Brooklyn’s Alt-Electronic Trio Little Daylight Reveal Their Strong, Fun-Filled Rendition of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and Discuss A Lot More!

Over the past year, the alternative-electronic trio, Little Daylight has brought their infectious and high-energy live show on tour with bands like Bastille, Charli XCX, The Neighbourhood and more, including debut festival performances at Governor’s Ball and Firefly Music Festival. The band continue to tour in support of their highly anticipated debut album Hello Memory.

Learn more about Little Daylight in the following interview!

 Where does this interview find the band today?

Working on remixes, making art for other remixes, getting ready for CMJ in NYC next week.

How did you guys come up with your band name? And how did the band first come together?

We’d been friends for years, but we first started working together on ideas for songs and remixes in the summer of 2012. We created a temporary studio in a friend’s lake house upstate for a few weeks that summer and that’s also when we came up with the band name — it’s from a fairy tale, and we liked the way it suggested something mysterious yet accessible, sweet & hard, epic yet melodic.

You guys are a Brooklyn band–does the geography influence your music at all?

Brooklyn and NYC are so diverse that it’s hard to pin down “the sound of Brooklyn”, which we think is a great thing. That said, we love being a part of the music scene here and we are absolutely influenced by the sounds of Brooklyn, specifically the clacking of the G train, honking cars, good coffee, the peacefulness of the East River and bagels.

What would you say is the group’s biggest accomplishment to date?

Releasing our album Hello Memory this past summer was a huge deal for us. We tried to make something that captured spontaneity, and that sounded like an album rather than a collection of songs, and also that we all liked. And I think we nailed that.

Earlier this spring, you embarked on your biggest tour. What was that like? How’s the tour going now? Any interesting memories from it?

Before we released the album, in March and April, we went on a nationwide tour with our friends Terraplane Sun and Flagship. Then after the album dropped, later in the summer, we went back on tour to a lot of those same cities. It was really great seeing the crowds grow and the energy change as people knew the album and sang along to our songs.

Our most recent trip was a west coast run with Clean Bandit, and a Denver show with Capital Cities — between those shows we hit Las Vegas and some of the band (the braver half) bungee jumped off the Stratosphere, and survived.

You’ve toured with a ton of incredible bands like Bastille, Charli XCX, The Neighbourhood and more. What band has really left a lasting impression on your guys?

We toured with Bastille during their first big American tour and they were doing tons of promo, radio shows, and not sleeping very much at all. Yet every night they gave all their energy to the crowd, and managed to be some of the nicest folks we’ve toured with. We’ve been lucky to tour with so many talented folks.. Marina and The Diamonds, Charli XCX, The Neighborhood, and recently the Young Rising Sons. If you pay attention everyone you tour with can teach you something about putting on an amazing show.

Tell me about your hit single, “Overdose”. Why do you think it really speaks to people?

There’s an immediacy about “Overdose” that first hit us right when we started working on it, and as we were writing it, we hoped that it would affect others in a similar way. The music came out of some production ideas that we had been working on for some of our early remixes, so there are a lot of fun, dance-able elements in the track. Lyrically, it deals with something that almost everyone has been through: a relationship that, though it feels good at the time, you know is not healthy. “Overdose” was the culmination of the first few months of Little Daylight, so we’ve been so excited that people have connected with it.

Are there certain things that are on your music bucket lists (performance wise, production wise, any heroes you’d like to collaborate with/meet etc.)?

Yes! Collaborating (and/or touring) with Robyn, traveling to Europe to play, playing a festival in Mexico, scoring a film.
What music is inspiring you guys now?

Cashmere Cat, Diiv, Aphex Twin (he’s back!), and Tom Petty, to name a few.

Tell me about your David Bowie cover of “Let’s Dance”. How did that come together? Any other covers in the works?

“Let’s Dance” is actually the second cover we learned. We played Disclosure’s “Latch” on our summer tour. We thought it would be fun, with “Let’s Dance”, to take it to the next level and actually record it. Some of the musical elements were from a demo that we worked on for Hello Memory and didn’t finish. When we started working through “Let’s Dance” in the studio we realized that it was a perfect marriage with some of the production ideas we had from that demo. We wanted it to sound like David Bowie distilled through Little Daylight, but we also took it pretty out there for the last minute of the song. It’s so fun to play live!

What are your favorite songs to perform?

Other than “Let’s Dance”, the other one we’re loving to play is “Never Go Back”. It’s the last song on Hello Memory and is a slow, developing kind of song. By the end, it’s a total dance party and we’re all rocking out on keyboards. Also, Matt gets to go to the drum kit and play hi-hat with Ernesto. Any time we get to play someone else’s instrument, it’s automatically fun.

What can fans expect from your debut album, Hello Memory?

They can expect an eclectic mix of music that (we hope) all sounds like Little Daylight. It is the sum of our experiences up to this point and our attempt to channel those into song. It’s dancey and fun, but also melancholy and even sad at times. Just like life!

Where do you see the band in 10-20 years?

Hopefully doing the same things that we’re doing now, maybe in different proportions… touring, writing music, recording albums, producing music for others, scoring films. Hopefully we’ll have just as much energy then as we have now. Little Daylight 4ever!