When it feels like every other video on your TikTok feed is an emerging independent artist desperately trying to introduce you to their music, it can be hard for someone to break through and truly make you take notice. Enter Daisy Veacock, with one simple video of her sitting on the bus, lip syncing to the infectiously catchy chorus of her then-unreleased single ‘when i used to spend the night’. It had me hooked immediately, as I began taking a deep-dive into her discography and eagerly anticipating the songs’ release. Now it’s here and seems to be introducing even more people to Veacock’s unique musical world, defined by heartfelt lyricism and irresistible melodies. With its’ signature blend of jazz, pop, singer-songwriter confessionalism and 00’s nostalgia, Veacock’s soulful and soft yet uniquely expressive songs are filled with warmth, comfort and wit. Your new indie obsession has arrived.
I was lucky enough to chat with Daisy over Zoom on a rainy Monday morning this September. We’d both been caught running late: unable to make it home in time I’d had to run to talk in a nearby friend's living room, while Daisy had hopped into a coffee shop between writing sessions and calls with bosses. If talking to me was an inconvenience during her busy schedule then she certainly didn’t show it as I was instantly warmed - despite the appalling weather outside - by her lively spirit and enthusiasm.
So, you’ve just spent your summer performing at Glastonbury amongst many other festivals. What has it been like seeing your music connect with more and more people?
Daisy beams. “It’s just so special, it really is,” she continues "I love all the silly stories that come with it, [like] with the George thing last year… [she’s referencing the line ‘At least he’s better than George, he was a bit of a tw*t’ in her song ‘Give It Up (Give Him A Call)’] I had so many people come up to me and say ‘I dated the worst man called George!’ And I’m like this is so funny! Because it could be the real one.”
It’s clear that this audience interaction is something Veacock cherishes deeply. “I don’t think there’s any feeling in the world like watching people sing your songs to you. It’s just so special and it makes me so happy. And, also, Glastonbury…has been the one thing for me that’s been an ‘I need to do this. I want to do this so badly’ so nothing will ever match up to that weekend.”
Of those who haven’t discovered your music yet, who do you think would really connect to it?
“I’d love to say everyone,” I agree that this feels plausible, “I hope so. I always get people saying it sounds like Sunday morning - which I love… You might be hungover, you might be with someone, whatever's happening it’s like that sunny Sunday morning.”
This description makes perfect sense in association with Veacock’s music, which seems to concern itself with chronicling the expansive, messy and confusing hodgepodge of emotions that compose the average person's daily life, over smooth jazz-pop beats. Particularly, the setting of the bus, seems to have become a sort of artistic holy ground in Veacock’s music, serving as a tribute to the emotional profundity layered within the mundanity of the everyday. The bus has become a daily constant that she finds herself travelling on to get to work, events and gigs alongside the emotional travels of life and a space where her feelings and ideas take shape (she joyfully chimes in later “I read these questions while on the bus!”). “I just love the idea of people listening to it on the bus… everyone gets the bus at some point and I love hearing of people saying they’ve listened to it on the bus…whatever’s happening it’s where I always end up”. The everyday experience beats at the heart of Veacocks’ music. “I love when people see themselves in the songs... As humans we’re all having the same experiences, just slightly differently and I love that people are just claiming their own experiences to my songs… it’s so gorgeous.”
Your new song, ‘when i used to spend the night’ has just been released - what do you hope people will get out of this song ?
“I love the idea of people coming to my shows and feeling so together when they’re all just going ‘oh my god!!’ [a particularly ‘chant-able’ recurring part of the song] … I love those moments at gigs where you just feel so ‘with’ all the people around you and I want to create that for all of my listeners.”
You’ve mentioned playing this song live for many years prior to this, why do you feel that now is the right time for it to finally be released?
“It’s so weird I don’t know! The recording process of this song has been the hardest of anything I’ve recorded…I think there are about 70 different versions of this track… it just wasn’t working,” after some time Veacock felt she had moved on, wanting to write about current experiences instead, until the song felt particularly apt for an upcoming project “I was like, I have to do this song and it has to be right, I then took it in to my friend Nat, whose an incredible producer… she gave it a fresh perspective and I’m so happy…I’m really pleased that it’s come together and people have heard it and love this one.”
Your music has an incredibly distinctive pop-meets-jazz sound, evocative of 00’s singer-songwriters like Lily Allen or Eliza Doolittle. Is this stylistic cohesion something that you consider intentionally when writing music or do you naturally find yourself working within this sound?
“I love Lily Allen… [she’s] a big one for me. I've always loved her,” despite that, you don’t get the sense that paying specific homages is part of Veacock’s artistic project, “It’s not something I’ve ever massively tried to emulate or considered…I’ve always just wanted to make music that I would want to listen to and I love when things sound live and they’ve got horns and guitars,” she continues “I’m fascinated by jazz - I constantly find myself pining after jazz musicians - it’s just the groups I surround myself with and the live music I consume … I just love the idea of compiling everything into one song. Why not do that? And have so many elements in so many different places. I like that there’s elements of everything.”
Are there any other contemporary artists you’re inspired by? Any that you’d love to collaborate with one day?
“I’m really loving ‘Sabby C’ at the moment, a bit of Sabrina Carpenter,” (honestly, who isn’t!)... “that album: I think it’s just so well written… The pop girls are holding it up in the industry right now… Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo… I’d love to work with someone like that, that would be incredible, all the pop girlies I just love them all!”
I can’t help but interject here and suggest a collaboration with soul star Olivia Dean.
“She drinks in my local sometimes! I love Olivia Dean so much, I cried at her Glastonbury set.” (there’s hope!)
A lot of people are talking about the idea of bringing a sense of fun back to music at the minute, with artists like Charli XCX, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter. Is that something you feel your music could be a part of?
“Yeah! I’d love that because I love writing things that people find fun. I’m loving listening to Brat [and] Short N’ Sweet… and I love how music is becoming a live experience again, I think we lost a bit of that during Covid. I really love how many shows I’ve been to over the summer where I’ve felt so connected with the people in the crowd because the music is so fun and I’d love to be part of that movement… Sometimes I love writing sad songs but I like playing shows and not feeling like I’ve trauma-dumped on the audience too much.”
Your songs often blend melancholic situations with humour and upbeat melodies - does this reflect your outlook on life or music’s role in it?
“I think it’s very much if I don’t laugh about it I’ll cry … what I love in life is that even in the saddest, most brutal moments, there’s always small things - a friend showing up for you or a joke - that just make you giggle” This feels like an element of life that embeds itself naturally in Daisy’s music: “I like the contrast, I just think it really works for me… I like the two side by side - I’m grinning but I’m sad!”
You’ve talked about how ‘float right back to you’ was partly inspired by the Pixar film ‘Up’ ; do you often find yourself taking inspiration from unusual places?
“My best songs come from the strangest ideas! Quite often I might just be walking down the street and see the name of a shop or having a conversation with someone and they say a phrase and I just go ‘yeah that could work’.”
A key part of your audience is now attained through TikTok. How has the rise of TikTok and streaming changed how artists make and promote their music and do you think it has made it easier or harder for emerging artists?
“It really excites me that I can just get my phone out and people can find it and connect with it and that’s so special. We’d all be silly if we weren’t admitting that there is no music industry without TikTok anymore but I do think it’s massively oversubscribed now... you open it up and there's hundreds [of music artists]. It's not even that they're bad artists, there's just so much of it. There's sadly such a massive focus on self-promoting music on social media now, but it is also really exciting that it can change your life. I wouldn’t have had half the experiences that I’ve had without it.”
We discuss TikTok’s reliance on 30-second clips of songs as well as its unpredictability in selecting what content goes viral.
“It’s really difficult. Some people’s music is amazing, it's just not marketable through TikTok…When I was writing ‘float’ [‘float right back to you], part of the writing process was me considering how I’d market it … there was an element of ‘How do I sell this?’”
Daisy has had first hand experience when it comes to the unruly and untameable world of the TikTok ‘for you page’. She spent hours making a bus out of cardboard to be used in TikToks promoting her new song only for a video of her sat on a real (non-cardboard) bus to gain virality instead: “We spent so long making those f*cking buses…” (she laughs) “and then the thing that does well is me just sat on a bus filming myself for a minute!”
Aside from not having to make any more cardboard buses, what are you most excited for about your future as an artist?
“I’m excited to travel, to tour, to just grow and make more music. There are songs that I’m going to love that I haven’t written yet… and that’s so exciting!”
It was a pleasure to chat to Daisy and I can’t wait to hear all the new music on its way!
