On their debut full-length album All In A Name, out June 27, Chicago-based psych rock trio Daisychain bring together a multitude of genres with emotive themes and lyricism to put together a body of work that is as hypnotic as it is cathartic. Following two previously-released EP’s — 2020’s Daisychain and 2022’s Different Shades, the rock outfit’s inaugural LP interweaves ’70s rock influences with heavy bass tones, resulting in a sound that would entice listeners both 30 years ago and 30 years from now.
Refusing to adhere to any strict rules of one single genre, Daisychain’s musicality is one that can be interpreted in many different ways. Garage rock riffs are infused with ’90s rock lyricism, and the band adds a finishing touch of refreshing indie rock modernity that allows their artistry to drive forward their genreless approach to psych-influenced rock ‘n’ roll. Much like their band name, Daisychain embodies dichotomous versatility and complexity, balancing haunting and grounding, glitter and grit, courage and vulnerability.
With the help of renowned producer Sylvia Massy (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tool, Prince), All In A Name is a highly intentional and diverse body of work. Heavily inspired by their local Chicago rock scene, Daisychain are currently on the She’s A Freak Tour, making their way throughout the U.S. this June and July.
Composed of Nickole Regala (bass, vocals), Sophia Williams (guitar, vocals) and Frankie Sripada (lead guitar), Daisychain are a femme-fronted outfit, writing All In A Name as a means to amplify and celebrate feminine voices in the current indie rock landscape. With a sound that expands beyond the boundaries of modern rock music, Daisychain embody a sound in their artistry that is exciting, healing and uniquely their own. Ahead of the release of their debut full-length record, the band sat down with Melodic Magazine to discuss musical influences, the Chicago music scene and the strength that comes with being soft.
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk today! “Rivers” is the newest single that came ahead of your debut album; what’s the message behind the song itself?
Sophia: The subject matter just came from being frustrated with a friend and writing something down and then looking back at it later and elaborating on it, and just the feeling or the frustration of talking to somebody but not really being able to say what you want to say, and having it just hang in the air and feel the static energy.
When it comes to getting those unsaid thoughts or feelings out there, was releasing the song healing for you? What were the emotions like in that sense?
Sophia: I think we were just all really excited to release this song because we like the song a lot. But getting anything out there is a vulnerable, but very cathartic thing.
Nickole: And the song itself is so driving and massive, with the lyrics just being seized between us. I think the music itself definitely captures that really enveloping space. And that is how it feels when you’re close to somebody or feel like you can’t say something. It just feels like a massive space.
Sophia: It’s overwhelming, and the song kind of captures that.
Nickole: It drives and it keeps going. I mean, it’s my favorite song on the album — easy. I love it.
I also love the soaring, anthemic feel of this song. “Rivers” has this bigger, louder sound that’s never really been explored in your music before. In terms of the composition, how did that come together? What was the songwriting process like for “Rivers?”
Sophia: We always joke that it’s our Ted Nugent “Stranglehold” song.
Nickole: Because it’s got that same kind of beat and it rides on the same chord for most of the time. And it just rides so well to me. It doesn’t even need to go anywhere, honestly.
Sophia: I think just developing it we wanted it to be driving and something that you could just kind of lean into.
Nickole: It kind of switches it up in the best way. Sophie came up with the bones of that song, and then Frankie and I added the rest. I just heard the bassline. I feel like with songs like that where it’s just sick guitars that are riffing on the same chord for a while, it definitely allows the bass to just go crazy and do a bunch of different stuff with rhythms, textures, whatever. So that was really cool, for me at least. And then once we got into the studio with Sylvia Massy with it she was just like, ‘Alright, you guys need a hook here and this here,’ and we added that and it just really filled everything.
I’m glad you mentioned Sylvia, she’s this amazing producer who’s worked with all these other really iconic artists as well. What’s it been like working with Sylvia on this project? I imagine that’s such a cool experience for you guys.
Sophia: It was amazing. It was intimidating in the best way going into it because of her name and all the things that she’s done and the people she’s worked with. But as soon as we met her, it was so natural. She’s warm. She’s friendly. I’ve said it a million times, but she was always just like, every idea was a good idea or something to at least embellish on even if it didn’t make the cut or even get recorded. Any idea was something to explore, which was really cool. The process going into recording and recording itself is never an easy thing. It’s really vulnerable. But she made it just a wonderful experience.
Nickole: I felt like a rock star (laughter).
You mentioned a couple of times this sense of vulnerability, and I feel like with releasing music, making music, working with new people, overall it’s a very scary thing to do. What pushes you to overcome that fear or put yourself out there and release really personal material?
Nickole: I would say for me, when we play live shows and people come up and they’re just incredibly moved, that’s really special to me. I get really emotional about stuff like that. And one thing I really appreciate about Sylvia is that she very much was just like, ‘Music is emotion.’ When you are writing it with people, when you are going in, you are putting yourself out there and you are putting your emotions out there. That is very vulnerable. And even though it’s an industry and you got a bunch of science behind it too, it’s still really vulnerable.
Sophia: It’s cathartic. On a personal level, doing art in any form is such a cathartic thing, and it just reaches something that you can’t access in just everyday life normally.
You mentioned the fans and performing live, and I wanted to ask about the Chicago music scene. How has your local rock scene influenced you?
Nickole: I feel like when I first moved to Chicago and was getting into the scene, the bands that were pretty prominent were all very ’70s-inspired and ’60s-inspired, even down to their gear. Everyone was almost the Beatlemania type bands, but in a cool way, and I think that kind of inspired me to get into that era of music. Because when I first moved there I was a big pop girly, but I had some Ray Charles roots in there. But as far as a lot of classic rock, it was definitely just watching those bands when I first got to Chicago. Then I started listening to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and a lot of classic rock. But there’s also a really cool rockabilly scene too.
Sophia: Any night of the week, there’s something going on in Chicago. Any type of music.
Nickole: We spoke to a guy in L.A. recently, an old head who had been in the punk scene back in its beginnings, and he mentioned that he liked Chicago. He’s like, ‘Chicago punk people are lifers.’ You’ll find the same punks that were there when Exit was open way back [in the day] still donning their whole thing. That’s what I think I definitely see in the rock scene too is that it’s not just a phase for people, they love the local scene and they stay in the local scene. They support it.
Sophia: It’s a big community for sure, and people support each other. Always awesome to see.
You mentioned ’60s and ’70s influences that impacted the band, what are some of your other influences or different bands that you pull inspiration from to make your own unique sound?
Sophia: Well, I think since we have a few different songwriters in the band, we pull from a huge pool of inspiration. I definitely look towards Blues, folk, classic rock.
Nickole: I think I learn more towards the ‘90s type stuff with lyrics and chord progressions.
Sophia: And we love hip-hop and rap. Frankie is more of the metal, heavy rock guy, but we cover a lot of genres as far as what we’re inspired by and what we listen to. So, I think that definitely influences our music and how we write as well.
For the new album, how have you pushed yourself musically or lyrically on this project? How is it different from previous work that you’ve put out in the past?
Nickole: I had to be with myself — not with Sylvia, but just with myself – and say that no idea is a bad idea. Even before getting into her studio I had to get into that headset, which I think is really difficult for a lot of artists, because you’re just like, ‘Wow, this is trash, but I’m going to present it to my bandmates in a very formal manner and keep it very objective and critical. And I’m going to take my ego and whatever I think about this idea completely out of it and I’m going to work on this song with these people.’ And that was really difficult, because it’s easy for me to get stuck in the emotion of just, ‘This is trash, and I feel really insecure and I think it sucks but here we go (laughs).’
Sophia: It’s hard. Even to people you trust it’s hard presenting something like that. But when Sylvia agreed to work with us on the album, she asked us to write 100 songs. So that was a huge task for us to get that done in a pretty short amount of time.
Nickole: There was no time to feel like, ‘Oh, I don’t really like this one.’
What was it like writing so many songs in the time frame that you had?
Sophia: We had a maybe 15 or 20 songs before that already, so we wrote about 80 to 85 songs in three months. Insane.
Nickole: It was hard, I’m not going to lie.
Sophia: We were working full-time jobs, so we would wake up and start writing, then go to work and then come home and start writing.
Nickole: And then getting them recorded into demos. Mind you, these might not be full-fledged songs, but she did want at least a verse and a chorus, or an idea, and ideally a bridge too. I knew I didn’t want to go into the studio and have to do a bunch of writing in the studio. I was hoping to get as many fully figured out ideas as possible, so that was definitely challenging as well.
All In A Name comes out June 27. What are the emotions like as release date approaches?
Nickole: I feel like I’m about to graduate college. Like I’m about to walk the floor and I have to get everything ready.
Sophia: I’m excited, nervous, just ready to get it out there.
Nickole: I’m also really excited to see what people think, negative or positive. I think they’re going to love it.
You guys are in between tour dates right now for the first leg of your tour, but how have the shows been so far for you?
Sophia: They’ve been awesome. It’s been a really good tour. It’s good to see returning friends and fans and a lot of new people that seem excited about the band, which always makes us extra excited to play and go out there.
Nickole: Yeah. And just playing cool venues where I’m like, ‘Oh my God, they played here? That’s so cool!’ Just really legendary, hole in the wall venues that people played before they got big and just have a lot of history. When those venues like us and want to have us back that’s very nice.
Daisychain also recently announced additional dates for July. With those newly announced dates, are there any specific venues or cities that you’re most excited to go play in?
Sophia: In Denver we’ve played at this venue Skylark Lounge a couple of times, but I’m excited to go back every time we play there. It’s been such a fun show and people just show up and are really excited. But there’s a couple in there that I think will be something new.
Going back to the album, it’s been said that it’s intended to highlight and celebrate female voices in music, and as a femme-fronted band, I was wondering what your experience has been like in navigating the rock scene?
Sophia: I’d say all in all, pretty positive. Most people are really enthusiastic and I think being female-fronted makes us stand out, especially two females fronting a band and just kind of kicking ass. Most of the time it’s pretty positive, but there’s definitely people that will challenge us or maybe not take us seriously initially.
Nickole: I think every femme-presenting musician is going to have those people. There’s a handful of people that are just going to feel challenged by you for some reason and without any kind of constructive criticism just put you down.
Sophia: But usually the music speaks for itself. They can think whatever they want, and then they watch the show and there’s not really much they can say.
Nickole: I will say this though. I am glad that I have her in this industry, because even though I do think that issue has gotten a lot better than previously, it still is, for me, very intimidating. It is still very male-dominated and that is very intimidating for me personally, and it is nice to have my bestie to be able to go forward and make sure that we’re being polite but firm about what we’re expecting in the music and our performances and in the recording process. That’s why working with Sylvia was really important for me. I knew I would feel more comfortable with a female producer of that caliber. If we were going to shoot for that echelon, I wanted to feel comfortable as an artist.
With the new album All In A Name, what are the most important themes or messages found within the album that you want to convey to your listeners?
Nickole: I think mine would just be to be fearless. To just say it, and just be bold.
Sophia: I think the album itself is a huge array of genre styles. Every song is different but cohesive. We didn’t box ourselves in with having to adhere with one genre or style of music and I think, not to be cliche about it, but everybody is the same way. Not one thing defines you.
Nickole: I’m really excited for this album. I think another message from it that I appreciate, that I feel like I get at least, is the ability to be bold and fearless like I said, but also soft, which I think is its own kind of strength in its own way.
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