Very Nice Person Are Playing SXSW

Portraits by Sydney Koepke.

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Every good lineup — even if it’s for a showcase within a festival — needs a famous wildcard.

Whether that be a legacy band who had sworn to never get back together, or — in our case — heirs to music royalty. 

Very Nice Person is the sibling duo of Skyler and Davis Diamond, the boys of the Beastie Boys’ Mike D., Who’s electronic infused indie-dance-pop is so much fun that it influenced their dad to get back into the studio. Upon learning this, I wanted to know what their experience growing up within the industry was like and how it shaped the music they make. Read below to find out more and come see for yourself as Very Nice Person plays at the 2026 The Monster Children Showcase at SXSW. 

What were you guys rehearsing yesterday?

Davis: Our dad was an artist back in the day, and he’s been getting back into music. We made all the music with all of our friends, and when it comes to the time when he wants to do it live, we’ll play with him. It was originally going to be our friends who were more of the live band, but it has ended up being our band.

How’s it been working with your dad?

Skyler: It’s been really fun. It’s a bit of a different process from making our own music, which has been nice, because you can get super locked in on your own stuff. We get along really well, which makes it a lot easier. 

Davis: Before he started working on his project, he would help out on ours. He would help me with lyrics, placement, and live drums once in a while. It progressed to now, where all our friends are so talented, and we have such a fun thing in the studio, so he eventually wanted to make his own music again. He just threw himself into it. I feel like all of our friends who are producers are trying to just make his music work, whereas we are like, ‘What if you didn’t do that kind of vocal on that song, try this instead.’ We’re really helping guide it in the best way we can.

What was he making music under before?

Davis: He was in the Beastie Boys.

Oh. Is what he’s making now similar?

Davis: It’s similar, it’s got some of the same energy, but it’s a bit different.

Skyler: You see it with a lot of rappers who step away for a while, aren’t so interested in being a super rapper. I would say musically and vocally, it’s a bit more experimental. We’re pushing things a bit more.

Davis: We’re just trying shit. Every song sounds a little different. It’s fun, it’s all our friends and us working on it, so it’s pretty young for the most part. It’s not like we are trying to do what he did again. We’re starting anew.

What was it like growing up with him as your dad?

Skyler: We were super little when he was in it, in it.

Davis: I don’t really remember anything before I was thirteen. We travelled all over as kids. The main thing was that we got exposed to a lot of music that we wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise, which was really cool. I’m super grateful for that. Our parents were really into alternative schooling, and we kept on going to different places to weird schools [laughs].

Skyler: We learnt so much musically, and we also have access to so much gear that he’s collected. It’s been really fun bringing that stuff in and out; it’s been really fun and crucial for us.

Davis: We’re super lucky to have access to all of it. It’s nice, it’s really informed our process. I’m sure if we didn’t have that gear, we’d make stuff super differently. It’s really nice to have access to great-sounding equipment and make new stuff with old stuff.

For sure, your music feels super contemporary. It's fun having the ability to bring those old instruments in.

Davis: Seriously. We’ve been trying to figure it out for the SXSW set. We have this drum machine that we are addicted to, but it’s a build-it-yourself kit from the late 70s, and we can’t find another one online. It’s the best-sounding thing ever. So, we are trying to work out if we should bring it to Austin and risk it. The is it going to break dilemma is such a big one.

What does your dad think of your music?

Skyler: He’s super stoked on the music. As Davis was hinting at earlier, part of the process of him getting inspired again was that he came to the realisation that making music was what he wanted to be doing.

Davis: It’s cool. Our guitar player, his dad is also in our dad’s band, which is a really funny, fully accidental family band.

It’s a full family affair.

Skyler: It’s been funny the past few weeks because we’ll spend alternating days rehearsing with our band and our dad’s. The workload is insane at the moment.

How are you guys feeling about SXSW? How many shows are you playing?

Davis: We’re there for three days and playing four shows. I’m excited to be there and play a bunch of shows. Playing is always fun and live is great. It’s nice to play a lot, you get a lot tighter that way. A goal for us as a band is to get as tight as possible. There aren’t that many bands right now that are super sick. Of course, there are some great artists, but it’s really hard to find a good live band, especially making the music that we’re making, where it’s not necessarily so band-oriented. It’s fun, that’s our goal to be really good. We really want to do something that we’re proud of.

Skyler: We also learn so much when we set up for these live shows and play them. The more you do it, the more stoked you get on what you can do, sounds you can make and accomplish. It’s been fun for us trying to make songs that work best in the live setting.

How long have you guys been doing music together?

Davis: We started making music together around 2017. We were at school, and there was an Ableton class which we took with this techno French teacher who had crazy sacred geometry tattoos. He got us all cracked versions of Ableton and plug-ins. We all made trap music because we were obsessed with Juice Wrld and XXXTentacion at the time; that’s what we tried to make for a few years, and it eventually evolved out of that.

Skyler: We started working with real musicians, which I think is the sickest part of making music, working with people and mixing shit. That really upgraded our vibe. There are so many talented people in LA, and if you do something enough, you can make it happen and progress more. That upgraded our shit so much.

Davis: All our friends are great musicians, so playing together, that’s where the thrill came from for playing live, because we realised it was more enjoyable than in the studio.

To wrap this up, with you guys being from Malibu, whose song titled “Malibu” do you think is better, Hole or Miley Cyrus?

Skyler & Davis: Hole.

Skyler: That Hole song is amazing. We were thinking it would be pretty funny to cover it at SXSW.

Davis: We should definitely do it.