Today we’d like to introduce you to Daisy Drew
Hi Daisy, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I first picked up a guitar when I was ten. Like most tweens in the 2010s, I was a Taylor Swift fan, so I quickly started writing my own music, around age 12. It pained me to know I probably wouldn’ t make it to Nashville by 14 to sell my demo records, but I wrote anyway. I posted song covers on YouTube and was ecstatic whenever I hit more than 100 views. I learned how to work some basic music software and record, which helped when I briefly considered a career in musical theatre.
My first gig was at a coffee shop in my small town of Murray, Kentucky, that my dad set up when I was 13. I played Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, Jason Mraz, and Christina Perri, among others. I think it’s so sweet that he set it up for me – I even had posters around town for that gig. Singing my original music in public petrified me, though. I kept it hidden, a way to process the ups and downs of teenage girlhood and getting my heart broken by the world around me and the first true connections in friends and in love.
I had a brief stint in musical theatre where I once played guitar in a live band onstage – super fun, would do it again. It’s easier to sing when you are pretending to be someone else. But during college and then into graduate school, I went back to the 6-string guitar that always welcomed my worries. I wrote about new, awful things like grief and friendship breakups and pining after people who don’t want you, and I wrote about amazing, adrenaline-filled things like love and not caring what people think and learning how to understand that things really do turn out alright eventually. My early 20s brought me a new vision and new words to describe the world musically.
So here I am with a new bravery, singing my original songs (and covers) on the scene in Knoxville, TN while I work on a Ph.D. on the side. The Ph.D. is less exciting than the music, but it makes me a smart artist – and boy, can I write.
I write songs for burned-out gifted kids and nice girls with an insatiable inner energy that sometimes feels like rage. I call it Americana because it’s a mix of country, folk, and pop, as influenced by the Bluegrass of Kentucky and the pop girls that filled my headphones growing up.
You can find me @daisydrewsings on TikTok and Instagram, and I look forward to seeing you there.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Building the courage to pursue a musical career on the side of trying to get through a Ph.D. program has not been easy and if you asked me last year, I would be shocked I was making the time. My best friend Lorelei is the first person to hear every song I write and she encouraged me to put my original songs out in public despite their vulnerability. She is the reason I think my songs deserve to be heard. It’s hard to start out a career late in the game when you have been out of the performing sphere for a bit, but I’m loving it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a singer-songwriter based in Knoxville. I specialize in Americana/folk/country-pop music – as you can tell there is plenty of overlap, but my songs have been compared to Sheryl Crow and Taylor Swift-esque in sound and lyricism. I’m most proud of the Fender guitar I found on Facebook marketplace. I’m a hybrid Ph.D. student/artist which means I am both a tortured academic and tortured artist – it really doesn’t get angstier, but luckily I have a good sense of humor!
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I could see bands with a Fleetwood Mac sound becoming more popular – a push back to the 70s. We hear a lot of pop-punk inspired by the 2000s right now which I am really enjoying, but I could see this shift back (see: Daisy Jones and the Six)
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daisydrewsings/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@daisydrewsings?app=desktop
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@daisydrewsings
