The music that influenced Leilani Patao’s Daisy
Brooklyn-based (via Los Angeles) artist Leilani Patao (they/she) returns with daisy, their debut EP for Audio Antihero, out November 7. Following the success of 2024’s But What If? and a memorable Tonight Show performance, Leilani dives deeper into experimentation—both musically and philosophically. Named after their childhood dog, daisy blends melody, noise, and resistance, as Leilani questions the systems shaping modern music and rejects streaming altogether. Across the six tracks they balance raw emotion and creative defiance, capturing an artist determined to make music on their own terms—intimate, unfiltered, and completely outside the algorithm.
Join us as Leilani reveals the tracks that influenced daisy.
‘Mediocrity Rules’ by Le Tigre
I like to think the Le Tigre influences on my music are really apparent, or at least I hope it is. They’re just a really cool band. The way the drums are mostly loop based, and the sounds they pick are so wacky, there’s an inherent silliness to it that I think really inspired me to try new things. The vocal effects on Kathleen Hanna’s voice are unapologetic, far away, and jumbled up, but it makes me lean in, listen even harder to what she has to say. I try to emulate that balance with my vocal effects, between making you hear what I’m saying and staying farther back and hoping you come to me. And I think the sentiment of ‘Mediocrity Rules’ helped me get out of my head on this EP. It was comforting that when I was trying new things, or I was struggling with how to execute what I wanted, or I was unhappy with what I was making, it felt okay to tell myself that it could be kinda cool. I can let myself be human, and not make the perfect song, with a perfect mix, and a solid vocal take and the perfect guitar tone. Sometimes mediocrity rules, man.
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‘Coconut Girl’ by Brother Noland
This song is the best. I listen to a lot of Hawaiian music, and typically I’m more into the soft rock and folkier songs of the Hawaiian Renaissance in the 70s, but this song is just overflowing with unconventional sounds and silly lyrics with something to stay, I can’t help but love it. The gong right at the top of the song really announces itself, and you know exactly what song it is. I love putting unique, identifiable sounds in my music, and I like to imagine that inspired the opening chord in ‘Cut.’ And the lyrics are so cheeky, so silly, and yet they talk about how Native Hawaiian women are fetishized by the Western world. He’s making a point, and at the same time, bending the genres of Hawaiian music. As a Native Hawaiian musician, my experience influences my writing and my taste so much, I really aspire to bring the Hawaiian culture with me in all my music in this way. Plus, the production is really cool, and I think the guitar tones on it really inspired my guitar tone.
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‘Loud Bark’ by Mannequin Pussy
I’m a sucker for a dog metaphor. And Mannequin Pussy was really big for me when I first started this EP. The writing in this song, and the delivery of the vocals really clicked something into place for me. The way Missy carries herself on stage and through the delivery of the raw and cutting lyrics, I wanted to do something like that. I think I’m still working on getting myself to yell in my songwriting, but I’m hoping I can be as playful and as intensely serious as they are.
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‘Mercy’ by Mr Little Jeans
This album has always been a part of my life. I was in the children’s chorus for Mr Little Jeans’ show at the El Rey in 2015 when she first toured this album. But I think when I was making this EP, I reached for Pocketknife by Mr Little Jeans a lot. ‘Mercy’ has this really overdriven drum tone that I love so much. It feels like a loop, and it’s like the adrenaline heartbeat of the song. I think I chase that feeling with my drums, since most of mine are loops or really overdriven or both! And Monica’s voice is so beautiful as it floats in the mixes. Maybe it’s because I first listened to this record when I was really young, but it feels like it was sent from a dream. It feels like it’s placed in a universe outside of ours, and I think with my EP daisy, I really went for that same feeling. I wanted it to feel like every song led you through the far corners of a world far away, similar to this record.
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‘Saltlick’ by Grumpy
I listen to this song daily. It’s the best minute and 36 seconds of my day, honestly. The driving synth is something I really held in my mind for my song ‘branded.’ It’s just like every sound that happens on this song is a surprise, and it’s a total guessing game of what any of it is or what it means. The vocal samples, the little solo in the break, I’m guessing is a guitar? Or a brass synth? It’s all so interesting! I think I’m most mesmerized by Heaven’s voice on this song. They’re so passionate but I can only guess what he means by any of it. Like “shrimp chip in my way,” what does it mean! I want to know more. When people ask me why I use intense (some have said “distracting” lol) vocal effects on my voice on this EP, I point to Grumpy. The whole fun of the song is that his voice is textured, and broken apart, and their words mean something to them, and it’s on the listener to find out what it means, or decide for themselves. This is the effect I hope to achieve with my vocals and my lyrics. I want the listener to lean in, really decide they want to know what I’m saying, and to trust that it’ll make sense.
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