Wire Daisies Interviewed by Us!
Joao: Base
Steve Jackson: Drums
Treana: Vocals
Alden: Guitar
Ol: Keyboard wire daisies
Interviewer - How does life treat you on the road when you're going round together, how do you put up with each other…or not put up each other?
Alden - Pretty well really, considering the amount of time we spend with each other…in our little van, flying up and down the motorway, eating the same food most of the time, I think we did quite well.
Treana - yeah that’s the one thing that’s the problem make sure you eat well and sleep well, because your playing and by the time you've packed up all your stuff its pretty late and its hard to relax, you need to relax. And its just trying to look after you're self really, but there's no problems between us it's all really smooth.
Ol - We take one of those little portable stoves so, we got a little wok and we just sat there, cooking broccoli and trying to cook the odd bit of healthy food to try and counter act all the motorway sandwiches and chocolate.
Interviewer - So you cook your own food in a little wok when you go round on tour?
Ol - Well, it passes the time because otherwise, when you'd usually have a drink if you do some cooking for an hour it gives you something to do for an hour.
Treana - Well I must say that Ollie I must say is a pretty good cook, were very lucky to have him.
Interviewer - Excellent, and you've played with quite a few bands now, are there any particular moments that stand out for you as highlights
Steve - Steven fret well band, they were great. Really good players, lovely song writer they were nice guys too.
Treana - Obviously the guys from 13 senses, being from the same area as were from that was really cool.
Interviewer - Do you ever get a chance to speak to them when you're with them or do they hang out at that end and you hang out at the other and you never see them? What's it like?
Treana - With the Steven fret well band we had the same dressing room as them so it's hard not to see each other.
Ol - sometimes there's a really nice atmosphere, like if there's 3 or 4 bands on everyone's really helpful, because were all on the same boat so it makes life easier and its more fun if we can all get along. Sometimes, it's not always like that, but most of the time it's really cool.
Interviewer - And is that where you're happiest, on the road or are you happiest in the studio?
Treana - Well, we haven’t really been on the road much, over the last year and a half before we were playing in Cornwall, so it's quite a new experience for me. Steves obviously done it quite a bit in the past. I love it I think it's really good, seeing different towns and cities it's just lovely to travel around. I think we are a pretty much live band, I think we all enjoy the recording process but that’s were it's at, I think live is were we excel.
Interviewer - And how does the live experience compare with the tracks you've recorded, do you strip them down, what can people expect when they come and see you?
Treana - We try and stay pretty close to the recordings, I think they're a little bit raunchier live.
Alden - Sometimes a bit faster, people get a bit excited.
Joao - We always try and put some new songs in live as well, always experimenting. Playing live is the best place to experiment.
Interviewer - And how are the new tracks going down at the moment, you slipping some new tracks in?
Treana- Yeah, they seem to be going down well. We recorded the new album a little while ago, so we're quite keen to play new tracks. So we're swapping them around a little bit. And the response has been really good.
Interviewer - And how was it that you originally got together with Roger Taylor, because I read somewhere that you did, how did it all work out for you?
Alden - Trina and I have been playing together for about….10 years now and we were performing in a little pub in Cornwall and Roger Taylor walked in and sat down, next to my mum actually. Had a listen, fell in love with Trina's voice. Then he invited us to support on his tour and when we finished the tour we decided to call up Steve who Trina had met through singing in another band. Then we got a base player in and it slowly grew. We met Ollie in an Eclipse party.
Treana - Alden and I had a three piece and Roger has a place on Hanford and it's supposed to be really good to see it you know. Then we all sat down, Ollie was there and we started talking, and he was studying in Switzerland at the time, piano I think. So it all tied in nicely really.
Interviewer - Has the sound evolved at all from that first time, or did you have a sound very early on and say that’s our sound lets stick to it and then developed it over the last couple of years.
Steve - It's defiantly evolved, it's changed. I mean the cores the same but its getting, week it's defiantly getting better. Ands it's also getting bigger, the whole thing gaining a bit more stature to it.
Treana - I think we're gaining confidence as well because the more you do it the more comfortable you feel. I think it's becoming a bit more rounded, in every area.
Interviewer - So debut album 'Just another Day', I've heard some of the tracks, but only the ones you've got on line. Is 'Just another Day' also a track on the album, why don’t you tell us a bit about that track?
Treana - I wrote that a long, long time ago…well not that long ago when I was about 18 and was having one of those moments where your looking out the window and not really understanding everything, Have you heard the song?
Interviewer - No, I've only heard the songs on the web-site.
Treana - Ow,, well that ones quite self explanatory.
Interviewer - OK do you want to just pick off another track?
Steve - The opening track on the album is called make everything change.
Ol - We were recording in this little farm we were staying down in Cornwall just doing demos and Trina had 2 ideas and we were like well you could put them together, and change it round. Some of the lyrics stayed like make everything change. I had just come back from a heart wrenching trip to Portsmouth where I met the girl I was destine to Marry and well…didn't. So I wrote these things, and if we were going to keep the 2 together we decided what we wanted to keep and ditch and it gradually built up, then we just had everyone together throwing round ideas that chopped it around even more. Most of the songs on the album weren't finished by one person, you know they write it then its done because as soon as you arrive with something everyone has an idea were it could go and it takes different paths.
Interviewer - That’s cool, so do you all write then or do you 2 bring the ideas in and then ad to it, how does it usually work?
Treana - We all write songs, I mean Steve wrote Billy boy on his own but the rest of the tracks, some I wrote, some Ollie and I wrote and some we all chipped in bits a pieces.
Alden - it's just your typical band thing really, maybe a little bit of an argument, row, and tantrum. But when the dust settles you hopefully end up with a song everyone's happy with.
Interviewer - And just how happy are you on a scale of one to ten with the album?
Steve - Very, very happy. It’s a master piece. People are going to be waking up to this album very soon.
Interviewer - Sometimes when people make albums, later they look on and are like, ow I wish I could've added that or did that differently. Was it everything that you wanted it to be?
Ol - I don’t want to sound arrogant but, after making the album quite a bit later you know you see the album and just put it on because its there, and looking back I don’t think there's any track that I say , ow that really didn't work I'm really happy with it. They all flow along quite nicely, it was defiantly a moment in time and we've changed since then in the way we write, but it still is nice to play those tracks now.
Interviewer - Shall we move onto the next track then?
Steve - Billy boy. That’s a song about a do about a dog actually. If you imagine someone and the love of their life has decided to leave the little home town and she went away. And one night they were looking at the moon, he and his dog, as it was shining on the sea. And he just said to his dog, that’s it’s a fine night for love. And you could tell that that the dog was thinking about her as well. But not only was he thinking about it but all the people in the town were thinking about it as well. One day she might come back, that’s where it's left.
Treana- No more. This track is about an ex-partner, and just being back in that position again and realising that nothing changes, and that’s that really just being able to put a stop to negative things and being able to say no more.
Interviewer - Are a lot of your songs based on relationships? You know some people have a political bent or other thing they want to say but would you say yours are very much about relationships.
Treana - Some are, and some aren’t. I mean just another day isn't about a relationship. But I suppose a lot of songs are about relationships I've had or perceiving other peoples relationships. So yea, the majority of them are about relationships.
Ol - Everyman is the next track. This song is about what life is about really and how we all want someone we're close to and everything else. In this song we took a load of samples that I'd taken when I went travelling to Nepal. I recorded like water fall sounds. The samples had been around for ages. And late one night we had stayed up till some stupid hour. And first off no-one really liked the idea, but then John Cornfield our producer, and he managed to slip it in somewhere and it's just something that gives it a different colour. There's one sample of these 2 little kids talking, and we've never been able to work out what they are saying.
Interviewer - And you mentioned john cornfield there who you made the alum with, what was it like working with him?
Treana- Really great. To be honest I was a bit daunted with the prospect of working with him. But as soon as you meet him he's a completely lovely guy. He likes going out for his pint of ale, Steve is an old drinking buddy of his.
Steve - We've drank many pints of bas together at the new in at Tolldrath. Discussing everything other than music.
Treana- He's just a really clever, intelligent guy. He can do anything with any sound. And to watch him work the speed that he works is a really good experience.
Alden - He's not one of those frantic producers, always looking around. He's just really calm and collected. He just kind of leans back shuts his eyes, tweaks that, tweaks this. It just seems to appear out of nowhere.
Interviewer - Was it an easy process recording the album?
Steve - Yeah it was it came together quite easily I think. Occasionally you get the odd one where you don’t get the performance you where looking for but john will spot your best performance and you'll track up on that. But generally it came together quite quickly I think.
Interviewer - The Truth Hurts is the next track
Treana - That came about from Steve and I being at the farm and I was playing the acoustic part to him and Steve getting all excited because it was almost a rumba rhythm and it meant lots of percussion and I done it from there. Didn’t finish writing the lyrics till just before we went into the studio. I was scribbling lyrics and Ollie was like you can't say those lyrics they just don’t make sense. And I did it anyway. I think we argue about lyrics more than we argue about anything else really.
Interviewer - and that's the new single is it, did you choose that, what was your reason for choosing that?
Treana - I think it sounds more summery than a lot of the other stuff on the album. Its quite more happy sounding.
Interviewer - I was looking on your message board and one person say that a certain track defines you as a band, your sound but I can't remember what it is.
Treana - Butterfly. This track was just one of those ones. Me and Ollie went to London specifically to write songs and Ollie was out and this one just kind of came out. We demo'd it up in London and it went from there really.
Steve - When that came to me there was just a synthesised drum on it and as a band we put more substance into the song, this song defiantly benefited from a full band.
Interviewer - Have we got anymore tracks to go?
Treana- Clearly Now.
Alden - John heard it and said this is really cool, you have to put this on the album. It’s a nice slow song and it ends the album actually so it’s a nice way to go out. And john said you have to put this on the album, but he mean the actual version we did in the farm when we were drunk that we recorded our selves and he just tweaked it a little bit and that one came out really good.
Ol - in the house there's a tiny little barn on the side of it were we would jam and go through ideas and other things. And it was absolutely tiny you couldn't move. And it was in that mind set and Steve was like no this has be slower, slower. And it got to the point where it was just so slow that we fell over. Trina just grabbed the mic and started singing stuff and we listened to it later and it worked. It was just a gem, it just worked start to finish.
Interviewer - Are there any other songs?
Steve - Come winter time. The end of that song we played to a loop to give it that modern fell but the loop kept on going when we got to the end of the song, the end of the scheduled song and we just didn’t stop. Alden played this beautiful, dreamy guitar stuff. But it really was a magical moment it was one of my favourite moments of the whole recording process.
Treana - The song is actually about our landlord
Alden - he went through this time when he was really down and we were always telling him, the sun will shine again and that’s what the song goes out before we go out on our little 8 minute but of nonsense.
Steve - it worked out that it was 1 minute longer than bohemian rhapsody.
Interviewer - Have we got any other tracks?
Ol - Im your woman
Interviewer - Sorry?
Ol- That’s the next song. We did this one in London. It was all an idea and the verse was an idea and then the work was trying to finds a chorus that wasn't really naff.
Treana - The thing is that that’s probably my least favourite song on the album, but allot of people pick up on it and like it. There's a lyric that I really hate singing that goes, "I'm a girl no one knows"
Alden - it's got a shit hot guitar lick in it though.
Ol- do u want to talk about Raf and the great out doors
Steve - Rafael, he's of saxophone fame. He played on the baker street track. Great player. He's played with everyone I think but he bumped into us, and he just got out his sax and started jamming with us at a little pub gig we were doing. He's a phenomenal player and he was the driving force that got us to make that album. He just makes things work he goes for a big push and shove. I think without him we would have never made that album, not at that time and not in that way. We were rehearsing for a gig for the opening of his gallery. And Trina started to strum the acoustic part of the song, and then Raf kicked in with his sax and we had a little jam and then he came out with this amazing solo.
Alden - and in the studio we tried to recreate a part of that jam but we could never do it, so we just used the actual jam on the track.
Steve - And john put it through a filter that made it sound like it was coming through a radio and it’s a good effect it works.
Interviewer - Do you think that downloading is going to be a much more popular route in the future or do you think it's more of a fad?
Treana- I think it will grow until it finds a balance, more people are buying computers and iPods, and it's defiantly the way forward. It'd be a shame if it took over CD's. Hopefully CD's will stay around because I really love buying CDs opening up the cover looking at the sleeve and holding it in my hand. I think it’s a good thing as long as it's dealt with right.
Joao - The way the band has been promoted was internet based, we were a band that started through the internet. Now ere days the internet is a media that new bands can use to promote them selves. The wire daisies used this media with good results. We had a web site filled with people that go to the shows and we communicated with them. It's very important.
Treana - More bands are doing it this way as it is very hard to get a record label so if you start on they start independently on the internet, they can get a fan base and then it's easier to get a label.
Who are your inspirations people you've looked up to over the years?
Joao - I always looked to people that did great music, music that touched me. I think there have been so many, that I can't say just one. It's mainly people that excel them selves through music, nobody in particular! Of course there are the obvious ones like Bob Marley Bob Cole train and the list could go on and on.
Steve - For me the Beatles were the biggest influence fro me to want to be involved with the song writing process. From drumming there a drummer called al Jackson that I've always admired, He played on all the Al green stuff, just a lovely groove drummer. He plays from the heart, not particularly flashy but he had this wonderful groove about him. And Bob Dylan of course.
Treana- When I was really young my parents were quite into the carpenters, I really enjoyed listening to the carpenters. Susanne Vega, Nick Drake, JC Chapmen, REM. I like all sorts of stuff. I like anything that is good.
Ol - I think In terms of what got me into Piano it was my Jazz piano teacher. He really believed in me and convinced my parents to let me leave school at 16, and he would take me under his wing. I didn’t work hard enough to do well, But he defiantly changed my life. Damien Rice when that came out it was a big thing and we listened to it in the studio quite a lot. There's not one musician that stands out.
Alden - In regards of what got me into playing guitar, it was my friends. They weren't necessarily professional players but just then bringing a guitar to a party that got me into it. Also me and Trina used to go and watch a lot of bands Steve played in, and that was quite an inspiration, just seeing people locally. Steve always performed in good bands. But the music I like to listen to at the moment is like Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, I'm quite a fan of them. There's hundreds more I could bore you with but Ill spare you..... |
About Petrol Records
About Petrol Records
