Fresh Kicks 203: ohmydais

Reflecting on her DJ career to date, Daisy chronicles a tale of two distinct halves. Prior to joining Team Woibey and other collectives championing women and minority genders in dance music, including Saffron, Daisy was a student in Nottingham, where she first learned to mix in 2013. At the time, the city was fast cementing itself as an underground rave haven, spearheaded by the likes of local hero Lukas Wigflex, who Daisy calls “a legend.”

“DJing had always been on my radar, I think it was just a matter of being in a financial position to get started,” she explains. And so, armed with her student loan and a pot of savings, Daisy bought her first controller and speaker. Picking up the basics from a wedding DJ friend back home, she learned the rest by watching YouTube videos in between lectures, and tinkering away in her bedroom deep into the night. Soon after, Daisy adopted the ohmydais moniker and dropped her first mix on Soundcloud, and began to whittle out her own lane in the city’s bubbling underground.

“These days you’ve got so many female, non-binary collectives coming together and putting on nights, but ten years ago, that scene was very much male-dominated,” she recalls. “I remember feeling a little daunted at first, but luckily the (Nottingham) Trent community was so supportive, and after putting out a few mixes I was invited down to DJ different SU events and the student bar.” 

Her post-graduation move to London was “very humbling”, Daisy laughs. “I definitely retreated for a bit and just consumed everything I could, and that was when my sound really started to change. In Nottingham, the music was very house and disco-focused, and then after moving to London in 2016, I was blown away by the huge dubstep influence. I felt like it was my opportunity to really embrace a new style, which is more of a breaks, UK leftfield bass angle, with a bit of techno in there as well.”