Daydream Brings Diverse, New Sound to Battle of the Bands

When pulling into the parking lot south of East Main Street in Riverhead, the white carriage house located on the eastern edge of the lot fades into the background. But a look inside this unassuming building reveals the rehearsal space for Daydream, a new rock band made up of local high school students that’s gearing up to compete in the 21st annual Battle of the Bands hosted by the Southampton Youth Bureau on June 7.

The band is the current iteration of the EEA Rocks program at the East End Arts music school. The program provides an opportunity to bring teen musicians together to learn how to play as a band and gain confidence and stage presence through live performance.

Students rehearse weekly in Riverhead with their director, Chris Jones, a professional musician who works as the recording studio engineer at EEA.

The program runs in three sessions throughout the year: fall/winter, winter/spring and summer. Each session features different lineups of teen musicians, each with their own name and musical identity.

Daydream is a six-piece ensemble that features veterans of the program and new recruits. Three of the members, Vianet Benavidez (vocals), Lilou Sugmeyer (vocals) and Yulianna Mendez (keyboards), have been in different versions of EEA Rocks in the past. This spring, they are joined by Thomas Downey (drums), Lucas Magnozzi (guitar) and Dylan West (bass) to round out their lineup.

The band started playing together in January, but the full lineup with Downey on drums has only been together for a month. Primarily playing rock and pop, their constantly-changing repertoire draws from a wide range of artists and styles that reflects their different musical influences. This ranges from late 1980s pop rock and hair metal to newer rock from the 2010s and 2020s.

In their short time as a group, members noted how well they’ve been able to work together and avoid any major band arguments, something that can plague groups in their early stages.

“We all work really well together, and there’s no conflict,” said Zugmeyer. “I’m very grateful that we’ve found a group that has a lot of good musicians that can work well together.”

West also added that for his first time being in a band, he has gotten along with them better than expected. He said that he was nervous coming into the group but has become more comfortable and connected well with his bandmates.

“When I first joined, I was really worried about if I was going to be underperforming,” said West. “But it’s good to know even though I haven’t been in the band as long as these guys, I’m still around their level, and I clicked really well with them.”

The band also credits the help and support of Jones as one of the main catalysts of their success, with Zugmeyer calling him “the best and most well-organized manager we’ve ever had.”

The band made their debut on April 11 at EEA’s annual EEA Honors event at the Suffolk Theater, where they performed alongside the other groups run through the music school. The group will be busy performing shows all summer long, including two nights at the Alive on 25 and EEA’s annual summer soiree.

But no show stands out more to them than Battle of the Bands. For Benavidez, Mendez and Zugmeyer, this will mark their third year performing in the competition: They competed in the 2022 and 2023 competitions with previous iterations of EEA Rocks. Unlike other shows they do, the crowd at Battle of the Bands is younger and more energetic, which fuels them to greater musical heights on stage.

“Because you have all the energy from mostly younger people in the audience hyping you up, you feed off that energy and you’re able to really open up on that stage,” said Zugmeyer.

Meanwhile, this will be the first time performing at battle for the other three members. Though there’s some preshow nerves, they’re confident in their ability to bring down the house with their set.

“I’m feeling nervous, but it’s 100 percent a good kind of nervous,” said West. “I don’t want to pat ourselves on the back too hard — but we’re gonna kill it.”

No matter the result of the June 7 competition, Daydream will still be rocking out and playing shows all summer long and adding new songs to their set. In just a few short months as a band, they have established a musical bond and overall functionality as a group that can take years for other groups to achieve.

It’s no dream what Daydream has accomplished so far — and this is just the beginning for them.