KIKI: ‘Death of a Daisy’ Signals Electro-Pop’s Future

Last Updated on 2025-09-23 by a-indie

‘Death of a Daisy & Birth of an Oyster’ Production Story

—Yuki Takita: From here, I’ll ask about your latest album. First, please tell us about the meaning of the album title ‘Death of a Daisy & Birth of an Oyster’. It’s also impressive that the album tracks “Daisy” and “Oyster” are included in the title. What emotions and atmosphere are reflected in this work?

Helena: “Daisy” is a symbol of the fragility of pure love that is powerful yet overly delicate at the same time. The feeling of desperately wanting to fall in love, wanting to be loved, builds up, but it’s just to taste the sensation of that idea. “Daisy” is a final push and reminder to ignore the inner fear of heartbreak because life is once and you might lose the chance to try something. Ultimately, even if you get heartbroken, it’s important to stand strong for what you believe in and do your best not to succumb to something that might be temporary.

On the other hand, the album tracks actually end with “Oyster.” “Oyster” is a song where I talked to the band members about whether they would let me “free” my lyrics and thoughts. During that period, I was obsessed with the song “Echoes” from Pink Floyd’s album ‘Meddle’. I listened to that track every day, was shocked by the length of the song, and the lyrics were very dreamy, almost detached from reality, where ideas ran free. The lyrics for “Oyster” were written long before the song was created. At the moment I was writing, I felt very vulnerable, used, and ugly. I hated how I was treated by people, how they talked to me, how they looked at me. You could say I had some kind of social anxiety. This song shows my thoughts about the “ugliness” that comes with working under the spotlight, and that good things will surely come someday. Like a pearl lying inside an oyster with a distorted appearance. To be eaten, and then to be worn.

That’s who I want to be, but at the same time, I want people to acknowledge that they are living beings. That they have emotions just like me.

The album name mainly represents the duality of the cycle of collapse and creation, and transformation from something simple and fragile (daisy) to something complex and resilient (oyster). An open book from something poetic, sad, and fragile to something rough and raw. That’s my view of life and how to accept human growth and transformation through various stages of life. I hope it makes sense.

—Yuki Takita: The artwork for this album was also impressive. For ‘Metamorphosis: Final Stage’, you asked JAHFLAME, an artist from Phuket who was your high school classmate, to design it, but who was in charge of this work? Also, please tell us about this concept.

Helena: We chose an artist with the pen name “Ayu.” We found him by chance when a friend shared on Instagram stories a sticker set he had sent to people for the New Year. I talked to the label and band members about how this person might work for us, and immediately contacted him.

Very similar to the working concept with JAHFLAME, we usually don’t tell them what we want. Instead, we give them all the songs (demos) from the album and let them listen to it and reflect how they want to express their thoughts. All we provide is the motif and mood of each track, and how the story of each song relates to each other.

I’m incredibly excited to share his work with people around the world along with the songs we created. Art and music can never be separated, and I’m very grateful to Ayu for bringing out visuals we couldn’t create. It had to be him.

—Yuki Takita: In the music video for “Baby,” one of the album tracks, the image of a person with light blue skin running was impressive. It reminded me of Daft Punk’s “Digital Love” music video, which influenced you. How do you feel about this?

Helena: We didn’t tell our illustrators (Annop, Sidoldaj, Methakawee) to make it like Daft Punk or anything like that at all. But everyone knows that we love Daft Punk. We talked to them about how the initial concept of this album was “space” (yes, before we pivoted to daisy and oyster). The illustrators seemed to want to express this blue-skinned woman as myself. Within the framework of concepts we discussed in advance, they wanted to find a character that could represent something or someone from KIKI.

I really want to thank the team that brought life to this illustration and helped add color to “Baby,” the first track of this album, within the limited time we had.

—Yuki Takita: Were there any discussions among members when proceeding with this album production? Please tell us if there are any differences from previous works. What impressed me about this work was the expansion of dance beats. The kick drum sound was physical, and by actively introducing dance beats, the powerful and driving sound was amazing. If there’s anything you were conscious of in beat production, please tell us.

Helena: Through the years we’ve worked together, we’ve always been enthusiastic about trying new things and integrating various elements at once. During the time we were working on this album, we were more into electronic sounds and songs than ever before, and we wanted to give KIKI another sonic aspect. The behind-the-scenes of song production is all handled by guitarist Tanon (Non). All the sounds you hear on the tracks are his work, and the other guitarist and synthesizer player Boss oversees the overall production.

We felt we needed to add new colors to the songs we create, and we wanted to make them more fun and danceable than ever before. We incorporated house music into many songs, but you might hear it more clearly in the track “Daisy.” There, Non had the idea of wanting to destroy a sweet, flowing song. Some people might like it, others might find it intrusive, but I want you to know that we did it intentionally.

In our band, there’s no right or wrong, just like or dislike. We would never release a track we don’t like. Making songs to impress other people is more like a bonus. But the core of what we do is first pouring our hearts and passion into it. And if we can like what we’ve created, then it’s ready for everyone to listen to.