Milo Mendoza
The band Daisychain.
Daisychain, from left: Frankie Sripada, Sophia Williams, Nickole Regala and Frank Kurtz.
Chicago’s Daisychain has emerged as a blues-rock powerhouse in Chicago’s vibrant music scene. Currently on a 20-city spring tour, the female-fronted foursome will bring their high-energy live show to The Bur Oak on Saturday, April 15, at 8 p.m., before heading back home to Chicago.
Daisychain’s dynamic soundscape harkens back to the classic rock bands of the 1960s and ‘70s, consisting of sultry harmonies from Nickole Regala (bass, vocals) and Sophia Williams (guitar, vocals), electrifying solos from Frankie Sripada (lead guitarist), and rousing rhythm from Frank Kurtz (drums). With plans for more touring throughout the summer and fall, Daisychain will be bringing their unique blend of blues and psych-rock to cities across the country.
“I think we’re hitting that sweet spot right now,” Regala says. “We’re starting to see more and more familiar faces in each city.”
Daisychain cut their teeth playing local shows while coming up in the Chicago music scene. Shortly after moving to the city in 2017, Regala started attending “Blues Nights” alone every Tuesday at Gallery Cabaret — the corner bar where artists like Smashing Pumpkins and Liz Phair got their start. She struck up conversation with Williams — the only other woman in attendance — and the two quickly bonded over their shared interest in starting a band. Not long after, they started scheduling meetups to jam together.
“I started to dig into a lot of classic rock, which I’d never really listened to,” Regala says.
“I do feel like I was raised by rock music in Chicago.”
While combing through a list of potential band names, they landed on “Daisychain,” which they agreed felt fitting for a female-fronted classic rock group. Once the two started solidifying their first few songs, they added guitarist Sripada to the lineup.
Although the process of booking shows proved to be a steep learning curve at first, Sripada turned to local connections he’d made from his previous band to start booking Daisychain’s live performances. They went on their first tour that same year. “Everything just kind of took off,” Regala says.
Since then, Daisychain has released a number of singles, as well as their self-titled EP in 2020 and last year’s Different Shades EP. They recently released “On Your Own 2 Feet,” the first of two tracks they recorded at The Bomb Shelter studio in Nashville. It’s a catchy blues song, perfect for evening summer drives; it also showcases the band’s collaborative songwriting process.
“Everybody’s involved,” Regala says. “Really what makes the song good is knowing that everybody had their specific taste and style added to it.”
Each song idea typically starts with one member pitching a guitar phrase or lyrics to the rest of the band before they arrange it as a group. They’ll often point to another rock track as a reference point when working on their new song, citing artists like Patti Smith, Jack White and Soundgarden as a few of their shared influences. “It really helps to have reference songs to pull from,” Regala says. “Then we add our own flavor to it.”
Live, they embrace a “leave it all out on the floor” attitude.
Regala, who feels more energy playing live than in the studio, suggests an almost transcendent experience onstage: “I always say, ‘see you on the other side.’”
Daisychain revels in bringing that same high energy to each show, regardless of the crowd size.
“I don’t care if the audience is super small, I’m playing my ass off for these people because they showed up,” Regala says. “We’ll give them a hell of a show.”
