You’ve seen them on the hit MTV series Making the Band 4 and listened to songs from their subsequent chart-topping debut. But for Day26, the reality of bringing timeless music to the table on their new album “Forever In A Day” is more important than what makes “great television.”
Speaking with Singersroom, after both the highly rated season finale that saw the end of the original Danity Kane in 2008 and this season’s much-talked-about fights between members of the group, Day26 gets candid on their music, the words “sophomore curse,” and their relationship with Diddy. Day26’s Que also clears up rumors surrounding his portrayal on Making the Band 4 and where he stands today.
Singersroom: You guys are out on tour promoting the album “Forever In A Day,” what should fans expect from the stage show this time. How’s the choreography?
Que: I think they’ll be able to see a lot more growth from Day 26. Everything looks different and everything sounds different.
Singersroom: Cool, so those dance classes (seen on Making the Band 4) have paid off and you guys are better then?
Que: A lot better. We’ve been grinding and dancing a lot better. So I would say the stage performance has gotten so much better; the fans are going to enjoy it.
Singersroom: With album number two comes that whole sophomore curse factor and battle over the albums sound. Do you think, on “Forever In A Day,” you nailed what you were fighting for (in terms of hitting the club and experimenting with other sounds) as seen on MTV?
Brian: Before we actually started recording we told ourselves that we’re not even going to think about a sophomore curse. We just knew we were going to be about going in and making good music. In my opinion, not to sound arrogant or conceited, I feel like we put together a great album and honestly I really feel like we owe a whole a lot to Will.
Brian: Will would wake up every morning (to) call and harass producers about sending us tracks. He’d be the first one up in the morning doing this and doing that and the last one at night to go to sleep. This time around with hustle like that and grind like that, Will was making sure that we were not going to have a sophomore curse â so thank you Will!
Singersroom: That’s love right there, so how long did it take to get through the album?
Brian: We actually didn’t start recording until like January 10th and we finished like February… maybe 20th or something like that. We recorded over 44 songs. We were grinding and working. We were playing here and there but knocking out two and three songs a day at times. We just knew what we needed to do. We’re all very focused guys despite what you might see on the show and we take our craft very serious.
Singersroom: I have to ask about the album title, is Forever In A Day intended to mean “timeless?”
Brian: We wanted something that was definitely going to be timeless….. timeless is forever you know. We feel like the type of music that we do is timeless and it’s forever.
Singersroom: On Making the Band of course, we see everything from meetings with Diddy to studio time, when it came down to control over this album…. did you guys feel more in control of the songs and direction?
Brian: We had a good amount of control. Willie played a part in calling and getting tracks from producers and we actually wrote the majority of the album this time around…. I think we wrote every song on the album but two if I’m not mistaken. This is our baby you know. “Forever In A Day” is just who Day26 really is and hopefully the fans are very pleased with that.
Singersroom: What was Diddy’s response to the final product?
Brian: Diddy is not like the mean guy that he might come off as on television. We get a chance to see a side of Diddy that the average person doesn’t really get to see. The first time he heard our music was very surprising. That dude like jumped up and started dancing and clapping around like “I’m very proud of guys. You got in there and did what you had to do for a great album.” To hear that from a person like Diddy is like an honor man. The dude is a legend and he’s been doing this forever. To hear that come out of his mouth sealed the deal. Like Day26 is for real in his mind and it’s not just like a gimmick TV show group; it’s for real.
Singersroom: Brian and Will, there has been a lot of you two sort of taking the helm on “Forever In A Day”… has the show been accurate in its portrayal or has there been a little editing?
Brian: It wasn’t like that, you know like in the studio “Brian and Will..” “Brian and Will”… you know it’s definitely not like that. Actually watching the show it made me laugh like “wow it’s so not like that” but through editing they’re sort of able to just move things around to fit the storyline â which is cool. Whatever makes great TV but, we’re definitely not like that.
Singersroom: Yeah man. It kind of had it looking like you guys were taking control of everything?
Brian: Yeah just like we were running things (laughs).
Singersroom: Yeah, Que… how do you feel about the show and editing because due to the last few episodes you’ve been called words like “crazy” and all types of things?
Que: You know I laugh at it too because you know they don’t show everything. Like you guys have seen on television our show is 100% real so whatever you see it happens and it’s real but the editing can twist up the story. I’m not crazy or on drugs or anything. I just have a strong opinion. I’m a young adult and I’m going to make mistakes. I’ve learned from them and I’ve grown but, I’m not crazy I’m just growing up on television in front of everybody.
Singersroom: I’ll admit I’ve been watching MTB4 since day one for the most part, I believe you said at one point that “Day 26 should stick to the hardcore R&B audience” early in the season…. is there enough of a balance on this album for fans who really enjoyed songs like “Since You’ve Been Gone?”
Brian: We do have the traditional Day26 ballads on this album. Actually, Ne-Yo penned it… called “Then There Was You.” We have “Truth Is A Lie,” “Babymaker”… we got “So Good.” We didn’t stray too far away from the Day 26 on the first album, we just took it to another level as far as up tempo tracks. We felt like last time around, on the first album, we missed a huge crowd and that’s the club crowd. Like Will says all the time we’d go in the club and people would say “oh Day 26 is here”, so we wanted to give people something they didn’t have the first time around. —— By: Interview By: Njai Joszor
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