Daisy Harris Turns Heartbreak Into Her Most Honest Music Yet

Words by Kasia Krawczyk

For Daisy Harris, heartbreak didn’t end when the relationship did. It lingered — in songs, in memories, and in a track she couldn’t quite bring herself to finish. Now, with her new single “Spoon Song” freshly released, Harris is looking at that difficult chapter from the other side. The song finds the singer-songwriter trading devastation for something unexpectedly tender: a love song about the cat who helped her feel like herself again. It’s a fitting glimpse into Shula, an album four years in the making that moves through heartbreak, self-discovery and the messy business of learning to trust your own feelings. Written, produced and directed by Harris herself, it’s also a fiercely DIY statement from an artist determined to do things on her own terms.

Daisy Harris Is Making Peace With the Past

Daisy Harris wrote “This Is It” in two halves, a year apart: the first during the worst stretch of a breakup, the second after her life had begun to transform. Bringing those two versions of herself together became less a calculated decision than a matter of finally figuring out what the song had left to say.

K: “This Is It” was written in two halves, a year apart — one during the worst period of the breakup and one when you were living your best life. How strange was it to bring those two versions of yourself together in one song?

Daisy Harris: It actually felt very natural because it wasn’t something I consciously decided to do. I wasn’t thinking, “Well, this is weird.” I just couldn’t find an ending to the song.

As soon as I started writing it, I knew it was special. It felt so perfectly like the kind of music I wanted to make, and I knew I had to be careful with it. I didn’t want to rush it and end up with something I wasn’t happy with. So I put it aside for a while and made a few other things that I think I needed to get out of my system.

Eventually I came back to it and thought, “What else is there to say about this situation?” I’d already written the first two verses, and the bridge and outro were the last things I wrote. I was asking myself, What’s the final thing I want to say about this?

And I realized that I wanted to acknowledge how special and important that relationship had been to me — how much that person had been my best friend. But that was also why the breakup had been so awful. I didn’t just lose a relationship; I lost my best friend.

It felt very natural to close the song with that statement. I’d also never really been able to release love songs while I was in that relationship. I had this backlog of music, and by the time I was writing songs about love, we were already nearing the end of the relationship. I didn’t feel like I could put them out.

So I wanted this song to say: This relationship mattered. This person mattered. And that’s why losing it hurt so much. I knew I wanted a big finish, and I’m really happy with where it landed.

K: It must have been painful, because you lost both your best friend and your lover. How do you think you’ve changed between starting the song and finally finishing it?

Harris: I really think I was a kid when I started it. I was 22, unemployed, finishing a master’s degree that I hated, and I was so, so heartbroken. I was desperately sad.

Then, within a few months of starting the song, my life had completely changed. Since then, I’ve been in other relationships and learned other things about relationships and about myself.

I look back at that version of myself almost as the adult version of me looking back at a kid. I kind of feel sorry for her. I’m like, God, that was such a horrible time — and I was so young.

It’s bizarre looking back at those videos of me with my terrible haircut and my dad’s old guitar. I’m like, “That’s so crazy.”

But emotionally, I can still put myself right back there. I remember exactly what it felt like. And there’s something quite nice about finally making peace with it.

K: And did you have a glow-up?

Harris: [Laughs.] Yes.

K: If “This Is It” represents the sadness and the breakup, what’s the song that represents the happy side of what came afterward — the best version of you?

Harris: My next single, “Spoon Song,” which comes out September 9th.

A few weeks after I started writing “This Is It,” I basically snapped. I was like, “I’m so miserable. I need to change something about my life.”

I started looking at animal rehoming websites and found a cat. I just decided I’m going to take a chance. I’m going to get a cat.

She’s asleep next to me right now. You can probably hear her meowing.

Within a few days of getting her, it was almost unbelievable. I hadn’t felt normal for months and months. I genuinely thought I’d never feel normal again. I was so sad. And then suddenly I was like, “Wow. This is what it feels like to be a normal human being again.”

She’s just the most special little companion. She’s one of the greatest decisions I’ve ever made.

I remember being so sad and desperately thinking, “God, I wish the universe would send me a great love story.” And it feels like that was the great love story. I was very, very lucky to have her.

So “Spoon Song” is about her. It’s probably the most straightforward love song on the album. There are a couple of other love songs, but they’re not quite as simple. There’s something a little more pathological about them — I’m trying to unpick who I am in relationships through those songs.

This one is different. It’s simple and sweet. She’s incredibly special to me. I think it’s probably the happiest song on the album — certainly the most straightforwardly happy one.

K: You asked for love and you got it, just perhaps not in the form you expected. It’s still love, though — just a different kind. Your lyrics often seem to exist somewhere between self-love and resentment. Do you think you’ve become more forgiving with age, or simply better at expressing your anger? And do you ever catch yourself romanticizing relationships after they’re over?

Harris: I definitely romanticise things I shouldn’t. I’m also an incredibly slow healer. I’ve never fully gotten over anyone — or at least, sometimes it feels that way.

It can feel like things are physically lodged in my body. Some of these songs feel like an exorcism. I think “This Is It” is definitely an exorcism.

Even writing it wasn’t enough. I needed it to exist out in the world before it really felt like it had left my body. That was a really nice feeling.

I would like to think I’m more chilled out than I was a few years ago. I take things less seriously. But I think that’s also given me permission to doubt myself less — to be more honest about my feelings in the songs.

That’s something I’m really working on: doubting myself less, doubting my abilities less, and not constantly questioning my own feelings.

I’m very bad at doing that. I’ll think, “I feel this way, but maybe I should feel that way.” And it’s like, no. If I feel this way, that’s fine. I don’t need to constantly question my own psychology.

So I think the songs on this album are maybe less self-deprecating. They’re quite selfish, in a way — and I really like that. I like having the opportunity to expel some of those less healthy feelings without feeling bad about them.

K: There’s a real element of self-discovery in that — taking the time to understand your emotions and listen to parts of your life you might not have had space for before.

Harris: Definitely.

K: You’ve said “This Is It” represents the epitome of the music you want to make. What does that tell you about where Daisy Harris is creatively right now?

Harris: I’m very happy. I’m so happy to be talking to you about this music because I’ve literally been working on this album in one way or another since 2022.

This style of music — that Nineties-infused, shoegazy indie rock — is really what I want to be making. I’ve said throughout my career that I love bands like The Sundays, Cocteau Twins and The Cranberries, so being able to make music that reflects those influences feels really special.

Those bands’ songs were how I processed emotions as a kid. It feels like the songs I’m putting out now are honest reflections of my emotions because I’m speaking in the same language.

I’ve always said The Cure is very special to me because that’s how I experience love. The Sundays are how I experience a lot of other emotions — anger, heartbreak and things like that.

I think that translates into my own music. I take little elements of those bands and make them my own.

K: You knew almost immediately that you wanted to build the album around “This Is It.” What did that song tell you about what the rest of the record needed to sound like?

Harris: I think it actually made things more open-ended. I thought, “Okay, this song is so perfectly how I want to sound. I’m not going to rest until I’ve got other songs that make me feel that satisfied.”

On previous projects, I’d sometimes write songs specifically for the project. This time, it was more like: I’m going to write a bunch of songs, and then the best and most cohesive ones will make it onto the record.

There are quite a few outtakes, but the 12 songs on the album are the ones I got far enough with to record demos, get drum tracks and really develop.

And because I’ve been thinking about and planning this album since 2022, so much of it already existed in my head. The name Shula has been there since 2022. The visuals, the album cover, even what I’d be wearing on the album cover — all of that has been in my head for years.

It’s incredibly gratifying to still love that idea and finally get to put it out into the world and inhabit that world a little more.

K: You’ve written, produced and directed the project yourself. What does being a DIY artist actually mean to you beyond simply doing everything yourself?

Harris: I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. I would love, in some way, to help other young women and non-binary people make and self-produce their own music.

For me, being able to produce your own music means taking power away from everyone else.

I saw a really sad video on Instagram today about an artist called Dylan, who’s signed to a label that has shelved two of her albums and won’t let her release the music she wants to release.

Being able to produce your own music — and knowing how to get it out into the world — takes power away from predatory record labels, predatory men in the industry and predatory managers.

When I was 19 and started releasing music, I had some really frightening experiences with men in the music industry who would offer to give me a head start, but were really creepy about what they wanted in exchange.

When I was 19 or 20, I dreamed up the idea of a nonprofit whose whole purpose would be teaching young women and girls to self-produce music using really accessible tools — GarageBand, cheap microphones. You can get an amazing sound out of that stuff if you know what you’re doing.

I don’t have time for it right now, but it’s definitely something I’ve wanted to do for years. Maybe if I had more help, I could actually make it happen.

K: You’ve also been very explicit about rejecting AI-generated music for this project. Why was that important to you?

Harris: I just think it’s so important that I got to work on this for four years. The process was incredibly special and liberating — and painful and boring at times, too.

I love that it’s human.

Obviously, there are the environmental problems and the threat AI poses to creative jobs, which are major reasons why I don’t like it. But beyond that, it’s just not human. There’s no soul. There’s no process behind it.

The thing I’ve always loved about other people’s music is hearing their demos, hearing them talk about how a song came together, watching studio videos where they go through all the stems and explain what they used.

The process is the best part.

So AI feels gross to me. And it’s an easy way out. Why would you take the easy way when you could try to do it yourself?

K: Exactly. There’s something almost contradictory about trying to democratize creativity by removing the creative process.

Harris: Exactly. You could just try to do it yourself. That’s how everyone gets started.

I think AI, in general, stops us from thinking. There are so many people where every other sentence is, “I’m going to check what that will do too.”

They’re not really thinking anymore.

K: So what’s next?

Harris: Another album.

I’ve already got the title, just like last time. I’ve got colours and stuff. I just need to start writing the songs.

But right now I really want to focus on inhabiting Shula and enjoying Shula. I’m not particularly fussed about making a living from music. I have a full-time job and a career that I love outside of music, so that’s not really the point for me.

I just want to share it with people who will enjoy it. I want to enjoy the music myself. Maybe I’ll go and play it live in a few places.

I really just want to enjoy Shula.

But there’ll probably be more. Maybe in another four years.

Photo by Gabi Goldman