‘Daisy Jones & The Six’: Inside Look At The Band

The musical-drama series “Daisy Jones & The Six” from Amazon Studios and Hello Sunshine premieres Friday on Prime Video. It’s been a hit with audiences since the release of the novel in March 2019 as it stood out amongst other contemporary works as it presents the members of the band reflecting upon their history in an oral history style while the TV adaptation is more of a documentary style. 

Both of these focus on a legendary band who made their mark on the world of Rock and Roll with their only album,  “Aurora,” burning up the charts before the band burned up themselves. The culmination of the final performance of the band at Soldier Field in Chicago on Oct. 4, 1977 where tensions between the band were at an all time high with their different personalities clashing, as a distortion of the once sweet harmonies disintegrated in real time as fans firsthand saw a good thing go bad. 

Twenty years later, the band, while apart, reunited to share their memories and tell the true and honest tale of what once was the biggest band in the world with a critically acclaimed and multi platinum selling album. Blood, sweat and tears went into an album that felt like a molotov cocktail of emotions that ran the gamut between the peaks of love and the lows of regret. 

Throughout the show, we see the stories of both Daisy Jones and The Six as they come together and break away, showing their differences, but also how similar they are to each other. Inspiration, love, loss, confidence, addiction, loyalty, dependency, regret and temptation are all on full display. While the band is the ensemble, the fronts of the band and the heavyweight actors of the series are Riley Keough and Sam Clafin who play Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne respectively. 

This series has the feeling of a pyrrhic victory, the band got the dream, the money, the legacy, but at what cost? 

YR Media’s Zipporah Pruitt talked to some of the cast to get their insights into filming the series.  

Zipporah Pruitt: These musical roles are a first for the both of you. The two of you have beautiful voices that channel the raw sound of Daisy and Billy, much better than I could have imagined. What made you seek to share your vocal gifts through this series and how was it recording together? 

Riley Keough: Oh, thank you, first of all. And I think that first and foremost, for me, it was the desire to play Daisy more than the desire to sing and I kind of was like, I will do whatever I need to do to play her because I just really connected with her and with Taylor’s book and with the script. And a large part of that was being able to sing. So you know, both Sam and I had, you know, little experience singing. So it was certainly a journey. And it took a lot of people and coaches to help us get to the point that we’re at now where we have a record. But yeah, it was a, it was a beautiful journey. And I’m really grateful for it.

Sam Claflin: Yeah, I definitely, I read the script, and I read the book, and somehow still didn’t understand quite how much music would be involved with this project. I don’t know how that went over my head. But I think I was so drawn into the relationships and the drama and the kind of character arc. The music came later and quite quickly was a very, very hard rock to the face. Reality Check, hard rock and roll to the face, rubble. But yeah, I think I think the music came later. And yeah, it was very challenging to say the very least, but I just yeah, similarly, I just wanted to be involved in the project and with the people involved, and yeah, and want to tell this incredible story.

ZP: While Daisy and Billy are twin souls that are constantly at odds with each other as they both reflect parts of themselves that the other doesn’t want to see, do you feel that you both had an instant connection between each other, or did it develop the more you worked together on set?

RK: I think there was an instant connection, because I remember when we did our, like, audition together, I felt very certain that he was Billy. And for me, that was because I felt really comfortable working with him.

SC: I think there’s like an immediate trust of character, and even seeing Riley interact with the producers during my audition when I was quite literally, you know, dying of anxiety in that moment. I think there was a sort of an ease about her and a wonderment and in a way of, I don’t know, just, I just found her incredibly kind of captivating…  I always have the worst expectations of people.

RK: What did you expect?

SC: Just genuinely, I just think I just assumed people are going to be terrible. And so I’m always nicely surprised when they’re not. And you’re one of the people that actually did surprise me… but I remember just, just before we came on to my second scene with you, and we were standing backstage and we’re going like ”It’s gonna be okay. It’s gonna be okay.”  

ZP Would you consider yourself similar to your characters? And how did you guys bond offset to give us that amazing chemistry in the show?

Josh Whitehouse: I mean, I think I’m quite far from Eddie. I think I relate to a lot of his frustrations in some ways in life, but then I handle them very differently to how he does. He laughed. You know, I don’t like to think of myself as a grumpy guy. I think I’m quite light hearted.

Sebastian Chacon: I feel like a lot of the time in work that I’ve done as an actor, like I stress out about like, ugh how do I? I’ll do like a kind of weird voice and maybe I’ll kind of have a different physicality. How is this guy different? I was like, maybe Warren, just like me, but like, only the good parts, you know? And it’s just like, just, like always on like, always, like, enjoying himself. And yeah, I think, you know, between being on set and then, and then like, going in for the take, it was very similar.

ZP: To Josh, how did you channel that frustration that Eddie had. And to Sebastian, how did you channel that cheerfulness that Warren had?

JW: Um, well, I just, you know, I would start a scene. And from the minute we were working on it, I would be looking to figure out what it is that I could take in that scene as me being slighted by what I could find to be upset by and trying to find it…  And it’s usually to do with Billy and I, in the end, I kind of decided that. I started out loving him and admiring him. And throughout the series, you see that and then he keeps getting pushed aside by Billy or he keeps being he’ll literally go around the circle. And go Will tell me what you think Sebastian, and then they’ll skip over me and go to the next person and just put me to the back of the line constantly.
Sebastian: I was obviously the complete opposite. I think it was like every scene, even if it didn’t have anything to do with the plot, like I was just finding something to be entertained by like it’s a scene, they have Chex Mix and I’m like, Oh, this is so good… You know, you just always feel happy, like, trying to keep the energy up, you know? Even at the end, and when things go wrong, I’m still smiling. Like, wait, what is everything…why is everyone so upset?

New episodes of “Daisy Jones & The Six” will be released every Friday through March 24.