Couch Potatoes// Living Room Songs

—by jack

The MANORS session went down on a lazy Saturday afternoon somewhere near Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Snow was on the ground outside, but it was a beautiful, sunny day and not too cold, so Dayna (lead singer of Manors, pictured above) and  I opted to make the twenty-minute walk to our shooting spot. See, I was actually crashing at Dayna’s place.

It’s a little convoluted, but interesting enough to explain how this came about: a while back, one of my closest friends (read: college girlfriend) moved herself out to Brooklyn and found a couple of Craig’s List’s roommates. I was wary of the find-roommates-on-the-internet thing, but proven wrong by the sheer aweseomeness of the three girls she moved in with. One of them was Dayna, an arty NYU grad who played lo-fi pop songs in a girl duo then called Panama Girls. I became a genuine fan when I heard her stuff.

Over the next year, Panama Girls became The Beachcombers became Manors, a three-piece band with Dayna still singing/songwriting/producing but now with two dudes backing her on drums and bass. I remained a fan.

So whenever I visit New York City, I find myself crashing with 1) my close friend/college girlfriend and 2) Dayna, of whom I’m a fan. Does this sound weird? Cause it’s weird. Weirdest part of this job is the peer/friend/fan/ conflation (also rife for weirdness is the untold crashing with an old girlfriend adventure, but these posts aren’t really Jack time, they’re more band face time).

So, anyway, lazy saturday. Snow. Sun. Etc. We walked to the shoot, bought big ol’ pastries from a farmer’s market (a January farmer’s market with warm pastries? yes) and purchased coffee from a coffee truck. I met the two other band members, sat back and enjoyed band-bickering and got some great footage of a song I hadn’t heard before.

Dayna insisted on posting the three piece up in the kitchen and gave me shit for copping out on the site with so many singer-songwriters (“I thought the idea was bands in their living rooms, there’s nothing special about a single person in their fucking living room with a guitar,” she mocked). It was a good day. It’s a great song. Easily one of my favorite sessions. I hope you enjoy.