daisychain - ‘Stay’ Review: A charming debut from a band just getting started
Stay is a gorgeous, blissful and joyful indie-pop song from a band that’s just getting started. It’ll have you bouncing non-stop this Spring, with a melody so catchy you won’t want to stop.
★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Credit: Shot By Maw 📸
Introducing the sensational debut from Manchester quartet, daisychain.
Stay is the jangly indie workings from Lissy, Joe, Lewis and Harris, a roaring introduction to yet another exciting band on the rise. Formed as childhood friends, daisychain has been on the live circuit for a few years, with Stay being a long-awaited single for their growing audience in Manchester and afar. Equally, it’s become the band’s north star:
‘Stay is the first song we ever wrote as a band, we think it’s a perfect blend of each of our wildly different influences merged together and it’s helped us work out what we want to be as a band.’
It’s a charming and impressive track, cleverly blending countless genres - most notably a pairing of Marr’s signature jangly riffs with the likes of Metronomy and NewDad. We’ve had the track on repeat since it was featured in our Weekly Roundup.
This addiction for the single is best served shared. We encourage you to hit ‘repeat’ too, allowing yourself to soak up the blissful, euphoric and bubbly rays of sunshine that radiate everything about Stay. On face value, it’s youthful, optimistic and carefree. Listen a little closer, and you’ll weave together narratives of adolescence, heartbreak and growing up.
For a track based on innocence and naivety, it’s wildly mature. Particularly in how it’s written, with the lead vocalist progressively getting more intense as the band ramps up the sound in the finale.
If you’re a fan of Viola Beach or what we like to call the floaty indie scene, daisychain might be your new favourite. To get to know the Manchester four-piece, we had a deep dive with the band themselves. Read our Q&A below:
:: Q&A ::
Why was Stay the debut, is there any particular reason?
‘Stay felt like the best song to introduce daisychain to people because it was the song that introduced daisychain to us. We’ve been playing it since November 2022 and our fondness grows for it each time we play it. As the first song we ever wrote, we think it’s a perfect blend of our wildly different influences merged perfectly and has helped us work out what we want to be as a band.’
Where did the tune come from and when was it put into the studio?
‘In the early days of daisychain, we were adapting Lissy’s solo material into full band songs to make up our setlist for our first gig in September 2022. In the August before, Lewis had sent over a demo of a guitar part he’d been working on to Lissy. By October, this had become ‘Stay’ as you hear it today. It became a staple of ours and was the one that our friends would always tell us to record, which we finally started doing in March 2023 and after a drunken conversation at Yes Bar in Manchester we managed to get Super Market on board to make it the track.’
You’re all childhood friends, how did daisychain come about?
‘Lissy and Joe went to school together and ended up living in the same first-year uni flat by complete chance. They’ve worked on music together since then but never much more than the odd drunken rendition of David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ and uni assignments.
Lissy decided she wanted to start a band and asked Joe if he wanted to join, not thinking he would say yes - to her surprise he wanted to get involved. Lewis joined the band at the very beginning in March 2022 and Harris originally planned to help out by playing a few shows but decided to make the song and stay. I guess the reason we started was because individually we each felt we had something to say. Whether lyrically, instrumentally or artistically, we all felt we had something that we needed to put into the world and the best way to do that would be together.’
Are there other tunes ready to go on the horizon? An EP, maybe?
‘We’d absolutely love to do an EP soon and it’s something we’ve spoken about, there’s a couple of songs in the works floating around! We’re honestly just hoping that whatever we put out next takes less than a year from recording to release.’
:: Round-Up ::
Stay is a gorgeous, blissful and joyful indie-pop song from a band that’s just getting started. It’ll have you bouncing non-stop this Spring, with a melody so catchy you won’t want to stop. And when Summer arrives, even more reason to play it again - only louder.
Now, it’s your turn. Give it a spin, and tell us what you think on Insta or X.
Rating: 7/10
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