Creating her own unique flavour of genre-fluid music Daisy Harris takes inspiration from the likes of Mazzy Star, The Smashing Pumpkins and The Lemonheads to cement her brand of indie-pop guitar music. Her impressive musicianship shines through with her multi-instrumental ability and wonderfully translates into transcendental and delightfully heartfelt music.

Harris (vocals/ guitar/ banjo/ ukulele) has already worked the showcase circuit across Glasgow and with total self-sufficiency when it comes to recording and mixing and has been dominating the Manchester music scene with live shows, most notably the Manchester Micro Music Festival and Teenage Market.

With the recent emergence of girl-pop artists such as Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish and Caity Baser, rising star Harris is following suit with her own unique take on preppy-meets-ferocious power cuts that take on love, jealously and forbidden lusts.

Daisy’s latest venture into emotive folk-pop culminates in the impressive and freeing EP ‘Man Of The Year’. Speaking on the new release, Daisy notes that “This EP has been a long time in the making, and has included more collaborators than I’ve ever had. It’s the last in a trio of between-album releases, and has been a wonderful way for me to experiment and have more fun than ever before with my music!”.

At five tracks long, the EP features two previously released tracks (companion cuts ‘The Way I Live My Life’ and ‘Good Fight’) and was written in the aftermath of a breakup, during a time in which Harris was in the process of reclaiming her identity and self-worth. Self-recorded and produced between her flat and Habitat Studios in Ardwick (Manchester), ‘Man Of The Year’ is a truly collaborative effort as it features the talents of fellow artists decreece and wren and drummer Fenn Bartels (the latter two who are in a band with Harris (Amateur Rock Girl)! Wren and Fenn are my bandmates in punk band Amateur Rock Girl.

Opening the EP is ‘GD Rockstar’, a confident explosion of extroverted exclamations that aptly introduces us to this new, self-assured Harris. Originally written for her side project, Amateur Rock Girl, ‘GD Rockstar’ focusses on performance and self-belief as lent vocal chorus’ support Harris’ declarations.

Second track, ‘The Way I Live My Life’, boasts letting go of resentment (“You said you’ll always be there/ So did my ex from last year”), thriving in your own independence (“I guess I’m independent”), and respecting boundaries (“It’s not about needing space, I just don’t want you all the time”). It’s all
about embracing self-love and putting yourself first – and Harris does this by placing an emphasis on not letting romance completely rule your life by forgetting everything else that you have going for you (“I can’t love you more than my sister / Or my best friend”). In her boldest shift in genre yet, attributed largely to a variety of shoegaze influences, Harris demonstrates her unique knack to conquer any sound and deliver it with the utmost of passion.

The literature inspired ‘Mercutio’ is a thrilling exploration of early 00’s pop-punk and gender expression, in a short but sweet two-minute package. Collaborative effort ‘Soviet Space Dogs (feat. decreece)’ “is about abandonment issues and trying to desperately show someone your worth even though they don’t value you”. In the most stripped-back offering from the EP, the track features lush pleading vocals supported by infectious, insistent percussive beats. Lent vocals from decree perfectly complement Harris’ tones and lyrics hark back to the previous track with “don’t hesitate cos you’re the man”.

Narrative-wise, the fifth and final track ‘Good Fight’ is teeming in romantic tension as Harris reflects on her pre-disposition to fall for academic rivals during her time at University in Manchester. The juxtaposition between competition and adoration is reflected in the jagged guitars and dissonant percussion. Throughout, Harris lists everything she dislikes about the person (“I hate your hair / I hate your stare / I hate the way you don’t seem to care”), as she channels the ferocity Miley Cyrus’ ‘7 Things’ before layered vocals declare “If you kill me off / get ready to be haunted”. At just under the three-minute mark, ‘Good Fight’ packs a punch as it balances soaring vocals against insistent instrumentation, in what could be Harris’ most developed track yet. ‘Good Fight’ follows on perfectly from the resentment-themed infectious backdrop of ‘The Way I Live My Life’.

‘Man Of The Year’ is set to be released October 11th.