All band image credits: Jessica Daignault After a five-year absence, Charmer have returned with one of the best emo albums of the year with Downpour . It’s not easy to put a record together when you’re pulling double duty, as guitarist and singer David Daignault found out while fronting Charmer and also playing guitar for Liquid Mike, but the end result is a refined dose of the best of what the genre has to offer. The closing track, “Galick Gun” may immediately catch the eye of the most attentive anime fans, but there is so much more anime influence going on beneath the surface. Luckily for us, Daignault was kind enough to chat with me about the subtle anime influences of Downpour and the musical milestones along his anime journey. When we met, you immediately brought up your love of The Pillows and Maximum the Hormone. You can even hear that love in your music as well. Did you learn music from hearing them, or learn more about how to craft songs from them? David Daignault : The Pillows are a huge influence. I think that they're just a great rock band, and all the melodies are so catchy. It's pop music with guitars. They have something cool about them. I'm also surprised that they're not more popular overseas.They're underappreciated for sure. Without them, I could barely make it through the new FLCL series. I don't even know if I made it all the way through. It was just a totally different show. You’ve got your first new album in five years coming out, Downpour . How does that feel having a new album for Charmer coming out after so long? Daignault : It feels amazing. I had a really hard time with it. Just like anything else in life you go through phases rapidly. I was obsessed with emo music when the band started. That died pretty quickly within the band and I was in a lot of other bands before that, different genres that were catching my ear at the time. I was like, “Oh, I want to try this myself.” The first record landed, and then you're kind of pigeonholed right? Once that happened, there were other hands involved for the first time and that led to pressure to get another record out in two years. But if I'm not inspired by this music, how am I gonna do it? So it was like a lot of trying to figure that out I guess, without alienating the people that already support you. It's kind of a weird position. It's not like we're a big band or anything. But there is a following. And then after that record, and after touring for a few years until 2024, I didn't feel enthused anymore. I wasn't excited to play, because you're playing songs that are five or six years old, so you don't relate to them as much anymore. So I probably looked like I was not having a great time on stage, and that's not fun for a fan. If they're there, and they love the music, they deserve better from me. So it took a while because if we were going to come back, I wanted it to be with something that I wanted to hear. And I just wanted to get better, I guess I never was really a songwriter, so I had a lot to learn. I never touched an instrument or sang a single note out of my mouth until I was 18. It's a huge learning curve. With people now paying attention, there's a lot of anxiety. But I'm really excited. I love the new record. I really do. I can't wait to play shows again. It's going to be awesome. What was it that got you more enthused to put together new songs and make an album? Daignault : So we had another batch of songs that were in the old style that were good songs, and it just wasn't doing it for me. I got involved in other bands like Liquid Mike, and I was really enjoying that. I don't like being the front man. I was really enjoying having a role position in the band. I was getting the same fulfillment, playing cool shows, hanging out with your friends, creating music. I love all that. I don't like being in the spotlight. I'm not a naturally outgoing personality in that sense. So I learned that about myself. And during that time is when I figured out what I do enjoy out of music. I have a great group of members that play in the band, and they're my best friends. The timing worked out between all of us and we went in to make a record but didn't want to force it. There's no reason to do it when you're not enjoying it. But it's been great. Did you watch any anime while you were writing or recording? Or do you keep that separate from the music side of things and draw from your experience subconsciously? Daignault : I'm always consuming anime, gradually, slowly. I recently went through Neon Genesis Evangelion for the first time. There's something about the animation style in the mid-nineties. I don't know if it's like nostalgia goggles, or what it is, but I think it's just the best by far, aesthetically, color palette wise, and the saturation and all that. You can really feel the passion behind it, whereas some of the anime now can feel like it was made in a factory. My favorite anime of all time is Dragon Ball , and that's very standard. But it’s the one you know? I remember watching my first episode when I was probably six years old. I would come home and it was in the 5 o'clock slot on Toonami. I jumped in somewhere in the Namek saga. But then they would only release like one episode a week. So then they would play the same episode over and over and I would watch it until I memorized every frame. So that’s where my first love of it all came from. I could talk about Dragon Ball forever. I fell in love with it completely. But then there are some shows that I watched on there and loved that no one seems to remember when I talk to them about it, like The Big O . RELATED: Origami Angel's Pat Doherty on Bringing Vegeta Energy to the Drums There was that one programming block that I feel like we both watched that had Dragon Ball , Dragon Ball Z , and Zoids and The Big O back to back. Daignault : Zoids was awesome! That was very short-lived and had spin-offs and stuff. And then I also got my first introduction to the goofy side of things with Hamtaro around that time. That's when I realized that’s actually the majority of anime. It's not all action. I think that was on the WB block where they had Pokémon and One Piece . I love Pokémon and was completely swept up in that crazy, but to me that almost feels separate from anime. Even Digimon feels that way to me. Actually, the first Digimon movie is really good. That's where it started, and then, as I got older, I would dive into other things that looked interesting like Cowboy Bebop and FLCL and Death Note . I still feel like those are all still like your big names, but you know what, sorry that they’re so good so I have to like them. It sounds like you were able to give yourself a pretty big sampler of the medium. Daignault : I had a cousin that had all of Cowboy Bebop on DVD, so that's how I watched that for the first time. Same with FLCL . Once I started hanging out with friends in high school, that’s when I started watching even more. Freshman year, I watched Perfect Blue and that “blue” my mind. I was watching it like, “What is going on?” and it was animated. I’d never even watched a live-action movie like that. Around that same time, I got introduced to Studio Ghibli films, which I just completely missed as a younger kid. I love Princess Mononoke . I like the Ghibli films more like Nausicaa , those that are like in its own world from the rest of them. But I also love Howl's Moving Castle so…? As it relates to the record though, I watched Grave of the Fireflies while writing. I'll never watch that movie again. It was so unbelievably sad. I'm just like sitting there watching by myself, and you know, everyone nowadays gets distracted and looks at their phone while watching anything. But then there was a point where I stopped doing that and was so transfixed by this movie. I was crying by myself watching on my laptop in bed. I can't imagine what watching Evangelion and Grave of the Fireflies while writing an album would do to your headspace! Daignault : Yeah, I always wonder if there's influences that I’m not even fully aware of. I like to add subtle influences or references where I can. Like “Galick Gun” is pretty on the nose but I had to do it. It has nothing to do with the song, but it's just like probably the one of the most badass scenes in all of Dragon Ball Z . The coolest form of Vegeta, just absolutely aggro and a hot head. I’ve done “Wolf Fang Fist” in the past as well. “Swords Dance” is a title, but that's not even an intentional Pokémon reference, which is funny, like it totally is a Pokémon move, but that's just like lyrical content in the song. I like to drop little crumbs for people to catch rather than be more explicit with it in the lyrics, because most people will read those titles, and not know what it means. But for those who get it, it’s a little something extra. It's hard to portray interests through music when you're talking about personal, emotional subjects but also making the lyrical content so broad that it's not too specific to be relatable. I always hope that listeners can interpret it and put their own story to it. That's the angle I take so more people can relate or have a meaning for the song. Did anime and emo music scratch the same itch for you? Did you discover them at the same time? Daignault : So when I first found emo music, I didn't even know that was the genre. When I found it, I was like, “I didn't know you could write songs like this.” But those groups, Balance and Composure especially, were one of the first ones I locked in on. They had that split with Tigers Jaw and I think that's how I found them. I would love to one day play shows with them. I feel like with the new album, there are not necessarily different sides, but there's different pockets of emo that we explore. How I found emo bands was scrolling on YouTube and clicking suggested links from other music. My first emo bands were You Blew It!, Del Paxton, Free Throw, starting with their EPs. That was my first taste. Then I got into like the first Tigers Jaw record. That was around 2014, and back then I wasn't a strong guitarist by any means. But it all inspired me to try to find notes and chords that sounded like what I was listening to, because I never learned from a tab or anything like that. It started as a hobby, and has grown to what it is now. Anime was there at that time, too. I’ve always consumed it in some form. I feel like I'll go in stages where I’ll watch heavily for six months, and then I won't touch it. But that doesn't mean when you're not watching, it goes away. It’s always with you. It's hard to consume something unless you're motivated to consume it. There has to be something that triggers my mind. That’s what fascinates me about music. Amazing music is coming out all the time. It’s hard to keep up. So it takes something extra to be sure to check out a new band. For that reason, I feel so fortunate for having any fan base at all. What was it about Dragon Ball that really stuck out to you? Daignault : It's perfect. I don't know what else to say, it's literally perfect. When you're younger, you don't really understand it, but you know you like it, and you like the aggression and the energy. All the characters are so charismatic in their own way. It's a perfect show in a lot of ways. I was pretty young when I first started watching it, like about seven or so. Watching Namek, then the Android Saga, that's when I really got fully obsessed with it. The evil of Cell captivated me, and watching Vegeta just obliterate Android 19 the way he did. Then Trunks came in and the future was involved. I couldn't comprehend that. That is literally how the concept of time travel was introduced to me. Opening your third eye as a seven-year-old, you're like WTF. I think all of that really got me more than anything, and, I don't know, every character is so likable. Every character has been my favorite character at one point or another. The Android and Cell sagas are my favorite sections of the show. It might be nostalgia goggles as well. The Faulconer audio is iconic. I've rewatched it one time without it. A lot of the stuff didn't hit the same. It was good. It was its own thing. But the American version was a little bit more evil in a lot of ways because of the audio. The games were a big part of it too. I remember saving up money with my friend, who I’ve known since I was like two or three, to buy this not so great Dragon Ball Z game called Ultimate Fighter 22 . I had that one. It was not the easiest to play. Daignault : We played that game and learned those combos. It was so difficult but we had that connection to it because we were playing as our guys. We're watching the show, we got the VHS tapes, we’ve got those awesome figures in the blue boxes that came out in packs of five characters. We got to feel like we were living in that world. When we got kicked outside because we were spending too much time watching TV or playing games, we would pretend we're the characters. Nothing will ever be able to replace it, because I have all of that to back it up. All of these great memories from a time in my life where I didn't have all the other shit to deal with. It was just like, I woke up every day and my life was all Dragon Ball . So yeah, I think it was that. Then also having friends that loved it as well. When the PS2 came out, I begged my dad for one. I grew up in a Catholic family and I was definitely a stubborn kid. I was like a quietly stubborn kid. He bribed me to get confirmed with the promise of a PS2. So after that was all done I made him drive me to Target, I got the PS2, and I was allowed to pick one game. I got Dragon Ball Z Budokai . I didn't get a memory card so my PS2 was on for at least three months straight. It's funny. Even right now, anime is now bringing out these memories. I've never talked about any of these things out loud. I never realized how big it was in my life until now. The Faulconer Dragon Ball Z riff was the third song I ever learned on guitar. I just remembered that too. RELATED: Periphery's Misha Mansoor on His Love of Yakitate!! Japan and The Prince of Tennis Do you ever feel like the Great Saiyaman, going back and forth between your musical projects? Daignault : Yes! That's a funny comparison, I would say I’m Saiyaman in both instances though. The soft cap version and the helmet version. A lot of fans of your music and emo music overall also really resonate with anime, too. Why do you think that might be? Daignault : That's a great point. I never thought about that. I think creative minds attach to less mainstream media. And obviously anime is now very mainstream in a lot of ways. But there are a lot of people still that would never touch it because of the narrative around it and how it is presented. Western culture is also much different where a lot of people are stuck in their ways, depending and they see it as like a foreign piece of media. That's probably a big one, I think creative minds lean toward a lot of different genres of music like that as well. And you could have that narrative. Anime is huge in hip hop, rap, and also metal and hardcore like you're spot on, like all of those. It's popular, but I'm also sure the biggest pop artists in the world probably like some anime. I think it's just that everyone can resonate with it. Listen to Charmer’s newest record, Downpour , here . Catch Charmer on tour this summer . Catch Liquid Mike on tour too.
