Story published in The Austin Chronicle. Online version here.
Daphne Tunes is “Sunday Pop” because “it has to do with what everyone does on Sunday,” explains Santiago Dietche. “I try to capture that feeling when you wake up late with someone you love, usually with not much going on, so the first cup of coffee tastes that much cooler.”
Volume 1, Daphne Tunes’ debut local EP from January, falls between Neil Young’s rootsy folk and Elliott Smith’s gentle introspection. It stretches sorrow into glee with breezy guitar soundscapes, and feels like putting your hand out the window on a road trip or, as its composer puts it, “looking up at the sky and just dazing.”
Dietche began sinking deeper into Daphne Tunes after a Hot Summer Nights performance with his now expiring garage-pop band, Growl, last year.
“I was between a band that was breaking up, this loud rock & roll band, and this sad pop band,” he says. “I wanted to write something in-between those that was more me.”
As he scans this year’s Red River music festival lineup, he realizes he’s connected to just about everyone.
Hovvdy is a “collaborator,” he says, his bassist Andrew Stevens records with Jess Williamson, and the guys in Holy Wave used to work with him in the Alamo Drafthouse kitchen on South Lamar.
“Oh, there’s Daphne Tunes,” Dietche exclaims. “Fourth row down on the left, first name.”
The 25-year-old Austinite is sensible about placement. Although he’s connected to the local scene, Daphne Tunes is still new to it, but a busy start to the summer highlighted by a sold-out opening slot for local surf rock stalwarts Summer Salt means more and more indieheads are catching on. Even so, don’t expect Daphne Tunes to be in small print on future lineups.