Shortly after Tyler, the Creator reached out to Daisy to work on a track together for his latest album Call Me If You Get Lost, Daisy decided to “RISE!” above her insecurities and go down the path of creating solo music. Three years after the album’s release, Daisy sits backstage of the El Rey Theatre preparing for her debut album release show. As she sipped piping hot throat coat tea before her meet and greet, we got comfy on the couch in her green room and discussed everything from her vision for “Daisy World” to the release of Toothpick, which is available for purchase now. 

Daisy World at her meet and greet for her album release show on February 2, 2024 by Vanessa Chan

What does it mean to live in a “Daisy World”?

D: OOOOOOO! That’s a great question! I would say to live in a “Daisy World”, it would mean that obviously you’re very happy. You’re feeling very confident in yourself and you’re being your authentic self. You’re with all your friends and probably outdoors. Maybe like a park? You would be eating something amazing – there’s definitely a wide spread of food. You’re blissed out. That’s what I, at least, want it to be. You’re out, you’re chillin’, you’re just living your best life. You know when you’re having just a good day where you’re almost doing nothing? 

Daisy World performing songs off her latest album Toothpick on February 2, 2024 by Vanessa Chan

I couldn’t help but notice you started releasing original music on streaming platforms in 2021. Three years later, we’re here at your debut album release show. How has your growth impacted you as not just a person, but an artist? 

D: WOAH. I started doing solo stuff, Daisy World, because of the collaboration I did with Tyler, the Creator. He reached out to me to do a song, and from there I started really thinking about how I needed a solo endeavor. Since then, I would say I have grown so much. I’ve grown so much as a person, and an artist. Going solo was very scary. It made me have to really put myself out there. All my insecurities that I used to neglect, or that I could shove aside, had to be faced because I was tackling this solo journey on my own. I had to be so solid in myself. It brought up all these little pieces of me that I needed to deal with. These past couple of years have been a lot of self work and trusting my intuition, vision, and process – in a way I never have. I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without my support system, like my parents and my best friends. They really helped me stay in the mindset of pushing myself. As a human, I had to face a lot of insecurities and grow from them. As an artist, it has changed everything. I am actually making the music that I’ve visioned in my head. It has pushed me to experiment with different things and try different ways of writing music. It’s been really freeing. Now, I feel like anything is possible. 

You know, it’s different when you have a vision of what you want to do music-wise and finding your sound compared to actually doing it. Would you say Toothpick is you finally putting your vision into real work? 

D: Oh 100%. I listen to Toothpick and it’s refreshing because it sounds like me. Every listen, I’m like “Oh yeah this is literally me. I’m in there”. I listen to the album and it feels like I’m just hanging out with myself. I really feel the most connected to this music than I’ve ever felt to anything, and it’s been a really crazy experience. Also, it’s helped me learn that I can trust myself. What I’m hearing in my head and the things I want, actually work. Now, I get to expand on that because I’ve never produced my own music before and this is the first time I’m doing it. It feels like me and I love it. 

It’s a piece of your authentic self being put into your own work. It’s personal. 

D: YES. I feel like that’s one of the reasons why my friends love this new music so much. Sunny over here has listened to this album tons of times, and she totally can hear how much this music represents me. 

How would you describe this album?

D: It’s very much a journey of growth and the transition of girlhood to a woman. Sonically, it’s all over the place. There’s songs that are super R&B and then others that steer more towards pop music. Some tracks I can’t even classify into a genre because it’s just such a mix of everything. This album showcases me, and you get to know me through listening to it. Even when I perform live shows, I talk a lot throughout them. I want people to understand the journey I went on, and that feels so cool. It’s a whole project. 

Daisy World getting intimate with her audience as she performs songs off her album Toothpick by Vanessa Chan

From an artist perspective, I can totally understand how difficult it must be to feel obligated to stick to just one genre. From a consumer perspective, we listen to tons of genres everyday. Since you steer into so many different genres, how would you describe your sound? 

D: I am a person who loves Carol King. I love classic 70s ballads, but I would say the thing that inspires me the most is hip-hop music. And, I’m vocally a jazz singer – I’m trained to be a jazz musician. So it’s like I’m singing jazz but the way that I think about rhythm, flow, and words is very based in hip-hop. The way I think about the music surrounding it is piano lush chords. It’s all over the place, but those are my things. Jazz, 70s ballads, hip-hop music. I love so many different kinds of music, so I feel like I’m taking little pieces of all of it, and making it my own. When I see rap shows, and listen to rap music, I’m always in awe about every aspect of it. 

I totally agree. Tyler is definitely one of those artists who changed the modern rap scene. I think he’s one of those rappers who started incorporating different things into his music, and he made us evaluate, in a way, what our definition of rap is. 

D: Oh 100% Tyler, Smino, Isaiah Rashad. They’re those type of artists for me that have me like “How the f**k did you do this?” I don’t make rap music whatsoever, but I think it’s so cool that I f**k with rap music the most while making jazz and pop songs myself. I find it to be the most impressive song-writing. 

How does it feel to have this project of yours finally out and having ears around the world tune into Daisy’s “World”? 

D: I actually ended up not releasing the album today. I released it early on this platform called Even. It’s all about getting artists paid. When I released it, I ended up making as much money as I typically make in a quarter of a year. It’s not a lot, and it’s also a way for listeners to support me. I don’t think people are able to comprehend the fact that artists don’t make any money. We make like $100 a month off of streaming. This early release was also a way for me to give back to the listeners who really listen to me and really f**k with me. I’m still going to release it in April, but the day that it came out, it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I felt lighter. I’ve never felt that way about any other release of mine. This release is so meaningful to me. I’m so excited about what I’m writing now, and the fact that I get to talk about what it’s about and talk about the songs I’ve been sitting on for so long feels awesome. I’ve been working on this for two years, and sitting on it for another year on top of that. I love all the songs so much, but I’m really excited to perform “Blindfold”. The performance aspect is so amazing to me. I just feel so in tune with the music – like I’m physically in it.