A wonderful twist on modern love stories where in the end, you learn to love yourself.
An actress and a singer, Daisy Royce is versatile on stage. Yet, it’s performance in daily life which led her to writing her album Series of 2-Week Love Stories during graduate school. A possible memoir title, the namesake of her album wasn’t a musical project until she turned 27 and realized “writing and performing songs was my original dream and what I was always meant to do.” A relatable title in the day and age of social media, Royce said she came up with the idea for the title six years ago and knew it was going to be a project in some capacity in her life.
“I realized that I was fixated on one guy at a time and they always lasted about two weeks,” Royce said. “Then, I would take a hiatus and two weeks later, fixate on someone else.”
A fan of Stephen Sondheim and Steven Schwartz musicals, Royce has the elegant voice fry of a modern Broadway star on the rise. Packed with witty eloquence and wordplay, her album Series of 2-Week Love Stories is a journey through the mind of a young woman’s life. The record kicks off with a track of the same name with lyrics like, “all the student loans and car payments, too many shows on Netflix/coffee shops and shi-shi spots with dim lights and small plates,” it’s almost too on the nose of Millennial and Gen Z life. Royce does nail the cadence of musical flow with her fast talking and singsong hooks. Pianos and snare fill the track “Standing in Our Way”, a track about how people have a dream, but are too afraid to follow through; much like her realization she was meant for music.
“I’ve been writing songs for as long as I can remember. As a little girl, I used to sing whatever I was thinking after dinner, and my dad would accompany me on his guitar,” Royce said. “As I got older, I loved performing, but I didn’t think I was a good enough singer to make a career in music. That’s why I pursued acting. But, midway through receiving my theatre degree at Penn State, I realized that acting wasn’t my passion.”
Her single, “Champagne” is a violin and ukulele ode to stardom loosely influenced from P!nk’s “Glitter in the Air” which reminds Royce of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Her favorite champagne is actually a prosecco; La Marca.
“It’s a self-indulgent and glamorous sadness,” Royce said. “When I lived in Boston [where I was]having many two-week love stories, I used to say, ‘if one is drinking alone, they should always be drinking champagne.’ The song probably came in part from that sentiment.”
There is a sadness in Series of 2-Week Love Stories within the tracks “Wasting Time” and “Sad Song”. Not the type of sadness you’d find in a romance movie, but in the type of trials of normal life like getting old or memories of playing music with your father. Even in the face of unhappiness within “Sad Song” and the lyrics, “I went to a wedding with you and your girlfriend/she wore this pale dress that I hate/I tried to be charming, but I cried…to your girlfriend”. It’s the silliness of the juxtaposition of punk and waltz within the rawness of Royce’s emotional vocal fry.
“It took me a really long time to feel comfortable playing [“Sad Song”] live,” Royce said. “I remember the first time I performed it, I avoided eye contact with my mom. I was so scared that it would upset her. She was completely supportive and amazing about it, which she always has been with my songs. After I got over that hump, I was able to feel more comfortable.”
Series of 2-Week Love Stories is more than just a record for Royce; it’s a dream and it shows with her tenacity through each track. A journey through her twenties, the track of the namesake is Royce’s favorite song. A reminder of how being strong and “kind of badass” music can make someone feel.
