Childhood friends Kelley Dugan and Mina Walker are bringing their small band to the stage of the Hollywood Palladium on March 21. Opening for The Kooks with The Vaccines, the duo known as Daisy the Great is showcasing how quickly true talent can be discovered. Their hit song “The Record Playing Song” debuted in 2017, and since then, they have released two EPs and two albums. I had the pleasure of chatting with Daisy the Great about their dynamic, the start of their new tour and their upcoming LA show.
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This article has been edited for clarity and brevity purposes.
Isabella: Your music has been described as having a playful sound with a little spunk. How do you maintain this distinctive style while exploring different genres, and what elements contribute to the playfulness in your songs?
Mina: The playfulness I think comes from not committing to a genre and just exploring a song with unlimited possibilities. Over time, as we’ve been performing, we’ve been trying to find the balance between the playfulness in the studio and playfulness on stage and how we can find where those two things converge. Sometimes we get caught up on making a song and then when we bring it to the stage, we’re like “How do we make this as fun as it was to record?”, especially with smaller songs.
Isabella: Daisy the Great’s presence in the music scene seems to be marked by a sense of fun. How do you translate this energy from the studio to the stage, and how do you think it resonates with your audience?
Kelly: Our atmosphere in the studio is very playful and creative because generally we are recording without any time limit. We usually work in our drummer Monti’s basement and when we’re working there, it’s really kind of just open possibilities. We can grab any instrument or keep on adding things, taking them away or keep on listening, so in that way it’s really just constantly creative. Mina and I both come from a performance background in acting and theater, so once we agree on what the song is going to sound like and what we’re going to play on stage, I think that really informs the stage time. We can remember how it was so fun to work in the studio and bounce off of each other live but also when we’re playing live, we’re thinking about what it feels like to perform. We want to put on a really good show, put on a super interesting set and we want the audience to come with us on a little bit of a journey. We want some parts of it to be really hype and fun but some parts of it to be more intimate and a little more vulnerable. We try to build a really dynamic show and I think the playfulness comes out through that as well because we’re kind of going to a lot of different places.
Isabella: Do you want to elaborate on how your theatrical background has influenced the way you have approached live shows and connect with the audience?
Mina: From the get go, we were performers first and we come from a background of performing and storytelling so it comes through in our lyrics. I think we’re very meticulous about song meaning and how we express the meaning of the song and how the music informs that.
Kelly: I used to do theater and perform off Broadway in New York before the band took off and there’s something I really appreciate about having that time because I’m coming to our live shows with the same sense that I’m going to show up and let it be what it is that day. We’re trying to let little changes happen because there is a way that it could become a little bit more rote and feel a little more stiff. With that background, we’re really wanting it to feel fresh and letting something come out in a new way every night even though we play these songs every day.
Isabella: Opening for The Kooks is a fantastic opportunity. How did the collaboration come about, and what aspects of your music do you think complement or enhance this live experience?
Kelly: We’re both really grateful to be on the tour and the music they’re touring is a record Inside In, Inside Out, which was a record that everyone was obsessed with when we were in high school. It feels really cool to be now 10 years into our career playing these shows with them. We were thinking about what songs would complement The Kooks’ sound and I think it brought us to a really cool set that is a little bit different and consistently more high energy that we normally perform. A lot of the time with our own shows, we have time for quieter music and more dip in the energy because we’re trying to build an hour and a half ish set. For these shows, we were really inspired by The Kooks because their show is so fun and the audience is so into it. When we were building our set, we picked three new songs to play that feel really complimentary to their show. The sets are all really high energy and really heartfelt so we were trying to bring that into the songs that we chose for our set as well.
Isabella: With the goal of appealing to this younger crowd, how do you ensure that your music remains fresh and relevant in an ever-evolving music landscape?
Mina: Something that we try to do is just make the music that we want to make and that never really lines up with what’s kind of trendy at the moment. I found that when people ask us what our music sounds like, it’s hard to compare ourselves and figure out what our genre is. I think though that it’s very helpful because it puts us in our own lane and can get us out of the trap of being stuck in time. All the music that I love is music that is timeless and it never really feels specific to a trend.
Kelly: I feel that way about The Kooks’ show as well. The album that they’re touring with came out in 2006 but it feels so relevant and so good right now. If you look at any great artist that’s still getting played, they just keep making music. I think as long as you just keep making music based on what you’re interested in, that’s going to evolve with you.
Isabella: Collaborating with established bands like The Kooks must come with its own set of challenges and opportunities. How has this experience impacted your growth and artistic development?
Kelly: I really appreciate being able to play our music for people that haven’t necessarily heard us before and I think The Kooks’ tour so far seems like a really amazing opportunity to meet new fans and people who are excited about our music. With touring, every time, your audience grows ideally and these shows are really big and the audience reception has been awesome so far. I hope this affords us the opportunity to really grow our fan base and the next time we come to these cities, we’ll have these folks keep showing up for us.
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Buy tickets to see Daisy the Great in Los Angeles on March 21 here: https://www.stubhub.com/the-kooks-hollywood-tickets-3-21-2024/event/152432928/
