Day Dreamers

The Daybirds’ latest record entered the charts at No. 1, knocking Now 12, on which the band also appears, down a slot. Girls shriek and women faint when a Daybird is sighted. At the conclusion of its concerts, a laundry cart must routinely be dispatched to stealthily fetch the guys and safely deliver them to their hotel. Speaking of hotels, it’s been months since a security deposit was recovered. Dean Woods recently finished his court-mandated anger-management therapy. And the real clincher solidifying the Daybirds’ rock-star status? Last week, photos appeared romantically linking Phil Schlotterer to Winona Ryder.

According to the Liberty-based quartet’s management company, CDA (Celine Dion Associates), that was supposed to be the Daybirds’ plan for 2002. Sometime before their ascent, though, the group was grounded. “It wasn’t anybody’s fault, but here we are almost a year later, and still nothing,” says band member Jon Yeager, sounding unfazed. “It’s still in the process and actually going well, but it’s taking quite a bit longer than we thought.”

Realizing CDA’s forecast was off, the Daybirds decided to release the seven-song You Rock EP in lieu of what the group had hoped would be a full-length follow-up to its 1999 debut, Turnstyle. Compiling demo tracks recorded in Los Angeles, Montreal and Kansas City, You Rock is the sound of a band that’s toughened up, taking a step backward to go forward. The EP ditches studio sheen and sprawling orchestration (though Yeager says some of the band’s even-newer material restores those elements) but holds tight to the Daybirds’ signature melodies.

After the convincing opening lines of “You Rock” (Your motorcar/Won’t go as far/As my guitar), the EP fires on all cylinders, cruising toward good times. When the short ride ends, instinct would demand that the needle be returned to the beginning of the record if only it were vinyl and not a CD. If it were, however, the Daybirds wouldn’t be able to include the video for “Motorcar,” one long tracking shot following the band’s members as they take turns walking and singing. It’s the kind of low-concept-and-all-the-more-enjoyable-for-it clip that used to pop up in the middle of 120 Minutes, turning the ten-hour wait until record-store opening time on Monday morning into torture. Another video splices band interviews with performance clips from November 2001 shows, footage the band used to attract the attention of CDA.

Now that it’s on the agency’s roster, the group has plenty of reasons for optimism, despite the delays. For one thing, the band is one of only three acts CDA handles, alongside French adult-contemporary artist Garou and Dion herself, so the staff should have plenty of time to devote to the cause. For another, CDA is an impressive, Montreal-based operation orchestrated by She Whose Heart Will Go On and husband Rene Angelil. So far, the company has a pretty good track record, even if listening to the albums it has produced seems like a less-than-fun prospect.

“Celine Dion is someone that sings well, worked her ass off and sold a lot of records,” says the Daybirds’ Jon Sweetwood, defending the boss while admitting he owns none of her albums. “I am glad she and her husband are interested in helping a new artist.”

“It’s funny, because a lot of the people that work for her don’t like her music,” Yeager adds. “A lot of them are older, so when we came along, it was a breath of fresh air, and that’s exactly why they’re wanting to go with us now and leave the adult-contemporary thing, Rene included. Rene was in a band himself when he was our age. He told our manager, ‘The Daybirds remind me of me.'”

While CDA toils away at securing an ever-elusive contract for the Daybirds, the band keeps touring, playing shows out of town almost every weekend. (This month, it opened for the New Pornographers in Chicago.) From those exploits and travels sprung Daybirds Reviews and Comments, once again from You Rock‘s multimedia section. On the subject of afterparties, the band advises, “Don’t betray your poor-musician roots. It’s OK to steal the half-drank liquor bottles at the end of the night.” As for hotels, “If you think making out with the girl at the check-in desk will get you a better rate, it won’t. She’s lying to you. Seriously. Trust me.”

Such are the lessons learned when a band has been together for five and a half years, as the Daybirds’ members have, coming together through a series of acquaintances and coincidences. One thing the group determined quickly was that in a group of multi-instrumentalists, no one need be limited to one role. Hence, the Daybirds often switch positions on stage. Along the way, the four men have also discovered they’ve got more going for them than musical prowess.

“We thank each other all the time for just not being jackasses,” Yeager says. “We’ve had some heated conversations, like, ‘I don’t like that shade of blue on the T-shirt’ or whatever. But when it’s over, we go grab a beer because it’s no big deal. It’s like someone that’s been married for fifteen years compared to a year and a half. The people who have been married longer just laugh at the kind of bullshit the people who have been together for a year and a half fight about.”

That’s not to say the Daybirds don’t experience some of the same tribulations. “Everybody thinks their situation is special, but at the core it’s really all the same,” Yeager says. “People have one connection, and they’re waiting on it. The president of Sony Records heard our stuff about three weeks ago, and we have no choice but to really jump up and down for that, like, ‘Wow.’ And for Rene, that’s no big deal, because that’s one of his best friends. He talks to him every day, so of course they’re not excited about it. So many people can be on your side, and nothing might happen if it’s just not fate’s plan. Paul McCartney could take us to Sony Records tomorrow, and if they don’t like it, they don’t like it.”

More and more people are calling the Daybirds instead of the Daybirds having to make first contact, which is a start. Also, the band’s management is gathering increasingly positive unsolicited feedback from various bigwigs. “The past month has actually been the best so far, but we’re still at our day jobs. Nothing’s happened, so there’s that element of personal hype,” Yeager admits, drawing more personal hype from the fact that You Rock has sold out at online record store Not Lame (www.notlame.com). “We’re not going to bullshit anybody — we want to get signed. We want to quit our day jobs, and we need a means to do that.”

And, well, 2002 is almost 2003, so maybe it’s this spring that the people at CDA were talking about. Maybe 2003 is actually the year of the Daybirds. Until then, however, what can people take from the Daybirds right now?

“Leave with what’s given to you, not by us,” Yeager says, alluding to the transcendent nature of music. “We’re fans of the unexplained, of fate, and if there is a connection to be made, it will be made whether we say anything or not. If something is yours, then it will be yours. So many bands have so much to shove down people’s throats, and we’re not really opposed to that. We’re whores for applause just like everybody else. We love getting up and trying to make people like us. But if there isn’t that connection, don’t worry about it. We’ll go our separate ways and keep on rocking.”

In the spirit of the unsigned, however, Sweetwood offers a different answer. “Merchandise. Sounds greedy, but we really need shocks and a front-end alignment on our van.”