A truly evolutionary solo project, Day Wave’s music is earnest, guitar-based dream pop with electronic undertones, propelled by Phillips’ self-dissecting lyrics and knack for melancholy melody.

Reminiscent of The Postal Service, Real Estate, DIIV, Nada Surf, more, its origin as a lo-fi emotional exercise has expanded to a tighter, better realized production while maintaining its stripped back aesthetic. But Day Wave is not emo, to be sure: it’s just honest.

“The main idea with the music is to grow, sonically and in every way, and that’s kind of why it started out small and lo-fi—so there was room to grow,” Phillips says. “I wanted to give myself headroom so the future projects could be taken somewhere.”

Day Wave’s sound is very pop at its core, so I think it could appeal to a lot of people,” Phillips says. “I’m not trying to do that as much as I am making the music the way I’d naturally make it, and it would be cool if the project could just grow. That was always the goal: To have it build slowly over time. If you want to do it right, you’ve got to do it over time. I want to get more comfortable with every step.”