By Odeisel
The wave of blue-eyed soul is catching some serious steam in pop music to the point where it’s no longer a novelty. Aside from Adele and Robin Thicke and legends like Tina Marie and Michael McDonald, it continually proves that our experiences are not always specific to our cultural background. Themes of love and joy and heartache and pain run concurrent through human existence no matter what color we are. Enter UK soul singer/songwriter Daley with a buttery soft asexual falsetto and pen firmly in hand. Not many come out of the gate costarring on songs with the Gorillaz or dropping mixtapes featuring Marsha Ambrosius and David Banner. Planet Ill recently sat down with Daley to talk songwriting, fame, and his dreams for his debut album.
Planet Ill: You dropped your mixtape in November and it had a lot of star power on it. You had Jesse J, Marsha Ambrosius, The Gorillaz. Plus you had a track with Estelle and David Banner. As someone relatively new to the game, how was it working with all of those established veterans?
Daley: It’s great man, I’ve been very fortunate. Over the last couple years even though I haven’t released my album yet, I’ve been involved in some really interesting projects. I’ve obviously had some amazing people like the people you’ve mentioned.
Working with the Gorillaz was my first kind of official release, featured on their record. It was a really different experience to me in terms of the way I wrote that record and got it on with them and then obviously my own project, I wrote a record with Marsha and she was somebody whose music I already loved. We hadn’t met before; we met at the studio basically and we started writing and we really hit it off, we were on the same vibe. So every collaboration is different and I’ve been very fortunate to have some good ones so far.
Planet Ill: How was it working for the Gorillaz (who do conceptual character driven albums)? When you’re doing that kind of collaboration is it different from a normal collaboration?
Daley: The Gorillaz are a cartoon band but the guy who makes the music Damon Albarn he’s a very established musician. He’s the lead singer of a group called Blur who are very big in the UK and he’s done a lot of other musical stuff so he’s basically the mastermind behind all their music, he produces and he writes it and I wrote that song with them. When I was writing the song I wasn’t doing it with the cartoons, I was doing it with Damon and he’s a great musician. It’s a different way of working, I guess. He taught me quite a lot about going with what feels good and not over thinking it.
Planet Ill: As a singer/songwriter is it different singing something that you wrote than singing something written by someone else?
Daley: Yeah, definitely. Apart from the songs that I’ve covered, I haven’t really done any songs that I haven’t written. People have offered me songs and I try really hard to connect with the song and that’s why when I do a cover song, I only do a song that I can connect to, where I figure I can contribute to my version of it. I think it’s definitely different singing someone else’s song but if you can connect with it then that kind of makes it okay.
Planet Ill: Do you find it different connecting with US audiences as opposed to UK audiences?
Daley: Not really. I think the people that come to hear me play and the people that listen to my music all have, wherever they’re from, all appreciate the same thing. In that way, maybe on a whole it’s like in different countries the audiences are slightly different. I think the US is slightly more in tune with what I’m doing as a soulful artist in an R&B and Soul way; there’s definitely a lot more appreciation of that in the US.
In the UK they still appreciate that but they like other aspects of music. It’s slightly different but the generally the people that come and see me, they’re my fans regardless of where they are from.
Planet Ill: What is important to you in music, especially as a songwriter that has to craft different vibes and emotions? What’s important to you when it comes to creating music?
Daley: What’s important for me is to just convey something real and something that people can relate to; something that’s happened to me or something that I understand and I can communicate and that people can relate to. I think for me, when I get feedback about my songs from fans, people say what they loved about the song I think it’s always the way people relate to their own lives. When I’m writing songs that’s where I kind of come from and just to deliver it in a way that conveys the right emotion and the right sound.
Planet Ill: When was the last time you were moved by a song?
Davey: That’s hard. The last time I was moved by a song…that’s difficult because I have moments I just can’t think of the last song I was moved by. It was probably a few months ago but Jon Mayer’s last album had some really amazing songs on it. I think he writes form a very autobiographical way; quite personally and he had some really interesting song on his last album that I kind of related to. I was quite moved by that, so I guess maybe if I’m thinking off the top of my head it may be John Mayer’s last album. But I get like that every day with songs I’ve heard a million times.
Planet Ill: How did it feel the first time someone you didn’t know approached you because of you music or because of your fame? Was it awkward? Scary? Were you hyped?
Davey: It’s great man. The first time it happened, it was a combination of shock and happiness, I guess. It just means that people are hearing my music. In the UK I can’t really remember the first time it happened but I remember over in the US the first time it happened, I think I was in Atlanta and this was before I even released the mixtape or maybe after I had just released it, so it hadn’t had that many downloads at the time. I was working in Atlanta in the studio and ran out to grab some food from a shopping mall kind of thing. I paid for my food and somebody was like, “Are you Daley?”
I had a hat on, I had sunglasses on; I didn’t even really look like myself, I was so dressed down and everything. I was quite shocked and it just made me realize how music can travel. I’m in another country, and somebody in a state I’ve never been to just recognized me buying some chicken. It’s surreal but it’s obviously your thoughts are, things are going in the right direction.
Planet Ill: When you drop your first album, what’s the one thing that you would like for that album to accomplish?
Daley: I’d like it to allow me to make a second album. In seriousness, I’d like it to be, regardless of how it performs commercially, I’d like it to be something that allows me to start my career and continue to have a music career for the rest of my life. I’d like it to really describe the next phase of who I am because I think the mixtape was a good introduction and with the album, it’s definitely a similar vibe but I’m sort of taking it a step further with the sound of the album. Some bits of it are a bit more experimental but still soulful and I hope that it adds another layer to me as an artist and I hope that’s what people get to see; another layer of me.
Planet Ill: Is there anything you want to get out to your fans or people who have never heard you before?
Daley: Maybe I’ll just say to my fans, if you meet someone that’s never heard of me, please spread the word. To my fans I try to Tweet every now and again. It’s amazing to have support especially international support; it’s so humbling and amazing to have support from somewhere that I’m not from so I just love that they ride with me and they appreciate the work that I’ve put into the music and anyone who hasn’t heard of me feel free to check me out and tell me what you think.
