daine is creating Gen Z optimism

The Filipino-Australian pop star’s discography begins in 2020. When listening chronologically, a relentless push and pull emerges. Their earliest songs move between trap, emo rap, and hyperpop, the accompanying artwork turning more fantastical, hyperreal, and bare with each release. Their precociousness scored them a major-label signing, a cosign and mentorship from Charli xcx, and a collaboration with Bring Me The Horizon’s Oli Sykes, when they were just shy of 20. Many artists hope to have such a surge of success, but in retrospect, the lofty expectations triggered a flurry of growing pains.

“When I was younger, I had a lot of different people pulling me in a lot of directions,” daine affirms. “I was experimenting, and I was young, but I think that’s okay. I was quite all over the place, and my sonic identity was still developing, but that’s because I didn’t really know exactly what I wanted to be.”

Daine summarises their artistic and personal evolution very succinctly: “It was a confidence thing.” They’ve jumped ship from their major imprint to indie label Pack. Records; they’ve dialled down the futuristic hues for ones evocative of reality; and they’ve received incredibly rapturous support from their peers, despite feeling “embarrassed” about making their landmark debut album, In Endless Awe & Agony.

“It was like, let’s peel off all the sonic elements that I would use to disguise myself. We don’t need that much overdrive and autotune; we don’t need to shroud my identity; and I don’t need to make up metaphors to sound cool,” daine says. “I should actually say what I’m thinking and feeling, and the result is something that’s just so frank.” Daine is embracing being human, imperfections and all – it’s as simple as that.

What’s been left behind from their previous eras is their volatility, ironically the constant that has defined daine, but they’ve weaponised it more productively. In Endless Awe & Agony is a triumph, unsurprisingly born of years of hard work, highs and lows, and personal turmoil, where daine channels their accumulated wisdom through sharpened confessional songwriting. “It seems so much more serious, but it’s still a really playful record at the same time,” daine says. “It encapsulates every type of duality you can think of because it’s a map of the human psyche.” 

The twinkly “Product of Profit (P.O.P.)” deceptively opens as a lullaby, until daine’s guttural screams emphasise the debilitating double-edged sword of being perceived in the music industry. The irresistibly joyful “Love Love (Love Love)” interrogates the conflict of simultaneously desiring isolation and connection. The maximalist indie-pop of “(I Want You In) Dakota” explores how everything feels so serious, and there must be an opportunity to dance through the pain. Even the album title, In Endless Awe & Agony, is a paradox: optimism and pain coexist. “Polarities create each other, and it’s beautiful to experience all of them in a musical narrative, you know?”

The heightened vulnerable authenticity is clearly in the songs. A quick skim of the album reveals most actually reside in the Alex G guitar world rather than the electro-pop one, as the anthemic, obsessive lead single “PQC” may have hinted. The back-to-back acoustic guitar-led songs “Wishing Well” and “God Figure” would be right at home on Alex G’s Rocket. He and bands like Title Fight, American Football, and Sunny Day Real Estate are especially important influences this time around, just as local hardcore and early hyperpop scenes kickstarted daine’s musical journey.

“I think it’s more natural to me. You can go on YouTube and find a cover of 16-year-old me with black hair and a septum ring covering Alex G – it’s insane,” daine muses, and readers can do the detective work. “That’s always my comfort zone, but I also wanted the record to be optimistic and nostalgic. I think for my generation, that is the early 2010s indie pop.”

That claim can be backed up: Days before our conversation, daine covered Martin Solveig and Dragonette’s “Hello” for Triple J’s flagship ‘Like A Version’ programme, a Millennial classic of that 2010s era. Back then, dancey electro-pop was plentiful at festivals. Australia had Stereosonic, with heavy-hitters like Calvin Harris, Avicii, and Tiësto leading many lineups. Festivalgoers who couldn’t make Stereosonic could experience it at home with Ministry of Sound’s The Annual compilation CDs, and dare I say, the Aussies beat the Brits during this period with their barrage of headier, crunchier, and more euphoric mixes. Solveig and Dragonette’s hit appears on the 2011 edition.

Stereosonic’s last stint was in 2015. Similar headliners seldom return and reserve their frequent festival runs for other continents. Australia’s version of The Annual quietly disappeared too. The solution, then, is to create that opportunity for yourself. This dance music is returning thanks to a new generation of electro-pop artists who witnessed it as kids, but were obviously too young to partake in clubbing. Frost Children, Ninajirachi, and daine are some artists spearheading this wave. Millennial optimism walked so Gen Z optimism could run. Once I mention Stereosonic, daine lights up immediately.

“Literally! My sister said that to me the other week. She was like, ‘Your gen has it so shit. When I was your age, we had Stereosonic and Calvin Harris, and now your life sucks,’” daine says, mocking their sister. “We know it sucks, which is why I’m trying to fix it. That’s why I think the cover went viral because it’s like, ‘Hello’, it’s signalling to the people that we are officially in the 2010s revival era of nostalgia, which I don’t think has happened yet.”

Many signs are signalling this imminent nostalgia wave, but it may already be here. Daine lists a few: Charli’s latest Strokesy record, Music, Fashion, Film, and how she joined the American rockers on stage for their Is This It closer “Take It or Leave It”; Kim Petras collaborating with Porches for her song “Jeep”; and the two pop stars reposting daine’s cover of “Hello”. “We’re all pushing the thing. We’re like, ‘Oh, okay, we’re all doing this now. Full steam ahead, get this shit to the moon.’” At the time of writing, daine and I are 23, and we both agree that we, and everyone else around our age, need this. “We have to save the children! Well, we’re not children, but we’re children! We deserve our indie, optimistic, early 20s that’s all zany and fun. We missed out, but no longer, not anymore.”

There’s also something wonderful about much of this electro-pop wave happening in Australia, given its presence there over a decade ago. Australia’s own Empire of the Sun, Sneaky Sound System, and Bag Raiders are some pioneers of the country’s indie-dance scene who were billed highly for Stereosonic.

The international players are the ones who are catching on. “Literally every day, people are like to me and Nina, ‘When are you moving to LA? When are you moving to New York?’ And I’m like, ‘Nah’.” Daine’s been there, done that; they’re good in Melbourne. “Why the fuck would we move to America? We spend half the year in America working anyway. The off time that we have should be spent with our parents and family – in a country with healthcare.”

Besides daine’s artistry becoming more cohesive, their earnestness has led them to create music they hope will encourage “people to accept themselves and integrate parts of their feelings that they might shy away from looking towards.” They expound, “When I finished the record, I realised it was basically a Jungian individuation arc; an integration of all of the different voices of the self. For me, I was able to identify all of these feelings, ways of thinking, and tendencies that I didn’t know that I had.”

Daine giving themselves more grace has made In Endless Awe & Agony what it is: a conduit for optimism. “Music is a lot of different things to a lot of people, but it is a business, and it is a job,” daine reiterates, the gravitas noticeable given their enduring presence in the industry. “But I think first and foremost, it saved my life because I was doing this, and it became a somatic processing tool and psychoanalysis tool. That’s what really got me out of the shitter this past year, so that’s the main part that I’m grateful for.” Their success and attention are just a bonus; the tangible empowerment they deliver is vital.