New Zealand ex-pat trio Young Winona has shared a new single with “Killer Daises,” a manic power-rock anthem that writhes under the anxious but virulent wails of lead singer Cassie Gaffaney. Inspired by the feelings of isolation Gaffaney endured when she and her bandmate/husband Nick left their home to pursue their musical careers in Los Angeles. Cassie — the adopted daughter of a Singaporean Muslim mother and an indigenous New Zealand Māori father — brought with her the guitar her father had given to her years previous as a show of support for her musical talent.
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“Killer Daises,” with its off-kilter drums and gritty, jangly riffs cuts a jagged path through Cassie’s feelings of solitude. And while the woozy pop-hooks that fill the spaces in between are just as poignant — her “woo-ing” stays with you as a sublime echo in your ear long after the song ends — it all whiplashes abruptly back at the end of the “Killer Daises” crashing crescendo. “What’s happening?! / I don’t seem to be / Remotely in control,” she howls despondently along to the final rousing surges of the song’s finale.
“‘Killer Daisies’ is about feeling isolated,” Cassie explains. “It’s those ugly feelings of insecurity and desperation that we mask by overcompensating.”
Listen to Young Winona’s new single “Killer Daises” below!
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