Meet Daisy Sellas

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Daisy Sellas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Daisy below.

Hi Daisy, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I can remember music affecting me differently than it affected my friends and family since I was tiny. I grew up on the last working cattle ranch in Southern California. On Saturday mornings, my dad would drive my sister and I to ride horses. On those chilly fall mornings we’d listen to everything from Johnny Cash and Toby Keith to Rhianna and Dave Stamey. Stamey is a cowboy singer/songwriter; cowboy music is its own genre all together. He’d sing songs about the west still being a little bit wild, loves he’d lost, and being a rancher. In one of his songs, he has a line about a ranch kid doing chores– at five years old, I was convinced he’d written that about me. I felt seen. Ever since then, I’ve listened to music to feel seen, or, to use better terms, understood; recognized; validated. I write music as a form of catharsis, but I also want some other little kid to feel the same way I did when I heard that song. My musical taste has expanded greatly, but what I’m looking for in a song hasn’t– whether I’m listening to Taylor Swift, the Rolling Stones, Cody Jinks, or Lana Del Rey, I’m so inspired by the way they can take their specific experiences, paint a picture and create a universal kind of invitation into their world: “I’m going through this, I bet you have too, let’s feel all these feelings together.
I’ve been through an insane amount of growing up these past few years. I worked through an eating disorder my sophomore and junior year of college, I’ve had to navigate the ups and downs of singing in bars in downtown Nashville, I fell in love, and I chose music over money. Music has been the only thing that got me through all of it; writing it, performing it, consuming it. I’m so lucky to have so many people in my life who are so supportive of my passion, because my passion is my purpose.
So, how did I find my purpose? I would argue that it found me, in the truck when I was five, when I wrote my first song at nine; when I first left home, took my first sip of whiskey, first fell in love, and finally found myself, though this version of myself is constantly evolving. I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life, and I intend to live out my purpose of creating music with the goal of helping people who are going through something see that they aren’t alone.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I create. All kinds of art– music, poetry, fiction, paintings, and hybrids of all these. I wouldn’t dare say it’s more special than anyone else’s art, but it’s me and there’s only one Daisy. I don’t believe in having any specific brand– I write my truth. If anything I’d say that my biggest aspect of my image is the fact that I make my own choices. I chose love over money. I chose independence over financial stability. And I always choose truth over commercial potential. I’ve always got things going on when it comes to my art! I play many shows a week in Nashville, showcasing both originals and covers and I’m always putting out new music, both on official streaming platforms and testing out new material on Tik Tok and YouTube.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The journey hasn’t ended for me, not by a long shot. But looking back on all the highs and lows, the hangovers and handshakes, the three biggest skills I acquired that helped further me on this road were optimism, tenacity and dedication to the craft. It’s tough to be optimistic sometimes, especially in an industry that feels like it’s stuck a few decades back when it comes to image and ideology (here I’m referring specifically to the business of country music). But surrounding yourself with positive influences both virtually and in real life can have a major impact on your attitude and thereby your product.
Tenacity has been one of the most difficult aspects of the game for me to almost master, but it has proved to be on of the most important. I’m non-confrontational and a people pleaser by nature. But learning to be persistent without being pushy has allowed me to procure gigs, coffees and connections that have opened doors in so many areas for me.
When I walk into a writers room, Daisy Sellas and her ego/personality stay outside the door. What enters the room is Daisy Sellas, the girl who is there to create the best song possible, even if none of my ideas or suggestions make it to the final draft. Without a dedication to the art form and a checking of the ego, the craft is nothing. Sure, we want to see the artist in their art, but we really want to see ourselves reflected in the piece.
Anyone struggling with these three aspects should remember this: just like the act of creating art itself, it takes practice; practice seeing the silver lining on a cloudy day, practice being forceful yet polite, and practice writing itself. Practice does not make perfect, in my opinion: it allows for new discoveries that lead to more practice and more consistent, better results.
That all sounds very practical, and it is. But I can’t end this section without mentioning the magic that goes into it. Any art form that can literally lift people out of their seats and force their bodies to move in time with the beat is pretty damn magical to me. One needs to be open to the fickle aspects of music in order to allow those to freely come while doing all of the other practical elements of the craft. A hard line to walk, but worth it in the end.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
I’m a book worm. I keep a book in my purse at all times and whip it out at times of leisure. Fiction, non-fiction, memoir, poetry, classic literature– I really do love it all. One book that has been particularly essential in my development as an artist was “To the Lighthouse,” by Virginia Woolf. In this masterful work telling the tale of a family over the course of one day, ten years, and one more day, Woolf manages to capture the tear-jerkingly beautiful minutia of every day life as well as the painfully evident truths of our finite existence. A passage that has always stuck with me from this novel follows:
“One line placed on the canvas committed her to innumerable risks, to frequent and irrevocable decisions. All that in idea seemed simple became in practice immediately complex; as the waves shape themselves symmetrically from the cliff top, but to the swimmer among them are divided by steep gulfs, and foaming crests. Still the risk must run; the mark made.”
This is the pinnacle of artistry for me. The risk we take baring our souls so that other people may feel seen and validated is immense. It’s a vulnerability that is unmatched in any other career. But it is so worth it– success (knowing you’ve made an impact with your words) tastes infinitely sweeter in this realm of creativity.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Eric Sellas Cristy Sellas Daisy Sellas

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