“I thought that once I was a "grown up" I'd have all the answers, but if anything, it gets more confusing the older you get,” explains Matt Henry, drummer of Maryland indie punks, Lilac Daze. The topic of conversation is the coming of age feeling that spills from the raw, youthful urgency of the trio’s music. “I want people to know that they are not alone. If our music can help even just one person get through a rough time in their life, then I'd say that I've achieved what I set out to do.”

Formed just under four years ago by three friends, Lilac Daze – completed by guitarist Evan Braswell and bassist Patti Kortrady, started much like any band: drinking beer and jamming in basements. “I received a riot grrrl book for Christmas and got inspired to start a band for the first time,” says Kortrady, reflecting on the how the band came together. “Evan started teaching me bass. Evan and Matt had been in bands together since their pre-teen years, so it only seemed natural for Matt to play drums with us. The dynamics of the band has changed a lot since then, but that’s how it all started.”

After finding a sound that works for them, somewhere between sweet, indie-rock and brittle bummer punk, Kortrady explains that the combination has “a lot to do with our personal influences and our writing styles,” and admits her personal taste gravitates towards the indie side of things. “Historically, it’s what I’ve enjoyed listening to, and I seek to incorporate it into the band’s sound,” she says. “Matt’s grown up on a lot of “bummer” punk and thrash metal, so I think that comes out in the song writing process. A good mixture of both inspires Evan, so it works out well.”

Sharing vocal duties between all three members, the contrasting styles that influence this young band shines through on their self-titled debut album. Whether it’s the shimmering melody of ‘Shark Bait’, or the bombastic racket they make during ‘Glow In The Dark’, it remains cohesive throughout. “Ultimately, we all come to the table with different ideas and work as mediators for each other to ensure that we get everything we want into our sound,” says Kortrady, digging deeper into the core of Lilac Daze.

“We all try to contribute equally to the band’s sound,” she continues. “At this point in our careers, we’re all doing our own thing and I’m living in a different state, so we tend to come up with song ideas independently and then bring them to practice to work out. At that point, we collaborate, making sure each of us is represented in the songs. As far as vocals, we tend to sing the lyrics that we write. Evan and I write some of the lyrics together, so we usually split the singing on those songs.”

The new album follows on from their 2014 EP, ‘Sedated’. Henry admits that he feels the album is “the most focused batch of song we’ve written so far,” and that previously Lilac Daze were “still figuring what we wanted to sound like.” While the album retains the grit and angst that peppered ‘Sedated’, it is certainly more refined this time around.

“When you’re in a band for a long period of time you see the growth of yourself as a person, and that translates to the music you write,” he says. “When we wrote and recorded ‘Sedated’ we were all still discovering who we are and what we wanted to be. Not just as a band but in our personal lives as well. I think with this album we really hit the nail on the head. In our earlier recordings, we would tend to write the songs weeks or even days before we recorded them. We spent a lot more time crafting these songs and most of them were played live over the course of year before we made the album.”

The more you listen to the album, the further invested in it you become. It has a very relatable narrative that whatever you are going through right now, or you what you have been through in the past, it’s a comforting reminder that everyone has problems. Henry speaks openly about the lyrical content, explaining how “It’s easy to feel out of place in this world, especially in your 20’s,” and that everyone is “faced with a lot of life changing decisions.”

Life is hard for everyone at some point, and the members of Lilac Daze are certainly not immune to that. “I’d say all of our songs tackle the day to day struggles of life,” he continues. “Whether it’s relationships, dealing with depression and addiction, or just trying to figure who you are as a person. They all come from real life situations we’ve experienced.”

“Lyrically, we all have pretty different writing styles,” adds Braswell, breaking down the collaborative effort that all three members of Lilac Daze bring to the band. “Matt has always been a great storyteller in his lyrics and I think that really shines on the album. Patti has a keen way of writing abstractly and poetically. And for me, I have a hard time writing about broad concepts or ideas, so I find most of my songs are about life experiences that have impacted me enough to want to put it on paper and share it with others. As Matt and Patti have said, we’ve all grown so much in the past 4 years of being a band and this album really conveys that.”

With a sound as diverse as the one that Lilac Daze possess, you would no doubt get a different impression of their music depending on how you first find an inroad to them. You might get hit square in the face with some bratty thrash, or bright and uplifting hooks might swallow you. The band rerecorded the crowd favourite, ‘Drinking With An Ulcer’ from their 2013 EP, which Braswell describes as “an oldie but a goodie,” when asked what songs might sum up Lilac Daze.

“Other than that, I’d say “Shark Bait” is pretty expressive of our sound moving forward, he continues. “It was one of the earlier songs we wrote for the LP and it seemed to spark new excitement and motivation in us to write the rest of the album.”

As Lilac Daze head into the future, it’s not yet a full time prospect. They have plenty of personal commitments, but it keeps them humble in their ambition. “Matt recently got married and works 2 jobs, Patti is almost done with her secondary social studies teaching certification, and I work full-time as a case manager in the mental health field,” says Braswell of their heavy schedule away from the band. “We’ve never really had lofty goals for this band and continue to be happy with whatever we get. We have certainly accomplished more than any of us would have ever thought. We plan to keep writing music together in whatever capacity possible and tour whenever we can”

So with their impressive self-titled debut album under their belt, and doing as much they can when they can, the world is their oyster. “Good question,” says Braswell, pondering what the dream is. “Who Knows? We sure don’t.”

There may not be a plan in place or an endgame in mind for Lilac Daze, but more often than not, that’s usually the best way.

Lilac Daze self-titled album is released on October 14th via Black Numbers. The band also have a handful of US shows coming up, which you can see the dates for below.

October
14 FREDERICK, MD The Squat (Album release show)
20 WASHINGTON DC, Songbyrd

November
05 BROOKLYN, NY The Gateway