Spotlight On... Dayydream

Chloe Trappes has been releasing music under the moniker Dayydream since 2022. Originally a solo project, Trappes is now joined by drummer Loup Havenith, guitarist Samuel Rafanell-Williams and bassist Dillon Salvi; Trace, their first EP as a four-piece, is due for release on Friday 13 March. While Dayydream’s sound has always felt synonymous with their name, that dreamlike feeling is dialled up to 11 on Trace, with songs feeling rich, textural and unhurried, while the arc of the record rises and falls like a deeply satisfying, 24-minute-long inhale/exhale.

Ahead of releasing Trace and their EP launch show at The Hug & Pint (15 Mar), we catch up with Trappes to find out more.

I’d love to first start by asking about your musical upbringing; who/what inspired you growing up to get into music?
My family have always been very supportive of me being creative and I am lucky to have parents who are also musicians. They’ve encouraged me to pick up an instrument, to sing, and to write songs ever since I was pretty young. They played a lot of music around me but whenever there was a girl playing an instrument or singing, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Having a mum [musician and songwriter Penelope Trappes] who was doing this was also pretty cool and definitely influenced me. But yeah, Debbie Harry, Kate Bush, and Karen O were my heroes growing up, and as a teenager it was Fiona Apple and Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star) that inspired me to write more.

You self-released your debut EP in 2022, which am I right in thinking was more of a solo effort? How has Dayydream evolved since then and how did Loup, Samuel and Dillon join the fold?
It was! I recorded the songs in my parents’ home – just me and my guitar. I always wanted to play in a band though, but I just didn’t know the right people. Loup and I were mutuals online, and one day he asked me to support him at his headline show, which Dillon was also supporting. I met Sam through the same circle, and played a show with his band Spinney, who are also great! I just really enjoyed all of my bandmates’ music and they liked mine too.

Still very much your songwriting project, what was the process like for writing the new EP alongside the rest of the band?
It was so fun! I brought the bare bones of the songs to them – guitar, vocal melodies and lyrics – in a practice room and we jammed it out (which is how most of our songwriting sessions go). I think my songs had a lot of room for instrumentation, I imagined them being really full, so we ended up layering a lot of guitars in the production, as well as adding piano, synth and strings to a few songs .

I really love the pace of Trace, how unhurried it feels and the way it arcs through its centrepiece, Proximity, is so beautiful. How did this structuring come about?
Thank you! I really overthought the song order, so I’m glad. Truthfully, I had no concept of how long my songs were, because I would write them and not even think about audiences or their attention spans. I like slow music, and I like the idea of being almost in a meditative, peaceful state whilst making it. It’s not always like that and Proximity is definitely not like that, so I think I wanted to draw those moments out. I also liked the idea of ebbing and flowing emotions, and that is why I put Proximity in the middle, and Unfold at the end, also because it has a fun outro.

I’d love to know more about Proximity. As the EP’s lead single, it’s a song of two halves, beginning upbeat before collapsing into something sparse and emotional; it then turns into a swirl of fuzzed-out guitars, turning into something else entirely. So I’d love to know more about the song and what inspired it and how the structure came about?
I think the evolution of the song was very much a collaborative effort. It was either Dillon or Loup's idea to slow the song down halfway, and then when Sam joined he suggested that we distort the guitars in that final part of the song. It is a bit of a wild journey, but I think it fits the song’s meaning, which is all about an unstable relationship, exploring a state of confusion and actively giving into insecurities.

Each of the songs on Trace were recorded to tape in different studios across the span of a year, so it’s amazing how cohesive a work it is. What in your opinion is it that makes it so cohesive? Is there perhaps a connective theme that ties its five songs together? 
I think that comes down to production, so I have to credit our producers, Kieran Thomas and Loup, for creating that cohesion! They are both very talented and also understood the vision we were going for. Kieran had been our sound guy at a previous show, and Loup obviously plays in the band, so there was already a sort of blueprint.

As for a connective theme, I would say maybe trying to make sense of adulthood and being caught up in memories, nostalgia and cycles of yearning, whilst trying to grow beyond that. I am very inspired by lyrical imagery, of painting a picture of specific times, and I am also inspired by physical media like old video tapes, film, and photographs, which I think probably leaked into the songs.

You’re launching the EP with a show at The Hug & Pint on 15 March. What’s the plan for the night, what can people expect?
The EP in full, plus live violin and keys! We’ll also be selling cassettes of the EP and maybe other bits of merch too. We have the wonderful Comber and Bluejayd supporting us, who I am super excited to watch.

What does the rest of the year look like for Dayydream?
We’ve got a few exciting shows lined up in other cities, including a headline in London on 24 April at The Strongroom! We’re also working on a new EP and recording more material.

---

Proximity is out now; Trace is released on 13 Mar via No Soap

Follow Dayydream on Instagram @d4yydream