Very Nice People

Raised on punk and pop, Davis and Skyler Diamond are shaping a sonic universe in their band Very Nice Person. With their debut album Trampoline, the brothers channel a lifetime of influences into an alternative sound that’s entirely their own.

Words by JANE LEWIS
Photography by RONALD PEABODY

Davis and Skyler Diamond are brothers with taste. In the four years I’ve known them, I’ve only seen them wear tie-dyed sweatpants and flamboyant graphic t-shirts. Their sunbleached hair is perpetually sandy, and more often than not they’re barefoot. But these endearing sartorial choices do not reflect their music taste. The sons of film director Tamra Davis and Beastie Boys rapper Mike Diamond, the brothers have been steeped in music since birth. “It’s always been a family affair,” Skyler tells me. Nestled at the center of their Malibu compound is a home music studio encased in sliding glass doors that look out onto a treehouse, an Airstream trailer, and a chicken coop. As children, the studio was to the Diamond brothers what preschool is to the rest of the population. They live, breathe, and bathe in music.

Raised between Los Angeles and New York City, the duo were introduced to New Order, Joy Division, the punk cold wave, and skate culture in middle school. An adolescent punk band and metalhead phase followed, reinforced by their dad blasting Metallica in the back of their station wagon as he drove them to little league soccer games. High school years were spent living free range in Bali, Indonesia, attending the Green School where they took music production classes to hone their technical skills. Reared across various continents and cultures, Davis and Skyler absorbed it all.

Under an overcast sky, the duo answer my FaceTime call from their backyard. In our years of friendship, we have chased chickens around their garden, cooked late night cupcakes in the kitchen, and laughed while freestyling with vocal filters in the music studio. Their home is ground zero for their creation. Today, they’re finishing their debut album Trampoline—released in October 2025—an exciting compilation of the music they’ve been producing since establishing their creative partnership in 2018. Now they’re adding the finishing touches. “We’ve been in the studio for a week straight,” Davis tells me before lighting a joint and passing it to his younger brother. “It’s pretty feral.”

Their band is dubbed Very Nice Person (VNP), a name without a particular origin, though the boys are in fact very nice people. When Davis started producing his own trap beats in high school, he liked the three letter combination and ran with it. They collaborate on production and Davis executes the vocals. It’s a charming combination, Skyler stoic and Davis more energetic. “He has a bit of that crazy, creative element,” Skyler says about his older brother. “He'll be hyper inspired and motivated to make something a certain way. And I think that’s a super strong throughline in a lot of impactful, creative people.”

These days they’re building their own musical world. For the band’s first (and titular) single, “Trampoline,” they filmed the music video covering their trampoline in hundreds of rainbow Beanie Babies. “We think very sonically,” Davis tells me, so the band brought in creative director Ronald Peabody to translate their soundscapes into a visual language. They’re forming distinct characters, too: Davis maintains his everyday surfer/stoner style, and Skyler is pivoting to baggy suits and ties, taking cues from his dad’s retro style. “It's nice to have a [physical] lens into the world that we're trying to create,” Skyler explains.

“We think very sonically.”

Born into the music industry, the brothers now enjoy the rare privilege of creating without constraint, detached from commercial expectation and free to explore any sound they choose. “We've been put in a perfect position to do exactly what we want to do,” Davis says. “The ultimate gratifying experience is to make a song that I really like, and have that moment captured forever as the truest expression of me at that time.” The week prior to my interview, the two were recording at Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, collaborating with the same producers who’ve worked with the likes of SZA and Justin Bieber. The resulting sound is enticing and contemporary. With musical references from M.I.A., to Björk, to Coldplay, Radiohead, Beyonce and even PinkPantheres, I’m curious how they classify their sound. “Genre-wise, our album is hard to describe to people,” Skyler says. “I usually just end up saying alternative.”

Dreamy and abstract, hyper and electronic, the expert production of Trampoline wraps the tracks into a cohesive bundle. “Each song orbits in a similar creative universe,” Skyler explains. The two are eerily aligned in taste and vision. They work separately, then rejoin for a fresh set of ears. “Everyone has their own vision of the song,” Davis explains. Skyler plays with production, Davis ascends into his vocal vortex, then they combine and refine. “I'm appreciative that it’s such a musical household,” Skyler says.

“Each song is like a snapshot of who you are at that moment.”

In between studio sessions, they’re surfing, cooking, and watching soccer (diehard Arsenal fans). But at the end of the day, their sound is everything to them. “If I wasn't around music, I don't know what I’d do,” Davis confesses. “As an artist or a musician, the goal is to make the most ‘you’ thing possible in that moment. Each song is like a snapshot of who you are at that moment.”

Music is an art form, a language, a point of translation for the Diamond Brothers. “It’s universal,” Skyler tells me. “Music is such a key part of our lives and I think it's the sickest translation point."