The Buckleys Go Track By Track Through Their Debut Album, 'Daydream'

Byron Bay family band The Buckleys share their debut album, Daydream, today. Here, Sarah, Molly and Lachlan take us track by track through the album. 

Daydream

It was the debut single that we released in Australia, it ended up going #1, which was so wild. It was our first #1 and the first song we recorded in Nashville. This one is a really special one for us.

Glad You Did

I love this song because it was so much fun to write. The melodies are so much fun, catchy and poppy. The tone though is so strong and sassy. As a female vocalist, I love writing and singing songs like this. I can just imagine people singing this at a festival or with a hairbrush, wherever it is, with full confidence, having a great time.

Crazy Like You

Lachlan: This one is one that I wrote on my bed here in our house; the inspiration behind this one is from all those '70s and '80s heavy rock bands. A lot of blues influence as well, boogie rhythm. There’s this big, heavy, powerful rhythm that makes you want to jump. When I really saw it take effect was at this festival, when this band played the boogie rhythm, the whole crowd just started jumping. That’s when I saw what it could do to people, and that’s how I wrote this song.

Woodstock69

Molly: We sent Sarah off to see what she could cook up in the week prior to recording the album and this is one that was on a big Dropbox file full of new songs. Lachlan and I were writing our parts on the plane over, to go in the studio with. So that was fun, a new experience!

Sarah: We had chosen the songs before I had left, but I thought I might write a new one. 

M: All these new songs were so incredible, we couldn’t not use it. We love the vibe of this song. It was so earthy in a way, it just reminded me of Woodstock in 1969.

S: I feel like the strength in this song lies in the simplicity and the rawness. We kept it simple, it’s all about the percussion and lyric, really. We wanted to reflect on that era of music, the '60s and the '70s. We love all of the bands from that era, we’ve grown up listening to them. And we’ve been really inspired by them for this record, we wanted to create authenticity. Have the band in the room together, playing together and almost approach it like we were making an album in the 1970s. 

Feeling The Love

S: This one is actually really fun to play. It’s got this infectious groove to it, this funky, soulful aspect to it that makes it so fun. It makes all of us want to dance. The beat is really spunky and lyrically it’s cheeky. It has a lot of grit to it, I feel. I love to sing this song, it was a lot of fun to write. This was also Lachlan’s first co-write.

I'm Comin' For Ya (Love)

S: This one is one we recorded at the same time we recorded Daydream.

M: It was our first time recording in Nashville, as well. 

S: I jumped on a plane straight to Nashville pretty much right after I graduated from high school and this one of those songs that talks about the great unknown, keeping that positive mindset and outlook; even when you don’t know exactly what is going to happen or where life is going to take you next. That was the place I was in, right after graduating high school. It’s a place a lot of people are in; wondering what’s going to happen next. This song is talking about that. 

Our dad has always said this phrase, I think it’s Newton’s second law? “Each and every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” He applies it to everything, even when it may not work. It’s been our code of conduct, it’s been our way of life. This song is all about having a positive attitude and always going on. 

Wild Honey

M: I think Sarah was trying to go on a sugar strike when writing these lyrics and songs about sugar and sweet things!

S: I didn’t realise until after we had recorded the album, how many sugar references there are. I am such a sweet tooth.

M: This one, you’ll hear, has a lot of mandolin on it. It’s a funny story; we were recording at the Sound Emporium studios and my mandolin broke as soon as I got in there. As soon as I started playing, it just was not working. On the wall, it’s a mantelpiece, there was a mandolin used by ‘Cowboy’ Jack Clement, it’s his mandolin. He produced Ring Of Fire and so many highly successful songs for Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles... amazing. I didn’t even think of it because it’s... it’s Jack Clement’s mandolin. Someone walked out without telling me and asked if I could use it. They came back in and handed it to me; I was like, ‘What on Earth…’ I had to tune it and it was the scariest moment of my life!

L: As it turned out, that was the only mandolin used on the album!

'Til You Can’t Go Back 

S: Til You Can’t Go Back is one of the moodier and darker tracks on this album, definitely. The lyrics are more internal and really reflective. It’s talking about this relationship that is just dragging on and can’t be over until it’s truly, truly over. I love the instrumentation on this song.

L: It gets a bit hypnotic, a bit psychedelic. A cool vibe.

S: It mirrors the lyrics. The lyrics talk about this relationship that just goes on and on and on, and the chords don’t change throughout the whole song, which makes it a little hypnotic. The bridge just goes into this slightly psychedelic place. 

M: It’s quite a journey. It’s got this awesome rocky feel to it, it’s chaotic. We love it.

Breathe

S: This is a song that is really close to our hearts. We wrote this song over in Nashville a couple of days before we recorded, it was at the same time as the Australian bushfires were happening, which was of course, a really devastating thing to see happen to our home country. I was on the other side of the world, watching it happen on our TV. I started talking to our producer Chad Carlson in his home studio, talking about what was going on in the world and this song just came out. It’s probably the most vulnerable on this whole album; it’s a song that really connects to whatever the story is of the person who is listening.

M: When Lachlan and I first heard this song, we really realised that people can apply this - hopefully apply this - to any situation they’re in, to get through any hard time. We realised that and it was a song we definitely had to put on this album.

L: It was definitely one of the most powerful songs we’ve written.

Leave You Hanging On

S: I wrote this one here in Australia on this half-broken piano that we have. It’s a dusty old piano, it’s dad’s piano that he toured with for years. It’s banged up! I started writing a bit on the piano because I usually write songs on guitar, and I really loved the fact that I didn’t really know how to play the piano... dad taught us a bit of honky tonk, boogie woogie, twelve-bar blues style piano but other than that, I really had no idea how to play piano. I loved that naivety of just hitting random keys and not knowing where it was supposed to go. Seeing what felt right. This is one of those songs I wrote, it’s one of my favourites on the album. It’s really boppy and has this old school feel. 

M: It was one of those songs where, when we first went in to start recording, it completely transformed in the best way possible and evolved into something completely different to what we were initially aiming for and expecting.

S: I feel like the musicians really helped bring this song to life. I’d written it on this piano that doesn’t really work and they just gave it this whole new life. I love Lachlan’s guitar on this, the big group harmonies at the end. It’s a real fun one.

Vibe

S: This one is one where we just went for it, we didn’t hold back. We just ran with it; the musicians and us, we really embraced our funky side, our soul side in this song. It was so much fun to experiment with all these sounds and techniques.

L: We grew up listening to James Brown, Parliament, Funkadelic, Stevie Wonder... embracing all that funk was just so much fun. Being in the studio and just jamming out with everyone, having a good time and laughing. It really made the song what it is. 

Money

S: There’s a bit of irony here because I wrote this when I was completely broke! I feel like this song, the word ‘money’ is really just a replacement for the word ‘fun’. It was just a whole lot of fun, I wanted to make it feel like you were at a party. All through the writing, the production and in the music video, it was just one big party.

L: In the studio we almost made it surf rock, kind of. I was slappin’ my guitar and the bass player is slappin’ his bass, then you’ve got the drummer smacking the skins of the drums. It was a fun song!

Check out Daydream below.