Interview: Daughters of Davis
British soul-folk duo Daughters of Davis have a humbling approach to music. Selling their belongings and giving up their day jobs, they embarked on a life busking around the country living out of a campervan. LTTM caught up with the sisters to get the full story.
For those who haven't heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about yourselves and how you got involved in making music?
Well as sisters we have grown up together and have always sang with each other from a young age. We would sing at family parties at our relatives badgering; which incidentally is one of the most daunting crowds you can play in front of! There they are, year in year out, and you'd be about a foot away from their eager faces in a starkly lit living room - I think it's surely the best training any budding performer can get! Our singing endeavors then naturally progressed to joining a band, an 8-piece Funk-Soul band which formed at college.
We gigged the south and got some southern airplay, but unfortunately the band went its separate ways around the time of university. It was after this that Adrienne and I stripped it all back and got acoustic as we wrote songs upon Adrienne's newly acquired guitar skills. I love that about Adrienne, she taught herself guitar and within about 6 months she was onstage with it...
Tell us a little bit about your album 'To The Water' and what the inspiration behind it was?
To The Water was inspired by having a fresh start: Getting the campervan and leaving everything behind to spend nearly two years on the road really was a new start for us! It’s actually what led to us meeting our management company, Storm 5 Management - it was with this amazing company that we recorded the album. We also have a strong connection to water... It was by a river we got spotted and offered our very first acoustic gig, and we have been known to play gigs abroad from just jamming poolside on holiday. We think a riverbank tour is next on the cards! The tracks were all written from real life experiences and that’s what inspires us.
I like Just Let Go a lot, but it's hard to say what our favourite is really! The lyrics really mean something to us, especially in terms of living & touring in the camper too. Things would often go wrong in that van and some kind of disaster would break out, like the van electrics going, or the van breaking down itself. We had to get really good at just letting things go for sure.
Internet rumour has it that you spent over a year and half gigging around the UK, living out of a campervan you bought on ebay and surviving solely on 17p cans of soup and porridge - is that true?!
Well, after we had this acoustic set-up we gigged the South and Adrienne was holding down a job in Occupational Therapy, working in Mental Health and I was finishing my Fine Art degree. It was tough doing jobs and music together as our musical career was just getting busier and busier. I suggested getting a camper one day to Adrienne, really just musing the impractical daydream of just leaving everything and hitting the road... and that was that! We sold our things, gave up our jobs, cars, home and stability and went to live in a van and tour the country gigging. It has truly been an adventure, but on a shoestring budget food and shopping took a big hit so that we could have petrol money to get round the UK and busking was our breadline.
You've recently released a DVD, can you tell us about that?
It’s called Where Do We Go: Music, Mischief and Life in a Campervan and it’s a “rockumentary” about mine and Adrienne's experiences living on the road in the tin formally known as ‘Bonanza the Iveco Transit’! It was supposed to be a really serious recording of what it was like touring and although it still is that in a way, it also ended up being a fairly comedic collage of film; with us catching footage of some of our many chaotic van disasters we had living in that van. It’s a real, honest insight into what touring was like for us, featuring the highs and lows alongside 5 music videos of our latest releases, punctuated with revealing interviews from us, our friends and family.
If you could work with any songwriter, who would it be and why?Stevie Wonder, it has to be! That man has a way of writing songs that make you want to dance, but also those that can break your heart! Perfect!
How would you define success in your career as singers?
We always say just being able to support yourself doing what you love; that's the dream, that's when you've made it! Not necessarily being in the charts, though don't get me wrong, those things are great too, but if you can play gigs, people are touched and inspired by your songs and you can pay bills, feed yourself and give to others; then that is being successful we think.
What advice would you give to any aspiring singers or songwriters out there?
Don’t lose heart, if the passion is there, it's there for a reason! The trick is not to give up on yourself when it gets difficult and remembering hard work does pay off. Also enjoy the ride because it's not always about the destination, the journey is equally important along with the character you build along the way. These things here are all things I am still trying to put into practice, but I know when I do things really do start to feel better.
You're stuck on an island, it's hot, you only have enough battery life left to listen to one song on your mp3 player. What track is it?
It would have to be Enough is Enough by Sam Haine & The Bloodflames. They are a band we met in Manchester on the road and we had a lot of fun times hanging out with them! I'd choose this track not just for the good memories, but because this track is just so awesome!
What does the next year hold for Daughters of Davis?
A lot of fun and excitement! Well we have just been awarded the Emerging Excellence Award by Help Musicians UK, so we will be doing a UK Cinema Tour where we'll be showing our film documentary about life in the van, as well as playing gigs in cinemas across the nation. We have also just linked up with the Caravan Club, and may be getting a van sponsorship soon, which would be so good! They already were our tour heroes through providing amazing sites to stay at on tour and with this as well. It was sad that our last van died, but this new one will be the bees knees so onwards and upwards! We will continue touring and see where the road takes us this time. We have many tour dates already lined up and are working on a new album this very moment.
Find out more at daughtersofdavis.com
