The female-fronted rock group Daisychain is bringing the sounds of 70s psych-rock to the modern day with the new album, All in a Name.
The Chicago band, which formed in 2017, consists of vocalist and bassist Nickole Regala, lead-guitarist Frankie Sripada and rhythm-guitarist Sophia Williams.
For All in a Name, the group’s first full-length album, Daisychain worked with longtime producer Sylvia Massy, whose resume includes production for artists such as Tool, Johnny Cash, Prince and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
“It was what you imagine making a record is like when you’re 15. This was just like the best manifestation of that,” Sripada said of working with Massy. “Equipment aside, it’s the wealth of knowledge, the wealth of anecdotes, the wealth of warmth and openness to everyone expressing their opinions, you know? Just someone being able to make us comfortable being ourselves.”
Daisychain stopped by the WBEZ studio to chat with morning anchor Mary Dixon about their debut album, which drops today. This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.
Nickole, let’s start with you and talk about the new album. What does it sound like?
Nickole Regala: I think it sounds like us, which is really cool, and I think that’s what I’m most psyched about. It’s very shoegaze, with some pop and psych in there. It’s a very colorful album, but I don’t want to just leave it there, because that feels kind of vague. But I think there’s a lot of different styles going on that are all still very cohesive because of the production style.
Your music is influenced by bands like Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, how did you draw from their work to make what you do?
Frankie Sripada: You know, hitting an A chord in 1967, hitting an A chord in 1994, and hitting an A chord in 2025, it’s still the same chord. Even if you’re using different mics or using a DAW [digital audio workstation] versus a tape machine. People are conveying the same universal feelings, maybe with different lingo or something, but it’s something that connects us all regardless of time or place.
Some of the bands that are updating psych-rock nowadays include Greta Van Fleet and King Gizzard. They’re pretty dude heavy. So, where are you coming from in being a female fronted band in this space?
Sophia Williams: I think having other females represented and people of a broad variety represented in rock and in music in general is super important. Being able to play psych-rock that is pretty heavily male dominated – I enjoy it, I appreciate it, and I hope that it helps other women and people of diversity have a little bit of a safe space and an open space to also play psych music and express themselves.
All in a Name drops today. You just had your release show last weekend at Sleeping Village. What was that like playing your songs locally for the first time?
Regala: The energy was honestly unmatched. We play our hearts out regardless, but it’s such a special energy when there’s a lot of people there and they’re all sucked into it. A lot of our friends were there. A lot of the Chicago music community was there. I love the community here, I brag about it when we’re on tour, because Chicago is so good about showing up for each other and that was very much present that night. It was awesome.
I understand that the new album was produced by Sylvia Massy, what was it like to work with her?
Sripada: There’s plenty of really good engineers who can, you know, mic up your amps and drums well. But someone who can just think of this other thing we can do that’s gonna make this even better, that on our end, we probably wouldn’t have ever thought of that.
How did she draw out your sound? How did she make Daisychain, Daisychain on this album?
Williams: She gave us a platform to really experiment and try anything and everything out. Nothing was a bad idea or a waste of time. She really listened to us and gave us the last call in any decision. It was really a safe and awesome space.
We put a lot of work into it, and just seeing it come into fruition is beyond exciting.
Mary Dixon is WBEZ’s Morning Edition host. Follow her at @MaryLDixon. Cianna Greaves is a WBEZ producer. Camila Trimberger-Ruiz is an intern on the WBEZ Arts & Culture Desk.