Daisy Brain is the alter ego of Will Tse, the singer was born in Singapore and now lives in London spending his time creating music reminiscent of the late 90’s/early 00’s Grunge and Indie sounds.

Fresh from supporting YUNGBLUD at Royal Albert Hall andreleasing his latest EP “Disconnected Happy” which he wrote in his bedroom through lockdown, Daisy Brain tells us who his musical inspirations are and who he dreams of working with one day!

Daisy Brain is touring the UK this Summer, including performing at The Great Escape festival.

1. For those who don’t know about you and your music, tell us a little bit about who you are and where you’re from…

I was born and raised in Singapore until I was about 12, then moved to England with my family. I didn’t start doing music I guess until I was in year 9 or 10, when I met a few mates who were into the kind of stuff I was into, then through that I was in a few bands. I then went to study in Leeds which is where I met Russian Dan, who I write everything with. We’ve been writing together since we were about 18. We started out writing a lot of pop music and the kind of music that we thought would do well on radio. After a few years of doing that and some gigs with other bands, we both moved down to London and basically had this reset where we decided to start making the music that we actually wanted to make – music we actually enjoyed listening to, hence all the guitar stuff. But it was just at that point lockdown hit, so we were confined to our bedrooms. We couldn’t write anything in a band room, we didn’t have a drummer, so everything was programmed by myself in my room. And I guess that’s where the sound of Daisy Brain kind of came from.

2. Who/what inspired you to start a career in music?

Probably Green Day, to be honest! Something struck a chord in me when I first heard American Idiot. My Chemical Romance too. To be honest my parents didn’t really introduce me to much music, so from an early age I was listening to Snow Patrol and Kylie Minogue which I guess they liked aha. But when I found out who Green Day were I fell in love pretty much immediately, and with the whole culture behind it. I remember going into this HMV store - I don’t know how old I was, about 8 or 10 - and I really wanted to buy the ‘American Idiot’ album, it might have been the live version of it. I remember this lady telling me I couldn’t buy it because I wasn’t 18 or whatever age I needed to be because there was swearing in it… so I stole it. I guess Green Day brought out the rebel child in me aha. I always wanted to be like Billie Joe Armstrong to be honest. It all kicked off from there!

3. Who are your biggest musical influences?

I’d say, musically, bands like The Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, My Chemical Romance, Pavement, a lot of 90s bands like Nirvana and Pixies. But also at the same time weirdly Mura Masa. I just love his production style. George Daniel from The 1975 too. They both inspired me to make a ‘band sound’ on a computer rather than writing in a band room.

4. Tell us about the writing and recording process of your new release…

The whole EP ‘Disconnected Happy’ was written during lockdown so everything started on a computer, in my room. I made a few demos and then sent them to Russian Dan. He added a new wave of colour; his knowledge of harmony is just incredible and I feel like a lot of the time I’d write a demo then meet up with him then he’d sort of rearrange bits harmonically to make it a little bit more interesting, a bit more Radiohead. We then re-recorded parts up in Leeds with Bam Bam Studios, and got the tunes mixed by someone else because that’s just a completely different box of frogs.

5.What has been your biggest career highlight so far?

Playing Ally Pally. That was insane. I haven’t got the words to describe it but it was what I’d dreamed of doing for my whole life. Not specifically Ally Pally, but playing in front of that many people and hearing the roar of a crowd responding to the tunes. We’d played in front of 200 people max, before that show. I love small gigs and playing intimate shows, but hearing 10,000 people screaming at the same time, it’s just a whole different experience. It just hits different, it’s so loud and I will never forget that sound, it’s crazy.

6. Who would you be your dream collaboration and why?

My dream collaboration would probably be – this a weird one - but Dr Dre! Because he as a producer is just ridiculously talented and I know the kind of producer he is. He’s meticulous and every sound has to be just right; it’s not just about the rhythm, it’s not just about the bass, every aspect of each sonic has to be perfect and has to harmonise with every other part of the production in the song immaculately, and that’s what I love about him. It’s what I try to do with most of our tunes and I feel like we’re still working on that. But I’d love to just write a tune, go and do it with Dr Dre and see how it comes out. It would probably end up being a kind of producer-grunge tune and I feel like that would just be fucking amazing.

7. Have you met anyone and been totally starstruck?

No, not yet! Meeting YUNGBLUD was pretty scary, but he was so nice that the starstruck feeling kind of left really quickly. He made me feel really welcomed. Besides that I’ve not really met many artists in the music world. I obviously knew who Jack Saunders was so that was pretty crazy, meeting him. Actually - you know what, - I met Declan McKenna the other day! But again he was so lovely and so welcoming, it was at his house so that feeling of being like ‘oh my god that’s Declan McKenna’ went pretty quickly. It was so chill. It wasn’t like meeting him at a show or a hyped event, it was very relaxed.

8. If you could only listen to one song on repeat for the rest of time what would it be and why?

‘Feel The Pain’ by Dinosaur Jr. It’s such a beautiful song. I think it’s sad, I think it feels happy at times, I think it’s quirky, I think it’s intelligent. It’s everything that I like about music in one song. It feels human because of the tempo changes, but it feels rigid because of how angsty it is. I just think that song is perfect, and I would happily listen to that song on repeat for the rest of my life.

9. What’s on your playlists that people wouldn’t expect?

Slowthai’s on there. I do like Slowthai – I think he’s cool - the punk side of Slowthai I think is wicked. I think he’s got such good a rhythm and his lyrics are funny.

10. What can we expect from your live shows?

A lot of noise, a lot of feedback, a lot of screaming, a lot of shouting, mosh pits. But also a lot of crying and heart-to-heart moments!

11. When can we see you live this year?

I’m going on tour in May, 11 days, not including festivals that I’ve built onto that tour. And then doing a lot of UK festivals, Reading & Leeds, which will be crazy. Come to the May tour!

'Daisy Brain's EP 'Disconnected Happy' is out now!'