The Daüggers
VANESSA HUANG
The Daüggers is a Minneapolis-based band composed of Dylan Korman (Rhythm Guitar/Lead Vocalist), Jackson Ocel (Lead Guitar), Jerrik Miller (Bass), and Gabe Sturz (Drums/Background Vocals). They play indie rock music. I sat down with the band to discuss their music journey.
What is the inspiration behind the name “The Daüggers”?
Dylan (D): We all grew up in Bloomington, and when my dad was a kid he also grew up in Bloomington. When he was in high school, he was friends with this guy named Scotty Olsen, [who] started the company Rollerblade. When they were kids, they started like a floor hockey rollerblade league at the Bloomington Ice Gardens. [My dad] named his team The Daüggers. This was in, like, 1986, and the reason he named his team the Daüggers is because he had a childhood dog named Chief. You know how you call your dogs weird pet names? He would always call his dog his “daüg,” so he named his floor hockey team the Daüggers. Then I was going through my garage one day and found the old jersey. I wore it to band practice [when] we were trying to come up with a name. Gabe [looked] at my shirt, and he’s like, “What’s on your shirt?” I’m like, “The Daüggers.” Then I told the whole story, and we were like, “That’s the name.” We’ve been the Daüggers ever since.
What made you want to make music, or inspired you to start making music seriously?
Gabe (G): I feel like the main thing is just we all The Daüggers is a Minneapolis-based band composed of Dylan Korman (Rhythm Guitar/Lead Vocalist), Jackson Ocel (Lead Guitar), Jerrik Miller (Bass), and Gabe Sturz (Drums/Background Vocals). They play indie rock music. I sat down with the band to discuss their music journey. kind of grew up around music or had some sort of connection to it as kids. It just has been a dream for me. It’s just been such a fun ride, being able to actually make it happen.
Jackson (JA): Growing up, my dad has been in several bands. He actually runs sound for bands down at Babe’s Bar in Lakeville, and [I was] just growing up around the music community that he grew for himself and him teaching me how to play guitar when I was in high school. He’s definitely one of my main inspirations. I [also] obviously based my inspiration off of other bands, like from the Backseat Lovers. I think we all do, especially Dylan and I. Music’s a great thing that ties people together with different connections.
G: I have to agree with Jackson. Like my dad is my biggest influence too; I grew up just watching his bands play all the time, and he taught me from a super young age.
Jerrik (JE): For me, I can’t live without music. I’m constantly listening to it; I’m constantly creating it. I just stopped recording a song to join this Zoom call. I’ve played various instruments throughout my life, starting when I was five years old, and then I landed on bass as my main instrument. Then I met Dylan at a lunch table in high school. We started playing music together, and then we got Jackson [and] Gabe to join us, and we became the Daüggers.
JA: At the time that I met Dylan, I had just started learning guitar probably two months previous. It started with me, Jerrik, Dylan, and then another drummer, and we just started jamming for a little bit. It brought into perspective: playing alone versus playing with other people and how fun that can be. Dylan met Gabe at a party, I’m pretty sure, and then we started playing. We had our first performance in Gabe’s basement, and that was just the coolest thing in the world: performing in front of people and doing what you love, your passion, and letting other people hear the noise you make
How would you best describe your musical style?
D: Yeah, we have a song coming out in three weeks on October 23rd. The title of the song is “Pink Lilies.” And it sounds very unique. I honestly couldn’t even compare it to another song off the top of my head. I think we do have a distinct sound, which I think is cool, and the way we sound is very DIY, almost unprofessional, but not unprofessional. We do everything ourselves; we record all of our music in our rooms, in our garages, and we mix everything at home with our producer Tony Perkins. A lot of it is very melodic.
JE: Each of us have very different styles of playing music and the different styles of music we want to create, and it all mashes together and forms these songs. It’s really good to have so many different perspectives on what’s good or bad and what’s enjoyable and pleasant.
G: We all have different influences that kind of shape our own playing style, so like what Jerrik said, combining them together is what builds our sound, which is sick.
How is your newest single “Duluth” and upcoming single “Pink Lilies” different from your debut single “Flood My Mind” or your other single “Dewey”?
G: “Duluth” is totally the same vibe as “Flood My Mind” and previous songs.
JA: It’s very energetic. I look at “Duluth” as indie rock, but [with] more of a pop vibe to it because of the energy that it has.
D: Yeah, I think “Duluth” is a very similar song to “Be Mine” off of our album. They have the same kind of vibe, happy [and] energetic. It was also really fun to write a song about Minnesota, you know? But it’s interesting because our next song “Pink Lilies” is nothing like “Duluth.” At all. Which I think is really cool because it’s a sound that’s so unique to us.
G: It’s got like a chill vibe.
JE: Violently ambient!
D: That’s lowkey fire
What was the inspiration behind these two singles?
D: A lot of our songs are written about relationships and kind of the journeys that we go on. Both of these songs are written about the same kind of relationship, but they’re two different parts. If you listen to [our music] in one sitting in order, it tells a story.
JE: [It] walks you through the stages of a summer fling
D: [Our songs are] kinda all about a summer fling, except “Dewey.”
G: Dewey’s about being an alcoholic—
JE: In the dead of winter and sad.
D: A lot of our songs are about how you’re feeling during and after [relationships]. A lot of the stuff that you don’t get to say to that person—we tend to put into a song.
JA: I tend to think our lyrics paint a kind of a story or an image in your head. I just put what’s on [my] mind [and] heart into the lyrics, and it works.
What has been your favorite show or venue to play at?
JA: Back in June, we got the opportunity to play with another local Minneapolis band called Syncline. We opened for them at a show they hosted in their backyard. That show not only introduced us into the Minneapolis music scene, but [it also] really put into perspective what we could do with our music. It was super cool getting to work alongside other bands, and it was truly a blessing. I think we owe Syncline a lot for the help and love they’ve shown us over the past few months. They’re a super good group, and they’ve been very gracious to us.
JE: Skyway for sure because I just felt the most energy. I think the band was the most confident we’ve ever been, the crowd was huge, [and we] got to play with a bunch of other bands. I just got to lose it on stage, and it was awesome.
JA: Skyway Theater hosted an indie rock showcase at their Studio B stage inside of their venue. I think it was six different bands that came in and played. It was very well advertised, and we had a pretty good-sized crowd, so it was pretty fun.
G: And we sold out of merch!
JA: Yeah, also on that show, we made our first ever collection of T-shirts. We all went out to the Goodwill bins.
D: Like three bucks a pound.
JA: We just went out and thrifted a bunch of shirts, and we worked with Lucky 7 Screenprinting from Minneapolis.
D: A lot of our vibe as a band is really DIY, so we like to lean into that, like our website, our [handwritten] logo, our stickers. We wanted to keep that vibe going, so I had the idea to buy thrifted shirts that I thought were cool and screenprint our logo on top of that with some scattered stars. It was our first time ever doing an official merch kind of drop, and we sold out of all of our [merch] at the Skyway Theater. It was insane. And at the backyard show, we did DIY merch. We bought T-shirts from craft stores and cut out stencils and had fabric spray paint. You could pick your stencil, color, and shirt color and just go crazy. We sold them for $15 and the thrifted T-shirts for $20 because, I mean, a lot of our audience is also on the younger side, and we’re all broke. Actually, everybody’s broke.
JA: It’s kind of cool with those DIY t-shirts because it’s more personable.
D: Every single T-shirt we’ve ever sold is a one-ofone. There’s no two Daüggers shirts that are exactly like each other.
G: I’d probably agree [about Skyway and the backyard show], but also the [Driftwood] Char Bar show we played over winter break was super lit, too. That was so much fun getting back with everyone because we had all been gone for three months, and then we played our first show back and played “Dewey” for the first time.
JA: My birthday, too, dude! It was honestly the best birthday I’ve ever had.
D: That night we sent a new attendance record at Driftwood Char Bar, actually.
JA: We completely packed the place out. My best friend Tyler came up on stage and got the entire crowd to sing happy birthday for me, so that one was super special as well.