Pyjama Day

Interview by Kayla Gaisi

Photography by Sam Li

Brought together at the Schulich School of Music, Nia, Isaac, Parker and Jack of Pyjama Day radiate the same playful energy that influences their music. Sitting down to interview them felt more like crashing a friends’ hangout, as we laughed over scrapped band name ideas, delved into their collaborative songwriting process, and chatted about the excitement and chaos of shooting their first music video. Read on for a glimpse into the creative minds behind Pyjama Day, and a sneak peak at what’s next on the horizon for them.

I love your band name, is there a story behind it?
Nia: Earlier this year we were trying to think of band names. I have a Notes App list of a bunch of failed ones. We were spitballing, and one day at three in the morning, Isaac texts the group chat and goes, “Apple Cider Ranch” and no one says anything. I thought it was a grocery list he accidently sent.
Jack: I’m looking at the texts right now and the funniest part is that Nia said “Pyjama Day” and I was like Oh yeah, that sounds good, and then Isaac said “Apple Cider Ranch” and Parker’s like “Pyjama Day” sounds good.

How would you guys describe your sound?
Issac: In all honesty, I think we’re still finding our sound. It definitely takes a while. It’s not even [been] a year yet. We’ve had some songs where it feels like it’s going in a good direction. But for the most part, we’re trying to get into that groove, finding our own sound. It’s one thing to play covers and adapt the sound from what you hear, but to make your own sound, that’s a challenge. That’s a hurdle that we’re working on.
Nia: Right now we’re sitting on three singles and they’re all a little different with their sound. We all write slightly differently, and when we come together it kind of meshes. The first original we worked on was Jack’s song “Third Time,” and that was almost a year ago. The second one was my song which is called “Another Day” and that was me coming in with almost a fully formed idea. The first song we mostly contributed to together was one of my ideas, “What She Got.” We recorded the demo in Isaac’s room, and it was the first time we were all pitching. Our style is heading more in that direction. How would you describe it?
Isaac: I mean, everyone’s gonna say Indie.
Parker: R&B and indie rock combo, but also pop.

Do you want to talk about what covers you’ve done, and certain artists or bands you take inspiration from?
Jack: In terms of artists, Declan McKenna. I think he’s embodied our energy and Nia’s a big fan, she encapsulates his sound very well. His songs have a good energy that the crowd latches on to.
Nia: Once we were covering “British Bombs,” and that kind of helped me with my voice range and confidence, because we were working on my song “What She Got,” and I remember for the most part when I was singing it, I would sing it in a low range. And then we covered that song a bunch, and there’s a lot of scream-singing in it, so subconsciously I was getting more comfortable with that type of singing. Then this one time, we were rehearsing my song and I tried it in that higher range, and it worked using that technique. Before then I didn’t think I could hit that range.
Isaac: We played a lot of covers this year from The Beatles to Declan [McKenna].
Parker: Yeah, we take a lot from older artists.
Nia: I think our sets so far have been like half covers, half originals. Which is cool, but we don’t want to be a cover band, so we’re gonna start working on our EP. For our sets we’ll do our originals and live renditions of Isaac’s songs, which is really cool because he uses a lot of samples in his songs. But we want to do more of our originals and our sound as a band. We know we can perform, so now it's our “sit down and start cooking” time.
Jack: I’m thinking over break when we’re home for Christmas, it’ll be time for us to divide and conquer, and bring some new, fresh ideas back to the city. That’s how I wrote “Third Time.” I came back from break with a fully created chord progression. From the start, we’ve had the understanding that if it’s your song, you call the shots. Like when Nia brought in “Another Day,” it was her vision of when things should come in and which things should be centered at what point in the song, so the person who wrote the song can be the conductor of everyone else.

Last month you played a Halloween set with the band Dollhouse. What was it like sharing the stage with them? Were there any memorable moments?
Jack: They were super helpful setting up, super considerate of how everything would sound. Really nice people.
Isaac: It felt like a venue almost, because we got the sound pretty good for such a small space. Everything we did, we did that day, but it went really well. Dollhouse is great, they helped with soundcheck. It was pretty packed, people were on the stairs and moshing to Scooby Doo.
Nia: It was at the St-Dominique apartment complex courtyard. I was scared nobody would come, but the opposite of that happened. As soon as we opened the doors, people flooded in, and as the night went on it was super packed. I didn’t realize that many people would come. It was such a nice feeling. And a memorable moment for that was playing originals and having that many people really grooving out to it. Seeing people live, actively getting groovy to something you wrote is quite cool.
Parker: I formed a beautiful friendship with their drummer, we played a show together.

Was this your first show?
Isaac: Our first show was in February for the SB3 launch party and our second show was OAP. We were practicing on our own during the summer and when we got back we had four days, not even, to get ready, but it went really well. That was probably one of my favorite shows that we’ve played this year. [Even though] they’re completely different, the Halloween party and OAP.
Jack: The Halloween Party was definitely more raw energy, more raunchy. But for OAP, the sound guys knew what they were doing. You could just feel the energy from the amps behind you and it was really rewarding to be working with people who really knew what they’re doing.
Nia: OAP was really cool, even though it’s a school festival, it’s still a pretty good set up. At OAP, there were a lot of people, similar to Halloween, and seeing people moving to things that you’ve written is really cool. Even people coming up to you after, saying “I liked that song you guys did.” It was quite rewarding and motivating, like I’m excited to write more stuff and put it out.

Do you have any pre-show rituals?
Nia: Stimming, for sure. Got my fidget ring.

What’s the energy like at your live shows? Do you have any favorite venues here in Montreal?
Isaac: We’ve had pretty good energy at most of our shows. Like 80% of the time.
Jack: I really liked the SB launch one. La Sala Rosa was a venue I’d been to before and seen some of my favorite bands at. So when Nia told us that’s where we were playing, I was really excited. The people that she was able to bring together for the SB launch, those kinds of artistic, creative people, entrepreneurs with all their own shops set up, that was a really unique experience.
Isaac: I’d say OAP. Just because a year before, I always thought it was cool to see bands play, and I had no idea that we would be playing a year later. And the fact that we almost didn’t even do it.
Nia: I agree OAP. It felt very official.

As a Montreal-based band, do you think this city has had an influence on your sound?
Parker: I’d say Schulich has. I feel like a lot of the musicians there have been influenced by Montreal jazz and fusion.

I heard you’re coming out with your first single THIRD TIME this month, which is very exciting! Can you tell me about your creative process, from songwriting to recording in the studio?
Jack: I wrote it after I finished my exchange in Barbados, when I was in Victoria during Christmas and I was thinking about the snow. Then my friend showed me this Alex G song with this one chord progression that I thought was cool, and I used the first two chords, but then I took it a different way. I was listening to some Otis Redding and I like the way he was singing, and I wanted to sing a ballad-y type chorus. So those are the two influences I had for writing that. I spent a lot of time working it out with my roommate, Max, who helps me with songs. And then I brought it in to Emma, who helped me write a couple of lines for it, and she also performed with us at SB.
I wrote it when I was in Victoria during Christmas and I was thinking about the snow. My friend showed me this Alex G song with this one chord progression that I thought was cool. I used the first two chords, then I took it a different way. I was listening to some Otis Redding and I liked the way he was singing, and I wanted to sing a ballad-type chorus. I spent a lot of time working it out with my roommate, Max, who helps me with songs, then brought it to my friend Emma, who helped me write a couple of lines for it.
Nia: I remember when we all played it for the first time, I was thinking this is really pretty. I remember being so excited. The chords are really fun and there’s this one part with the bass that’s a funky recurring chord.
Jack: Yeah, I’ve been trying to experiment more with dissonant chords. And with structure, Parker was helpful with figuring out the tempo, when things have a natural ebb and flow.

I also heard you just shot a new music video! Congratulations! What was the experience like?
Nia: The video was for “Another Day.” It was initially with me, Sam, and our friend Sophia. Sam’s a videographer. He’s an apprentice at this production studio in Montreal, Lucky Goat, and he has his own black magic 4k camera, which came in clutch. We were planning out the video, had a shot list, and we shot one scene. We spent the next three months trying to shoot what takes more than three months and more than three people. Sam met this girl Rachel, who’s a director, and she listened to the song and immediately wanted to direct the video.
So then we scrambled to figure out how we were gonna shoot a music video with no budget. We ended up having 2 cars full of equipment that was scavenged from TVM at McGill, Sam’s equipment, Rachel goes to Concordia so we got a bunch of stuff from there, we rented a dolly, and then we got some lights from Lucky Goat. We called in every favor. And then over the course of three days in October we shot 90% of it. We had a bunch of different locations. We got access to shoot in a school that Rachel reached out to. It was really cool, we had a bunch of people as extras, like 15 people. We shot the rest in November. When it was finally finished it felt like the thing we’d been working on for months, that we had put blood, sweat, and tears into, was something really high quality. I say high quality because Sam and Rachel are so talented. I’m really excited, I’m itching for it to come out. I finally have the final mix back for the song, so it’s gonna come out in February.

What was the concept for the video?
Nia: Initially, I wanted it to be very airy and outdoorsy, with tons of nature shots. Sam said no, he had this idea of it being in a school, very cutesy high school love story. The song is about when you like somebody but they don’t like you back, and they’re being very wishy-washy. And in the video, I’m at school and there’s someone who’s showing interest, but constantly fluctuating back and forth, just being very hot and cold. It has a lot of those typical high school shots—bleachers and gym–the performance shot was in the gym. We have people playing basketball in the background. At the end, there's this really beautifully shot party scene. Sam had this idea from day 1, because Soph’s apartment has these two windows, to frame the characters in them. That shot was at the center of this whole thing. It looks so beautiful, he really knew what he was doing.

You already talked a bit about this, but were there any challenges that popped up during filming?
Nia: We didn’t have enough extras one time. By that, I mean we had 0 people when we needed 20. We didn’t have enough time to film, didn’t have enough equipment, didn’t have enough lighting, didn’t have a director. Those were the main hitches. When we were properly shooting, there were time restraints for the school and getting things around, for example we needed a second car. Our main issues were lighting, logistics, and coordinating. It’s funny how 90% of creative work is logistics and coordinating, and 10% is actually creating stuff. But Sam brought on a director, his friend Rachel Moghrabi, to spearhead it. Sam’s a videographer.

Are there any bands or artists you would love to collaborate with?
Nia: There’s this one girl I recently found out about, Lane Ellis. She seems really cool and I love her voice. It’s sick seeing a black girl doing rock and alternative music. I actually reached out to her and asked if she’d be interested in writing a song together, and she said yes, so hopefully something will come from that.
Parker: I think we might be doing a show with her in February.
Nia: Yes! Also, my friend Zeboria, who was the first interview I did for SB. He’s a producer and actor, he did the main song for the soundtrack of Cyberpunk 2077, and he’s kind of my mentor in Montréal. He’s mixing and mastering ANOTHER DAY so he’s a creative collaboration that’s actually happening, which is really cool. And I think he’d love to help produce future singles.

What’s next for PJ Day? Any upcoming projects or goals?
Isaac: Jack’s single “Third Time” is coming out. From there, I think we’re gonna be focusing more on making our own originals.
Parker: I think we want to have a solid set with a good amount of tunes that we can all decide on.
Nia: We’re gonna go home for break and come up with our own ideas. We’ve been building our own studio set-up, all pitching in on equipment, so when we come back, it’s just working with what we have built so far and getting more originals.