We were lucky to catch up with Daisy Forester recently and have shared our conversation below.
Daisy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
The most meaningful project of my career thus far has undoubtedly been with my current band, Dial Tone. We released our debut self-titled album last November, which was not only the first time I’d ever shared original music to streaming platforms but also the culmination of the most transformative, intentional, vulnerable, and intense period of my entire music-making career. We formed in September of 2022, and after only about a month of writing original music and exploring our own unique sound, we set the goal of crafting and releasing a full-length concept album chronologically and aurally tracing the evolution of underground alternative music in the Twin Cities from the 1980s-present. I had never engaged in music creation in as detail-oriented, historiographic, or deliberate manner as I did while creating this album with my bandmates, and throughout the songwriting, recording, and production process I grew exponentially as a lyricist, musician, performer, collaborator, bandmate, and social creative. I am particularly proud of the lyricism throughout the album; I’m grateful my bandmates allowed me the creative freedom, within the structure of our album’s central concept, to lyrically explore and unpack themes and topics I personally was navigating and grappling with as a young queer woman in the music scene, academia, and our broader social reality. The songs on our debut album are a time capsule of my (and my bandmates’) experiences the past year and a half, and I’m humbled by and grateful for the way these songs have been recieved and held by our followers and community since the album’s release. The process of self-recording, producing, and promoting our debut album also allowed us to create and strengthen connections within the Twin Cities and Midwest music scene and network of creatives; the community I discovered and was welcomed into throughout the performing/songwriting/recording process of our debut album is what I am most grateful for and empowered by, and has had the most meaningful, long-term impact on me as an individual, artist, and community member.
Daisy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Hi! My name is Daisy Forester, and I’m a rising fourth-year Sociology major at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and the lead vocalist and bassist of the Minneapolis-based alt-rock trio Dial Tone. I’ve been involved in the Twin Cities music scene as a soloist for the past 7+ years, and co-formed my current musical project, Dial Tone, with my two bandmates in the fall of 2022. Since our formation, we’ve performed live regularly across the Metro area, from underground house venues to professional stages like The Amsterdam Bar and Hall, 7th Street Entry, The Green Room, The Cedar Cultural Center, and The Fine Line. We released our debut self-titled album Dial Tone in November 2023 and are planning on releasing an EP this summer. Our first gig was at Carbone’s pizza place in October 2022, and we’ve self-managed all band-related activity ever since. We have grown a following of over 2.4K on social media, self-recorded and -produced a 13-track concept album, released several lines of Dial Tone merchandise, interfaced with booking agents/venue managers, and have organized and been a part of numerous lineups with fantastic artists/musicians in the Twin Cities.
I am so honored by and grateful for the community that has supported our music and our band from that very first show at Carbone’s, but as our audience has expanded and solidified over these past couple years, I’ve realized that Dial Tone can do more than just put on a good show for our friends and family. As a femme artist in today’s music scene, I aim to use our music and our growing platform to support and create more space for other femme, non-binary, and queer musicians and creatives in the still heavily male-dominated Twin Cities arts scene. At our single and album release shows this past fall, we had the privilege of creating fully femme-fronted lineups and playing alongside incredible femme artists and inspirations. Femme-fronted and -directed events such as these shows strengthen and enrich the creative communities I have the honor of being a part of; to me, being a musician not only means that I write and perform music in a professional capacity, but also means I have the responsibility of helping to build a safer, more supportive, and more vibrant arts scene, and I’m looking forward to what the next chapter of my music career entails (in both the music-making and community-building regards).
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
A thriving creative ecosystem reflexively relies on and contributes to a thriving broader social ecosystem; in other words, make an effort to show up to underground arts events and live shows and support the creatives, and they will in turn support you! As a lifelong participant in the Twin Cities arts/music scene, I can say with authority that first and foremost, the events are simply so. much. fun. The local Twin Cities arts community is, in my experience, welcoming and supportive, and regardless of one’s artistic affiliation or experience, there’s always some show or event going on that floats a niche boat. Both the artist and the art patron benefit from building that communal artistic appreciation. I also love the idea that art shapes reality and reality shapes art, both from the standpoint of someone who loves performing music that makes people dance and loves being in the dance pit at another artist’s show. By individual and collective prioritization of regular participation in the music/arts scene (which includes supporting artists and the scene by buying merch, sharing music/art online and on social media, and showing up to events), creative ecosystems that provide an accessible environment for all inhabitants to intentionally engage in and process their realities can expand, and with it, the symbiotic relationship between our species, our society, and our art expands as well. I think one of the biggest misconceptions about the music scene in the Twin Cities especially is that it’s exclusive to a specific aesthetic, age group, gender identity/presentation, and race, but there is an incredibly diverse network of underground and mainstream artist collaboratives and communities that hold space for and thrive off of inclusivity and accessibility. Currently, most of the culture- and community-building responsibility falls on the artists, but it’s important to recognize that the audience plays an essential role in creating and maintaining a strong and supportive arts scene. By increasing awareness of and engagement in these networks, both as artists and as a broader community, we can shape our creative ecosystem to be even more diverse, inclusive, safe, and accessible, and better harness the transformative capacity of art and creativity.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I started playing music in a semi-professional capacity at fourteen; I played solo singer-songwriter sets at coffee shops, farmers markets, family restaurants, etc. At a very young age, I experienced both the wonderful side of sharing my music with the world (support and encouragement from friends and family, a sense of community, appreciation of my art, etc.), but was also quite unprepared to navigate the less-wonderful world of being a woman in music (harassment, condescension, exploitation, etc.). It’s an unfortunate yet pervasive truth that women/femmes are socialized to be apologetic and unassertive and I was (am) no exception. I thought the solution to creating a more comfortable and sustainable music career was to perform less, resist collaborative opportunities, and devalue my accomplishments out of fear of being negatively perceived/treated, taken advantage of, and stripped of any achievements. I was hesitant to take any steps to further my career and expand my creative community, and my music career predictably stagnated. When my bandmates and I formed Dial Tone, however, I had to subvert the narrative I had built around what it meant to be a musician and reorient my relationship with creating and sharing music. Being a part of a band has shown me the value and importance of taking appropriate ownership of and protecting my creative products, collaborating and co-creating art with others, and setting intentional goals with plans in place to achieve them. My music career has always been DIY and self-managed, but being a part of Dial Tone has shown me how to implement the DIY/punk ethos as a means of creating more freedom and authenticity in music/art creation while maintaining the security, confidence, and intentionality I previously lacked as a DIY musician. As I’ve matured both personally and professionally, I have learned to reframe my approach to being a musician to ensure I can continue creating sustainably and safely while still maintaining the organicism and authenticity of my art. I’m still learning and growing, and I’m so, so grateful to my community for supporting me as I navigate this process of unlearning limiting beliefs in favor of healthy, sustainable practices as an individual, a bandmate, and a professional. It would have been easy to internalize the narratives that I wasn’t smart/pretty/talented enough to have a place on a stage or in the music world. By showing up authentically in creative spaces I aim to subvert these narratives that I (and other non-men) are subjected to and empower myself and my peers to thrive in the music/art world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/dialtoneofficial
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dialtoneofficial/
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/hD5wenL_sH8?si=eY9MEXJdFv4JOo9q
- Other: Bandcamp: https://dialtoneofficial.bandcamp.com/music Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3ZUAKzkxoUko8TwyKQ6X3O?si=r_3wYmICQvOFZoC_zXhilw Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/dial-tone/1705055147
Image Credits
Heartland Music Mag Emma Gillespie Aaron Ray Meg Bunkenburg