Everard. The three Pauls relocated to Auckland from Marlborough to give music “a fair crack”, as Jesse puts it. They’re one of the standout newcomers featured on NZ On Air Music‘s NewTracks compilation in April and are working hard to keep up the momentum.
My name is Jesse Paul. I play the synth, saxophone, and do some of the back up singing for the band of brothers known as Daily J. The other members of the band include Rick Everard on the drums and back up vocals, Jayden Paul on guitar and lead vocals, and Jonny Paul on the bass.
Daily J is a band made up of three brothers Jayden, Jonny, myself, and also a brother from another mother Rick! My brothers and I grew up in the beautiful South Island region of Marlborough and we picked up our respective instruments from a young age in a very musical family.
It became clear to us that if we wanted to give music a fair crack then Auckland would be the ideal location, so we packed our bags and left the nest. Up in Auckland, we met that brother from another mother and the band started to grow in both sound and popularity.
Our music has evolved a lot over the years, and every song reflects how the band is feeling at that particular time. Since Rick came on board and our band changed from a three-piece to a four, new flavours have come to the surface, and we feel especially excited about what’s next for Daily J.
The Daily J name was chosen by the three brothers before meeting drummer Rick who now is often called Jick as a joke.
It’s a track that’s full of unique indie rock sounds including a thick drum beat, a pulsating bass rhythm, tied in together with some sweet synth, smooth guitar, and a little bit of cheeky sax.
Black Lagoon is a story of people taking different paths in their lives and fighting individual battles, but still finding themselves all in the same situation – metaphorically represented in the song as a pub called the Black Lagoon. The song talks about individual characters, such as the girl from behind the bar who deserves better, and many others that can be seen in the music video.
My favourite part would be the chorus as it drives the song along, and as a listener, it never fails to get me into the rhythm.
Black Lagoon was written by Jayden & Joe Faris (better known as Ezra Vine). Joe also produced the track with us. The writing took place at the beautiful Omaha Beach.
We’ve wanted our listeners to relate to our music and this song describes what most people go through in their lives.
New songs are always in the works for Daily J. If a song gets fully written, it’s because we’ve been interested in it enough to fully develop. A good sign for us we’re onto a keeper! The jams are soon forgotten about.
Daily has just been recording again with Joe Faris. We’re excited to release another EP this year with Black Lagoon as its featuring single.
We’ve only applied for one Music Video grant, and we were lucky enough to get funding the first time! Advice would be to submit the best quality demo as possible, even if you have to pay someone to mix it.
I remember we just got 10 out of the 22 criteria. We didn’t have much of a social media following so struggled there. But we had already released a self-produced EP, so we scraped in on streams.
We like catching up on some Triple J via YouTube, would love to see ourselves jamming on there one day.
Facebook: Daily J
Insta: @daily_j3
Director: Taylor Mansfield
Director of photography: Mason Bennet
Producer: Mike Simpson
Thanks to everyone for all the support so far!
Ciabatta, Daily J x
