Daisy is the fourth studio album by American rock band Brand New, released September 22, 2009 on Interscope. It was co-produced by both the band and their longtime producer Mike Sapone. Brand New recorded the album in Sapone's studio in Bethpage, New York between 2008 and 2009. The band looked to channel their live performances, as well as the noise of bands such as Fugazi, Polvo, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus Lizard, in order to produce the raw and often chaotic sound of the album.
Guitarist Vincent Accardi had a larger role in writing the album's lyrics, sharing the responsibility with frontman Jesse Lacey. Accardi also wrote a majority of the album's music, according to Lacey. The album leaked three weeks prior to its release, and the song "At the Bottom" was the only single released. Daisy received positive reviews from critics, who praised the band's continued progression, while fans were somewhat more divided, with drummer Brian Lane believing that they either seem to love it or hate it. It debuted at number six in the United States, the band's first top-ten album.
Background
With the writing and recording process commencing almost immediately after Brand New finished touring for The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, the band's members were inspired to capture the energy of their live performances. Despite having previously received acclaim for redefining their sound record-to-record, the band felt little pressure to repeat this. Drummer Brian Lane simply stated that as with previous recording sessions, the band had become bored of performing their older material and would naturally look to write and record songs that were different. Guitarist Vincent Accardi commented that "after The Devil and God, the structures of songs were a bit more complex and things were a little bit delicate. I think we all just had a great urge to try to write simple, loud rock songs and just get the point across immediately".
Lead singer Jesse Lacey commented that being signed to major label Interscope also shaped the sessions because "we thought it‘d be more interesting to put a very un-commercial record out on a very commercial label". Prior to recording, Accardi had been working on material with producer Mike Sapone. After his bandmates positively received some of the tracks he had been working on, Accardi gained the confidence to show them more and ultimately take a larger role in writing the album's lyrics. "I’d say a majority of the music on this album is written by Vin," Lacey revealed.
With previous album sessions, the band had always looked to maximize their labels' resources, working with different producers and in expensive studios, especially after signing to Interscope – but had always ended up coming back to Sapone. It was decided early on by the band that they would work with Sapone, using his studio. This would also allow the band to remain local to their homes while recording, and also allow them to spend their advance from the label on general living costs, as opposed to production and studio costs.
Recording
With a number of songs already demoed by Accardi, the band began recording the album in March 2008. Recording took place at Sapone's home studio in Bethpage, New York. During the first few months of writing and recording, the band were often working five or six days a week, beginning work in the morning and not leaving Sapone's basement studio until the early hours.
As with previous sessions, Mike Sapone acted as both a band member and co-producer, while the band were also involved in the album's production. Discussing Sapone's involvement, Lacey defined him as having "as much at stake with the music as we do; he's as invested in it as we are, sometimes more." Accardi described Sapone as having "an uncanny ability to hear something you’re doing and immediately track it to any song in his library that he stores in his brain. He'll go to it, show it to you and tell you that that’s what needs to happen. Here's the better version of it. This is what you’re trying to do and you don't even realize it." Most of the songs were brought to the studio in acoustic form, sometimes as a complete song and sometimes as just a part or riff. The band would then build upon these ideas, recording everything as they worked. The band members were not limited by their normal roles within Brand New, with much instrument swapping and experimenting taking place in writing individual parts. Lacey later commented that "it was such a collaborative effort with the band. Vin might write a drum part or Brian might write a guitar part or whatever. We're not really keeping tabs of how much everyone has at stake on each song".
Recording Brian Lane's drums was approached song-by-song, as opposed to recording all of the album's drums in succession. This allowed Lane to experiment recording drums in different ways and places, predominately around Sapone's home. Lane commented that Sapone's living room was one of the main places they worked on the drums. The band's touring percussionist Ben Homala also contributed parts to the recording sessions, while Mike Sapone Jr. and Santino Sapone acted as drum technicians. Claudius Mittendorfer, who assisted with the recording of The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me acted as an advisor during the sessions, while Michael Lapierre assisted the recording of "Be Gone", "Sink" and "Daisy". In addition, Vincent Accardi's brother Andrew contributed parts towards the recording.
Around a month before the album's completion, the band began looking through reels of old recordings that Lacey had collected, one of which contained "On Life's Highway", a gospel hymn written by Bertrand Brown. The band felt that the song fit perfectly as an opening and closing to the album, believing that there was something quite shocking in having something so pretty lead into something so aggressive in the opening track, "Vices". Samples of a Baptist church minister giving a sermon and a child speaking are also used in the title track "Daisy". In the case of previous album sessions, the band had spent around six months recording; however, with no set deadline from Interscope and no budget to be concerned about due to owning all of the equipment and studio, the band ended up spending around 12 months recording. Over the course of the album's production the band had written and demoed around 35 songs. This was narrowed down to 15 tracks, and then ultimately the final 11. The track "Lazy" by Brian Lane was amongst the songs cut, although Lacey was keen to include it on the final album.
The album was mixed by Dave Sardy. Emily Lazar, who previous worked with the band on The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me mastered the album in her Greenwich Village, New York City studio, The Lodge, assisted by the band, Mike Sapone and Joe LaPorta.
Music and lyrics
Style and influences
Daisy has been described as a post-hardcore, noise rock, and art rock album. Some reviewers noted how the album contains hints of grunge, blues and country.
Brand New cited bands such as Fugazi, Polvo and Archers of Loaf as influences for the album's sessions, while Brian Lane proclaimed that the main influence for their progression towards the more aggressive and raw sound was coming off of tour and being bored of the songs that they had been playing. Accardi had been listening to albums such as Ten by Pearl Jam, Jar of Flies by Alice in Chains, and Purple and Core by Stone Temple Pilots. Garrett Tierney looked to emulate some of the bass guitar sounds found on the records of The Jesus Lizard and Hüsker Dü.
The band's "bold" decision to incorporate uncompromisingly noisy elements into Daisy was influenced by Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine, who were "some of our favorite bands growing up." Rock Sound described the album as "more Sonic Youth and Failure-influenced than ever before". AllMusic described "You Stole" as a "connection between My Bloody Valentine and '50s surf rock" while Slant also compared the song's guitar parts to Loveless.
Lyrics
The album's lyrics, written by both Accardi and Lacey, are more abstract compared to many of those featured on previous album, The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me. While Accardi had previously had some involvement in writing lyrics, Daisy saw him contribute far more compared to previous albums. Accardi and Lacey both affirmed that there had been no conscious decision made by the band on Accardi writing more. Lacey worked with Accardi to help refine his lyrics, as well as filling in any blanks. During writing, both Lacey and Accardi had unintentionally begun to reuse certain themes and imagery, such as nature and forests, as well as lyrics relating to an absence of love. Lacey also used his writing as a means of venting anxieties, comparing it to therapy, proclaiming, "Daisy was just the venting of anxiety, of letting go and doing the right thing for us personally and as a band. It’s a very hard way to do something but it is the best way. There’s a lot of pent up emotion that goes into owning up to who you are, what you are doing and the choices you are making, so Daisy was us rejoicing in that."
Title and packaging
The band had been considering a number of different titles for the album and had first announced that it would be titled And One Head Can Never Die; however, the band made the last minute decision to change it to Daisy, which was also the name of one of the songs featured on the album.
The album's front cover is taken from photographer Peter Sutherland's Sightings series. Sutherland has described his photograph as being a chance encounter with a wild fox that momentarily stopped and stared straight into his lens while he was in the back garden at a friend's wedding party. Lacey acknowledged that the decision to use Sutherland's fox photograph reflected a running theme of darkness and nature that had subconsciously crept into the album. Additional photographs were provided by Alexa Lambros and Accardi, while Lacey worked with Jason Noto of Morning Breath Inc. on the packaging and layout of the album. Due to an increased popularity in vinyl, the band's label rush released production of the vinyl, leaving the band out of the process – with Lacey later commenting that he would have liked to have made the release differ from the CD version.
Release and promotion
On July 17, 2008, the opening night of his solo tour in Seattle, Washington, Lacey debuted the song "Bought a Bride". On March 30, 2009, a video of Lacey and Accardi performing track titled "Gasoline" was posted online. On June 22, UK music magazine Rock Sound received an "early and incomplete" version of the band's "as yet untitled" album. The magazine went on to reveal the track listing, which was ultimately slightly different from the finished product, along with a tentative release date of September 7, 2009. On July 8, 2009, it was reported that the album would be titled And One Head Can Never Die, although days later the band changed it to Daisy.
The artwork and final track listing were officially announced on August 4, 2009, with a September 22, 2009 release date locked in. The band chose the song "At the Bottom" to act as the first single, believing it to be the "easiest song for people to hear, compared to the rest of the record". "At the Bottom" was made available to stream on Myspace on August 10, 2009, before being made available for digital download on August 11.