Waikato music: DateMonthYear

May is New Zealand Music Month, which aims to celebrate Kiwi music and the people who make it. The Waikato has some incredibly talented musicians, so we are showcasing some of them this month, whether they are currently based in the region or they grew up in the mighty Waikato.

Hamilton band DateMonthYear are currently working on their latest album, which band founder Trevor (Trev) Faville said is full of hard-hitting songs that speak of issues - global and personal - that have a need to be spoken about, rather than songs that provide a distraction from what is going on in the world.

“They’re not unified by one particular theme, but what we’re trying to do specifically is to make sure we don’t waste any tracks and trying to make sure that every song has something useful to say,” Trev said.  

Initially shunning traditional band formats, DateMonthYear’s structure has meant that “commitment is defined by contribution” with allowance for new ideas and influence.

The fluidity of the line-up has ensured a smorgasbord of musical flavours, but having said that, the current line-up of Trev, Emma Koretz, Brooke Baker, Hayley Schwass and Tyler Leet have been consistent for the last few years, and the ensemble has certainly continued to evolve and develop in interesting ways.

Trev describes their music as pop melodies, rock dynamics and a movie cinematic atmosphere.

“That’s the best description. Technically it’s rock music, but it’s a little bit more than that,” Trev said.

“Ultimately, we make music for ourselves and to be honest to our inner voice. I think that people who like our music would be people who are looking for that voice, be it honest, flawed or true.”

Formed by Trev in 2003, he had spent some time in the UK as what started as a “typical Kiwi OE” however he found himself staying on longer to study music and working to cover the cost of travel.

During his time in London, he picked up a job working at a London hospital, where the band name was born during a group chat with colleagues and a casual competition between friends for a name.

He took one look at a hospital admissions form and decided DateMonthYear would be a winner.

“I looked at the hospital admissions form where it said date month year, and it stuck,” Trev said.

“I think second place was something to do with a German air-conditioning company.”

As soon as he returned to New Zealand, Trev began work on the band. He describes DateMonthYear as a “way of making music”, with the simple aim to create and share.

The band’s most recent song, called March, eludes to the idea of going through the process of grief and loss.

“The song itself is quite different to our last one, musically,” Trev said.

“It’s a lot more dramatic and has dynamic changes involved. It’s something more of a big rock song. It is a completely different topic lyrically but probably just as intense.”

The band embraced the unconventional with their previous single Numbers, which was a video-only release as a teaser of what’s to come from their album. After the online success of the widely played Numbers video, the song has been well received worldwide with international airplay in France, Mexico, USA, and United Kingdom.

The song Numbers reflects on today’s society and how people’s lives revolve around numbers – those of your mortgage or rent, income, supermarket shopping and simply hoping that you have enough to pay for groceries and bills each week.

Making music comes naturally to Trev who has been involved in the music scene for over 30 years, and now teaches at a school in Hamilton.

Thrown in the deep end at a school assembly as a drummer, once he started he couldn’t stop.

“I was telling my friends at school about how I was learning the drums. One, who was already quite an accomplished musician, said to me: ‘OK then, we are playing next week at an assembly. You're drumming!’

“After that, I grabbed any musical situation that came my way; brass bands, shows, orchestras, wedding bands, punk bands…anything really. That’s how my career began.”

For Trev it’s not about making millions, rather about bringing music to people that has a bit of difference.

“It’s an approach to making music that values creativity, eclecticism and musicianship. If it survives in the marketplace, then that’s well and good, but ultimately the idea is to make music that we can all look back at twenty years later and still be proud of.”

“We’re not rock stars, that is a phrase that has become hijacked in the 21st century and has little real meaning now. It simply has to be about making the music and trying to make sure that the music gets heard,” Trev said.

“I find that there’s always choices in life, but I can’t choose not to do music in some shape or form. I sort of feel like I have to do it. I hear music in my head all the time and so that means I have to write it and perform it. The teaching, the writing, the performing, it’s all part of the same parcel of doing music. That’s what I feel I have to do – it’s pretty much like breathing.”

To hear DateMonthYear’s music visit their YouTube channel and stay up to date with DateMonthYear’s ventures on their Facebook page.