Q&A: Daisy the Great on Letting Friends Reimagine ‘The Rubber Teeth Talk’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY SHEVON GREENE ☆
Photo by Athen Smith
DELUXE ALBUMS ARE NOTHING NEW—when it comes to the music industry, but for Daisy the Great, they’ve taken it even a step further: letting their favorite artists and collaborators take total creative freedom of tracks from their 2025 project The Rubber Teeth Talk.
Titled The Rubber Teeth Talk With Friends, the New York duo of Kelley Dugan and Mina Walker invited friends, collaborators and longtime musical heroes like Frankie Cosmos, Harmony Tividad, Ray Bull, Alexis Krauss of Sleigh Bells, Babehoven and more to reshape every song into something entirely new. The result of the collaborative effort reveals a brand new chapter into their universe of music that already carried so much meaning.
When Luna caught up with Walker and Dugan, we talked about what it was like letting go of ownership over songs they once held so closely, collaborating with artists they’d admired for years, the unforgettable memories they brought home from their recent Asia tour and why this chapter has left them more giddy and ecstatic than ever to discover what’s next for Daisy the Great. Read below for more.
Photo by Athen Smith
LUNA: At the core of Daisy the Great, your friendship is such an important part of everything you do. What did it feel like inviting even more friends into that creative world for this project?
DUGAN: It felt amazing. It was so exciting. It was kind of vulnerable, but also really thrilling and heartwarming to have that many people involved with your music. Making the music that we make is already such a collaborative effort anyway, but there's something really beautiful that happens when you release music. It feels like the audience, by listening to it and sharing it, kind of makes it their own, and it belongs to them in a way that we really appreciate and love. We've experienced that a few times at this point, and this felt like a new version of that. We were giving the songs to artists we're friends with and whose work we really admire. Hearing people interpret the music and make it their own was such a special, unique experience during the album release process. We're very grateful we got to experience it.
LUNA: Some of the people on this project are artists you've admired for years. I was super excited when the tracklist dropped because the lineup is just so cool. Was there ever a moment where you stepped back while it was all coming together and thought, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe this artist is interested in singing on one of our songs?"
WALKER: Yeah, definitely. I feel like the whole time we were amazed by how many people wanted to be part of it because we love everyone's music so much. Especially when we were putting together the tracklist and figuring out whether it would say "version," "with," or whatever, we were looking at all the songs and everyone involved. I remember looking at it and thinking, "This is so sick." It felt like such a visual representation of community and art, and it was just really awesome.
LUNA: How did you decide who you wanted on the album? Were you just reaching out to artists, or was it a different story for everyone?
DUGAN: I feel like we started by making a dream list, a puzzle of what we hoped it could be, and then we just asked people if they wanted to be involved. Honestly, I was ready for everyone to say no (laughs). Luckily, our puzzle worked out beautifully. The people we hoped would be drawn to certain songs were, and it all fell into place in this amazing way. It was daunting to start asking because you're putting yourself out there and hoping people want to be part of it. We started with a dream vision of what it could be, and we were just really surprised and happy that it worked out.
LUNA: Was it ever difficult handing The Rubber Teeth Talk over and letting people reshape something that originally came from you, or did it feel pretty natural?
WALKER: I think it's interesting because the songs were already recorded and released. There's a bit of letting go of ownership that actually feels really good. Honestly, I want to do this with everything I ever make. It helps you let go of that tight feeling of ownership over art. It felt easy because I trusted all the artists involved, so I wasn't nervous about what they were going to make. But I did have to remind myself at the beginning to let the songs not be mine anymore.
There were definitely moments where I thought, "Maybe I would've mixed this differently," or, "Maybe I would've put this somewhere else," but I really tried not to give notes unless there was something we genuinely didn't like, and that never happened. The whole point was to let the songs evolve after being out for a year and see what happened. The more we stayed out of the way and contributed only what each artist wanted us to contribute, the more the songs could become something completely new.
We didn't want the deluxe album to feel like a typical deluxe where people think, "Oh, I don't really need to listen to this because I already know the record." We wanted it to feel like an entirely different experience, almost like a new album. Sometimes you see "deluxe" and it's basically the same record with one extra song or a slightly different beat. We wanted this to be exciting on its own, and I think the only way to do that was for us to take a bit of a backseat.
LUNA: Listening to it, that's exactly how it felt. Compared to hearing The Rubber Teeth Talk last year, this really does feel like a complete reimagining. Was there a collaboration that completely surprised you when you heard it back? Maybe something that revealed a new side of one of your own songs?
DUGAN: Totally. Honestly, I feel like we had moments like that with every song. Two really stand out to me, though. One is Tex Patrello's version of "Sue Me Alice." Tex originally sent us a version where she sang it herself, and we absolutely loved it, but then she had us sing it in the final version. Even though it's similar, the production is amazing. She took the song somewhere really magical and vulnerable. "Sue Me Alice" has been one of our favorite songs to play live for a long time, so we knew it really well. Hearing her interpretation felt like exactly what we hoped this project would be: giving someone a song and saying, "Take this somewhere I never would've thought of."
The other one was Lutalo's version of "Mary's at the Carnimal." We really had no idea what it was going to become because we weren't involved in that one the way we were with some of the others. Some of the songs we had a little more awareness of as they were coming together. We'd heard rough versions or worked on them together.
WALKER: Or we made some of them in the room together.
DUGAN: Yeah, exactly. But those two we were a little more removed from, so getting those versions back was really exciting. Lutalo's version of "Mary's at the Carnimal" is so good; I listen to it all the time. It completely changed the song for me. The original "Mary" feels beautiful, but also really solemn and like you're stuck ruminating inside your own head. This version feels like it cracked open the center of what's happening in the song. It makes me want to enjoy things and appreciate music and appreciate life. I think that's what the original song was always about, but she just wasn't ready yet. This version feels like chapter two of that story, and I love that.
WALKER: I also felt really surprised when we got "Lemon Seeds" back. I remember thinking, "What the hell? This is awesome" (laughs). It's so cool hearing how all these artists think. Like Kelley said, it's really nice to be able to say, "I love your brain; do this the way you would do it." The lyrics and melodies are still ours, but I never would've thought to make some of these songs that way.
Something we talk about a lot is that when we're recording, we usually write songs in a really bare-bones way. It's mostly the lyrics, melody and basic chords first, and then we build the instrumentation around that. At that point, it kind of depends on the day you're having what the recording ends up sounding like. It was really cool seeing just how far you can stretch a song while it's still fundamentally the same song. It almost became an exercise in production too.
LUNA: You recently got back from your Asia tour. Was there a moment from those shows that you're still thinking about?
DUGAN: Totally. Those shows were amazing. I still feel really energized from that experience. My favorite moments were definitely the meet-and-greets after the shows. We do those in the U.S. and Europe too, but getting the chance to actually talk to the people who come to the shows is always so special.
Sometimes releasing music online can feel kind of isolating. You put a record out while you're sitting alone in your house, and then suddenly you get to meet the people who've connected with it. Being so far away from home and seeing rooms full of people who knew the lyrics and were just as excited to see us as we were to see them felt unbelievable. We spent so much time at the meet-and-greets because I wanted to talk to everyone for as long as we could. It was just so sweet. Everyone was incredibly kind. They made us feel so at home, even though that was the farthest I've ever been from home.
LUNA: That sounds like one of those memories you'll never forget. After playing these songs night after night, are there any that have taken on a completely different energy live than you expected when you first wrote them?
WALKER: Yeah. Especially recently, we've been performing in a much more stripped-back way. On our last North American tour it was just the two of us performing as a duo. I really loved playing "Dream Song" that way. Kelley and I both played the same guitar part, so it had this really angular, fun feeling with these weird chords. It gave the song a completely different personality.
It always felt like a confident song to me, but performing it as just the two of us changed it. We rearranged the dance section into something a little more strummy and shouty. There was something really raw and grungy about it, but also really vulnerable.
One thing I love about playing as a two-piece is that it feels like we can do anything. Since it's just the two of us, we can almost read each other's minds onstage.
DUGAN: Like when we skip the second chorus.
WALKER: Exactly (laughs). We can just look at each other and know what we're going to do. Sometimes we'll get quiet and smile at the exact same moment, or both build into a big section without ever planning it. It feels like we're breathing inside the songs together.
Even when we play with just guitars and drums, which is really different from what we usually do, we've been embracing performing the songs with whatever tools we have instead of trying to recreate the recordings exactly. I actually think putting out the deluxe album reinforces that idea. It reminds us that these songs can exist however they want to exist.
DUGAN: Doing the duo set lets me hear everything so clearly. Even though it's still a big room with amplified sound, it feels like we're just singing songs together in a room. I really love that experience.
I love intimate concerts in general, but as the person singing, I love being able to hear everything clearly. It just feels real. There's no padding or anything covering it up. You sing, and it's just there in the room.
WALKER: Yeah, there really aren't many effects. I also think it's really fun to bring that intimate kind of performance into a non-intimate setting. We were opening for a bigger artist, so we were on these huge stages, but we were bringing this really stripped-back set. There's something about that contrast that I really enjoy. Instead of bringing all the bells and whistles to a huge venue, I like bringing something that feels really personal.
DUGAN: Especially because we spend so much time touring with a full band. Being able to put onstage what we do together in a bedroom while writing songs, and realizing that's worthy of being onstage too, is a really good reminder for us.
LUNA: If you could hand one Daisy the Great song, not from this album, to any artist, living or dead, and tell them to completely reinvent it, who would you choose, and what song?
DUGAN: Oh my god, that's such a good question. I'm super torn. It's funny because this is something we talked about while making the reimagined record. I wouldn't want to give someone something that's already too close to what they naturally do. It's kind of a delicate balance; you want to give them something where they won't have the same instincts you had. I think I would either give "Persephone" or "Aluminum" to Fiona Apple. Fiona, if you're listening...
LUNA: Let’s send it out into the universe (laughs).
WALKER: I think it'd be fun to give something to someone with a completely different style. I'd give "Tell Me Have You Been Dancing" to the Cocteau Twins or something.
LUNA: This project obviously feels like a celebration, but it also feels like a closing chapter for The Rubber Teeth Talk. Does putting this deluxe album out make you excited to turn the page creatively? And is there anything you can tease about what's next?
DUGAN: We're really excited to write again. We've been playing a lot with the duo set and experimenting with vocals in different ways. We also wrote a new song for a friend's [nano] collaboration album called "Blood Dye 40," which was really fun. We've also been touring basically this whole time, so we're excited to finally be home for a little while and work on some...freaky stuff.
WALKER: Yeah. Besides that one song, it's actually been a really long time since we've written together because we finished writing The Rubber Teeth Talk years before it even came out.
After all this time performing these songs, I'm excited to come back to writing and see how life has changed the way we create. I think the way we've been performing is definitely going to influence whatever comes next.
I'm really excited, but I honestly don't know what it will sound like yet. We don't really have any expectations or rules for ourselves right now, and I think that's going to make it really exciting.
