Days No Different now has a tour behind them but a long road ahead

Days No Different

Reno’s own Days No Different is representing the home team at the Crocs Next Step Campus Tour on Friday. Playing at Lawlor Events Center on the University of Nevada, Reno campus won’t be strange for the five-man rock group that. Bassist Matt Andrew, Guitar/piano player Jeff DePaoli, and lead guitarist Danny Johnson are all taking classes at UNR this fall, and drummer Brian James is just taking a break. Ahead of the Aug. 29 show, Metromix talked with DePaoli and lead singer and guitarist John Gray.

How did you get to be part of the UNR stop of the Crocs Next Step Campus Tour?
John Gray: Matt works for ASUN. The head guy of the Associated Students of the University of Nevada wanted to do something with us for a while, and this opportunity came through, so we all said “let’s do it.”

How often are you playing shows?
JG: We’re trying to do every weekend. We just finished a 30-day tour with just about seven of those days off. Coming back, we wanted to take a couple weeks off and in late September start doing the weekend warrior thing, hitting the Bay Area, even going down as far as Vegas and as far south in California as San Luis Obispo, hitting college towns and trying to create a buzz.
Jeff DePaoli: We’re trying to space it out in Reno a little bit, play here every six weeks or so.
JG: You can create a buzz in Reno if you’ve got the music for it and people like it, but then after a while, if you’re playing every weekend in Reno, people are going to get tired of it … so we gotta try to bring something new to the table every six to eight weeks, whether it’s a bigger show or a different band we’re playing with or new material.

What’s the farthest you’ve traveled on a weekend trip?
JG: We went to Los Angeles, we drove down there and it was a 12-hour drive. It was worth it, anytime you’re meeting new people, making new friends, and selling a few CDs. And we got a pretty substantial paycheck for it, and that’s always good.
JD: It was the kind of show with lots of people there, not necessarily everyone paying attention, but if anybody pays attention that’s exposure enough.

That sounds like an intense trip.
JG: For sure, especially in an 1988 Suburban pulling a trailer. During summer time, it’s a little rough, and for most of our tour we lucked out and it wasn’t too hot, but the Suburban doesn’t really have air conditioning. Well, it does but —
JD: It’s like 10 miles to the gallon already, so put the AC on, and you’re killing your gas mileage.
JG: Even worse, we were in Vegas and it started to overheat, so we couldn’t even turn the AC on. It was brutal.
JD: Danny even had to turn the heater on to help cool off the engine, so we’re cruising through Vegas with the heat blasting.
JG: But we’re hoping to get a van that we can sort of rely on in early ’09.

How is it going with your first album, “Surrender the Mystery” (released in June)?
JG: So far so good. We’ve sold over 300 copies.
JD: Probably closer to 500.
JG: We did really well on tour, which was awesome, and we lucked out. We were hoping to break even and sell a couple hundred CDs, and we did better than that and made money coming back.

How long has Days No Different been in its current form?
JG: The five of us have been together for like a year now. I always say October ’07, and Danny, Brian and myself have been together since July ’06. And Jeff and Matt were new additions around October. … We’re all proud of ourselves, but there’s still a lot to do. You look at any band that’s coming out now, Paramore or Cartel, the band we’re playing with — Cartel’s been together since ’03, and a lot of people still don’t know who they are.
JD: Well, they did that “Band in a Bubble” thing, and I still didn’t know who they are. I was at work the other day and said, “We’re playing with Cartel,” and my friend was like, “the ‘Band in a Bubble’ band?” and I looked it up — sure enough.
JG: It’s just like the proof of how hard it is. We’ve been together since ’06, and there’s a long road ahead. Honestly, I think we’re looking forward to it. So much more to learn, but so much more fun to be had, and we love what we do.

How do you guys practice ahead of a big show?
JG: We don’t practice the same day.
JD: Never the same date.
JG: Even if we haven’t practiced for four days, we’ll never practice on the same day

I don’t know if I want to phrase it as “blow your wad,” but …
JD: Well, it’s a lot like that, though. It can kind of kill the freshness if you rehearse it that day. It can definitely kill that vibe.
JG: You practice three or four times a week, but when you have a show coming up, you start doing it five or six times a week.

How is Friday’s show going to go down?
JG: So we’re supposed to be either third or fourth act to go – we’re not actually sure how the lineup exactly is going to work out, but they seem to be trying to alternate the hip hop and rock. … And there really isn’t an act on the bill that we don’t like, and we’re looking forward to seeing all of them.

If there was one you didn’t like, would you tell us?
JG: Probably not [laughs].

But there’s no feud, at least?
JD: There’s definitely no feud, but again, going back to some of us have out own music preferences.
JG: But there have been times that we’ve kind of like passed judgment on a band before we played with them, and then they’ve blown us away. We’re just looking forward to Friday night.
JD: There have been some pretty big bands that have played in Lawlor, so we’re excited to be there.