Routine Days

by Kenneth Fury

Routine Days are one of those groups who have little out, but you adore their work so much you find yourself listening to the same few songs over and over again.

Finding this group was actually the result of a misclick on to another emo subreddit. I had seen the name Routine Days posted elsewhere and like before all great choices in life figured "Ah, what the hell." Routine Daze, a four song demo EP instantly won me over.

The poppy song writing sensibilities mated with emo revival and pop punk influence caught my attention in every way. For those mourning Modern Baseball and their tongue in cheek lyrics intertwined with self deprecation, catchy and memorable hooks and overall sense that the music you're listening to is made by people you'd wanna chill with in your basement, fear not, Routine Days are here.

I knew these guys would be ones I'd want to give attention to and how could I not? Before I had even completely finished the EP became a daily listen leading me to quickly decide it would be my monthly pick for November. Wanting to know more about the band I shot them an email and from there I got to know them. I'm pleased to report that the four piece are funny, attentive and overall still give me the vibe they're guys I want to hang out with. When I approached them for an interview, they leapt at the opportunity and gave me some real insight into the workings of the band.

Check it out.

How would you see your location affecting your sound? Your local scene and stuff. Do you cite any local bands as important?

Garett, listed as 'Gurt' whom is the lead guitar player for the group was the first to chime in.

"We come from a small town called Logan, WV. It's a town with a population of around 2,000 people. Our local scene is mostly made up of either country, gospel, or metal bands, so I never drew up much inspiration from local bands. We really just started playing and writing music that we thought sounded cool, and it slowly formed into Routine Days."

The drummer, Chris was quick to add the difficulties of playing the music they do.

"Most people listen to gospel, or country music so we usually have to drive about an hour or so away to Charleston to really play the kind of shows that we want to play And because of that I think our desire was to just do something different from what other people were doing."

Other members voiced the sentiment of wanting to do against the grain and do music they didn't really hear regularly.

Would you call this definitive of your desired sound or do you see yourself progressing in certain ways?

"Since we started playing about a year ago, our sound has changed slightly. It's mostly from us leaning to vibe together as a band. A lot of the early songs we wrote were test songs for us as a band. Our sound will mostly stay like our demo, but we are starting to develop a more stable and professional sounds as a band." - Garett, lead guitar

"I definitely think we're always trying to one up ourselves. Some of the songs we wrote in the beginning are a bit simpler compared to the kind of music we've written recently. Simple isn't a bad thing though, we still really like those songs. I just think as we play more and evolve as musicians our music is going to reflect that." - Chris, drummer

"I think we're starting to find our sound, but I wouldn't say it's always gonna sound just like this. I'm always open to experimenting and adding different influences and elements to our sound, I think that's part of what makes playing music so fun." - Tanner, vocals

What did this EP get right for you? What do you feel like you want to work on conveying through future works?

"I see this EP as more of a demo than anything really. I mainly wanted to record our music so we could listen to it outside of practice. We also had very minimal recording experience as a group, so this was a good opportunity to learn about what it takes to record songs." - Garett, lead guitar

"The purpose of this EP for me was just to get some form of music out there for people to listen to. I do, however, like that we included some faster songs and some slower songs to show that we can be dynamic in our playing. In future works I'd like to spend more time and really nail each song to it's full potential." - Chris, drummer

"I think the main thing it got right for me is the quality of sound. I'm glad people get a chance to listen to something by us that wasn't recorded on just a laptop on honing my skills as a guitarist. I come from a singer songwriter background, a lot of open chord, chugging along kind of stuff, so I'm hoping to provide some more interesting rhythm guitar work on future releases." - Tanner, vocals

You cite Modern Baseball as a major influence, how did you come across them? Favourite album, member, and what their influence has had directly and indirectly on your lives and band.

"Oh yeah, I love Modern Baseball, they've definitely taught me that song writing and playing doesn't always have to feel like a serious, rigid thing. They just gave me the idea that I could jam with my friends, write the first thing that came to my head and not be hyper critical about it, and I loved that. They've definitely been a huge influence on all of us I think. I first came across them when my friend Crash sent me a link to their song "The Weekend" during either my sophomore or junior year of high school. Favourite album definitely has to be "Sports" just for the simple fact that it's the album that got me into them and I still have "Cooke" on repeat to this day sometimes, haha. I don't really have a favourite member, but they all seem like great dudes and I'm really loving Jake's project Slaughter Beach, Dog." - Tanner, vocals

How was this EP recorded? Did you do it pretty diy/yourselves?

"The EP was recorded by our friend Jasper, who we met from playing house shows together in the Charleston area. He recorded it for us on his mobile studio setup. I'm not a big gear head or anything, so I can't really give any specifics on what all was used. From what I can recall, it was a few mics, a daw, and a small portable mixing board. It was all recorded over the course of a weekend in our practice space, so the whole thing was pretty DIY, but still a major upgrade from the formative days when we tried to record stuff using laptop mics and stuff." - Tanner, vocals

"He offered to record us for free, and with none of us having any recording experience, we let him record us. It only took us a full day to record the four tracks and another day to do finishing touch-ups on songs." - Garett, lead guitar

These guys are kickass, musically and as people. Show them some love!

https://routinedays.bandcamp.com/releases