Editor’s note: In addition to her own original music, Playboy Club creator Daisy Guttridge also writes music for the K-pop industry. We chatted with her right before she jetted off to South Korea to write new tracks for the biggest acts in K-pop.
Playboy: Where were you born and what were your growing up years like?
Daisy Guttridge: I was born in Birmingham in the UK. It was so multicultural, there are so many things to do, but also I live in 20 minutes from the countryside. So it always felt like I had a bit of an escape. But I loved growing up there. I went to a school that championed so much a woman’s worth and how we’re equal to men. I feel like going into such a male-dominated industry now, that instilled such a good fire in me.
One of my favorite memories is lunchtime. Everyone would go out to play. But we had a whole music school and the music teacher would let me go in that it at lunch time and play the piano for hours by myself and I had a room full of instruments that was normally just for the choir and the ensemble. They let me have free rein and just mess around with instruments every day. I loved doing that, and it helped me develop my early skillset.
Playboy: What’s the first instrument that you learned to play?
Daisy: The guitar. I was obsessed. The first concert I went to was Avril Lavigne, with my mom, and I remember I was like, wow, this girl’s so cool. I want to be her when I grow up. I was like, I have to learn the guitar, and my dad played a little bit, so he was teaching me. And I remember in the beginning, I would get so frustrated because I’d get the chords, right? And then as soon as I start singing like my hands would stop, it was like a disconnect. So I had to learn how to break through that.
Playboy: Is there any instrument you haven’t learned yet that you’d really like to learn?
Daisy: I could play the piano like a little bit and I can hit a little rhythm on the drums, but I’d like to learn how to play a string instrument. I feel the violin or cello. I love Lana Del Rey’s music, for example. I love how music can influence something you’re seeing, movie scenes and all that stuff. So I feel like strings are so special and … like they’re so present, but they’re not in your face so I feel like that would be a fun thing to learn.
Daisy Guttridge’s Dreams
Playboy: What was the first thing you dreamed of achieving?
Daisy: The first thing I dreamed of achieving was walking in HMV to buy my CD one day. Obviously the landscape of music has changed slightly and it’s so much online now. But recently with my K-pop record that I wrote, I’m gonna have the opportunity to do that in Korea, which I’m really really excited for.
Playboy: Where’s your favorite place to travel?
Daisy: That’s a great question. I love traveling to Lisbon and Portugal, [which] is actually where my dad lives. He retired there a couple years ago and I’d never been there before prior to him living there, and I didn’t know what to expect but it’s such a hidden gem. Everyone there is so nice. Everything’s open super late. You can get a cup of coffee 10 pm which, I’m European, so I love drinking coffee all hours of the day.
Playboy: What makes you happiest in your life?
Daisy: My mom went from having no pets to having so many cats. Cats would just keep showing up at her house and I just have so many fun memories growing up and there’s cats everywhere. She was the crazy cat lady and I love animals so much, so that’s just a really happy memory. Whenever you’re in the house surrounded by animals, I love that feeling.
Playboy: What turns you on and off?
Daisy: I love being around people that are willing to just be spontaneous. My day is cool right now, with my job, it’s kind of different everyday. So I like, in my free time, to have it be like that too, just keep surprising myself. Which I think is really fun.
I think what turns me off in general is flakiness. When I first came here, I had to get used to plans changing a lot. I’m a very loyal person. So I really respect that in other people and friendships.
Daisy Guttridge on Making Music
Playboy: Let’s talk about the process of creating your new EP, from idea to conception. How long did it take? And what was the experience of creating it for you?
Daisy: The first song that I wrote is a song called “Lonely”, which I’d written a couple years ago and I performed it on tour at a bunch of times. I always felt like it was missing a spark and I really wanted to get a feature on it. So my producers worked with an artist who’s also from the UK called Bipolar Sunshine. Played in the song, he really liked it. He came to see me perform in LA earlier this year. He brought it to life and brought a whole new energy to it. So, that was the first song for this project.
The second song I wrote is called “Side Effect”. Normally, I would just collaborate with my one producer, TK Candy. We have really good working relationship, but for that song, I actually started it with a different producer, Brian Brundage. It was a super chill song I took to my producer, and he added our signature to it. So that was great because that was truly many hands in the mix and it really made it, special but both of the songs I’d written a while before this EP was even coming to fruition. Then the three remaining songs: “I Don’t Want to Miss You Anymore”, “Go Next Door”, and “Ego”, I wrote within the past two months.
Playboy: What’s it like to write for your own album versus writing songwriting for other musicians?
Daisy: I think if you’re working with people and they have a very clear “I want it to be like this”, then I’m trying to get out of my head and into theirs. But sometimes you’re just in a room and you just creating music that feels good. I love pulling from my own experience. I feel that just shines more authentic and people just can connect with it better.
For K-pop, [writing it] was a really cool experience, so cathartic, because you can write the real feel good like melodies. It tickles your brain to write those songs. So that’s always cool because for the song I just did with OHMYGIRL, I started off the whole song in English and then I got to see that be taken to them, work with their translator, and [now] they’re singing half the song in English and then they translated half of my lyrics into Korean. So it’s so cool.
Playboy: You have a live show coming up in Los Angeles on Oct. 29 at the Moroccan Lounge. Tell us what to expect.
Daisy: I’m really excited. I actually played at that venue last year. I really wanted it to feel different this year. There’s gonna be a brand new instrument added to the lineup, and I’m really working on stage design because it’s a Halloween show. There’s gonna be some spooky stuff on the stage that I’m actually making myself That’s all I’ll say about that.
Playboy: Lastly, what does this EP mean to you as a whole?
Daisy: It’s a record about recovering from heartbreak. Falling in fast love, your higher ego effects, then how you deal with the aftermath. I feel like writing that record helped me heal from that heartbreak. And now I have this cool tangible thing that I didn’t have before that.
You can catch Daisy at The Moroccan Lounge in Los Angeles on October 29. Tickets are on sale here.
Daisy is on The Playboy Club. Talk to her here.