Special Powers, Cryptids and Crust Pop With People in the Daytime

Hailing from the great city of Cleveland, Ohio, People in the Daytime is comprised of guitarist & vocalist Evan Schonauer, John Polace on vocals and keys, bassist Anthony Liotta, and silent guardian/resident drummer Owen Barba . People in the Daytime blends electronic rock/funk/crust pop to create a sound that is both evil and magical. PITD joined me for a gossip session to discuss their sound, iconic style, and the special powers they bring to the table. 

The Secret Lives of Teachers

Anthony: Yeah, so everyone in the band, except for Evan, is a teacher. It's actually really funny. Owen teaches drums. John teaches piano. I teach art. So weird that it’s a career hustle that most of us share. 

I love being able to reveal that I’m in a band to my students. I’ll show videos where I’m on the floor, like throwing down. They know I am wild, but they don't know what band it is. They've tried tracking it down in the past, but with no success. I've said it's a band that begins with the letter P, and they always just ask, “Are you in Panic at the Disco?”

How did you get your name?

Anthony: Oh, I love answering this question. So back in the day, we’re talking about that old era of the band, the baby band era, as I like to call it, we actually had a different name. Our name was Funk Box, which is definitely a name of a band for high school kids. It’s a bad band name. It’s named after a drum machine that John used to use on all his solo stuff. But regardless, it’s a bad name. 

It was always a temporary name. We were hoping we would come up with something better naturally, but that never happened. So we just started riffing, and a lot of it was just quotes. For a while, we were like, "Let’s just try using quotes. Let’s try quoting anything." We thought about using a line from this Mile High Club song, talking about the phrase "silly dream," but everyone said that name sounded stupid. 

So, my memory is this: There’s an Eric Andre quote from the skit, "Who Can Hold the Most Babies," and in it, Hannibal Buress doesn’t want to hold any more babies. And he’s like, “I don’t want to do this, man. I don’t even like talking to people during the daytime.” And I was like, “What if that was our band name?” 

The fact that the name came from us just quoting things, is kind of indicative of our whole friendship. Just quoting nonsense to each other that only we understand, but kind of birthing a mysterious, elusive bad name out of it. I like it because it’s a very evocative name, without being specific.

What's your favorite part of being in a band together?

Evan: Playing shows! Also getting to share the music that we’ve prepared together with people, that's probably my other favorite part. I love doing it in a studio sense, but there’s no more immediate and grand gratification than having a crowd in front of you. There’s an exchange of energy when they’re into it, and you’re into it, and sometimes they’re actually singing along to our songs. I love it.

Anthony: Yeah, especially in cities we’ve never played or haven’t really been to before, it’s crazy. Even just one person knowing the words, or getting an audience to sing the words, is a crazy feeling. We were just in Lafayette, Indiana, and we were getting the audience to sing along to “How Dare You, Boy!” and they’d never even heard that song before. But getting a crowd to engage with what you’re doing, and having them meet you on the same level is a crazy feeling because they have no reason to care.

Live shows are a cool place to get to carry out my mission statement for this band. It’s very important that I am being wholly myself every second that I am out there, and I’m putting out 110% of my energy and my emotion, because I want to inspire people to do the same thing. And I want people to see that and be like, “Oh, I can do that too. It’s okay,” you know? So a show really is the best place for me to do that because I can immediately form that connection: eye contact, intense playing, laying it all out there. Saying my feelings, playing with my heart, you know, it’s a great place to do that.

Do you have any pre-show rituals?

Anthony: Vocal warm-ups for sure.

Evan: Yeah, gotta get that voice warmed up.

John: I don’t know, sometimes you see things like “tricks to make your voice sound better,” and it kind of doesn’t work. But vocal warm-ups do work, 100%. Evan and I will try to do them twice before we play: once in the car and then once right before the gig. When we can make it happen, we have a magical set. We make playlists for it.

No lucky underwear or anything crazy like that?

Anthony: Oh, well, I do, I’m gonna call this “research.” I watch live videos of some of my favorite bands, usually the day I play a show. I try to watch the performances that really get me excited, whether they’re being very vulnerable or just having the most fun ever.

Neutral Milk Hotel in the 90s is one of my favorites. They didn’t give a fuck how it sounded. They were just playing with all they could muster. And that’s so cool. So I try to embody that, and I will literally watch the videos and be like, hmmmm how are they having fun?

Stage Fright

Anthony: I can only really speak for myself, but I was an awkward kid who didn’t do anything growing up, and I didn’t like being in public-facing situations. The first time, well, like the first 50 times I was on stage, it was awful and horrible and awkward. I still feel that way sometimes, but I still get up there, and it’s cool to do it. I never thought I would be on a stage, singing into a microphone or screaming or doing anything like that, playing an instrument to a crowd, getting the crowd to yell things and engage. The more you do it, the more these things just develop without you even really thinking. Just as much as there are lessons to learn, there are things that just happen naturally as you grow and are forced to be in a situation more and more.

So you guys just wrapped up a tour. How did that go?

John: Good.

Anthony: Magic.

Evan: A really good set of shows, for sure. I wish it had lasted three months, or at least a month.

Anthony: Everyone, say your favorite show on three: Cincinnati.

John: I liked Cincinnati, too. That was a killer show.

Evan: Yeah, we’re three for three here.

Anthony: Let’s guess Owen’s. And then he can read this interview and be like, “What the fuck?”

John: I think he liked Chicago.

Anthony: I’m voting Detroit for Owen.

John: Yeah, no, Owen probably did like Detroit the best.

Have you ever played a really awkward show?

John: Yeah? A couple. I don’t know if we should say where it was, but we played one show where I think we all got contact high because there was so much weed in the air. So if you listen back to it, it sounds like we’re playing in separate rooms.

And I think a really iconic, early awkward show was when we played and kind of felt like we were forcing ourselves to be crazy. That was a good lesson, because we were like, “Okay, you can’t do that.” We learned that it actually felt sort of bad. It was an awkward show, but it was helpful, because it showed us that we just need to embrace how we’re feeling in the moment and not try to force anything.

Evan: Man, I don’t know. I think I agree with John. I personally had to really learn that lesson of not being influenced by the crowd, and just playing to myself and being myself. Sometimes, as performers, if the crowd isn’t giving anything back to us, we’ll give more and more. And you can do that, and sometimes it works out well, and the crowd receives energy and starts to move, and that’s great. But sometimes a crowd will just stand still, and they’re quiet, and they’re meek, and that’s fine! But you have to not let that sort of make you react in a way where you overplay or over-sing. We just have to focus on ourselves and look at each other, playing like we’re in a rehearsal space.

How do you think growing up in the Midwest has shaped your sound?

John: I feel like at the beginning, we were sort of at odds with the Midwest thing, because we’re influenced by a crazy amount of music from all over the place. So I think we felt like we didn’t fit in with the Midwest sound. But now that we’ve been playing a lot, it’s been coming out in ways that we didn’t see when we were first starting. I think something about growing up in a place influences your music in a way that you can’t control. That’s my answer.

Anthony: Great answer.

Evan: It’s a live setting thing, too. The music is whatever you want to call it, but when it comes to how we interact with an audience, I feel like we definitely have a very Midwestern energy.

John: The thing I've noticed about Cleveland crowds is that everyone is so great, and they really want to interact. I feel like tour has made Cleveland feel even more special because sometimes we’ll go to places where people will really enjoy the shows, and it’ll be great, but the audience just doesn’t want to interact the way that they do in Cleveland. And it’s just really nice to play a show and be able to say, like, "Hey, do this," and then like, people do it, makes you feel like a rock star.

Do you have a favorite venue to play at in Cleveland?

John: I like Mahall’s.

Anthony: Happy dog. Something just happens whenever we’re at Happy Dog.

Evan: We’ve gotten to a place with it where, well, we sold out the last couple of shows we played there. It’s such a small venue, and we can get a little crazy and charge each other up. Because of the density of people, it amplifies whatever crazy energy is within all of us, and some wild shit always happens.

Anthony: I think that Mahall's is a great venue because you get the density, but also you get room to be an active performer. There’s like a math equation where it’s like the size of the room, the tightness of the crowd, the tightness of the stage, and when all those things are at maximum density, but also maximum room, you get the perfect venue experience. I honestly love when things feel way too dense. Our Christmas show this year wasn’t that crazy, but last year, for some reason, it was just really hot.

John: No, someone ran into the thermostat and turned on the heat. It was an accident because the thermostats are at elbow level, but it just got really hot. But yeah, Mahall’s has a sort of legacy. You could go to a show there and see some of your favorite artists ever, and then later step on the same stage. It’s cool.

Anthony: Yeah, there are certain venues like that. The first time we played the Grog Shop, I was so blown away. The first time I had ever seen a band that I liked was there. Fast forward, and I’m literally about to play on that stage. That’s crazy.

Who’d you see?

Anthony: It was Tomas Kalnoky, the lead singer of Street Light Manifesto’s solo acoustic project.

Who are some of the artists that inspire your sound?

Anthony: The sound? That’s a good question. If it were just us in general, it would be impossible to explain.

John: The production and mixing style for this album was influenced by tape and vintage recording styles. The Beach Boys were a big one. Sly and the Family Stone's “ There’s a Riot Going On era is another big one.

Evan: The Beach Boys’ Surf’s Up album specifically. There’s a sound to that album that is very different from their other stuff.

John: Yeah, it sounds so modern, it’s crazy.

Evan: The sound is easier to pin down. But for musical inspirations, it’s impossible. We all listen to a wide variety of music. But yeah, definitely tape-inspired for this one. I got a tape machine, so we were using that. We also met a guy with the Electric Company in Akron, and they had a bunch of vintage gear. That place, in and of itself, with all the weird vintage gear, definitely inspired us for this album.

John: We were being pretty responsive to ourselves with the production here. For the first album, we wanted to make it in a way that sounds great to us, while also being timeless. For this album, we wanted it to be more aggressive and gross, exploring these ugly sounds with moments that just sound disgusting and horrible, but also moments where it sounds beautiful and lush. We were into exploring extremes.

What’s next?

Anthony: We are recording more music. The grind never stops. We are touring this summer. The grind NEVER stops. It will be our biggest tour yet.

What special powers can you give?

John: Man, I just took my Vyvance, I should be funnier right now.

Evan: I feel like we can give you special catharsis. Hopefully, you can reach some ultimate catharsis by listening to the album. I am confident in saying we did a pretty good job delivering a certain message. It might not resonate with everyone, and that’s fine. But we said something!

How would you describe your music with Spotify Daylist adjectives?

Anthony: We’ve been calling ourselves “crust pop.” Crust Pop Alternative Sunday, some bullshit like that.

Evan: I would say spooky, silly, evil music for this album in particular. Maybe like “Dracula’s Breakfast.”

John: It’s hard to describe. We like to ask other people how they would describe it. Crust pop is close; it feels like it’s growing.

What is the most scared you’ve ever been?

Evan: One time, I was walking in the woods at night, woods I wasn’t familiar with. A very midwestern thing to be doing. I was with this dude, now he and I were friends, but we had some sort of disagreement that night. We weren’t fighting or yelling, but I stopped for a second, and he was mad, so he kept going. It was pitch black out, but I just kept walking. After a while, I realized I was completely lost. I had no idea where I was or how to get back on the trail. Yeah, that was pretty terrifying.

John: Maybe like six years ago, there was a tornado that went through my hometown. I drove through it (not on purpose). Trees were falling all over the road. It was horrifying, but now I feel like I can drive in anything.

Anthony: I’ve never heard this story. I don’t have one. I’m sorry.

Here is where my free version of Zoom went out… lucky PITD graciously saved me, but I forgot to record the second session. The gang went on to express their love for the Mothman, the Flatwoods Monster, and the Yeti.