Briefly back home in New York between tour stops of their Ballerina Tour, First III No Flash got to have a chat with Kelley Dugan and Mina Walker — the duo that are heart of Daisy The Great. With a couple of weeks to catch their breath, we got to talk about their upcoming record The Rubber Teeth Talk (out on June 27th), their theater background, and going viral — all for our June digital cover story.
The Rubber Teeth Talk will be the third studio album by Daisy The Great, an indie pop band from New York led by the vocal harmonies of two talented women. After spending nearly a decade as a band, they see this album as a continuation of their earlier work. “I don’t think it’s a complete departure,” Kelley said. “But I definitely see us growing. This record ties to our earlier music, but we’re doing it in a way that matches the performance level that we’ve come to feel represents us, with the more playful and super creative side we started writing with.”
“There’s that saying that your talent doesn’t always match your taste. But as you keep growing, it starts to blend together more easily. We just want to stay current with who we are. And as long as it’s our voices on the track, it’s going to be Daisy the Great.” — Mina Walker
That evolution is especially clear when comparing the band’s two newest singles. “Mary’s At The Carnival” is soft-hearted, whimsical, and steeped in dreamlike melancholy. “Ballerina”, by contrast, is raw and deliberately unpolished. I asked if they were aiming for a specific feeling and which of the singles would inspire that feeling the most.
“We wanted the album to feel like a dreamlike world,” they said, “but not completely polished. Like a dream that has moments of reality that come out and stare you in the face. There are very high highs and very quiet, intimate moments.”
“That’s why we released “Ballerina” and “Mary’s At The Carnival” as singles, because they’re kind of opposites.” The dreamlike world is palpable in the music video of “Mary’s At The Carnival,” referencing Alice In Wonderland somewhat, with the record even including a track titled “Sue Me Alice.” There’s definitely some Alice. A lot of the album lives in this dream space, disappearing, finding yourself, looking at identity in different ways.” — Mina Walker
While earlier songs tackled identity overtly, this time, the themes came out more naturally. “We didn’t set out with a specific concept,” the duo explained. “But when we looked back, we realized these threads were all connected. We’d write one song and the next would, unintentionally, be a graduation of the previous one, almost like journaling.”
“This is the first time we’ve written all the songs at the same time as well,” Mina adds. “That makes the album feel more cohesive for me lyrically.” The storytelling doesn’t end with the lyrics, as it also plays a part in how they present themselves. The duo met each other in acting school, which shows in their very distinct, theatrical, visual approach: “We both started out as performers, that comes through in the writing as well. Our theater background and experiences in classical theater influence the way we learned about storytelling.”
“We really learned how to dissect plays and talk about the story, and figure out what’s really happening. We write about these long metaphors and what’s being said in the story, and that’s the underlying meaning of the song without saying it.” — Kelley Dugan
Mina continues comparing it to artists like Fiona Apple, who they’re inspired by. You’ll always hear what she’s saying in the lyrics, but with other bands, it can take 20 listens before you actually take it in, and you have to read between the lines more. They elaborate: “We want to phrase our songs in a way that lets you hear what the story is by the way we put the lyrics in the song.”
The Ballerina Tour wrapped with a sold out show in Los Angeles. Fans have really taken in the stories Daisy The Great has to tell. “This tour was really fun,” said Kelley. “We went to cities we’ve never headlined before. That’s nerve-wracking, but also really rewarding. The crowds were so kind and welcoming, and really attentive.”
They planned the setlists like an energy map of sorts, going from some high energy songs to more intimate songs, wanting to take people on a ride through their stories, but also mixing it up for the encores each night. Some of the older songs got their chance to shine when they let the crowds choose what they’d want to hear: “We started playing “Built My Home On Hollow Ground,” a song we wrote eight years ago, from our first EP, and we didn’t expect people to know that song. It’s crazy how time works and music travels — people come up to you to tell you that their favorite song is one you wrote when you were 19 years old. I love the way music works like that, and it’s how music is to me too, so those make for very memorable moments on tour.”
Daisy The Great has been a band since 2018, so with almost a decade under their belt, they’ve seen the music industry shift, particularly for women. “We’ve definitely been around a lot of boys,” Kelley laughed — “One of the most impactful experiences I’ve had working on this record was with Catherine Marks (producer). To be able to work with her is great as I look up to her as a role model in the industry. I can see myself in her.” Mina adds,“We had not been in band culture because we come from a theater background, and didn’t really know the music scene of New York that well. We worked with a lot of awesome people, but we did spend the first years deferring to men a little more, not trusting that I had the ear for recording. Making this record with Catherine, along with Kelley and I leading the charge felt really empowering.”
Mina does say that they only started being “professional” around 2021, and they didn’t experience the power imbalance much, “I didn’t even think about it, we were just doing our own thing, not knowing anyone on a label or managers or anything of the industry. We were just cold calling venues, pretending to be a band, and it worked!”
These women have always done things on their own terms, starting with “The Record Player Song,” the first song they ever put out in 2017. The song went viral on TikTok, and took on a life of its own, including a remix of the song featuring AJR following in 2022. “That was a crazy experience, really unexpected. The song’s popularity gave us the opportunity to perform on some huge stages and at some really big festivals,” they tell us. “We were able to have our music reach a lot of people’s ears, and have them look through our old music. It encouraged us to write songs that we felt could live in both big and small spaces.” They write music that will hit, regardless of the size of the room.
“We’ve always made songs for the weirdos. Songs that are for people that are going through something, finding themselves, and we’ve always tried to make music that connects.” — Daisy The Great
“We trust that our music is meaningful,” Mina continues. They’re not chasing virality, instead focusing on making a discography that grows with them:“We are so grateful for being known for that song, but doing shows and everything, shows us how connected people are to all the music we make.”
As they just wrapped up the Ballerina Tour, Daisy The Great is already looking forward to the year ahead. The release of The Rubber Teeth Talk on June 27th is the biggest one to look forward to obviously, but equally as exciting — they just announced a US tour set for fall. Check out the dates below and don’t miss your chance to see these lovely ladies in a city near you!