Daughters (band)

Daughters is an American rock band formed in 2002, in Providence, Rhode Island after the break-up of As the Sun Sets. The band's current line-up consists of vocalist Alexis S.F. Marshall, guitarist Nicholas Andrew Sadler drummer Jon Syverson and bassist Samuel Moorehouse Walker.

History

Formation and Canada Songs (2002–2003) 

Prior to Daughters vocalist Alexis S.F. Marshall, guitarist Jeremy Wabiszczewicz and drummer Jon Syverson played in the American grindcore^[1][2] band, As the Sun Sets.^[3] Following the break-up of As the Sun Sets, Marshall, Wabiszczewicz and Syverson went on to form Daughters along with guitarist Nicholas Andrew Sadler and bassist Pat Masterson.^[4] As the Sun Sets' final release, 8949 contained an insert which had a message from the band on it. The message said "...This is As the Sun Sets' final recording. March 21st, 2002, the sun set for the last time. March 22nd, 2002, we begin anew as Daughters".^{[5][lower-alpha 1]}

On March 25, 2002 (only three days after the band officially formed) Daughters released their debut EP, Daughters, through City of Hell Records.^[7] Daughters played their first show in late May at the Munch House in Providence, RI. Daughters played alongside Backstabbers Inc. and Dead and Gone.^[8] In October, 2002 Daughters focused on writing new material for their first album.^[9] On July 29, 2003 Daughters released their debut album Canada Songs, through Robotic Empire.^[10]

Hell Songs (2004–2006)

In June, 2004 Daughters released their first live album, Live at CBGB, through City of Hell. The album contained a new song, "Boner X-Ray". In July 2004 "Boner X-Ray" was later released for free as a download from Daughters' website.^[11] A studio version of the song would also appear on Daughters' at the time upcoming album, Hell Songs under the title "X-Ray". In mid-2005 Daughters signed to Hydra Head Records.^[12] While touring through out 2004 and 2005 Daughters played many new songs that where early versions of the songs that would appear on Hell Songs, such as, "Fiesty Snakewomen", "Boner X-Ray", "Fiery Wolves", "Crotch Buffetttt" and "Fuck Whisperer".^[13] Daughters entered the studio in March, 2006 to begin recording their next album at Mad Oak Recording Studios.^[14] In May, 2006 the band released details about the album such as its title, producer, recording studio and the track list.^[15] On August 8, 2006 Daughters released their second album Hell Songs, through Hydra Head.^[16]

Daughters and "break-up" (2007–2010)

Sadler described the writing process of their third album as, making demos for three years and then taking songs, song ideas and riffs to the practice space to hash them out with Syverson.^[4] Recording for Daughters' third album began in late April, 2009,^[17] and the tracking process was finished by June.^[18] In August, Daughters had abruptly broken up.^[18] After finishing recording for the album Marshall and Sadler got in an argument resulting in Marshall leaving the band.^[4][18][19] The rest of the band decided to call an hiatus, expecting Marshall to re-join the band at some point.^[4][19] Sadler continued with mastering the record and hashing out the artwork and even worked with artist, Dave Fisher, on a trailer video. Stating he "was essentially trying to keep the band alive for who-knows-what" and "hoping [Marshall] would come back or maybe in few years we would start playing again."^[4] Marshall decided that he wanted to rejoin the band, but that Sadler should be kicked out.^[4][19] This caused bassist Samuel M. Walker to leave the band.^[19] The band dissolved which lead to the band's break-up.^[4][18]

The disbandment was never officially announced, and no one outside of Daughters knew about the breakup before the end of 2009.^[18] Some months after the disbandment, Marshall and Syverson reconnected and decided to carry on the band.^[18][20] Stating “We started this band and we’re the only two people who have been through it consistently, so there was no reason to stop altogether and throw the whole thing away.”^[18] Marshall continued to say the pair have “no plans to replace anybody, but we’re not ruling out the idea that people could come in here and if it works out, they’ll stay.”^[18] Sadler has said "From my perspective, I don't think I'll ever play with Daughters again - I've been through way too much stress and I'm in a way better place with writing and being in a band with Fang Island. With the new album, I think we ended on a really good note with Daughters and if [Marshall] carries it beyond that then I'm happy for him and that's cool. So I didn't really leave, the band just fell apart. In some way, I guess I was kicked out by the guy who quit. (laughs) I don't know where that leaves me or the band, but I'm using that as an excuse to step out officially."^[4]

The band performed a one off secret show at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, where they played most of the songs off of their upcoming album.^[19] This was the first and only time Daughters played songs of their self-tiled album live, until their reunion in 2013.^[19] Despite the "break-up", Daughters released their third album Daughters on March 9, 2010 through Hydra Head.^[21][22] The band's management announced there would not be any tour in support of the album.^[18] Looking back on the album Sadler said "This album really caught up with us. People were getting a little older, the whole band was extremely poor from touring over the years, so life outside the band really caught up with us and it became hard to really do anything. I'm very proud of this record just because we were able to make it, you know? It was a real struggle."^[4]

Reunion and upcoming fourth album (2013–present)

Marshall has credited Andy Low of Robotic Empire for getting Daughters back together. While Marshall and Sadler where not speaking to each other Low told both Marshall and Sadler that they wanted to see each other, however neither had expressed any feeling to Low about wanting to see each other, not knowing this they had both reluctantly agreed to have dinner together one night. They found out during the dinner that Low had lied to them to get them to talk to each other once again.^[6] The situation was described by Marshall, “We sat down and had dinner and within 15 minutes we started talking about plans. We just needed to be in the same room I guess,” he goes on to say “It felt that enough time had gone by that any issues that Nick and I had had been not necessarily forgotten but they didn’t seem that important anymore.”^[23]

Speaking about Daughters' reunion Marshall stated the band had been talking about it for a while. He also mentioned how fans would regularly ask him "what was going on with Daughters" while he was on tour with his other band Fucking Invincible. He stated "It’s crazy. People are actually still into it" referring to Daughters.^[24] When Marshall got home from touring with Fucking Invincible he sent out a group text to the other members of Daughters saying, "People are interested in us doing something. We shouldn’t fuck around. We should just go out at play some shows, because this writing thing is taking way longer than it was supposed to. Let’s not concern ourselves with that; let’s just play some shows and things will happen after that. Everything will happen by itself once we get in the mindset of being in Daughters and being with each other."^[24]

On September 13, 2013 Daughters reformed for one show in Rhode Island.^[25][26][27] Due to popular demand, a second show was added on September 15.^[28] Although at the time no further official statements had been made, ever since the reunion the band has had heavy activity on social media and had been recording "bits and pieces" and making demos.^[24] In the summer of 2014 the band started recording at Providence based studio, Machines With Magnets. In July, 2014 during these recording sessions the band kept hinting at a new materiel through Facebook.^[29][30] However all recordings from this session were shelved because the band were unhappy with the outcome, with Marshall claiming they "forced it" and that the recordings ended up sounding "unfinished".^[24] In 2015 Daughters posted a photo on Facebook of its members at the recording studio, Machines With Magnets,^[31] leading some to believe new music is on the way.^[31] In September, 2016 the band announced via Instagram that they will "Record, once again, during [their upcoming tour] with no real agenda nor timeline for release."^[32] On this tour Daughters played the new song, "Long Road - No Turns".^[33] In a 2017 interview Marshal said he expects Daughters to release there fourth studio album by the end of the year.^[34]

Musical style

Daughters have primarily been described as grindcore^[2][20][35] and noise rock.^{[20][36][37][38]} Daughters have also been described as multiple hardcore and metal subgenres, such as grindcore, mathcore,^[37] math metal,^[37] alternative metal,^[37] noisecore^[39] and spazz-core.^[40] Daughter's second album Hell Songs was noted due to a change in the band's sound. Pitchfork's Zach Baron praised the change in sound, saying "Daughters still play techy grindcore, but they're clearly listening to better records now: Birthday Party, who they covered recently; late-period Orchid; Racebannon and Rapider Than Horsepower. From the sound of things, they've even rediscovered the old Nation of Ulysses and Make Up records stashed between their couch cushions".^[2] Daughter's third album, Daughters continued to change their sound moving from a grindcore sound into a more noise rock like sound^[20] that was touched upon on their second album.

Daughters are often described as math rock or mathcore.^[4] However Sadler stated in an interview with Punknews.org that he has always disagreed with Daughters being described as such, he also went as far to say he "sort of hated it". Sadler goes on to say "[Daughters has] always been a kind of calculated band, but not in a math rock way. None of us are classically trained at all and I don't think anyone in Daughters has taken a lesson in anything. The music just comes out that way and it's always been the nature of the band."^[4]

Vocal style

With the release of the band's second album, Hell Songs Marshall changed his vocal style from high-pitched screams^[41] to a singing style that has been compared to Jesus Lizard's David Yow^[42][43] and Nick Cave during his time with the Birthday Party^[44] and they have been described as Elvis Presley being tortured^[23][45] and Jerry Lee Lewis on hallucinogenic drugs.^[45] Marshall explained the reason for the change, "...I told everyone I'm not screaming on this record; I don't want to do it anymore." Marshal goes on to say "It's intimidating [to be in this band]. These guys can play. I don't want to be like, "You guys be impressive and I'll just scream." We're not a band like that. Our music is not like that, so why should the singing be like other bands?"^[42]

However lots fans responded negatively on the change, the band's Myspace was filled with comments such as "What the fuck happened to the vocals?" Marshall further explained "I guess I was hoping people would feel the same, like "I can't wait to hear this to see how they pull this off." As it turns out, most people are just like, "What is this bullshit?""^[42] Marshall defended the vocal style change in a 2010 interview, "I went into the studio and I just couldn't scream... I'm evolving. You witness bands from when they're 17 until their 40s. It's silly and lazy for them to play the same shit over and over again. We're constantly discovering more about ourselves musically and emotionally, so we're ever-changing. To say that Daughters is gonna play 30-second songs and scream for the next 25 years is skewed. We're becoming different people."^[46]

Members

Timeline

Discography

Studio albums

• Canada Songs (2003, Robotic Empire)
• Hell Songs (2006, Hydra Head)
• Daughters (2010, Hydra Head)

EPs

• Daughters (2002, City of Hell)

Singles

• "The First Supper" (2010, Hydra Head)^[52]

Live albums

• Live at CBGB (2004, City of Hell)

Compilation contributions

• "Marry Me (Lie Lie)" (The Birthday Party cover, from Release the Bats) (2006, Three One G)
• "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" (Nirvana cover, from In Utero, in Tribute, in Entirety) (2014, Robotic Empire)
• "Big Cheese" (Nirvana cover, from Doused in Mud, Soaked in Bleach) (2016, Robotic Empire)

Notes

References

External links

• Daughters on Bandcamp