Photo via Vanessa Blea
ORB Photographer met up with 10pmtoclose over coffee to discuss all things music, creative processes, and upcoming shows. Band members consist of the duo Chris Daschke (CD) on Keys/Synths and Bass and Scott Williams (SW) on Guitar and Vocals.
ORB: Thank you so much for meeting with Off Record Blog! The formation of 10pmtoclose is a fairly recent one. What is the origin story of 10pmtoclose and what led to the naming of the group?
CD: Good question. Our formation began almost a little over two years ago but we didn’t really start releasing anything until last year with the exception of a few singles released at the end of 2020. The formation of it was just an idea I had and Scott got on board with it. We realized it was a thing we wanted to do and I think we both just wanted to write a lot of music.
SW: We ran into that “midnight sound” a lot while we were creating before we had a name, and I think the name is reflective of the sound we wanted to highlight, that midnight feel we keep coming across. We were writing and kept coming up with that sound so we kind of formed everything around that.
CD: We also wanted to have something that stood out as a name. A name interesting enough for people to wonder “okay, what is this?”
SW: Plus, if you sort your playlist by alphabetical order, numbers show up first.
ORB: What is your writing/creative process when it comes to creating songs and what is your favorite part about the creative process?
CD: I think the first thing we usually do is come up with a groove with either a chord progression or riff or something like that.
SW: It always starts with a feeling.
CD: It usually has elements of either dance vibes or like a strut. Like someone described it recently “as a power walk down the street.” Starting with the rhythm is always what we start with and is the most fun about the process.
SW: I think flushing it out and hearing the sound we started with then listening to how we stretched it out as far as it can go and realizing it’s a complete idea. It’s like finishing the essay or wrapping things up, I think that’s the funnest part to me. It always starts off with an idea and then we try to write around that.
CD: The lyrics come next, we figure out what the song feels like. We then figure out if the song needs either a catchy chorus or is big on imagery. We try to put people in our shoes when they’re hearing the lyrics or listening to the song. We make the song relatable to people in different scenarios while maintaining a core feeling to it.
SW: It’s important for a lot of the stuff we write to feel nostalgic, too. So when we have a new idea, we’ll go back and try to tie it back to certain feelings. We want our songs to sound familiar. We like to start with the idea and shape it from there, almost like a dough or something. Songs like that stay with you for a long time. They’re the easiest to latch on and that’s something we want to work for us, not against us.
ORB: How has your sound/style evolved since the start of 10pmtoclose and in what ways is it still evolving?
SW: We got more prescriptive with it.
CD: We’ve narrowed down our sound even more to what we like, however, we’ve expanded out into a more pop sound when we work with other artists. We have created stuff that we like for other artists that we don’t think fits the sound of 10pmtoclose. We can be a little bit more exploratory on that side and let other artists run with it. We keep our darker moodier stuff for ourselves. I think we have definitely evolved and have become better with our sound.
SW: Now, we have two songs that are basically ready to go that are very dancey and upbeat. We went in knowing we are going to make something dancier and more upbeat when we made those, but it still sounds like us. We’re able to point our sound in a direction now and focus it.
ORB: What songs are you the most proud of and why?
CD: My personal two favorites are “Midnight City” and “Vanity.”
SW: Vanity was surprising to me because it was a really simple song. It told us people liked it and we could simplify things a bit more with the writing process and do more with like a little bit more purpose.
CD: It’s surprising how people have actually latched on to it a lot more. It does feel like a simplistic song, or at least from a writing perspective, it seems simple but it works really well for a broader audience.
SW: When we released it, I didn’t think it would have enough to really do much of but people seem to like it. It’s been a lot of fun watching that. It’s been a nice lesson to learn, finding out what people may like and figuring out what we can do to meet them halfway.
ORB: What are your current projects you’re working on? What can we look forward to in the coming months?
CD: We have some dancier stuff, like a dark new-disco sound. We have some stuff that sounds a little bit more like “Vanity” which will be released on a later project. We’ve also been working with another artist Johnny Jukebox on the production and the mixing side of things. We’ve made a single with him which will be coming out soon. We’ve also done some mixing and mastering work for him as well. We’ve got a few things lined up but just kind of the main ones. Our single “The Floor” will come out probably within the next month and a half, I think early May and then we’ll have our single with Johnny Jukebox coming out in June. There might be something that will get sprinkled in there as well but those two for sure.
ORB: Your artwork for your singles are very interesting. Do you create the artwork yourself?
CD: I follow a bunch of digital artists on Instagram and there’s a few artists I’ve come across that I felt were a good fit for our sound, especially for the artwork “Vanity.” I find artwork that looks like our sound, that retro throwback style.
SW: We sometimes try to write a song to sound like the artwork. like That has definitely driven some inspiration.
ORB: 10pmtoclose has never done a live performance before. Can you provide some details about where and when you’ll be performing?
CD: We will be doing two DJ sets, but there’ll still be a sprinkle of live aspects to it. There will be some guest appearances of people singing over parts of the set. It’s going to be a fun time to mix our music with songs we feel fits our sound. It will be a good opportunity to show people who aren’t familiar with us, who we are and they can then directly correlate our sound to the sound of other familiar artists, to stuff they would know. We will showcase where our DNA comes from and what we like. You’ll see that in our shows with songs that we curate. We’ll get to a true live standpoint of playing shows, but I think for the time being, we’re just going to have fun with the DJ sets. You can catch us on May 21 for Almost Real Things at Distribution Hall in East Austin. You can also catch our DJ set on June 26th at Austin MiniFest presented by Bridging the Music at Vulcan Gas Co.
ORB: Okay, who are your biggest musical inspirations and if you can collaborate with any artist past or present who would that be?
SW: Daft Punk is definitely an inspiration as well as Nile Rodgers, and Parcels.
CD: Yeah, definitely. For me, 70s and 80s disco but also pop. Billy Joel, Tears for Fears and definitely Daft Punk. Our sound has a lot of Daft Punk type vibes. As far as a dream collaboration I would say The Weekend. I think our sound lends itself really well to his music. That music is what I want us to sound like and I think we could work really well with people like that. The Weeknd has a very retro 70s/80s nostalgia thing which is pretty popular right now.
SW: I like working with singers. I would love to have a line out the door with different singers to work with. That’s the funnest situation for us because then we get to write something that is specific to each one and each project is sort of self-contained. I like that. So it’s fun doing that sort of production house kind of work.
ORB: If you guys were to do a cover of any song what would that song be?
SW: I would say Doja Cat “Say So.” It’d be fun to do a cover of that song actually and setting it up a bit more.
CD: I’d probably pick an older song like “Moving Out” by Billy Joel. I’d make it more synth heavy and less rock. I think that would be really fun.
ORB: Last question is a bit of a random fun question so readers can get a sense of who 10toclose is on a more personable level.
SW: Let’s go!
ORB: What was your favorite childhood toy growing up?
CD: Oh come on! Probably anything Pokemon. Also my Gameboy!
SW: I spent all my time on my bike. I just rode around the streets and in circles whenever I could. I was always on my bike as a kid.
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(NOTE: ALL OF OFF RECORD BLOG INTERVIEWS ARE MINIMALLY EDITED FOR LENGTH)
I am an Austin, Texas based photographer and a graduate of Texas Tech University and Austin School of Photography. I love all things photo, but my true passion is music photography. I try to capture the beauty of every shoot while experimenting and seeking new ways to be creative. When I’m not behind the camera, I’m at home with my fur babies or competing in The Office Trivia!
