Page 64 of Daisy Jones & The Six

GRAHAM:I think Eddie and Pete went back to the East Coast for their mom’s birthday or something.

EDDIE:I needed to let loose. After our parents’ anniversary party, Pete and Jenny stayed with our parents and I spent about two weeks in New York.

DAISY:There wasn’t anything left for me to do. I’d recorded my vocals. The album cover was done. Our tour dates weren’t set yet. I said, “Screw it, I’m going to Phuket.” I needed a trip to clear my head.

BILLY:I took a little bit of time off but then I went back in the studio with Teddy and we went through that album second by second, track by track, and we remixed and remixed and remixed until it was perfect. Teddy, Artie, and I were in the control room for what felt like twenty hours a day for three weeks or something.

Occasionally, I’d get in there and rerecord some of the instruments when we felt like a riff wasn’t exactly right or we wanted to add tack piano or a Dobro or some brushes on the drums. Simple stuff.

ARTIESNYDER:It was one album when everyone left and when everyone came back it was…it was a different album. It was much more nuanced, layered, innovative. Teddy and Billy went in and filled in all the air. They added cowbells and shakers and claves and scrapers. I think at one point, we even recorded the sound of Billy’s fist hitting the side of the arm of a chair because we liked the hollow sound it made.

Teddy and Billy had a real vision. They had a keen sense for how the songs needed to build and Teddy had a real focus on momentum.

You take a song like “Regret Me,” which, when they started with it, was just the one vocal and a pretty simple shuffle and Teddy pretty much forced Billy to get in there and do a whole second vocal layer. Billy didn’t want to at first, but by the end of it, he’d put a big stamp on that song. He rewrote and recorded the main riff, he and Teddy pulled Warren’s drums back until the prechorus. I mean, they made it a new song.

On “Aurora,” Billy slowed it down, thinned out Karen’s keys, and turned Graham way up. It became much cleaner.

Teddy and Billy—and it got to be me, too—we had a shorthand. We were having fun with it. I think that really shows. I think it shows on the final cut. The final mix of that album is dynamite material.

BILLY:When we had the songs how we wanted them, Teddy and I gave a lot of thought to the song order. People like it when you make them sad, I think. But people hate it when youleavethem sad. Great albums have to be roller coasters that end on top. You gotta leave people with a little bit of hope. So we thought for a real long time about the track list. We had to get that just right. We ordered it, thematically and instrumentally.

You start big and bold, “Chasing the Night.”

Things start getting more intense with “This Could Get Ugly.”

Then “Impossible Woman” is wild and dark. It has a haunting quality to it.

“Turn It Off” takes off running. It’s an anthem.

“Please” is desperate, there’s urgency and begging.

You turn to side B.

“Young Stars” is tortured but up-tempo, it’s a little dangerous but you can dance to it.

And then you go right into “Regret Me,” which is hard and fast and raw.

And then come down off it with “Midnights,” which gets a little sweeter.

You lead into “A Hope Like You.” Slow, and tender and wistful and spartan.

And then, you know, the sun comes up at the end. You leave on the high note. You go out with a bang. “Aurora.” Sprawling and lush and percussive.

The whole album…it’s a great ride. Start to finish.

SIMONE:I was in Manhattan when I got a postcard from Daisy from Thailand.

DAISY:For the first few days I was in Thailand, I just wanted to decompress. I had this idea that I would go somewhere alone and maybe reflect on myself. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Two days in, I was going stir-crazy. I was almost about to book myself a flight home, five days early.

SIMONE:The postcard she sent just said, “Come to Phuket. Bring coke and lipstick.”

DAISY:But then I met Nicky.

I was laying outside at the pool, looking out over the water. High off my ass. And this incredibly handsome, tall, elegant-looking man came out and he was smoking a cigarette and I said, “Can you put that out please?” Because I hated smelling smoke unless I was smoking.

He said, “You think just because you’re gorgeous you get what you want?” And he had this fabulous Italian accent.

I said, “Yes.”

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