Springtime For The Daisycutters
By: Matt Innes
The national rock scene was set alight when Gold Coast pop-rock sensations, The Daisycutters exploded in the late ‘90s, bringing with them an extensive catalogue of some of the most hummable tunes ever recorded.
With pop-rock sounds, a punk attitude and an adept storytelling style, The Daisycutters toured relentlessly on the back of singles ‘Sick Day’ and ‘Kiss Me Stupid’. More recently, the band’s members have been focussed on raising their respective families, but guitarist and vocalist Cameron Wilson says the band is still alive and well.
“We still get together to rehearse and write the odd piece of music here and there, but we’re on a bit of a hiatus at the moment; just waiting for inspiration to strike and I’m sure we’ll record something again at some point. There are tentative plans to play some shows so we’ll see how we go, but no concrete plans at the moment.
“We take everything on board. We haven’t done a show in probably about two or three years, and anytime we’ve done one we’ve thought, ‘we should do more of these’. But then life gets in the way, next minute a year goes by,” Cameron laughs, “but we definitely will at some point do some more shows.”
He goes on to explain the band’s decision to take a break: “It’s funny because people ask when we’re going to play next and when can they see more shows. I think we played so much, played so many shows and we were busy for so many years that after a while you think, ‘I wouldn’t mind sitting back for a bit from this’; certainly after you’ve played some really big shows. There’s a lot to be said for taking some time out, and the time out took the form of a number of years.”
The Daisycutters’ tenure as cult music icons saw the band amass a legion of fans, as well as earning themselves the distinction of being considered this country’s most underrated band, a claim Cameron rightly wears like a badge of honour.
“It’s flattering,” he says, “certainly flattering when they said it, it was nice to hear. You think ‘wow, maybe we are doing the right thing and maybe people can relate’. We like to think we put on a good show but maybe we can actually put on a good show, this is good. It was nice to hear and we put that quote on posters and anything we could; that quote went around a lot and opened a lot of doors for us, certainly.”
While Cameron and the band are settled down with families and the rock & roll life seems a far-off mountain in the rear-view mirror, like a true rocker, he hasn’t given up the ghost just yet.
“It’s a tough grind out there on the Australian scene … I think the four of us, unanimously, we do not want to be in a cramped van driving to Sydney overnight. I don’t think any of us want to be doing that again, but if a show comes up and there’s a budget where we can afford to fly to it. We never say never, and we always keep an open mind about stuff.