by jon bosworth jaxvillain@yahoo.com
It gets so cold in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the band Dropping Daylight is from, that you would think the weather would be the highlight of coming to Florida on tour. But when I talked to the bass player, Rob Burke, they were on a break for the holidays, hanging out with friends and family back home. Burke was wearing a T-shirt because it was warm out. Fifty degrees warm.
The guys in the band all lived in the Southern suburbs of Minnesota and went to middle and high school together. They were consistently in bands together, but it wasn’t until Sebastian, vocalist and pianist for the band, came back from the Berkeley School of Music, that Dropping Daylight was officially formed.
Their new release, Brace Yourself, is a heavy radio rock album that sounds like the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine playing with a hair band from the eighties with that compressed digital recording sound of the 21st century. Oh, and add piano and dramatic vocals. So if radio rock is your bag, Dropping Daylight is playing your song.
“It’s hard rock. If the radio embraces it, we like that. The Warped Tour fans certainly embraced us. It’s a little radio rock, a little pop rock, it’s a lot piano rock, but it always rocks. We sound like us. We do what we do and it comes out Dropping Daylight.”
When you are getting yourself all prepped to travel out to Jack Rabbits to catch them live, remember to bring a toy along because at every Dropping Daylight show this season they are collecting Toys for Tots.
“We try to be as active in charity and social issues as we can. Seth [Davin, guitarist] and I are vegetarians. The Toys for Tots thing seemed appropriate for the season and it’s a good opportunity for everybody. It makes us feel good helping people, it makes the fans feel good, and kids get presents because there are people out there that like rock music.”
Dropping Daylight tries to get out on the road as much as possible. Recently, after playing a show at the House of Blues in Las Vegas with label mates FlyLeaf, they climbed into their brand new RV, which the label had provided for them the previous day, and while backing out they scraped FlyLeaf’s RV and knocked off their mirror, leaving Octone Records with two insurance claims.
“Our label had to pay double. That made us laugh.”
Road antics are something they are not short on because of all the time they spend on the road. While on the road with the Warped Tour, they cited their favorite day as the one they spent cleaning up. Trash.
“On Warped Tour it was us and all these old school punk dudes cleaning up rubble and shit in Southwestern Louisiana, and it was the best day of the tour. We were out there with the guys from Less Than Jake picking up trash.”
Burke calls Dropping Daylight a family band because they always make friends with the people they tour with. They pride themselves on being a fun and fun to see band.
“It’s very rare for us to go on tour and not get along and make friends. We’re approachable, easy-going guys that have a lot of fun out on the road. We did a bunch of dates this summer and fall with Breaking Benjamin and we had so much fun being with them, playing shows, and getting shitfaced backstage, that we scheduled another tour a few months later.”
The band collectively enjoys Foo Fighters, Perfect Circle, Incubus, and other 90s “modern” rock, to give you an idea of their influences.
“We’re all big into the singer/songwriters as well.”
The band isn’t necessarily even thinking about Florida’s weather so much as they are the intimate settings they are allowed on this tour. Playing venues such as Jack Rabbits gives them a chance to really interact with their audience.
“It’s gonna be fun. The lineup is packed and every band will really throw down. We give it our all.”
Check out Dropping Daylight for “big rock music” from a set of Midwestern boys that know how to deliver hot licks and ask them about their crazy road stories.
“I was picked up in a porta-potty by a forklift on Warped Tour. I was left at a truck stop in Ohio in the middle of the night for four hours. Lot’s of crazy shit goes on when you’re on the road.”
|
