Naarm/Melbourne folk-grunge band Daisypicker confront love, loss and longing both delicately and cathartically.
While talking to Daisypicker over Zoom, everyone’s in a different spot. Frontwoman Nadia Phillips and drummer Jezabel Furlong, who are together, are calling from home. Violist Ezra Demchy is at work, and bassist Caleb Green is sitting in his bedroom.
It’s a pleasant surprise to see everyone join, as that’s how this chat could be most worthwhile – Daisypicker are a close, tight-knit unit, only made whole with all four present together.
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Formed in 2023 from Nadia’s solo songwriter endeavours, Daisypicker deftly combine hard-hitting and intimate acoustics with introspective lyrics. Pent-up emotions are let loose, but the quieter moments are just as moving.
This brilliant push and pull stems from the band’s musical backgrounds. Nadia previously played with Ezra, who strums his viola like a ukulele – an innovation born from his time soundtracking Malaysia’s MAP festival.
Nadia and Jezabel decided to make music together, and then met Caleb while he was playing in his band Almanac. They asked him to play bass, which was a first for him in a band effort.
“I remember we had our first band practice in the Retreat Hotel’s office in Brunswick,” Nadia says, laughing. “I had about seven songs. We just played them and tried to see what would happen. Instantly, the four of us glued really well together.”
They toured for half a year and simultaneously released Nadia’s 2023 EP, Circle, a body of work more on the “softer side”, as Jezabel describes. “I think we had to find this way of making music that is still authentic to Nadia’s songwriting, but also authentic to all our different playing styles.”
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The name change to Daisypicker signified much more: a new level of confidence that let everyone play truer to themselves.
“It felt like we were beginning to be a bit more collaborative. I wanted it to be more equal,” Nadia says. “I still love writing lyrics and the songs, but we’ve started adding all these new parts, and it’s turned into something more than a support band.”
Caleb jumps in: “I think all of us, we play so well together as a unit, we all hype each other up, and we just keep going up and up and up!”
Cheering each other on not only as bandmates, but friends is the key to Daisypicker’s chemistry. Even live – and they seriously put on a thrilling performance – they surprise and encourage each other.
“At our last gig [with Mouseatouille], Ezra and Jez were pulling stuff out of nowhere, and I was like, ‘Oh, hang on, I haven’t heard this before. Keep going. Keep going like this,’” Caleb recalls.
That camaraderie is captured on Mess Around, their 10-track debut album out on 5 September. Written over the past couple of years, the singles alone cover all of Daisypicker’s musical bases – the hard (Birthday/Funeral, Under Water) and the soft (Playground), while exploring romantic woes.
Nadia explains the band consciously aimed to “paint the full picture” of Daisypicker with their single choices. “It was like, ‘Okay, how can we introduce this band well enough to cut through to the people that have a preconceived idea of who we are musically?’”
They then settled on describing their sound as “folk-grunge”, a label affirmed upon discovering UK indie rock bands Mary In The Junkyard and English Teacher. “There’s a similarity, but it was nice to find our sound and then find similar music, rather than find the music and try to replicate it,” Nadia says.
Daisypicker are excited and ready for their album release tour, kicking off at the Curtin on 6 September with an eclectic lineup, featuring Npcede, Perfect 50 and McKimmie.
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“Each live experience changes depending on the audience and who we’re playing with,” Ezra says. “We’ve rehearsed so much, and we have this music that’s quite malleable.”
“Chasing the freshness is something we really strive to do,” Caleb adds.
Now, what makes Daisypicker different from their past bands? The closeness between them, of course.
“It feels like one giant family, if I’m getting soppy with it,” Caleb says. “It’s just incredible how quickly you get to know someone musically.”
We all love and hurt, and Daisypicker get to do it all together, matching musically and as friends. Caleb sums it up on everybody’s behalf: “We get the best of both worlds, and I think we’re really lucky to have that.”
Daisypicker are playing the Curtin Hotel on 6 September. Get tickets here.
