Born from a twenty-minute jam session, ‘Irene’ retains that instinctive quality throughout. A dark, repetitive riff creeps beneath the track, establishing a murky, doomy psych-rock atmosphere as Kerry’s hushed vocals add to its hypnotic pull. The drums remain restrained for much of the song, allowing repetition and space to do the heavy lifting rather than sheer volume. As ‘Irene’ progresses, cymbal crashes and increasingly ritualistic layers of vocals begin to gather around the central riff, gradually ramping up the tension without breaking its strange spell. As Kerry explains of the band’s increasingly intuitive chemistry, “We’re at a really fun place where we’ve played enough together now to lock in, so we can jam stuff out and it mostly (!) doesn’t sound too shit.”

The homemade video draws that mystical connection to nature even further into focus. Footage of trees, deer and landscapes at dusk is layered with red-lit images of the band swaying and wandering through the woods, giving the whole thing the air of some mysterious woodland ritual. Unnerving, mesmerising and wonderfully unexpected, ‘Irene’ shows just how compelling The Baby Seals can be when they allow themselves to wander off the beaten path.

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Unsurprisingly, that rhythm immediately stands out. Far removed from a conventional straight-ahead rock beat, it gives the opening an unusual, creeping quality before psychedelic guitars begin snaking their way into the mix, adding an increasingly shadowy and unsettling edge. ‘Beat’ gradually gains weight until thick, bluesy stoner-rock guitars take centre stage, transforming its initial unease into something much more muscular. Through it all, Joana Brito’s effortlessly cool vocal glides above the instrumentation, providing a laid-back counterpoint to the heaviness beneath. Close your eyes and it’s easy to picture endless dusty desert roads disappearing into the distance, with something ever so slightly sinister lurking beyond the horizon.

Lyrically, however, ‘Beat’ comes from a much more vulnerable place. “It’s a song on fragility, a song about standing in the corner, feeling alone, with nowhere to go,” explains Joana, before rejecting the pressure to conform: “There’s beauty in diversity, there’s love in equality and that’s all that matters.” It’s a powerful sentiment wrapped inside an impressively weighty slice of psychedelic stoner rock – and further proof that sometimes starting with the beat can take a song somewhere unexpected.

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Daisychain recently completed the Southwest leg of the She’s A Freak tour including their special hometown record release in Chicago. Next month, they’ll move through much of the Midwest and Colorado, and will move through Germany, Denmark and Austria this fall. In September, they’ll support Chicago funk/soul rocker Neal Francis.  

The spirited album showcases Daisychain’s complexities as people, tight-knit bond as friends and versatility as artists, featuring sounds from wood winds, chimes, pump organs, mixed with synthesized vocal and guitar harmonies. Inside her Ashland, Oregon-based studio, celebrated producer Massy created a safe space for the group to experiment and elevated their sound and strengths, whittling 100 tracks down to ten. Matching the band’s name, the project sonically blends sultry and soulful vocals with moments of fierce garage-rock and classic 1970s rock, resulting in a robust, thrilling listening experience.

On ‘G-String,’ the band steps away from their rock-heavy, witchy sonic palette and lean into their femininity with a lighter, dreamy sound and lyrics that explore a rambunctious weekend between best friends. Pulling inspiration from Lana Del Rey and The Velvet Underground, Regala adds, “The truth was twisted in this song, but just enough to give it a little imagination. A memoir of being young, girlish and impulsive.”

Daisychain is a femme-fronted psych/blues rock trio from Chicago made up of Nickole Regala (bass, vocals), Frankie Sripada (lead guitar) and Sophia Williams (rhythm guitar, vocals). Formed in 2017, Regala and Williams met at a local open mic night, and weeks later they were jamming. Sripada was invited into the mix, and the trio began rehearsing as Daisychain in the basement of their neighborhood coffee shop. Since then, the trio has toured the country, including playing Chicago’s legendary Metro and now, with their full-length album out in the world, aims to cement themselves further within the rising indie psych rock landscape.

We had a chat with Nickole and Sophia all about the band’s journey so far, All In A Name, what we can expect from their upcoming tour and more. Read the Q&A below.

Hi guys! How are you? You formed Daisychain back in 2017, how has your journey as a band been so far? Any highlights and/or challenges?

Sophia: “Hey! Thanks for chatting with us! When we formed Daisychain back in 2017 we definitely had dreams of getting our music out there, and seeing all our hard work come into fruition has been pretty incredible! The whole process of evolving as a band and putting effort into the creative and business aspects of a band has been very rewarding and eye opening. There have been endless highlights and challenges, but I’d say the release of our first full length album has definitely been one of our biggest achievements!”

Speaking of your first full length – what can you tell us about All In A Name? What do you hope fans/listeners take away from it?

Nickole: “All in a Name is a diverse album, but if we had to boil it down to a few influences, I would say it’s got a lot of Pink Floyd meets Veruca Salt meets Jack White type vibes. Most of the songs speak on the emotional toil that comes from miscommunication, loss, and unrequited love. We hope fans and listeners are able to find a little escape in this album, but also take away from it the strength to push and keep living life even when everything seems defunct.” 

Please take us through your songwriting/creative process for the LP. What was your favourite part and what did you find most challenging?

Sophia: “In preparation for recording All In A Name we were asked to write 100 songs. It seemed like an impossible task, but we worked nonstop for a few months and made it happen! It was definitely a creative challenge and a time intensive project (on top of all working full time jobs), but was so rewarding in the long run. We all pushed ourselves to write honestly and to give every idea a chance to develop and take form. I really enjoyed going out of my comfort zone to experiment with different approaches to songwriting, and it was really cool to see what songs made it to the album.”

You have some shows coming up in July. What can we expect from a Daisychain show? How do you want fans to feel after leaving one of your gigs?

Nickole: “If you find yourself at a Daisychain show, you can expect ‘Mama and the Papas’-esque vocal harmonies, actual guitar solos backed by actual guitar music, and general female-fronted badassery. We want fans to feel a lot of things at our gigs, but mostly, we hope they leave feeling inspired to create and continue.”

Finally, what else is next for Daisychain? Any goals for the future?

Nickole: “We recently announced our first EU tour that’s happening at the end of October this year. We’re super excited to share our album overseas and can’t wait to get our feet wet in Europe. I would say one of our goals for the future is to continue to tour Europe and eventually expand to Asia and play Fuji Rock Festival!”

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‘Rivers’ launches the band’s sound into a new dimension–bluesy, droning, heavy guitars dominate the soundscape, with roaring guitar riffs that emulate a free-flowing river into a sea. On the track’s subject matter, rhythm guitarist and vocalist Sophia Williams says, “‘Rivers’ embodies the unspoken words and dynamics between two people. It describes the static energy that you feel when you say one thing, but the words you really want to say hang in the air around you.”

The band cites rock bands like The Black Angels and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club as inspiration for the heavier tune. Lead guitarist Frankie Sripada recalls, “Recording this one was really cool because the producer, Sylvia, wanted a big wall of sound so they beefed up the bass with heavy overdrive and layered the guitars making for a really engaging listening experience.”

On the making of the video, director Terrell Williams says, “We shot in two contrasting spaces, the clean white cyclone screen and the cozy apartment jam, and they gave me the perfect balance of creative freedom and clear vision, which let me hit a flow-state in the edit and bring it all together with trick mirror shots and visual FX.”

Williams adds, “This was one of those edits where everything just clicked, and I’m proud of what we created. Daisychain is a band I’m grateful to have crossed paths with, and I’m excited for what’s ahead.”

The post Daisychain try not to drown in unspoken words on rip-roaring new single/video ‘Rivers’ appeared first on She Makes Music.

The forthcoming spirited album, All In A Name, showcases Daisychain’s complexities as people, tight-knit bond as friends and versatility as artists, featuring sounds from wood winds, chimes, pump organs, mixed with synthesized vocal and guitar harmonies. Inside her Ashland, Oregon-based studio, celebrated producer Massy created a safe space for the group to experiment and elevated their sound and strengths, whittling 100 tracks down to ten. Matching the band’s name, the project sonically blends sultry and soulful vocals with moments of fierce garage-rock and classic 1970s rock, resulting in a robust, thrilling listening experience.

Vocalist and bassist Nickole Regala is proud to present a project that is true to who the group is today and celebrates female voices. On the raw creative experience, Regala says, “All in a Name will always represent to me the discipline, vulnerability, and humility it takes to make a great album. Whether it was the intensity of the writing process, the three-week recording sabbatical, or life just life-ing us, this album feels like us which is why I can’t stop listening to it.”

Filled with layered harmonies and dance-pop guitar tones, ‘Waste Your Time’ out today chronicles the complexities of unrequited love. Citing their main inspirations on the track, the group pulled from 90s English shoegaze band Catherine Wheel and Ty Segall’s pop-leaning sounds. Lead guitarist Frankie Sripada shares, “This song is about someone wanting to get involved with another who doesn’t necessarily want them back, with lyrics that paint the picture of an unrequited love affair.” Speaking to the writing process Sripada shares, “I brought the instrumental framework and later, Nickole added lyrics and vocals to it with Sophie adding harmonies and additional lyrics.” Together, the group forms their tracks by picking up where the other left off creating a mosaic of their personal tastes and touches.

Shot by Terrell Williams on a snowy, cold day, the playful accompanying video blends footage from the band’s show at Chicago’s iconic Metro with drone and handheld shots of the group running around their home city. Regala recalls, “Given the blustery weather conditions, the challenge was to get a good take as quickly as possible. Working with the energy of the natural city churning behind us definitely gave us the boost we needed to get some really cool shots that complement the movement of the song.”

All In A Name:

1. Shadowfax
2. G String
3. Eve
4. Rivers
5. The Sound Of You
6. Get High With Me
7. Let Me Down Easy
8. Waste Your Time
9. Mama
10. Kerosene Lover

The post Daisychain announce thrilling debut LP All In A Name & share new single ‘Waste Your Time’ appeared first on She Makes Music.

On the new single, the band said “Sighing is the desire for melancholy. It denotes that something is happening. Sometimes we just need to sigh to let go. Sighing is something we do unconsciously but it says a lot about what is going on inside our mind.”

Director Rodrigo Pérez-Galicia added “An exploration of the different stages of a single verb: ‘Suspiro’ or ‘Sigh’. It’s both physiological and a psychological reaction that applies in many emotional stages. It’s a punctuation mark for our train of thought. It marks a rhythm in our lively experience. We wanted to capture that feeling when our body demands a ‘sigh'” on the visuals.

Aprender a Ser:

1. El Suspiro Cambia Todo
2. Sueño Despierto
3. Nuevo Sol
4. Puerta Abierta
5. Moronas
6. Horizonte
7. Respiro Profundo
8. Orquídea
9. Cinco Días
10. Antes De Que Se Acabe El Año

The post Mint Field announce new album Aprender a Ser; share first single & video ‘El Suspiro Cambia Todo’ appeared first on She Makes Music.

‘Calypso’is the most understated cut from the record so far. Dreamy guitars underpin vocalist Leona Farugia -who barely raises her voice above a whisper. Resonating sax lines add to the oneiric atmosphere, before cymbals crash into life during the latter half -still only ever heard at a distance, so the effect is psychedelic and symphonic, rather than caustic.

The subtleties in ‘Calypso’are born of creative origins, and reverence to the band’s Mediterranean island roots, as guitarist Janelle Borg explains: “I personally love listening to folk music from around the world and really admire bands like Altin Gun, Crimi, and Etnika who are bringing Mediterranean sounds to the foreground. So this song started out when I was noodling around on the guitar after listening to Maltese folk music -particularly għana-and thinking about how I can give my own “contemporary take” on that before I brought it to the band.”

And speaking on the lyrical themes, vocalist Leona details the influence that counter-cultural Maltese figure Mario Azzopardihad on the song: “When I was in high school our Maltese literature teacher introduced us to the playwright and author Mario Azzopardi. I had the pleasure to interview him for a project that I was working on back home and he also gave me an unpublished poem to keep! Since then Azzopardi changed my world completely and Calypso is a homage to this sublime author whom I looked up to all my life. Although it is written in English, I feel like his spirit can still be felt throughout the narration.“

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Built around a swampy groove, ‘Days And Nights’ rolls heavily forwards in its assuredness. Vocalist Leona Farrugia’s vocals oscillate between semi-spoken commands in the verses, never breaking eye-contact and untethered, vibrato howls during the choruses.

‘Days and Nights’ offers a sense of the inherent juxtaposition that life offers, the lightness of experience often leading us in deeper rumination about our position in the world. It’s an ongoing process, a floored quest for completion as the sun continues to rise and fall.

Vocalist Farrugia adds: “This rumination is close to heart, almost comic at times. The parachute of experiences can leave you numb and unsettled, I often feel that one can never be fully equipped to what life has in store”.

It comes with a visually arresting music video directed by Charles Gallwho worked with Sports Team and English Teacher, amongst others.

Along with the album announcement comes the launch of an interactive online visual space unum 3D which the band describe as:“a spatial concept designed to present some of the facets of the mundane. This representation on a computer screen slowly presents us with unexpected turns and surprising tricks that makes some of it not so mundane. As a companion to the album, the house exists to engage with the lyrical themes in a dimension outside of, but in tandem to, what the music offers.”

unum:

1. rohmeresse
2. days and nights
3. a Muse (in limbo)
4. heloise
5. calypso
6. le saut du pigeon
7. a reprise (that girl)
8. apparition no.7
9. wild west
10. the sister of
11. the merchant of

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About the track, lead-member Bonnie Bloomgarden offers: “I was walking down the street, and all of the sudden it dawned on me that almost all the things that kids bullied me about, or I got in trouble for in school, or was told would make me never amount to anything, were actually my magic powers! My voice isn’t too high, or funny, it’s how I cast my spells! I’m not a bad student, I love learning, and being a seeker! And I’m not a crazy person with weird ideas, that will never fit into society, I’m a witch, and I have magic powers!”

About the track, director, singer, and record bassist Samantha Westervelt offers: “This was a really exciting video to work on. The concept of the song and the concept of the video go hand-in-hand: facing challenges in life are part of the obstacle course we go through when we are training to get Magic Powers. No situation is ever going to be perfect and mistakes or adversity will challenge us, but if we stay true to who we are in the face of the lessons we’re served, and try try try again no matter what stands in our way, we can have magic powers. I am a firm believer in reincarnation, manifestation, and divine timing, and the video also plays around with those ideas, in addition to playing with a recurring theme from our ‘What Are The Odds’ video (i.e., living in a simulated world).”

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New track ‘O Dŷ i Dŷ’ is about the Welsh folkloric custom of South Wales, The horse headed Mari Lwyd. The song discusses the tradition and questions whether she has been culturally appropriated, and if she has, whether this is a bad thing or not. The earliest accounts of the horse headed Mari date back to 1798, but the tradition declined in popularity in the early 20th century. The tradition saw a resurgence towards the end of the 20th century and then in 21st century has increased its popularity with the iconic image and use of the Mari spreading as far as North America. O Dŷ i Dŷ’ translates as ‘From house to house’, referencing how she attempts to gain entry to houses, where a musical battle would commence to gain entry, like a poetry slam.

“The song questions whether this is a way of celebrating Welsh culture or whether this is a form of cultural appropriation” says the band. “It mentions how ‘the mare runs free, let’s see where she ends up landing’ and asks for people to reflect on whether those who have resurrected her in other countries are guilty of stealing her skeleton.”

Meanwhile, ‘Streets at Night’ is a literal, visceral description of what it feels like to fear for one’s life when walking at night. Paired with a retro organ and a pulsing changeable tempo, the track imbues a distinctive sense of dread – almost emulating a classic horror movie soundtrack. “The song was written as an outlet for this experience that we’ve all felt” says the band. “The speed of the song changing halfway through influenced the lyrics and we hear heartbeats speeding up and slowing down throughout, mirroring the feeling of being on high alert when out walking alone.”

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