PropertyOfZack caught up with Daytrader at the end of The Swellers/Fake Problems co-headlining tour for a brief interview. Gary, Tym, and I discussed various van issues that hindered the band earlier in the summer, their last tour with The Swellers and Fake Problems, the release of a 7” at the end of the year, and a debut full-length in the beginning of 2012. Read up!

For the record, could you state your names and roles in Daytrader?
Gary: I’m Gary, and I play guitar and single a little bit.
Tym: I’m Tym, and I sing more.

You guys have had a really busy year with a ton of touring. Before this run you were out with Seahaven and Daylight. How were those dates?
Gary: They were as good as they could have been considering how bad things went for us on that tour. Two days into that tour our van exploded in Boston and we didn’t know what to do. Our van was going to cost more to fix then it was worth. We took busses back to New York and spent a couple days trolling Craigslist and every used car dealership in the New YorK City area. I found a van, bought it, insured it, registered it, got a toll package, and spent a crazy amount of money. We were ready to leave the next morning after that and we drove straight to Florida from New York.
Tym: It was 26 hours.
Gary: We got to North Carolina and the van started making horrible noise, so we kept going. We stopped in Georgia and took it to a mechanic and the guy told us we needed a new rear end and that it’d take four days to get here. Another guy told us that we’d be all right driving to Florida. He was really honest and trustworthy. We got there and went to another mechanic who gave us a completely more hopeful diagnostic of us just needing to replace a few bearings in the rear end, not the whole thing. He said he was closing in a half hour though for the weekend, so we bribed the guy.
Tym: We paid him extra money and he still did it for a fifth of what the other guy wanted.
Gary: We still made it to the show, but it was like $4,000 later. From there on out the tour was going okay until we got to Alabama and the entire van collapsed.
Tym: The ball-joint snapped and the entire frame of the van was scraping against the highway while we were driving. We got that fixed.
Gary: The AAA guy brought us to his friends shop and he fixed it for us in an hour. We made it to the show against. Besides that it went pretty smoothly until Bled Fest when we broke down again. It got fixed again though. All of the mechanics were extremely racist though.

Have you guys noticed an increase in fans and momentum from the beginning of the year?
Tym: Definitely. On that tour we played Krazy and Bled Fest and they were great. Bled Fest was crazier than Krazy Fest. It was a younger crowd with younger bands. Bled Fest was great.
Gary: We did some dates with I Am The Avalanche too, and they were awesome. We didn’t know what to think because they haven’t released a record in six years, but people loved them. It was awesome. Transit was there too.

How has this tour with The Swellers and Fake Problems been?
Gary: It’s been really cool. I feel like it hasn’t been as good for us as I hoped it would be because of the kind of kids that come to these shows. We’ll post something on Facebook or Twitter the day of the show and a bunch of people had no idea. We’re more used to dealing with promoters that promote within the punk and hardcore scene and these promoters typically work with bigger scaled things and most kids don’t know who we are.
Tym: It’s definitely a good tour and both bands are awesome. They’re great live bands.
Gary: It’s definitely the most fun tour we’ve ever been on. We’ve had a great time and we’re playing to kids who have never heard of us. This one’s different because of that. Typically it goes over pretty okay.
Tym: This is a club tour. Usually we’ll do houses or basements, but this is rock clubs.

Last Days Of Rome has been out since January. Has the band been happy with the reception so far?
Tym: I wish that more people have heard it. We’ve gotten good reaction to it though. We’re excited to put out a wider release. We’ve only been a band for a year, but we can’t do too much else without a full-length.
POZ: How much does the band have written?
Gary: We have a record’s worth of material. Whether all that will make it on is debatable. We should have a full-length finished by the end of the year for a release early next year. We’re hoping to release a few new songs later this year on a 7” or something.

Are you guys going to keep touring and record later in the year?
Gary: We probably won’t tour again this year unless something crazy comes up. We’re going to focus on writing and recording. It’ll be mid-August by the time we get back from this tour. We’ll only have two months to write before we record the record.
POZ: Has a producer been chosen yet?
Gary: We’re exploring our options right now. We have it narrowed down to a few, but I think it’ll be awesome.
Tym: We’re at the final stages of finding the write producer and label for our record. We really feel good. We’ve been playing a new song and kids have been into it. We can’t wait to have a full-length to show people what our band sounds like.
Gary: We do hope to release a 7” this year though. It’s been a long time, and I feel like our new material puts our old material to shame. It’d be cool to give people a taste of what’s to come. The record will be early next year and the 7” will be a teaser of the record.