Just four years after the release of their self-produced debut, Flambescence, Canadian popsters Painting Daisies find themselves in an enviable position. On the strength of their latest, Fortissimo, the Edmonton, Alberta-based all-female quartet scored four first-place nominations in the Prairie Music Awards. Now the band wants to take its success across the border.
“We've been doing the West Coast of the United States right now, and it's been great,” says guitarist Rachelle Van Zanten. “It's hard to draw crowds in some places, but most venues totally push the Canada thing and the all-girl thing. We're probably easier to promote than most first-time indie bands.”
Painting Daisies began in 1995 as an acoustic duo consisting of Van Zanten and guitarist Daisy Blue Groff. After six months of working coffeehouses, the pair decided to fatten up their sound.
“Daisy and I both got electric guitars, and all hell broke loose,” says Van Zanten. “Right away our songwriting went from slightly fluffy to straight-ahead rock, with lots of layering and trippy arrangements.”
The pair added a full rhythm section (which now includes bassist Carolyn Fortowsky and drummer Kim Gryba) and built an eclectic songbook that includes equal parts edgy rock and introspective acoustic music, reflecting the contrasting personalities of its chief writers. “It's amazing how one's environment and upbringing can affect how the songs are written,” says the farm-bred Van Zanten, whose ethereal songs such as “Beale Street” are offset by Groff's up-tempo offerings such as “Eat Your Words” and “Carpal Tunnel.” “We're really polar opposites in that sense,” Van Zanten says.
With Fortissimo, the quartet moved another step back from their unplugged upbringing, which, according to Van Zanten, makes the roadwork a bit more challenging. “When you get used to playing rock live,” says Van Zanten, “it's very hard to present the acoustic side of a band. We wrote Fortissimo with big drums, layers of guitars, and thundering bass, but then we do shows where we have to play quietly and acoustically. I know people dig our set, but to me, it sometimes lacks the swells, the deep note bends, and the big dynamics of our record.”
Certainly, the band's equipped to play full on. Gryba pounds a five-piece Pearl set, Fortowsky plugs her Fender Precision in to a Trace Elliot cabinet, Groff sends her Telecaster through a Fender Twin, and Van Zanten's Stratocaster goes into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. The guitarists use Fishman, L. R. Baggs, and MacIntyre pickups on their acoustics. For vocals, the band favors the Audix OM-5. “We've tried a lot of mics,” says Van Zanten, “but the Audix seems to work the best for girl voices.”
Painting Daisies pay special attention to grassroots marketing. “We do the fan mailing list at each show, which we find is extremely important if a band is planning on coming back to that venue,” says Van Zanten. “We put new things up on our Web site every week, and we try to talk to our fans via e-mail on a regular basis.”
They also concoct a bit of an illusion when doing business. “For booking the band, I use a totally different name,” says Van Zanten. “Daisy does media contact under another name as well. Together, we create the hype.” That sometimes means resorting to more direct methods of communication. “We sell hockey pucks with our logo on them,” boasts Van Zanten. “Very Canadian!”
