Day Wave Shares New Single & Video 'Before We Knew'

Following the release of his acclaimed EP Crush last April, today Day Wave has returned with breezy reverie "Before We Knew." Listen and watch its accompanying video HERE.

A lyric like "I feel like tapping out, but I can't let you beat me" naturally rings out as both timely and empowering, yet there is an existential and enduring pain ringing out in Jackson Phillips' voice on "Before We Knew." Phillips has been releasing hooky, smooth guitar pop as Day Wave since 2015, but his latest communicates a sense of renewed urgency-and for good reason.

Speaking on the track, Jackson comments: "I wrote "Before We Knew" last fall after taking a long break from writing songs. When I sat down to create again, I knew I wanted to let go of my old process, I wanted to make music feel fresh for myself again."

The product of that new writing process, the sharp guitar tone and playful stomp of "Before We Knew" fuse into something raw and refreshed. "It was scary abandoning an approach that felt right in the past, but finding my footing with a new writing process was really rewarding," Phillips says. "When I finally let go of what I thought I was supposed to be making, this song just came to me."

The music video, directed by Jason Lester (Rostam, Cautious Clay), is a stunning one shot in the desert that captures a thematic sense of isolation, only adding to this renewed sense of creative process. "With this video we liked the idea of filming it in one single shot, mirroring the stream of consciousness lyrical style of the song," Jackson says. "Shooting on 16mm film heightened the feeling of spontaneity, only having a couple of takes to get it right."

"When Jackson reached out with this song, I was immediately engaged by the idea of making a simple and emotionally direct video for it," Lester says. "Shooting on 16mm film in one long take amidst the decaying buildings of an abandoned farm in Lancaster evoked a sense of nostalgia for a lost time and a fluid interplay between past and present."

Day Wave first emerged from the Bay Area in 2015, when Phillips began releasing a series of singles and EPs that racked up tens of millions of streams on Spotify and garnered rave reviews in both the US and Europe. Vice praised the music as fitting "snugly in between heavy dream pop and jangly indie rock," while The Guardian hailed it as "downcast surf pop that makes [Phillips] sound like a one-man DIIV," and Billboard called it "sweetly melodic...the stuff John Hughes characters would have swooned over." Buoyed by the ecstatic reaction, Phillips put together a touring band and hit the road, earning dates supporting the likes of Albert Hammond, Jr. and Blonde Redhead in addition to landing festival slots from Lollapalooza to Governor's Ball. In 2020, he released his first EP with [PIAS] Recordings, Crush. New music is forthcoming.

Photo Credit: Jason Lester

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