Interview: Daisy Grenade Talk When We Were Young Performance, Touring with Fall Out Boy, And New Music
Daisy Grenade are one of the newest acts in pop-punk, and if you’ve seen them live at least once, you know that they’re a force to be reckoned with. The five-piece act, fronted by co-lead singers Dani Nigro and Keaton Whittaker, are slated to perform at this year’s highly anticipated When We Were Young Festival, which kicks off in Las Vegas tomorrow.
Ahead of their 10:55 performance, Nigro and Whittaker sat down with Shameless to discuss their brand new song “How To Hide A Body” (which came out today), what they learned touring with major acts like Fall Out Boy, and who they’re most excited to see at the festival this weekend. Please note that the following interview has been edited solely for the purposes of clarity and length.
Main Photo Credit: Jamie Rice
You’re one of the few acts on When We Were Young that isn’t slated to play a full album. However, you do have one release - Cult Classic. Can fans expect you to play it from start to finish?
Keaton Whittaker (vocalist): That is technically not a full length. So we don’t have a full length out, but they can expect a good mix of old and new.
Dani Nigro (vocalist): I think it’s a perfectly balanced mixture of everything that we’ve got out.
I saw that Cult Classic was listed as an album, so Apple Music lied to me when I was doing research.
KW: We definitely call it an EP. Y’all haven’t seen the album yet.
Can you tell me a little bit about the song “How To Hide A Body”, the meaning behind it, and share some info about what people can expect from the music video?
KW: “How To Hide A Body” is about killing someone, murdering someone as a revenge fantasy.
Perfect for Halloween.
KW: Yes! Obviously it’s kind of dark, murderous - but I feel like it’s got this campy [feel]. Like I said it’s a revenge fantasy, about killing someone that’s really harmed you and hurt you. In this case, I suppose, a relationship, but I suppose it could be anyone who has done you wrong. But it’s got a really upbeat, campy horror vibe to it, which is what you can expect from the music video. [The video] really doesn’t take itself to seriously, even though the subject matter is pretty dark.
DN: We just saw our final cut of the video and it is my favorite thing that we’ve done so far. It has narrative in a very clear way, which is exciting, and our team - (director and stylist) Hannah Klein and (cinematographer, editor, colorist) Jamie Rice - are so incredible. You would not believe that there were only three people working on set. It’s really wild. They’re really good at making our small budget stuff look [like it has a] big budget.
KW: Yes, they’re really talented.
You’re also one of the few newer acts on this show, alongside artists like Carr and The Paradox. You’ll be playing at 10:55, just a half hour after doors open. What can fans expect to hear from Daisy Grenade when they step through the doors?
[Dani gives the devil horn hand signal, and her Zoom screen suddenly flashes with a laser show background and bright lights. Everyone laughs]
DN: They can expect this!
[Everyone tries to figure out why they can’t get their backgrounds to do the same]
DN: I know we’re playing at 10:55 AM, and rock and roll should not happen before noon, but it’s going to. If we can get a pit started at 11:00 AM, our job is done. [laughs]
KW: There are a lot of really amazing bands that are playing that early, so everyone should show up as early as possible. If you can, I will not be selfish in the way of telling people to split their time if they’re only going one day. Carr is fucking incredible and she’s playing the Allianz stage at 11:00 AM, which is 5 minutes after our set begins. I will say that all of the bands playing at the beginning of the day are all of the women, so if you want to split your time between those people, I encourage you to do that because you shouldn’t have to choose which girl you get to see that day. I encourage everyone to get there as early as possible!
DN: Yeah, we haven’t been there before, but it’s going to take time to get through security, especially if there’s a line. We know it’s early.
KW: And you can run halfway through our set to go watch somebody else. In fact, I encourage you to do that so that every girl on the bill can get a good crowd that early.
I definitely think you can make a pit happen before noon.
You spent the last year opening for Fall Out Boy, one of the festival headliners, on So Much For Tourdust - you played to massive crowds every single night. Were there any lessons you took away from playing on a tour like that each night that you applied to your live show?
DN: Absolutely. I think something that we learned on the Fall Out Boy leg specifically was [how to] adjust our set. We play our set, and then we make changes after we present it to an audience and see how the response is. Specifically with Fall Out Boy, there were tweaks that we would make to the set. We’d go, “Oh, this song didn’t really hit as well as we thought it would, let’s try this one.” Then, “Oh, that one worked!” Our job as the opener is to get the crowd excited. If we can win them over, that’s amazing, but we’re trying to get them pumped for the rest of the show overall, for all of the bands on the lineup. That’s something that we’re going to be doing at When We Were Young! We’re getting them ready for a twelve-hour day, so it’s definitely [about] keeping the energy up. We have no fear of making the crowd clap and dance and do things, so it’s a lot of making sure the crowd feels engaged and like they’re apart of it, not just sitting back and watching. I think that’s how we drive the rest of the energy for the day.
KW: Totally. I think the biggest thing that we try to do when we play live, no matter the size of the crowd, is [channel] the energy between the five of us that are on stage, just listening to each other. That’s when I think you play the best set, when you just are able to lock in with the five people you have up there, listen to each other, and play together. I think that is the biggest difference that I can see when I watch bands. I know that sometimes it’s circumstantial; sometimes you can’t hear each other, or you have shitty RF [radio frequency], but as much as you can stay tuned in with the people who are onstage, that energy translate out to the audience so so deeply. That’s what I try to do, especially with big crowds because it’s very easy to get lost in it and feel like you’re up there by yourself. It’s so important to just play together.
, World!
I know you’ve been touring a lot, but you released a stellar EP last year, and you’ve got four new singles out this year with “Liquour and Kerosene”, “Hypocrite”, “Polly”, and “How To Hide A Body”. What can fans expect in terms of new music from Daisy Grenade throughout the last few months of the year?
DN: That’s what we’ve got right now. We’re in a ‘take it a day at a time’ kind of situation. That’s the long and short of it! [Keaton laughs] We have so many things up our sleeve that don’t have set dates; I can say that. We are always working on songs, we’re always in the studio, always writing and working. These songs just haven’t been given set release dates yet. There may be a surprise, but the holidays can get tricky with releases.
KW: Yeah, and we’ve been through some changes internally, so I think we’ve been holding off on any massive project that we’ve been working on. But trust - there are always massive things in the works with us.
DN: There are always massive things in the works with us, they just don’t have dates.
When We Were Young is essentially a larger-scale version of the Vans Warped Tour, with all of the bands that fans of this music grew up loving, coming together in one place. Given that it’s a “family reunion” of sorts, are there any sets you’re most looking forward to checking out during the day?
KW: We have entire schedules for every member of our band essentially. I am absolutely so fucking excited to see My Chemical Romance. They are one of my biggest inspirations and bands. Getting to see The Black Parade in full for, probably, the last time ever…because it’s such a fucking monster to sing through. I literally can’t even imagine attempting that. I feel like it’s going to be such a monumental thing. I’m so fucking excited. I keep saying, “I’m going to play, but I’m really just going to watch The Black Parade.” Say Anything playing …Is A Real Boy, I’m so excited for that.
DN: Oh my god, I’m so excited for that as well.
KW: A Day To Remember, I’m really thrilled about. Cobra Starship, I’m fucking hyped for !Viva La Cobra! I’m going to see if I can make it, but if I can sprint over [after our set] to see Millionaires, that would be really fucking fun.
DN: I’m trying to figure out, because we have two days and we have other things to do when we’re there, like interviews and everything. I’m trying to split it up so that I don’t exhaust myself. But like you were saying, about the family reunion thing, it’s sweet. We’ve been texting the other bands that we know are gonna be there like, “Can we make sure that we all see each other and say hi?” We were talking Dan “Soupy” [Campbell] from The Wonder Years, and we were like, “Can we make sure that we see each other while we’re all there?” So that’s been really sweet.
KW: And Pierce The Veil, are you kidding me?
DN: Oh yeah, I’m gonna freak out. I’m gonna lose it.
I’m so excited.
DN: I’m going to just sit in front of the stages all day. [laughs]
KW: Dani, did you say all of the same ones as me, or did you have different ones?
DN: Let me pull up my schedule! [Dani takes out her phone to pull out her schedule.] 3oh!3. Cobra Starship. The Wonder Years. Pierce The Veil. Boys Like Girls. Fall Out Boy. Say Anything. My Chem. Those are the absolute - there’s so many. I want to see everybody! Fucking, Hey Monday! I wish I could leave our set to go watch Carr. There’s like so many! It’s gonna be so hard, but I’m gonna try to see everything that I possibly can.
KW: Cass[adee Pope, Hey Monday] is a fucking monster; she is one of the best live singers I’ve heard in a really long fucking time. I just saw her in New York a couple weeks ago, so I’m really excited. I’m gonna try to be really close for that set.
Daisy Grenade will be playing at When We Were Young on the Pink stage at 10:55 AM on Saturday, October 19th and Sunday, October 20th. For more information about the festival, click here. For more information about music and tour dates from Daisy Grenade, click here.
