In just over a year, Virginia-based post-punk quintet Dayfiction have evolved from their garage rock beginnings into one of the most compelling young bands emerging from the East Coast underground. Comprised of Evan Solomon, Noah Brown, Mateo Melchor Dutto, Jackson Prior, and Hannah Johnson, the group has spent the past year sharpening a sound that balances raw intensity with sweeping melodic atmosphere, showcased across singles like “Peacemaker” and “Lost You,” as well as their EP Diplomat. Along the way, they’ve built a reputation as a formidable live act, sharing stages with artists including Inhaler, Bass Drum of Death, Lip Critic, and Hello Mary. Now, with the release of their new EP Divine Intermission, a record written in the shadow of unintercertainty and recorded just before Solomon’s temporary move to London, Dayfiction channel contemporary anxieties into something urgent, cathartic, and unexpectedly beautiful. We caught up with the band to discuss the new release, their rapid evolution, and what comes next.
For readers discovering Dayfiction for the first time, how would you describe the emotional and sonic world of the band?
Evan: I think the emotional world is characterized by intensity, where melancholy and unrest meet introspection and agency. Sonically, we try to replicate the same feelings in the sound, and often that is dark and unrelenting, but also melodic. I attempt for the lyrics to be the same unrelenting nature. I feel like they are very critically, or sometimes pessimistically observant. At the same time there’s a tenacity and resilience that meets those feelings in the songs.
The transition from Blurry World to Divine Intermission feels massive in a relatively short period of time. What do you think accelerated that artistic growth?
Noah: A lot of the songs from Blurry World we’ve been playing as a band since we were 15 or 16, and took influence from our main influences at the time, with bands like bass drum of death, waves, ty segall, eyedress, etc. Once we put out the project we were excited to immediately change up our sound and explore other directions.
Evan: Yeah, I wrote many of those first songs in early high school, and we had been playing those first for a good while. What accelerated the growth for me was sort of based on letting creation be more free flowing, gaining wider interests, and taking the writing more critically and seriously. A lot of it was on instinct, and lyrically a lot of drafting and redrafting. And as for an internal motive to mention we are all pretty young and even when putting out Diplomat we were all 18 to 20, so being taken seriously was both a challenge but also very important to us.
How did growing up in Virginia shape your relationship with music and influence the band’s identity?
Noah: Richmond has always had a big music scene with a lot of variety, and most bands hit there or DC during tours making it a great place to see live music. We’ve also had a lot of encouragement from the scene as people who have been playing shows in Richmond since we were 13.
Evan: It’s a very supportive and welcoming scene that you can really start playing shows fairly head on as a new or younger band. Also there’s a lot of really really talented and great bands. It’s a fairly tight knit community too, and there’re many great musicians I owe a lot to who inspired me and my art, motivated me at points of challenge, and gave us opportunities that accelerated us.
There’s a feeling of tension throughout Divine Intermission between emotional isolation and personal momentum. Was that contradiction intentional?
Evan: The contradiction wasn’t intentional or a conceptual approach. I think it is just a natural extension of my inner world that, I admit, frustratingly clashes quite a bit and as I write more and more I realize I naturally characterize the energy and lyrics.
Many of your songs feel cinematic and atmospheric while still maintaining a raw live energy. How do you strike that balance in the studio?
Noah: I’ve always been a big fan of recording live as a band as opposed to individually, because it feels more real and less manufactured. When we play all together, we already get this cinematic feel, and so bringing it into the studio made it able for us to easily reach a flow state. On top of that, layering is huge for getting that atmospheric sound. Whether that’s the two guitars creating harmonies with each other, or laying down 5 tracks of droning and pushing it deep into the mix.
Evan: On Divine Intermission, that was our first time doing the songs live and then doing overdubs over the top. I’m fine doing them either way as a band or individually. We are big on room mics in general too. I think we always have one or a few going on whether it’s for drums or guitar. Over time as well, I think we all have grown into merging the sounds and tones when we are live and vice versa from what we do in demos or the recording studio. And both aspects I think accelerate one another. Finally, I will say we get quite obsessed with overall world building and atmospheres of the recordings. From our first record that was very very distorted and lofi, nowadays we appreciate that more dialed and that’s just come with having a few years on our personal tastes. However much of the first demos of the new songs still sound quite close in quality to those early recordings.
Evan, you’ve spoken about writing daily during the creation of the EP. Were there any books, films, conversations, or experiences that particularly inspired the lyrics?
Evan: Most of it was inspired by experiences or observations both of what was around me or things that I really exhausted myself questioning or ruminating over. There’s a lot about alienation and agency, and the inner obsession to break free or simply understand or trust. A lot of the lyrics feel harshly critical or passionately “commanding,” and existential. Most of that was debating truth and fallacy and there’s a string of that topic of “unmasking” that is woven through all five of the songs. I was heavily influenced by the prophetic nature of Bob Dylan’s lyrics and I had also found Arthur Rimbaud’s poetry. Around the time of recording the vocals in London, I had a teacher who introduced me to The Stranger by Albert Camus. Although the lyrics had already pretty much finished, there was something about that story that I felt very closely reflected the isolated energy on some of the songs.
Dayfiction seem equally interested in melody and abrasion. Which artists taught you that heaviness and beauty can coexist?
Noah: I wouldn’t say it’s any artists influenced that caused this specifically, it’s more just from personal experiences and from listening to music as loud as possible. I guess a big influence of that sort of feel would be movie soundtracks, because they give off this vibe that can’t be found anywhere else.
Evan: Yeah, for me, the beauty and abrasion thing used to be something I was quite uncomfortable with, in the sense that I was worried they didn’t align or looked weird. Like if one song evoked a stink face kind of energy right next to a song that was more like having your head in your hands, I feared it looked misguided. Eventually, I realized I can’t help but write the way I do and more recently I have started to really accept and appreciate both inclinations. I have the ability to write both, and I find it very important that there is the variation or even the merge of the two.
What was the most challenging part of making Divine Intermission emotionally or creatively?
Evan: For us it was really just the timing of it all. We were all going separate ways for a few months, literally three days from when we finished recording it in January. We had one day of practicing the songs before we went in to record them. It was a mere necessity that we embraced that challenge though, and I think the urgency is well realized in the songs. Trying to settle anxiety or to have patience when you feel like there is time running out was hard too. I do remember the studio took a lot out of me. I’m already a mental case about perfection and trusting a take. Having to record everything fairly dry, and hear it unmixed is still a new ground for me, and I admit that some days at the studio I just felt absolutely unsure because you don’t have an idea of the final product yet. That is one downside of listening to a bunch of personal home demos for a few months. You become very used to those, even if they are imperfect or not final. The funniest part is that the finals are of course superior to those demos and far more realized. For whatever reason the understanding of making a final product is sometimes just terrifying. Trusting the process is such a groundless thing that I remember feeling internally infuriated. Ian, our producer, and the band were all very supportive, as we all were to each other. Recording can be hard, especially when you care. The free natural process of creativity and expression, and achieving the personal subjective “perfection” for a final recording are two states of mind that are hard to balance for me and both that I want fully realized.
The band has become known for intense live performances. How different is the energy of a Dayfiction show compared to the experience of recording?
Evan: I find that the overall energy of recording and performing is equally intense. I admit that vocal recording and the recording of the band as a whole is probably a bit more of an exhaustive and focused experience for me as opposed to how I treat the performances, which is still focused but obviously a bit more free flowing and theatrical. I don’t really have the time to think in performance, and in recording a performance I’m thinking a lot about the finality of a captured performance.
Were there any songs on the EP that changed significantly between their original demo versions and the final recordings?
Noah: Castles was insanely different from the demo, and was a much slower and experimental song. We ended up changing it and changing all the parts because we didn’t think it sounded like a Dayfiction song and didn’t fit in with the rest of the songs. I think it turned out really great.
Modern post-punk often leans heavily into detachment or irony, but your music feels very emotionally direct. Was that vulnerability difficult to embrace?
Noah: Not at all. Evan is very emotionally intelligent and strides to reflect that in the lyrics. As for the group itself, we’re all a big group of friends which makes the vulnerability come a lot easier because it’s like we’re performing to ourselves.
Evan: I guess there’s always an amount of thought I give to outside perspectives and being taken seriously, and ultimately that’s only pushed me to be more introspective and lyrically focused.
You’ve opened for a wide range of contemporary acts over the past year. Which touring experiences have had the biggest impact on you so far?
Noah: Opening for Bass Drum of Death was monumental for the band and me personally. I’ve grown up listening to them with my Dad and bonded with Evan over them when we first became friends. When we heard they were coming to Richmond, I think for the first time, we knew we had to try to get on the bill. Not only was the show a success, but we became friends with the band and Native Sun who was also on the bill that night.
Evan: Yeah, I agree. Playing with BDOD in Richmond was huge and very personal to us. Native Sun is a band that I had on my playlists too throughout the past few years. Inhaler was also a really big one for us. That was our first time playing The National in Richmond, which was a dream venue to play and the crowd was massive. I also liked Inhaler’s early work too. I felt very proud of both of those gigs.
With Evan temporarily relocating to London, did distance or change become part of the emotional DNA of this release?
Evan: Yeah I wouldn’t say entirely but I definitely think it made a part of it in the latter songs Benevolent and June and particularly the expression of a very deep appreciation for Richmond and the people I have grown very close to, and how I felt saved by them in a sense. Those songs express the overwhelming and immense loyalty for people that molded me and largely helped me step into myself.
What do you think Divine Intermission reveals about Dayfiction that previous releases didn’t fully capture yet?
Noah: This is the first release where all five of us are active members of the band and contributing to the songs. Mateo hadn’t become a member of the band until halfway through the Diplomat EP production, and with everyone here it feels more like a family and you can hear this closeness and love in the music of Divine Intermission.
As the band continues expanding beyond Richmond into places like New York and beyond, what does success look like for Dayfiction at this stage?
Noah: On top of Evan going to New York, Hannah and I will be in Asheville NC for another year for college, and we’ll continue to play more shows down there in the following year. Additionally, we’d like to book a couple solid tours before 2027 and possibly start looking for labels for our next release.
Evan: Our immediate goals are to get some New York shows in the works and start getting into that realm. I’ve been writing a lot of new stuff in London and New York. We want to step up to touring, and get ourselves into the circus of it all. We understand we have lengths to go and most of all it’s really important to us to take every opportunity and put our best foot forward in everything.
