daste.: Three Queensland Boys Who Ooze Creativity

Gold Coast Trio Tyler, Braxton and Callum, who form the band daste., have perfectly blended a RnB, jazz-like sound with a modern indie-pop twist to create some truly transcending music. When listening to their track Telephone, it instantly transports you to a swanky, elegant yet laid back cocktail bar that resides somewhere between Hackney and Brooklyn, NY. Catch me gliding down the local High St with this blaring down my headphones.

What is most apparent between these sunshine state lads, is their synergy in creative expression and as best mates. They each understand each other and what one another offers. It’s quite obvious how that flows through to the music with each element injected into the music thought through methodically and introduced with purpose.

We caught up with these genuine slices to chat about their music career, performing and of course Lord of The Rings.

Read all the feels below:

How did you guys form daste.?

Tyler: daste. somewhat began back when I met Braxton back in 2013 in Science class at highschool, we became really good mates and started creating music. Following that Brax went on to study music at uni where he met Callum.

Braxton: Callum had this band he was going to record for a class but it fell through and I had Tyler coming in for a jam session so offered to let him record us. Then it kind of just kicked off from there. So always help mates.

What do each of you do musically in the band?

Tyler: We all kind of switch around quite a bit. When it started though Braxton and I mainly sung and Callum was mainly in a producer role. We’ve now kind of melded into one creatively though and we’re all rounders who like to mix and match. 

Braxton: Yeah, at the start there were more defined roles but now we’re kind of all jumping on songwriting and doing a little producing, it was sort of just a natural progression. We all get inspired by each other creatively and no one song has come about the same way.

How do you as a group of 3 make creative decisions? 

Tyler: It definitely helps that there are 3 of us and not an even number, we run it like a democracy haha. 

Callum: I feel like at the same time there’s been a couple of moments where the majority wasn’t necessarily into something creatively but the other is feeling quite passionate about it and I think we all love each other and have enough empathy to work through it.

Tyler: I’d also say most of the time someone comes to the group with a half-baked idea and then we work together as a team to bring it to life.

There was quite a big uplift in streams this year, hitting nearly 26M, what do you think attributed that?

Tyler: For some reason Telephone got picked up by the Spotify algorithm and yeah it loves it. We’re trying to figure out what part of the song attributed to that but we don’t really know. It just kind of picked up in the last year which we were shocked by because Telephone and our other single that popped off were released in an EP that dropped at the start of COVID. We were really excited about it as well but it sort of just flatlined. Which was obviously disappointing but we moved on and then here we are a few years later and came back really big and it’s really nice for us to see that, considering we put a lot of passion, fun and extermination into it. 

Would you say it was kind of a slow-burn?

Tyler: I wouldn’t say it was a slow-burn, it was pretty flat haha.

Fine Tune Magazine: Haha sorry I meant from when it started picking up in 2022.

Callum: Haha I’d say it was pretty steady once it started getting picked up, but yeah last year was a good year.

Is performing something you enjoy and would you say it’s at the core of what you do? 

All: Yeah we love performing.

Tyler: I think sometimes the stress of organising headline shows has gotten to us and can become a bit stressful when thinking about ticket sales, getting the support acts and organising everything. It just kind of takes away from sort of just enjoying rehearsing and creating the set and stuff like that. In saying that, I think we love it. It's just as always with the music industry, I think the business side of things kind of takes a little bit of a toll sometimes but in terms of actually playing live, we love it and we have to do a lot more in 2024. We’ve got some pretty big plans, hopefully including some traveling which is pretty big for us.

In a dream scenario, would you take a packed venue or 20 million streams on a song?

Tyler: Well, I guess we're the pack then you can kind of see their faces. It's kind of hard with this with the streams. 

Braxton: Yeah, I'll take the fact that we're connecting in the room with them.

Tyler: For sure. It's like those moments people talk about when they write a song in their bedroom, and then a year later, there's like a crowd singing it back to them and it being the most surreal thing ever.

Who would you say is the funniest other three of you?

Tyler & Callum: Braxton for sure!

Braxton: Yeah, I’m just weird bro, haha. I think just being the glue of the band I like to just keep things a bit light , you know, just make sure we’re all getting along and we're having a good time. But yeah, I couldn’t tell you why, I don’t think with my mind, I think with heart aye haha.

If you're stuck on an island with minimal food and water, who do you think will outlast one another?

Tyler & Callum: Braxton again for sure.

Braxton: Yeah I’d probably eat the boys.

Callum: Whenever we’re on holiday, you wake up and Brax is gone and he’s just out exploring.

What would one thing that he would do if he had zero consequence?

Braxton: Well I was just saying I was going to eat you boys haha.

Tyler: Haha probably rob a bank?

If you were a LOTR character, which one would you be?

Tyler: I would definitely be some sort of Hobbit depending on the type of day i’d either be Frodo or Smeagol.

Callum: I'm gonna go a bit left field and say Faramir. Doesn’t get the attention he deserves.

Braxton: Definitely an Orc of some kind, I think that’s just me.

Lastly, what’s on the cards for 2024?

Tyler: Things are happening, keep an eye out for a few things we’ve got cooking.

There’s no denying daste. is at the beginning of a very long career, so sit back, plug in and continue to watch them soar. In saying that, it’s all dependent on if they find themselves stuck on an island with minimal resources, Daste might then become a solo act.

Check out daste.’s song butterfly below or head to our Soul Music Sunday’s playlist to hear more songs like this one.

Written by Samuel Seedsman.