Unassuming yet undeniably upbeat, the San Diego-based band almost monday doesn't worry about being profound or groundbreaking. They're here to have fun.
Vocalist Dawson Daugherty, guitarist Cole Clisby and bassist Luke Fabry — best friends who have been making music together since high school — are in the midst of their inaugural headlining world tour.
Though it hasn't always been beach vibes and good times for almost monday, being back on the road was just what they needed.
Daugherty said because of how the band creates, they could not write a song during the pandemic, but being on the DIVE tour, accompanied by Adrian Lyles, has been an experience essential to their creative process.
"Being on the road for a month literally feels like you've squeezed two years of life into one month," Daugherty said. "To actually go meet people, be in a different city, see things — and little things kind of stick with you. You're going to make the best art you're going to make when you're really, truly, diving into life."
Making music about living life to the fullest, naturally, relies on scene-setting lyricism and sunlit experiences.
Sure, anyone can write formulaic tracks that attempt to recreate carefree Southern California culture, but, to the band, fans seem to gravitate toward authenticity and relatability.
"You write specific stories, like one of our songs called 'cough drops,' the chorus is very specific," Daugherty said. "Not being afraid of making songs that have a specific point of view or a little story behind it, oddly enough, connects with people."
Though this connection with fans seems universal, almost monday's audience is anything but a monolith. Their fans, a mix of indie and normie, young and old, moshers and wallflowers, showed up early and eager to the Feb. 18 performance at the Valley Bar in downtown Phoenix.
"What we want is to mass appeal to everyone," Clisby said. "Everyone can relate to the music."
Earlier in the tour, Fabry said one fan even "asked to get out of the hospital that day just to come to the show." This kind of commitment and community was present at their Phoenix performance, which was one of the first venues to sell out on their tour.
Their live appeal is immediately evident, as almost monday doesn't rely on complex arrangements or overproducing, rather sticky grooves and earworm vocals.
In a performance full of lively riffs and even interpretive dancing, the audience and the band were on the same wavelength as a refreshing sense of escapism flooded into the Valley Bar — much like the band's own San Diego waves.
"You guys are like the world's most respectful crowd, man," Daugherty said.
Their album's finale and the concert's final song, "life goes by," is a culmination of the philosophy and identity of almost monday. Daugherty said they laugh about it when writing in the studio, but all of their themes come back to appreciating the little things and life itself.
"It's really not profound lyrics, but I also feel like how un-profound the lyrics are makes it profound," Daugherty said. "Like, 'I just want to go to the beach.' It's almost like a kindergartener ... to just be naively grateful to be alive."
As they wrap up the U.S. leg of the DIVE tour on Feb. 22 in Los Angeles — before spending March all around Europe — almost monday senses more experiences and more living that will inform the next era of their music, whatever that looks like.
For now, the band is taking their own message to heart and appreciating every day, every show, every audience and every city they have. Their lifestyle, a 2000s teen movie come to life with a soundtrack of their own design, isn't to be taken for granted.
"I can't believe I'm in a band with my friends, and I can't believe we get to travel the world," Daugherty said. "I feel like I'm in my peak days right now."
Edited by George Headley, Sophia Braccio and Natalia Jarrett.
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Andrew is a senior studying journalism and mass communication. This is his fourth semester with The State Press. He has also worked at The Arizona Republic and Cronkite News.
